To the fifth holiday party
I brought along with me
five homemade liqueurs
(limoncello, kahlua, amaretto, Irish Cream, and cranberry, yum!)
red & green sugar-coated popcorn
chile-rosemary infused olives,
homemade Bloody Mary mixer,
and a flavored olive oil with a fabulous loaf of crusty bread

So, instead of a recipe, I was going to tell you the story of how I will NOT be giving cranberry liqueur as gifts this year. Let’s back up to Thanksgiving weekend: I set up cranberry liqueur to cure for the three weeks. Fast-forward to Tuesday of this week: I went to have a facial and left my 5-year-old home with my 12-year-old and two of his friends. I made the decision to leave my cell phone in the car, because the last two times I had a facial, my phone rang off the hook—“emergencies” from my older two sons, not very relaxing.

When I returned to the car from my facial, my cell phone read, “18 missed calls” (17 from 12-year-old son at home; 1 from 15-year-old son who was called by 12-year-old son after I didn’t answer my phone 17 times). Problem? Yup, from what I have ascertained, 12-year-olds were getting a snack from the pantry. They returned to the video games. They heard a dripping sound in the kitchen. They walked into the kitchen.

“Jude, why is your pantry bleeding?”
“I don’t know.”
Jude opened the pantry.

Apparently when the pantry door was closed, the 2-gallon glass canister of flour banged against the 2-gallon glass canister of just 3-week-old cranberry liqueur. Guess which canister got a hairline fracture? Yup, cranberry liqueur.

Anyway, Jude is a good boy. He did a good job cleaning up the very sticky cranberry-sugar-water-vodka mixture. He called me, his brother, finally his father, to make sure he was doing the correct thing. But, boy, did that floor need a good washing the next day!

What did I learn? Next time I have a facial it is going to be while the kids are in school.

Now I’ll share another little family anecdote with you. When I was a Freshman at UMass-Amherst I bought a cookbook that had been put out by the staff and faculty as a fundraiser for my father for Christmas. In that cookbook there was this recipe for Irish cream that became a family favorite. Each of us makes batches each Christmas (and St. Patrick’s Day). Years later I found out that my brother, Brendan, will not share the recipe. He tells his friends that it’s a “secret family recipe.” Well, I don’t think it’s a secret. Try it, enjoy it.