Two Weeks of Eating

I'm back!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. I'm back in Iowa with my computer, which appears to be working though I am somewhat sceptical. Rather than attempting to type out lots of recipes, I'm going to tell you the story of my past two weeks in photos, with a couple of recipes embedded therein. Enjoy!

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December 19th

Before leaving Iowa City for the holidays, I decided to take a 10% off coupon to Prairie Table gourmet food shop and do one last splurge before Christmas. Prairie Table is an excellent, if pricey, store that carries wine, cheeses, meats, gourmet foods and baking products of all kinds, and kitchen appliances. I came away with quite a lot, as well as a membership in their rewards program. I got some white wine vinegar with herbes de provence, Fig and Walnut Butter, Horseradish Mustard, Bourbon Molasses Mustard, and Blue Cheese Herb Mustard (this would be a bad time to point out that I don't even like mustard that much, right?) I also picked up these three mini Vosges bars. I love Vosges - they're very mild, and honestly I can't usually tell the difference between flavours, but the spices really bring out the flavour of the chocolate.


December 22nd

This wasn't much of an eating day, but it deserves an honourable mention for the adventure of it all. I had two cookies for breakfast and then got into a cab at seven am, bound for Cedar Rapids airport. At the airport, I found out that all flights were cancelled. All. They didn't think anything would be leaving due to fog before one pm, on any airline, going anywhere, and after that all seats were booked. They said they might be able to get me out on the 26th. What? No way! Of course, I was not the only one in this position, which is why I have this lovely photo of sunset at the Minneapolis airport. Myself and three other women on the flight rented a Rav-4 and I drove us to Minneapolis, despite extremely heavy fog and then, later in the trip, blowing snow. It was certainly an adventure. I managed to get a later flight, which meant I didn't get home till midnight, but hey, I got home. To console myself, at about four 'o clock I indulged in meal two of the day - my beloved portobello sandwich with roasted red pepper soup and fries with honey mustard at TGI Fridays. Mm, mm good. I even got Joe, my favourite waiter. Ask for him if you're ever there!

December 24th

Since I knew mom would be cooking up a storm on Christmas Day, I decided to prepare one of my own contributions the night before. Mom had asked for a "cranberry or orange relish or something," and while flipping through a handy French desserts book at Daddy's house (the title is just Desserts, published by Marabout), I found a recipe for apricot compote. Actually, it's apricot cardamom compote, but there was only ground cardamom at the grocery store, so I improvised. The first step is to soak 300 grams of apricots in 750 mL of water for four hours, so I let the water do its work and then came back for the active part of the preparation.

The apricots along with their water get thrown in a saucepan and combined with 3 T powdered sugar, 3 T slivered almonds, a cube of ginger about a centimetre square, grated, four cardamom pods, and a cinnamon stick. Since I was missing the cardamom, I used two cinnamon sticks and about eight cloves. Bring gently to the boil, stirring, and when the sugar dissolves lower the heat and simmer until the syrup has reduced by about half. Keep in mind that this will take a while. I also added a minibottle of E&J brandy to my concoction, because when cooked fruit is involved, I can't resist the alcohol.

To serve, you're supposed to chill and then spoon into bowls and top with edible silver flake. I find this absolutely ridiculous. The finished product is tasty, but quite thick and goopy, and it makes a lot. It's very sweet, so the majority of it we didn't manage to eat. I would recommend cutting the recipe by a third, which would be fairly easy to do.

December 25th

Christmas morning! Which means, in my world, time to start making dessert. I started preparing for my planned sabayon (recipe from that same French book) by beating the heavy cream (250 mL) to soft peaks and chilling, sticking a big bowl of ice in the freezer, and eating some of this fantastic bread to keep my energy up. It's called Becky's Bread, and our neighbour Nancy always brings us a loaf of sourdough at Christmas time. Mmm, mm!

The preperation starts with the egg yolks. Six of them need to be warmed in the top of a double boiler over medium heat with 3 T powdered sugar... but the key is warmed. I killed half a dozen eggs with the first go because I let the water come to a bare simmer over medium and the bowl was too hot, so they started to scramble, even with constant whisking. Don't worry if your water isn't actually simmering. The eggs should only be warm to the touch at all times, and don't stop whisking or scraping down the sides. Once the mixture is smooth, a little foamy, and adheres to the spoon when you lift, you can add 125 mL of sweet Marsala. Keep whisking, constantly scraping the sides, until you have a nice thick, creamy mixture. This will take about five minutes. When you get there, take the double boiler off the heat and grab your bowl of ice. Set the bowl of the double boiler over the ice and whisk constantly while it cools. This will be another five minutes or so, or until it's just a little warm to the touch. At this point, it's safe to stop whisking and you can get out your whipped cream. Gradually add the custard to the cream, folding it in gently, until everything is incorporated, and chill three or four hours before serving.

I chose to go ahead and assemble my desserts before chilling, because I wanted it a wee bit fancier for our holiday meal. I used these great tall crystal goblets that my mom has, and plopped four or five fresh blackberries in the bottom of each. Then I spooned the sabyon over top and loosely covered the goblets with seran wrap before putting them in the fridge. The recipe is for four servings, but with the big goblets I managed to make it three. It's dense, but still light enough for this to be realistic.


After the desserts were in the fridge, my work was done, so I took a little break before Daddy arrived, ready to open presents. Incidentally, I did very well. I'm super excited about my Norton's Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, and in food related news, I got a Student's Vegetarian Cookbook and a knife sharpening set. Also, a Pierre Herme book is backordered for me, and I used some Christmas money to get Chocolate & Zucchini and a book for hors d'oeuvres for my planned birthday tea party. Whoo! While we did presents, we ate cheese ball, which is a high fat but delicious family tradition, and cashews.

Once presents were taken care of, Mom started cooking. Though there was honey baked ham for the parentals, it was easy to ignore. This is the entree, a dish of baby potatoes and pearl onions, baked with butter and herbs. It's very tasty. White wine was also involved. I always approve of white wine. Mom also made some stuffed mushrooms, which are one of my favourites. She found some large white mushrooms and used Pepperidge Farm stuffing, which does not involve chicken broth (unlike Stovetop).

For our first course, we had this tasty salad. The greens were fresh from Mom's garden - even though it does get cold in North Carolina in the winter and they're at "exceptional" drout level, Mom's still able to grow a bit in her heated boxes in the backyard. Also featured in the salad are apples, walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette.

I was in charge of the hollandaise - that's a lot of butter! We made it out of a package, but I should point out that both of us can make hollandaise from scratch. We like to serve it over steamed asparagus, especially at Easter. I tried to take a picture of the asparagus but all I got was a lens full of steam.

Here is my plate - served on my Grandmother's china, which I love. We have asparagus with hollandaise, a lonely stuffed mushroom, a dinner roll, potatoes and onions, and the apricot compote. In the glass there is Chardonnay, which I don't normally like but this wasn't bad at all.

Finally, the desserts. I think everyone approved. I'm rather indifferent as to Marsala, but the taste was interesting and of course much diluted by the egg and the cream. The blackberries were also a nice touch. Health-wise, it's not great but not abysmal either. Each person gets two egg yolks, a tablespoon of sugar, about 40 mL of Marsala, and about 80 mL cream. That's not so bad... right?

December 31st

For the New Year, I hopped on another plane and made my way to Baltimore to see a bunch of my friends who live in the area. I stayed with a couple of friends who we'll call B&N for privacy's sake. B is a freaking amazing cook, and always very accommodating of my vegetarianism. Before the festivities even got started I got to partake in some really awesome food, including my first ever taste of pomegranate and some really tasty gluten free cereal (N has a gluten allergy). Anyway, we started the evening out with a bevy of amazing appetisers. Pictured are miniature dill pancakes (gluten free!) and potato wedges with a really tasty yoghurt dip. There was also cranberry relish, roasted elephant garlic, and the ever-popular baked Brie.

For the actual dinner, B cooked up quite a feast, and most of it vegetarian. I've been crafty and taken all the pictures to avoid showing the great big pork loin, though I did find it rather amusing when B was trying to come up with a way to substitute Worcestershire to make the marinade vegetarian, and then realised this was unnecessary because she was marinating pork! Pictured here is the big tasty bowl of lentils, and behind the glasses, my little bowl of vegetarian stuffing, made with nuts, which was amazing. Also in the background is a big green salad.

Here we have a big bowl of mashed sweet potatoes, some more cranberries, and the applesauce, which was an interesting recipe that involved horseradish. The jury was mixed on this one, but I thought it provided an intriguing bite. Also a big plus for me was the vegetarian gravy. The 15-minute hunt in the grocery store for boullion cubes was well worth it, because stuffing just isn't stuffing without gravy, in my opinion.

For dessert, we had these fabulous little chocolate orange custard cups. For each serving, use an ounce of chocolate and half an egg. Separate the eggs and beat the whites to stiff peaks. Melt the chocolate, remove from heat, and cool slightly before whisking in the yolks (so as not to cook them). Combine chocolate mixture with the whites and a bit of orange oil. Serve in shot glasses. They taste just like a chocolate orange and are amazing.

This is Molly, modelling the potatoes. We consumed a lot of red wine that night, not to mention champagne and Irish coffees. Molly was therefore in a very good mood, and wanted to show you all our fabulous vegetarian food, as well as her fabulous dress. Molly's dog, Lester, is not a vegetarian, but he was hankering for those potatoes as well. For breakfast, Molly made the leftover potatoes into pancakes, with just a bit of salt and pepper and melted Cheddar cheese on top. They were fabulous. Another friend had the brilliant idea to make French toast out of Danish, and B made crepes which we had with lemon juice, butter and sugar. This is my new favourite way to have crepes. I highly recommend it.

January 5th

Time to come home, and therefore time for some more airport food! I had to make a little stop at A&W, because I can't resist the rootbeer floats. This time I had a "Freeze" instead, which is a float mixed together and costs 30 cents more. For the labour of mixing, I guess. I also tried the genuine Wisconsin cheese curds. They may or may not be genuine, but how can you go wrong with fried cheese?

Everytime I go through RDU, I have to stop at A Southern Season's satellite store for some Southern treats. It's in the Southwest part of the terminal, and I was flying Northwest, but the hike was worth it. I picked up Key Lime Bark (too sweet and tastes like regular limes), pecan pralines (amazing!), Grits Bits (haven't tried them yet but I couldn't resist), peach and pumpkin butter, and (unpictured) Kudzu Blossom Jelly for my friend Rita who was picking me up at the airport here. Who knew Kudzu produced anything useable, let alone edible?

January 6th

The final photo is of my breakfast. A family friend made this amazing spiced grape jelly and gave my mom and dad each a jar. Naturally, I stole Daddy's when I realised how good it is, and I'm going to write her for the recipe soon. I'd really like to start canning my own stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. The best way to enjoy this stuff is on a Thomas's Hearty Grains bagel, which is 100% whole wheat and much better than most healthy things, toasted with cream cheese. That's what I call breakfast!

Technical Difficulties and a Happy New Year

I want to first thank all my new readers for stopping by my blog this year. I hope you have a happy one, whatever that means for you, and look for a lot more blogging in the new year!

I will be posting some tasty new recipes and photos of my Christmas meal very soon, but at the moment my lovely Apple laptop is having some technical difficulties and is "in the shop." I'll be heading to Baltimore tonight for a New Year's with friends, and so I'm typing this note from my father's computer (and very slow dial-up connection). Thanks for sticking around, and I look forward to blogging as soon as I get back to Iowa (and the 'puter)!

Bon nouvel an!
Alles gute in dem neuen Jahr!
And all that jazz.

Not-So Christmas Cookies

This time of year, everyone's buying the refrigerator rolls of sugar cookies, sprinkling them with red and green and sometimes using frosting to augment the (obviously lacking) sugar content. Though I must admit I do sometimes indulge in a traditional treat or two - I love yoghurt pretzels and peppermint bark, plus the Moravian Sugar Cookies I get every year from a family friend and the petit fours my aunt sends me - my fondest holiday memories are not of the usual fare but of my mothers overloaded and delicious Christmas concoctions. The cookies she made were a classic Tollhouse recipe with chocolate and butterscotch chips, but I decided to improvise with the ingredients I had on hand to create some tasty variations and clean out my fridge a little more.

Cranberry Oat and Everything Oat Cookies

One of the most pleasant surprises about moving to Iowa City in May was the public transit system. We have very reliable busses here, allowing me to work on the east side and live on the west, and excellent bus drivers. One of my bus drivers, Doug, has become a friend and we frequently have conversations about politics, environmental concerns, literature... and food. I keep promising to bring him something I've made, but I never have something that's easy to carry on the bus. Hence, I thought cookies would be a great idea. Jim, my morning bus driver, also is deserving of many treats after he and his wife picked me up one evening after I missed the last bus and was walking home, admittedly in tears, my arms full of groceries and an hour and a half away on foot.

I thought I'd try to make something a little like mom's recipe, and I knew I wanted to use oatmeal, but NOT raisins. I started by following this recipe more or less diligently. It was nice and smooth, and I also added a dash of nutmeg and a dash of cardamom to the dry ingredients to enhance the flavour. After stirring in the oats, I divided into two batches. One batch got chopped fresh cranberries and the other got whatever I could find in my "miscellaneous" tupperware - peanut butter chips, toffee chips, and coconut were the final contenders. Instead of spooning onto the cookie sheets, I rolled the cookies between my hands and then flattened them a bit. I think I may not have used quite enough baking soda, because they didn't spread out hardly at all, but they were still pretty tasty if you're a fan of chewy cookies, and Jim and Doug seemed grateful.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

After dithering between various online recipes to find a chocolatey cookie with mint chocolate chips to bring to the Quire potluck Sunday night, I finally settled on the recipe on the back of the mint chocolate chip bag. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to copy it down, but you can find a recipe on the back of the bag (Hershey's brand) if you're interested.

The recipe did require a lot of beating with an electric mixer, and the dough seemed very creamy and brownie-like after that, so I tried adding a bit of flour. Again, the cookies didn't spread out a ton, but it worked fairly well. They were chewy and a bit like brownies, so I think next time I will use chopped chilled butter instead of margarine. That said, the taste is pretty fantastic, especially straight out of the oven!

Menemen... My Way!

A lot has been going on lately. The past two weeks have been exams for us over-stressed Iowa Law students, and I'm going home to North Carolina for two weeks on Saturday, which means I have to concurrently study like a lunatic and figure out a way to clean out my fridge of all perishables and potentially-perishables before I leave. This has resulted in some interesting experiments - melted peanut butter, maple syrup, honey, and honey mustard vinaigrette does not a good dipping sauce make, for example - but also some successes, one of which I'd like to share tonight.

Also in this week's news, you may have noticed the advertisements now on my page, as well as the nifty little icon to the right of your screen. These are showing up because I am now a Foodbuzz featured publisher. I'm very excited about this new partnership, as Foodbuzz is helping to build a more connected foodie community, which I fully approve of, hopefully I'll be getting some new readers through the site. So if you're here via Foodbuzz, say hello! And welcome to the blog!

Variations on a Menemen theme

Now, onto one of the more successful clean-out-the-fridge attempts. It's been a running joke with my family and friends for a while that I can bake pretty impressive looking desserts, make confections and pastries, etc etc, but I can't for the life of me scramble eggs! It's not that no one taught me - many have tried, but none have managed to get the message across. I'm not very fond of the taste of eggs, but I don't think that's it. It's really a texture thing. I like fluffy eggs, and if they are sufficiently fluffy, I will smother them in cheese or douse liberally with salt and pepper and enjoy. If they are flat, grainy, or omlette-like, I will have trouble getting them down the hatch.

Still, I persevere.

I'm very excited about the course I'll be taking next semester in Intensive Turkish, as I've been fascinated with Turkish history and culture ever since I read Elisabeth Kostova's amazing novel The Historian, and I desperately want to go to Istanbul. Running with this theme, I've really been wanting to learn some Turkish recipes. I recently stumbled across menemen - Turkish scrambled eggs - and decided I had nothing to lose. In my fridge were an entire dozen eggs I needed to obliterate (I'd bought them on a whim after being eggless for one too many baking projects), much too much cheese, and a number of vegetables that needed to go soon.

The recipes I looked at called for tomatoes, peppers, cheese, and onions, which are optional. They extolled the moisture of the eggs, which are made by simply sauteeing the veggies until the tomatoes' water is somewhat reduced and then adding the beaten egg, scrambling at a low heat and topping with cheese at the end. I liked the idea of more moisture, but I couldn't get past my habit of beating with a splash of milk. I also didn't have peppers, and wanted to use up some mushrooms, so version one was born. Cremini mushrooms (baby bellas), chopped yellow onion, and chopped tomato with parmesan cheese. I didn't use salt or pepper, and didn't need it - these eggs were fantastic!

On a roll, I decided to continue. The mushrooms were looking a little unhappy though, and I hate risking it with fresh produce, so I tossed them and grabbed half a zucchini I'd used recently on a vegetable gratins instead. Noticing the fresh mint about to go at the back of the fridge, I tore off all the green bits as well and then decided to add some of this great "four peppers" fresh goat cheese I'd splurged on.

After all the chopping, I threw my veggies in the pan and sauteed them, but this time remembered to cut the heat from medium down to low before adding the eggs. Last time it turned out all right, but the eggs did cook very quickly, leaving little time to grab the cheese and throw it in to allow for melting. I considered doing a three egg extravaganza, but who am I kidding? I can't eat three eggs!


Again, the eggs got fork-scrambled with a healthy splash of milk. After I turned down the heat and added them to the pan, I realised I had forgotten to crumble the cheese, but big hunks were actually okay, as they melted beautifully. I added the chopped mint to the pan and gave it a nice little scramble. The result?

Perfection!

My eggs were moist, and the ingredients were a heavenly symphony of tastes. I hate to wax poetic on food (I should save that for my poetry!) but the combination of mint, zucchini, and goat cheese was to die for. I also love all the colours (as my mom's best friend would say, this is "beautiful food") and the spring look to it cheered me up after weeks of snow and ice. I felt like I was eating brunch on the lower east side, instead of in my slightly messy kitchen.

Eat Your Brussels Sprouts!

So it appears that slowly, slowly, photos are starting to work again. I get an error message about 50% of the time, and I have to upload only two or three photos at a time, but I've managed to get most of the photos on the previous posts that were lacking and I'm going to try a new one. We shall see how this goes.

Ever since I was a kid, I hated Brussels sprouts with a fiery passion. I think it was mostly the strong smell, but then that smell comes into the taste, too, and... blech. But then when we had tapas in New York at Alta, everyone insisted I try the "Crispy Brussels Sprouts," and I admit, they were amazing. They also involved Fuji apples, crème fraiche, and pistachio nuts, however. Were my taste buds simply being tricked?

Then, at Thanksgiving, my friend Ryan served fried Brussels sprouts, again with the disclaimer that everyone who doesn't like Brussels sprouts should definitely try them. And they were amazing! Crispy but tender on the inside, greasy yes, but with a hint of lemon... I decided I had to try to re-create this concoction for myself.

Fortunately, there was a neat little pack of fresh Brussels sprouts at Hy-Vee, which I didn't really expect because I'd only seen them frozen. All the recipes say take off the tough outer brown leaves, but I didn't have many of these. I peeled off the tougher leaves anyway, which were dark green, and thoroughly rinsed and chopped all my sprouts in half. Some had some brown parts, so just in case I cut those away.

Some recipes suggest that you first fry, then cover the pan and add a little water to steam for a few minutes, just to make sure they're tender, but I was too afraid of that horrid smell creeping in, so I just fried them simply in a healthy pool of olive oil (and by healthy, I mean large). I sprinkled some salt and lemon juice on at the end, as well as a bit of white pepper. The taste? Good. The texture? Well, maybe I should have tried that steaming thing. They were still a little crunchy, but not unbearably so. I tried microwaving the leftovers and it helped, but there was a wee bit of Brussels sprout smell.

Any suggestions? Maybe I'll just have to e-mail Ryan for the recipe.

A Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast: Round-Up

So the photos still aren't uploading (argh!) but I figure I'd better go ahead and bring you the round-up for AVF #1: A Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast.

It was an intimate gathering this November, but still very tasty. I started things off with some mulled wine to drink, and then we cracked into our savoury dishes. Eat'n Vegan brought us her Steamed Broccoli and Curly Kale with Pumpkin Vinaigrette, which looks not only delicious but healthy, too! Next, Stephanie told us some stories about her experiences with storebought "tofurkey" and then contributed a homemade Unturkey. I've never tried fake turkey myself, but now I must admit I'm kind of curious!

And then the desserts. Oh the desserts. First, Mom contributed an experiment in baking, Carver's Cognac Almond Apples. I'm glad Mom could join us and make this a family affair, and also thrilled that I got to see her for real for her (we'll call it thirtieth) birthday a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. The final contributions were my own Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Holiday Scones, Fig Whisky Jam, and a trifecta of pies: Pecan, Chocolate Chess, and something from a magazine that I'm just calling the Ridiculously Amazing Pie Thing.

Thank you so much to those who could make it! Readers, look for the next AVF theme to be announced sometime in January. There was a bit of a glitch with IMBB this time, but I'll try to do better with getting the word out for the next challenge (and feel free to tell your friends!)

Here a Pie, There a Pie, Everywhere a Pie, Pie!

Readers,

I owe you a bit of an apology. Not only have I been very busy lately, but Blogger has been very wonky with the photo uploading and so I've been having a lot of trouble blogging. Never fear, though! I continue to photograph my creations and will be posting about them, just not quite as timely as I would have liked. I never promised to post a certain number of times per month, but I do want to make this a more active blog, and so I'm going to commit myself do that in the coming months. As you can see, this post has no photos, and the last AVF has only about half, but I will be fixing that as soon as humanly possible.

So anyway, later this week, I'll finally be posting the "final roundup" for the first Vegetarian Feast Challenge. But in addition to one more blog link for you, I have a couple of my own post-Thanksgiving treats that I wanted to share.

My Thanksgiving this year did not include any sort of pie, and I decided that, delicious as the dessert I did consume was, that just wouldn't do. Going on a Southern kick, I decided to make two of my favourite holiday creations - pecan pie and chocolate chess pie. At first, I didn't think it was going to happen, because there were no frozen pie shells at Hy-Vee the day after Thanksgiving (raise your hand if you're surprised by this) but then a nice man in the freezer section found some for me in the boxes waiting to be unpacked. So... pie!

Pecan Pie

There's nothing particularly complicated about this recipe. I had a few to choose from, and went with the simplest in my recipe database, copied from an old healthy cookbook whose name escapes me. The recipe isn't really healthy, but it is easy. Beat 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup soft margarine or butter, a cup of corn syrup, 1/2 t salt, and three eggs with an electric mixer. Stir in a cup of pecan halves or pieces, pour into a 9" pie crust, and bake 40-50 minutes at 375 or until set.

I used margarine and light corn syrup, as I always do, and though I did put about a cup of pecan pieces in the batter itself, I also arranged whole toasted pecans on the top in concentric circles, as you can see from the first picture. I also added a handful of sweetened shredded coconut, because as a kid I always thought pecan pie had coconut in it. I baked an entire hour, because no "setting" appeared to be happening. It turns out that this recipe is a little flawed, because it will do most of the setting while it cools. Therefore, my pecans were a little too brown for my taste. I also noticed that it was a little goopier than I like. Maybe beating it a little bit less, or at a lower speed, would have helped. Maybe more pecan pieces. I'm not sure, but hey. It was still mighty tasty.

Chocolate Chess Pie

I did a quick internet search for this one and found a recipe on Allrecipes that suited my tastes. The recipe is here, and I followed it more or less exactly. Again, I had to bake longer than the time stated, and the crust wasn't really browning so I didn't think this was a problem. The middle was still rather goopy, like chocolate pudding almost, but it wasn't exactly a problem. I've been eating it cold, which helps it stay firmer. The top, though, is absolutely perfect, all crinkly with pecans. Mm, mm.

Mulled Wine

To go with my pie explorations, I decided to make some mulled wine. This is one of my favourite holiday beverages (though there are many - eggnog, brandy, cider, the list goes on). My mom used to make it when I was far too young to enjoy it, but since then I've tried mulled wine at several holiday house parties and have been itching to make my own. For this, I combined several recipes and tips from Mom, and it turned out pretty decent. It was a tad too citrusy, so next time I'll probably use less orange.

I made two batches, because the first only made half a cup so I ended up mulling the rest of the bottle (whoo, whee!) I used cheap wine as suggested by Mom, specifically Black Swan cabernet. I took a taste before mulling, and yeah, it's cheap. For the spices, I threw in about a quarter cup of sugar, a couple cinnamon sticks, some cloves, some allspice berries, a dash of nutmeg, and a few wedges of a big orange, peeled with the peels thrown in as well. I heated the wine with this combination about twenty or thirty minutes on a fairly low heat, and then strained the mixture into my cup. I still got some un-dissolved nutmeg, so this could probably use some work!