Did you get any food gifts for the 2016 holidays?

I’ll take the St Germain off your hands ;)) i like it with vodka and seltzer.

The best food gift was a box of assorted mochi from one of the mills at work, they gave a bunch of us each a box of nine. The one with black sesame paste inside was my favorite.

A bag of “homemade” cookies from a coworker were a lovely gesture but tasted like storebought generic sugar cookie with rock hard colored frosting. I ate a star point and the rest were tossed at home.

Spicy sweet pecans from my aunt which i look forward to every year- they’re basically candied in a brown sugar mix that has a lot of coarse grind rainbow peppercorns and the right amount of salt.

Otherwise i have certainly treated myself to some seasonal goodies :grin:

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I have vodka. I have seltzer. What ratios do you use? Always looking for a new cocktail.

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Agreed, I love St. Germain in cocktails. It’s lovely with dry sparkling wines - maybe one part liqueur to 5 parts wine, more if you like it sweeter.

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Ha! My mother invited one of her nieces (whom we rarely see) to Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and she brought an enormous bottle of Barefoot pink Moscato. I saved us from having to drink it on the spot by suggesting that we let it get cold in the garage and have it with dessert. Luckily the niece was too soused on whiskey by the time dessert rolled around to remember the wine!

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I had tried it when somebody flashed the bottle before me, and ever since I have my own at home. Beautiful, isn’t it this art deco inspired bottle!

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Lol- I just received a bottle of Baby Duck - Canadian sparkling wine, probably a 3 for sweetness last night as a hostess gift. I dunno what’s going to happen to it. I continued to enjoy my Cremant de Loire.

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I received a few boxes of Lindt Kirsch batons and two boxes of Turrón. Very happy with both! I also purchased for myself some French essences (e.g., cassis etc.).

I made the traditional pork tamales on New Year’s Day like all good Texans and distributed them as gifts.

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We got a gift bag full of those way-too-good things from Marich Confectionery. Yes, I know I don’t have to eat them all … right!!!

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What did you think of the St-Germain? While by this point I am a bit fed up with it, but that’s after ten years exposure to it. I got one of the first bottles into the US before it was imported. It is still an excellent liqueur. In the booze biz it’s nicknamed bartenders ketchup. (Because it is/was used in so many cocktails.)

By milky rum, do you mean RumChata? If so, I think it is excellent for what it is. A rum/horchata cream liqueur. You have to like horchata, and rum, and cream liqueurs, to appreciate it.

I have yet to try the St-Germain, so my only impression thus far is the bottle is very attractive. It was gifted with a nice bottle of Prosecco with a suggestion to combine 1/3 flute of Germain with 2/3 Prosecco. Do you have any other suggestions for its use?

It was in fact RumChata that I received. This was gifted with the cinnamon whiskey with a suggestion of a 1/2 whiskey, 1/2 chata (apparently my friends are tired of seeing me drink Jameson’s or old-school manhattans). This I did try, but did not care for. I do like rum in its various incarnations–light, dark, spiced–but have never been a fan of creamy drinks.

I tried the whiskey on its own and it was ok: very cinnamony. It will probably be sipped on occasion in front of a fire during a winter storm.

I kind of never measure anything…! Probably one part vodka to one part st germain plus two parts seltzer, then tinker a bit. I really like the sweetness so if you don’t like sweet start with less.

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I’ve never had this cinnamon whiskey but I bet it would be great in a punch, a milk punch especially but maybe even better in a warm punch. Apparently this must be what your friends had in mind if they gave you a horchata liqueur as well.

3 nice bottles of Pinot Noir . They went bye bye New Years eve .

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Equal parts Fireball and Rumchata. Good stuff.

Got 3 bottles of nice wine from my boss (who belongs to some fancy wine club and gets great shipments from his wine dealer so he always gives me a bottle or two from his shipments).
Gift card to Starbucks from my office staff
A box of See’s Candies from a vendor
A big jar of assorted flavor ginger chew candies from another vendor, who I met for lunch recently and remembered I liked the restaurant’s strong ginger beer. Plus points to her.

I’m not a big fan of milky/creamy cocktails. I drink my coffee black; my whiskey neat and I have a whole closet of liqueurs meant for cocktails. The cinnamon whiskey is growing on me :slight_smile:

Here’s a link to some St-Germain cocktail recipes I put on the booze board.

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Thanks JMF . . . I’ve bookmarked the site.

Not food, but I did get an Apex Edge Pro knife sharpening system for Christmas. I busted it out for the first time today and sharpened up a couple of older, not-particularly-nice knives (Chicago Cutlery, I believe - they sharpen well enough with a steel but don’t hold an edge AT ALL). WOW! Despite my amateur technique and the generally not-great quality of the material, they sharpened up very nicely. I used the chef’s knife to chop onions and garlic for dinner tonight and I’m pretty sure they are sharper now than the day I bought them. I can’t wait until I feel confident enough with my technique to sharpen all of my nicer knives.

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