Derivative of the success of Thanksgiving Recipes 2022, itself an offshoot of Happy Mutants food and drink topic, here’s a place for those recipes dedicated to the various year-end holidays.
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Solstice Celebration Pumpkin Pie Liqueur
3cups Rye Bourbon
2cups Sky Vodka
1cup Everclear 190
2x15oz cans of pumpkin puree
1.5 whole vanilla beans, split
2 cinnamon sticks, broken up
Shredded ginger, roughly 1/4 cup
Heat mixture to steaming and let it sit at that heat for 10 mins. Put in jar for 3 weeks. Strain through wet cheesecloth. Add 2 cups carmelized simple syrup. Bottle. Serve on Solstice.
ETA: the extra vanilla beans in vodka/190 to steep for future uses.
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Oh my! You know how to get this party started.
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Im awaiting the arrival of a new proofing hydrometer to check the final proof. Should be strong. Serve on ice, and a cinnamon stick to garnish.
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Two questions:
What’s in the jar on the left in your second picture? (if it’s okay to ask) (just curious) (I’m assuming that the Pumpkin Pie Liqueur-to-be is in the jar on the right, and that the jar on the left is something different?)
Can anything be made with the strained-out pumpkin puree?
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A clove hibiscus liqueur. Here:
Recipe is
5.25cups sugar
3 quarts water
2/3cup whole cloves
3/4cup dried hibiscus flower
.875 liter Skyy vodka
.375 liter Everclear 190
2.3 cups brandy
Boil 10 mins. It needs to sit a bit, but I’d lower the H2O next time. I need my new hydrometer to know how much, but I think there’s too much water. This was my first time with this recipe.
ETA the “cup” in cloves
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2/3 of a…pound? bushel? ton? 
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Lol. Cup.
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That is a lot of cloves.
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I’m working on a menu for a Solstice Night Party. The food is heavy horse ovaries. I’ll probably trim, and add, but I welcome suggestions for anything that might be tasty, and amuse bouche fun. This is our big to-do, we don’t really have people over for things the rest of the year, so we go all-out for a crowd of about 20. Friends, no work colleagues.
Draft menu
Dips (for crackers, veggies)
Creamy horseradish
Herbed Goat Cheese
Muhammara
Hot Chipotle Spinach and Artichoke with Lime
Bites:
Deviled Eggs
Anchovy, pickle, egg (worth trying if you’ve never had it. The flavor tastes nothing like the individual ingredients)
Tapenade
Gorgonzola Stuffed Figs with Balsamic
Squash Hummus
Baked tortellini
Assorted cookies people are bringing.
Drinks
Wines (people bringing)
Hot Apple Cider with Bourbon
Mulled Homemade Mead
Bourbons (people bringing)
Ingredients set-up for people to make cocktails
Martini
Gin and Tonic
As-yet Unnamed Cocktail (2 shots lemon vodka, 1/2 shot Italian vermouth, 2 dashes absinthe. Pour into shaker with ice, let rest, and strain into a cocktail/martini glass. Do not shake or stir)
So, tentative. I’m always up for making something new and unusually interesting. Or interestingly unusual.
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Gonna cross-post this from the other thread, since it’s for gifting…
Any suggestions here or there will be most welcome!
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Wait, what?
Not exactly answering your question, but if you decide to skip the 100% homemade option, Penzey’s makes a nice mulling spice blend. Customize it a bit to taste, and it’s all good. Penzey’s is a good company too, and they have a store in the greater ATL area (Sandy Springs).
By this time of the year I am worn out after coming up with meaningful gifts for Kiddo’s teachers (12!!!) and extraneous in-law relatives, so I’m happy to use readymade, including Trader Joe’s Glühwein.
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I might have to get some for myself, but since this was for gifts, I plan to make some…
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Yes. Yum.
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Is that a saying?
Your menu looks amazing. The Gorgonzola stuffed dates are especially intriguing. If you’re still looking for ideas, one fun thing I like to do for “bites” is make fancy grilled cheese sandwiches from those little cocktail breads. They come in pumpernickel and rye, so you can get interesting with flavors, and people love them. I’m making some ham and Swiss on rye for a thing this weekend.
@mindysan - I love that idea of a set of drink spices for a gift. Going to yoink.
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Could I suggest, just for the look and as a present it needs to look good, that cinnamon bark looks great. The rolled up kind looks good too and possibly works better. Cinnamon, clove, cardamom, nutmeg, star anise, citrus really are the smells of Christmas. Like Christmas pudding it’s due to saving the stuff for ages from when they were fresh and has a huge hint of maritime cuisine in the spices as well as the citrus.
If you are looking for some slight point of difference I would think the green herbs that are the epitome of Christmas are rosemary (sparingly as it’s overpowering but it could add an astringent, Greek, flavour to a wine based beverage), bay (fresh, those brown things in herb jars are useless), thyme obviously, and if you are daring winter savoury which is like oregano but kind of hot. Must see if mine has survived under the ice outside.
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I presume 'horse ovaries" is just hors d’oeuvres, mangled by spellcheck (or on purpose) 
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Oh that’s a great idea! Especially using a few different cheeses for variety.
The latter. I thought it was a common enough joke that I didn’t think much about it.
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Oh, funny! And thanks, @anon87143080 I’d never seen that yolk before. Liver and kernel.
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