Christmastime Favorite: How To Make Wassail Pt. 1
About 10 years ago, I found myself at a Christmas party at a local department/craft store with my mother, where they were serving this mystical drink known as “wassail”. It was some sort of mystery concoction made of apple cider, spices, and other fruits. Back then I was too young to drink hard cider, so plain old pure cider was my favorite thing to drink; I had pretty high expectations for this weird brew of fruit juices and spices I’d never heard of. To be frank, I got my shit rocked. Wassail was one of the greatest things I’d ever drunk and it had launched a sequence of events that guaranteed Christmas would never be the same after that.
I can’t believe how much that last sentence makes this sound like the opening monologue of some awful Disney channel high-school movie about Christmas vacation.
The Snack Report: Ritz Fudge Covered Crackers
I feel like we’ve said this before in Snack Report, but it seems like everybody has jumped onto the “limited edition” bandwagon lately. Oreos have become the worst offender, but nearly every snack food has dipped its toe into the limited edition waters. One of the latest to join in is Ritz crackers. Their limited edition offering is Fudge Covered Ritz. We first saw these in the grocery store last week, and this week they just happened to be on sale, so I decided to give them a try. I was actually kind of excited about them because I really enjoy crackers. Cheese and crackers and peanut butter and crackers are classic snacks, but I’ll also just snack on crackers plain. So the prospect of a dessert cracker was intriguing.
The chocolate plus salt combo is nothing new. It has gained in popularity over the past few years though. Chocolate covered pretzels and peanuts have been around for a long time. And chocolate covered potato chips entered the scene a bit later. There’s even chocolate covered bacon. So chocolate covered crackers really isn’t that far out of an idea. But can they stand up to their predecessors?
Pizza Lab #36: Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza (Redux)
Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. And in kitchens all over America, people are trying their damnedest to salvage their leftovers, reconstituting it back into a nice emulation of the delightful feast that took place four days ago. Or perhaps you couldn’t wait that long? Perhaps you figured that Friday is a lazy enough night to eat leftovers for dinner. That’s a possibility as well.
But no, there is a better destiny for your Thanksgiving leftovers… there is a greater cause they can be called to… one special dish that comes round but once a year, just like the aforementioned feast that inspired it. Longtime fans of PCFG may know what I speak of. Of course, that is Thanksgiving Pizza.
Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe: Cranberry Pancakes
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. You open your fridge and remember that it’s stuffed to the gills with leftovers. What do you do with it all? There are only so many sandwiches, burritos, and pizzas you can make. Never fear, we’re here to find even more ways for you to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers! This recipe features cranberry sauce. And by cranberry sauce I mean cranberry sauce that has whole cranberries in it. Not the pure jellied stuff. I’m not dissing the canned, jelly cranberry sauce, I have a soft spot for it in my heart, but it won’t work for this recipe. You could also just toss in some smashed up cranberries if you want, but you’ll need to add extra sugar.
Spices 101: What is Cardamom?
Recently a ton of supermarkets closed down in the northeast, especially here on Long Island, resulting from their blanket corporation of A&P going out of business. It was really sad, considering how many people lost their jobs, and to see some old standbys like Waldbaums and Path-Mark close up shop, never to be seen again. Well, sometimes the best way to move past a tragedy is by finding any good you can in it. In this case, legendary clearance prices on all items. I hate to sound like classic consumerist American, but we were able to find some insane deals on food in the last few days when items were being discounted 70%, 80%, and even 95% off.
We took that opportunity to splurge on some cardamom pods, a staple curry ingredient which normally runs for, ohhhh, $15 a bottle. So yeah. Shit’s expensive.
Cardamom
Origin: India
Appearance: Small, green pods
Scent: Fruity, flowery, zesty
Taste: Sweet, zesty, fresh
Foods: Indian, Nordic European
Rareness: Rare
…son of a bitch I just realized these are 3 months out of date. Oh well. We got them for three bucks, as opposed to like $15.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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