It's cold, we get it, that sucks. BUT, it's a great chance to make you something at home that's nice and warm and good for snowy (or not-so-snowy) nights. Behold (especially the two of you who emailed complaints about how we're having too much fun or something)—recipes from the SFR vault to help you ease into the changing lights (and also just because biscochitos are good):
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Biscochitos
Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Zest of one orange
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons brandy or whiskey
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons anise extract
Topping:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in orange zest.
- Combine cinnamon and sugar for topping in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl beat vegetable shortening with a mixer, gradually adding sugar, until light and fluffy. Add egg, brandy, orange juice, vanilla extract and anise extract and beat well.
- Add dry ingredients to the shortening mixture gradually, stopping when mixture is combined. Do not overwork—dough will have consistency similar to pie crust.
- Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon dough into cookie press, and press shapes onto lined baking sheets. *Alternately: roll out dough to ¼-inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper, using about ½ to ⅓ of the dough at a time. Cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheets.
- Bake cookies 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture immediately. Cool one minute and loosen cookies from parchment paper. Allow to cool completely.
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But wait—there's more! And the "more" of it all is especially good if you need to get drunk to make it through the night.
Coffee Liqueur
- Ingredients:
- 8 cups sugar
- 4 cups water
- 1 ½ cups instant coffee crystals
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract to taste (optional)
- 4 cups vodka
Directions:
- In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water over medium heat. Stir until dissolved and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, stir in coffee crystals and allow to cool.
- When cool, stir in vanilla extract and vodka. Bottle and store in a cool, dark place.
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And as if that weren't enough, here's another one:
Spiked (or not) Hot Cocoa
(Yields 2-3 Servings)
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- Dash cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 to 4 ounces coffee liqueur (may substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
- Topping of choice (marshmallows, whipped cream or chocolate or caramel sauce)
Directions:
- Stir together sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt and cayenne pepper in a small saucepan.
- Over medium heat, slowly add milk, stirring to dissolve cocoa mixture.
- Stir constantly, until cocoa is completely dissolved and mixture is piping hot, but not boiling.
- Remove from heat; stir in coffee liqueur (or vanilla). Top with your fave sweet addition.
And there's even more below!
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Welcome to Halloween
We've been having a lot of fun in the lead-up to Halloween. We've been talkin' trash and grossing fools out and generally just reveling in the many facets of the weirdest of our annual holidays here in America.
Here's what we've learned:
The Fork must NEVER make light of the poisoned candy situation, because somebody's cousin's schoolmate's dad's first wife's assistant heard that a kid in their town totally wound up with poisoned candy one Halloween. Seriously, though, through the power of research, we learned that people have indeed tampered with Halloween candy, so you should definitely check it out. If you're really ultra concerned and wanna know you'll be safe and you're OK engaging with the cops, the Santa Fe Police Department is doing some kind of Halloween haunted … something (it's apparently a hallway) and has candy.
Not to be outdone, the Santa Fe Community College hosts a Halloween night, too—except they're calling it an Extravaganza! We're talking a parade, a costume contest, free and safe trick-or-treating and, like, good times.
If you're a little bit older and looking for a sexier Halloween, The Bridge @Santa Fe Brewing Co. hosts a night of burlesque with Red Desert Dance Company. Not only that, but you can often find kickass food trucks there AND the event is free.
Most readers don't have a problem with feetloaf per se (feetloaf being that totally gross dish we wrote about last week that's meatloaf in the shape of feet … loaf) except for one small hangup: The toenails (which are onions) are gross. Word, we feel that.
As we've been told by scads of readers, Santa Fe is one of the safest places they've lived for trick-or-treat festivities. We're not saying to let your kids run free, but a number of readers reached out to let us know they even moved here because it was a cool place to raise a kid. Sorry about the housing situation, people who moved here. And people from here. And everyone who's just trying to get by.
Oh, and lastly, if you didn't get a pumpkin yet, remember that St. John's United Methodist Church is kind of the place to go for locals in the know. We understand it'll be the 31st by the time you're reading this, so maybe drive by or even give a call first. Then ask yourself why you waited.
If you didn't wait to get that pumpkin (or even if you did), here's tips on how to carve it up real nice.
Also
-The rumors are true—Milad Persian Bistro is indeed no longer a Canyon Road thing and is now in a weird new union with Betterday Coffee. We're digging a little deeper, but if you were wondering where the restaurant went or haven't even been, know that it's in the Solana Center now at 905 W Alameda St.
-That Chipotle we've been arguing about for months is reportedly slated to open late next month in the very same shopping center that boasts Susan's Fine Wine & Spirits. Rest assured we'll have things to say about that once it happens.
-This isn't news per se, but let us ask you—when was the last time you popped by Pizzeria Espiritu? If we're being honest, we'd all but forgotten about the little Italian joint in Midtown, but we need y'all to know that the Greek pizza there with olives and feta and spinach and onions is NO JOKE. We're officially recommending that you reacquaint yourself with that jazz … 'twas delicious.
More Tidbits
-Because the world is sometimes beautiful, we've learned of a vegan pop-up in Phoenix that serves—get this—meat-free Mexican foods. Apparently this is an affront to some folks, but owners Jose and Leticia Gamiz are just like "We're here, get used to it!" That's not an actual quote, but you can learn more here.
-One might assume that something called Cosmic Crisp would be some kind of cannabis variety your cataract-having aunt had in her purse, but it's actually a new kind of apple bred by the University of Washington, and it's reportedly hitting stores soon and is reportedly gonna change the apple world as we know it. Named for white speckles that resemble distant stars, the newly minted apple apparently has something like 12 million trees currently growing out there. Tick-tock, it seems.
-Are you the type to order food through apps? If so, you might wanna ditch GrubHub, the food ordering app that, according to eater.com, wants to expand into more markets and offer more restaurants, but not officially partner with any of them—y'know, like assholes. They've basically capitalized on our laziness to create an un-needed middleman. Nooooope.
-The Fork loves Trader Joe's because anytime we go through the line and get rung up we're always like "Are you sure you charged us for everything?" But we also love it because there are constantly new products and seasonal products and products we already knew but still love anyway. But who has the time to break it all down? This gal. Oh, and PS—we staunchly support the mousse pumpkins as well.
-We couldn't even tell you the last time we ate at a McDonald's, but we can, however, tell you that we miss them french fries. We miss 'em bad. So bad. But don't worry, because apparently you can make the same basic fries at home, and we found the recipe that proves it.
Finally
In the print edition of SFR, food column pinch hitter Cole Rehbein FINALLY got their hands on a a Santa Fe Bite burger in the restaurant’s new Midtown location. They loved it, even if the soul-sucking strip mall took the wind out of their sails a tad.
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A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence Number of Letters Received
47
*The minimum age, we assume, of any complainers.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (not edited for content)
“Raise your bar.”
*Read our recipes.
Actually Helpful Tip
“I like to let ice cream soften for at least 15 minutes before i stir it all up in the little tub and go to town.”
*We’ve done some experimenting, and this person should be our new world leader.
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BOO!
The Fork
