Sugar Plums, Bourbon Balls , and Wassail Oh My

What is Christmas without a good wassail and sugar plums? If you want to add some southern flare add bourbon balls

Peach Pear Wassail

You will need

6 small pears

1 cup apple juice

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg

3 whole cloves (and a tea ball)

2 Liters of Canada Dry Ginger Ales

1 bottle (750ml) of Cream Sherry

1 Peach Brandy (Brandy)

1 Cup of Condensed Milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook your pears on a cookie sheet for at least 20 minutes. They should be brown and tender when done. Break up cloves and put them in a tea ball... You are making a spice bag of sorts. Heat two cups on ginger ale until boiling and then place your spice bag in the ginger ale. Simmer the mixture for about twenty minutes. Throw out the spice bag. Add the rest of the ginger ale, sherry, and brandy. Do not boil, but simmer on a medium heat until very hot. Do these no more than 10 minutes.

You will garnish your Wassail with the cooked pears. Whisk in milk at the last minute. Serve the wassail while it is hot. This makes 25 4 once servings.

While the adults are reveling in the wassail they may not care if the children make sticky sugar plums. Children used to enjoy sugar plums enough that they danced in their heads. The sugar may make them dance, but you having indulged in the wassail will not care.

Walnut Sugar Plums

This recipe makes a 100 sugar plums and will keep the little Christmas revelers dancing all night and we'll just keep drinking the wassail and it will all be fine. Sugar plums do not require sharp objects to make ;so all will be well.

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1 24 oz box of pitted prunes

4 once of blanched black walnuts

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs

¼ cup of brown sugar

Stuff each prune with a black walnut and shape the prune into the shape of a plum. Roll your stuffed prune in the brown sugar and graham cracker crumb mixture. Use wax paper to keep "plums" from sticking together between layers. Store the sugar plums in an air tight container.

Bourbon Balls

Bourbon balls are as traditional as sugar plums in the southern United States. Here is a recipe that will bring Christmas cheer to any southern belle.

1 nice once box of vanilla wafer cookies

21/2 cups of confectioners' sugar

1 cup of Kentucky Bourbon

½ cup of Maple Syrup

½ cup of Nestle Quick

2 cups of crushed Pecans

In a large bowl with a fork crumb the cookies, maple syrup, and nestle quick. You need a well blended coarse crumb batter. Mash the pecans until they are as powdery as you can get them. Make one inch balls out of the batter. Reserve some confectioners' sugar to coat the outside of the ball. This recipe makes 5 dozen bourbon balls.

Watch driving the sleigh after wassail and bourbon ball consumption. If you see reindeer cut yourself off the wassail and stop drinking the bourbon for the bourbon balls.