In Betweeners Holiday Recipes FOR PINK and BLUE

[atomic sagebrush]

Before we get to the recipes, first a word from our "sponsor!"

If you haven't done so already, I'd like to urge everyone to buy a Dream Membership to Gender Dreaming. It's $12 for a full YEAR, a dollar a month, (not $12 a month like some people have thought.) This money goes to support the site and keep things up and running for everyone...the site owner has a lot of expenses affiliated with keeping the site functional, it is not a moneymaker for anyone involved in it, and I for one really appreciate having a site that first of all WORKS and secondly, does not have ads all over it.

Basically, it's not really about what you "get", it's about supporting the site. But here's what you get anyway. Dream Members have access to private forums so you can post about personal issues privately. Trolls and spammers will be banned IMMEDIATELY rather than allowed to run amok for days like they were on IG because all the moderators are able to ban trolls and not just one person. We have a few paid-for studies that you can check out (including the Dutch study and the Oxford study) and hopefully more of these to come in the future. The complete French Gender Diet and the complete IG FAQ which I am going to post in there for the benefit of IG-style swayers, because no one can get onto IG any more (and if they don't like it, they can fix their site LOL). And if in the future you do decide to go HT, there are extensive private forums for HT and also perks involved with some doctors offering discounts to Dream Members.

Finally, I am going to start answering q's in the DM section first so if you post there, you will get an answer sooner. We are getting new members every day and honestly I'm having a hard time keeping up (ETA - there are A TON of new posts of late so this is even truer now than ever before!!!!) I will always try to answer every q in a timely and thorough manner of course, but just so everyone knows, I will do the DM section first from here on out and if you need a quick reply and you're already a DM, you might want to post in that section.

I will always post basic swaying information to be free for everyone, but I am currently working on 3 cookbooks, the Low Everything Diet for pink, the High Everything Diet for blue, and an In-Betweener Diet for pink swayers who don't need to/want to cut back too much, and blue swayers who are vegetarian. These will be 200-300 pages long with hundreds of recipes, and are designed to be healthy, delicious, gourmet diets that you can stay on indefinitely, rather than exercises in slow torture that will endanger your health. (I hope to have way more time to work on these now that it's winter.) Dream Members have access to my complete diets and I will post the recipes in the DM section as I go the cookbooks are completed.

Anyway, on to the recipes!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

What’s the point of the In-Betweeners Diet? If you’re swaying blue and you’re a vegetarian, or pink and you’re very thin or just not ready to cut back too much, this is the diet for you!!! If you’re expecting carnivores, they can bring their own meat!!

Cocktail Party

Most of us have friends or family over for drinks at least once during the holiday season. Here are a few ideas and recipes you can serve proudly without having people question wonder where the meat went.

Plus, you can use any or all of these to complement any of the other meals below.

First of all - the most important component of all - the booze.

Wine (2 glasses)
(250 cals, 0 fat, 0 pro, 0 sodium, avg. 200 mg potassium)

The recipes below serve 4.

--Green Apple Martini

Sugar for rimming glass
5 T vodka
5 T sour-apple schnapps (available at most liquor stores)
5 T lemonade
5 T lemon-lime soda (aka 7-Up, Sprite)

Combine vodka, schnapps, lemonade and lemon-lime soda. Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice (or blend in blender and add ice ****s). Dip rim edge of martini glasses in a shallow dish with 1/4-inch water, then in a shallow dish with 1/4-inch of sugar. Pour cocktail into glass and serve!

--Cranberry Martini

2 jigger vodka
1 jigger orange liqueur
1 jigger vermouth
4 jiggers cran juice
Cranberries

Combine booze and juice in cocktail shaker and shake (or blend in blender). You can sugar glass rim (directions above) if you like. Put 1-2 cranberries in the bottom of each glass for garnish, pour and serve.

--Lemon Drop
1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1 sugar **** or sugar packet

Sugar to the rim of an old-fashioned or martini glass (directions above), and drop a **** or packet of sugar into the bottom of the glass. Pour vodka and lemon juice into a stainless steel shaker over ice (or blend and add ice ****s to finished drink) and shake until completely cold. Pour into the prepared glass and serve.

--Chelada

Men love this and it’s very high in potassium, for pink swayers who need some and blue swayers who want more!! This sounds gross but it’s actually very yummy and if you’re saving cals, you can use lite beer.

Per serving:

1 fresh key lime (If not available, use a half of a small lime)
1 oz. Clamato, cold
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Habanero pepper sauce if desired
1 12 oz can/bottle of beer, cold

In a shaker with ice (or you can blend in a blender - having the beer and Clamato cold, you really shouldn‘t need ice), combine key lime juice, Clamato, Worcestershire sauce and Habanero pepper sauce; shake well to chill. Pour into a beer glass and top with beer.

The Snacks:

Easy and quick - mixed nuts, chips, pretzels, crackers, christmas cookies, etc.

More elaborate -

--Crudites

An array of fresh vegetables on a pretty platter with dip (you don’t have to eat the dip!) If you get a tray from your grocery store, it’s easy too.

--Cowboy Caviar

15 oz. can corn, drained
15 oz. can black eyed peas, drained
1 avocado, peeled and diced
2/3 c cilantro, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
¼ c olive oil
¼ c red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
¾ t salt (pink swayers may omit if desired)
1 T cumin if desired (not everyone likes cumin!)

Combine all ingredients and transfer to serving dish. Allow to sit for a good hour if not longer before serving. Tortilla chips, pita chips, Wheat Thins, etc. are all great accompaniments.

--Dates and Peppered Grapes

This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled and is a very gourmet treat with wine.

1 ½ t olive oil (may need more)
8 grapes
Black pepper - freshly ground is best
8 Medjool dates, pitted
4 oz goat cheese
4 oz salted pistachios, roasted and chopped

Pour oil on a plate and roll grapes in the oil to coat. Sprinkle (hopefully freshly grind) pepper onto grapes using a light hand - a little pepper goes a long way. Slice open dates and set aside, removing pits if there were any in there. Divide goat cheese into 8 pieces and flatten them in your hands (think Play Doh!!) Place each grape in a date and set inside the goat cheese. Wrap the goat cheese around the date, covering completely, and roll in pistachios.

--Fresh Mozzarella Appetizer (from BelGioisio Cheeses)

For salad:
4 c baby greens
1 lb fresh mozzarella, sliced
2 nectarines, thinly sliced
1 pint raspberries
1 pint blueberries

You’ll need small salad plates for this - since it’s for a cocktail party, you want smallish, quickly eaten portions (recipe can be divided into 8-12 servings). When you’re ready to serve, place a small amount of greens on a plate, arrange nectarines and cheese in a fan or flower shape atop greens, alternating cheese and nectarines. Garnish with blueberries and raspberries. Immediately before serving, drizzle with:

For Vanilla Vinaigrette:
½ c rice wine vinegar (unseasoned)
4 T honey
1 c olive oil (pink swayers, you may want to cut this by anywhere from ¼ to ½)
¼ t salt (pink swayers may omit)
¼ t pepper
1 vanilla bean

Combine ingredients in a blender, except vanilla bean. Split vanilla bean and scrape seeds into blender. Blend and set aside until ready to drizzle over salad (immediately before serving.)


NOTE - I may add a couple more recipes to this post so check back!

[atomic sagebrush]

Hanukkah

If you are feeding carnivores, you’ll need a brisket or salmon as well. Let someone else bring challah or other festive rolls.

--Mock Chopped Liver

This makes only about a cup so you may want to double it.

3 T olive oil
1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
½ bunch parsley
salt to taste (pink swayers, use less, blue swayers, more)
pepper if desired
1 t. water

Sauté mushrooms and onion in oil for 8 minutes. Pour into a blender or food processor adding walnuts and parsley, seasonings and water. Blend until smooth.

--French Bean Salad

This is not strictly a Hanukkah recipe but I came across it and wanted to share it with you guys - it’s beautiful and easy!! Sometimes Hanukkah foods can be very heavy and this is light.

1 lb trimmed French green beans (these are the long and thin ones. You can use reg. ones tho)
1 c olive oil (pink swayers, you may wish to reduce this by ¼-½)
½ c lemon juice (fresh is best)
Salt and pepper if desired
1 ¼ c fresh mango
1 ¼ c fresh tomato
1 c sliced green onion
½ T (1 ½ t) lemon zest (fresh is best)
6 c baby greens
3 avocados (pink swayers may wish to omit)

In a large salad bowl, mix oil and lemon with salt and pepper. Transfer 2/3 of this dressing to another bowl and mix in mango, tomato, green onion, and lemon zest. Add beans and greens to the remaining 1/3 dressing and toss to coat. Mound mixture onto 6 plates (you can easily stretch this to serve 8 or maybe even more, because this is a lot of food!) Cut avocado in half, peel, and cut into wedges. Depending on how many servings you’re making, arrange however-many slices of avocado on top of the salad in a pretty pattern and then top with the mango-tomato mixture.

(For 6 servings - 552 cals, 51 g fat, 5 g pro, 38 mg sodium - altho this will increase if you add a lot of salt)

--Honey-Tahini Green Beans

Yes, I recycled this from the Pink Holidays recipes but I think this is a great recipe!!

1 lb prepared green beans
1 t canola
2 T tahini
2 T honey
1 T low sodium soy sauce (blue swayers, if you MUST you can use full sodium soy.)
2 t orange juice

Preheat oven to 425. Toss green beans with canola to coat and roast in the oven for 10 minutes while preparing glaze. Mix remaining ingredients well and set aside till beans are done. Remove beans from oven and toss to coat. Return to oven until beans are well cooked, about 10-15 more minutes.

--Sweet Potato Tsimmes

This is another recycled pink recipe with a couple changes for blue swayers.

5 lg. sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in chunks, and cooked
1 c Craisins (pink) OR dried apricots, coarsely chopped (blue)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/3 c honey
2 T melted unsalted butter
1/8 t pepper
2 apples, peeled and sliced
Optional for blue - 1 cup chopped walnuts

Mash sweet potatoes roughly (they should still have some texture) and mix in the Craisins and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine honey and butter. In a greased 2 qt. baking dish, alternate layers of mashed potato mix and apples, dribbling honey mixture over each layer. End with vegetable layer. If using walnuts, sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

--Garbanzo-Potato Latkes

More substantial than regular latkes (although I usually make JUST latkes for dinner when the mood strikes because they’re pretty substantial themselves!!) You can make regular latkes using your family’s recipe, of course!!

I like this recipe because the potatoes are cooked in advance - sometimes raw potatoes in latkes don’t always cook through for me.

1 ½ lb white potatoes
¾ c chopped leek, white and pale green parts only
1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro or squirt of cilantro paste
1 ½ 15 oz cans drained canned garbanzo beans/chickpeas
3 large garlic cloves
1 ½ t ground cumin
1 ¼ t salt (pink swayers may omit)
½ t pepper
½ t baking powder
3 T + extra all purpose flour
vegetable oil (for frying)

Sour cream
Dill

Cook potatoes in pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain and chill about 30 minutes, then peel and grate coarsely into large bowl. Mix in leek and cilantro. Process garbanzo beans, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper and baking powder in food processor until almost smooth. Stir into potato mixture. Mix in 3 tablespoons flour.

Lightly oil your hands and shape 2 mixture into ball about the size of a large meatball and flatten. Place on lightly floured baking sheet until all mixture has been used (should make about 24 but this is a more or less kinda thing). You can make these 1 day ahead, then cover and refrigerate until ready to fry.

Pour enough oil into 2 heavy large skillets to reach depth of 1/4". Heat over medium heat until sprinkle of water sizzles in oil. Coat each latke with flour and fry until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels and drain briefly, then serve topped with sour cream and dill, tzatziki, applesauce.

--Tzatziki

3 T olive oil
1 T fresh lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ t salt (pink swayers may omit)
¼ t white pepper
½ t oregano
1 c plain, full fat yogurt
1 c sour cream
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix until well combined. Using a whisk, blend the yogurt with the sour cream. Add the olive oil mixture to the yogurt mixture and mix well. Finally, add the cucumber and oregano. Chill for at least two hours before serving.

--Applesauce

Applesauce sounds daunting and it is a bit time-consuming. But it’s so easy it doesn’t even really NEED a recipe - nor should it, because different apples have such different levels of sweetness that it’s almost impossible to standardize the amount of sweetener you need.

Peel and core as many apples as you like, of any variety you like, and put them into a saucepan (bigger is better) with a small amount of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium heat, allowing water to simmer and cook the apples. Add more water as the water boils away. After several minutes (the more apples you are preparing, the longer this will take, and some varieties take longer than others) the apples will get very soft and begin to melt. Some varieties of apple will simply disintegrate into a nice chunky sauce, while others you might want to mash with a potato masher as they simmer (wait until they’re fork-tender to do this). The longer you simmer them, the more they’ll break apart, but if you want a very consistent, fine-grained applesauce, you’ll need to let it cool and puree it in a food processor. If you like it chunky (like I do!) then skip the pureeing.

After the apples are as saucy as you want them to be, you can begin to add sugar to taste. A big batch of tart apples will obviously take quite a lot of sugar, even as much as a cup. You can also add some cinnamon.

--Cinnamon Walnut Rugelach (adapted from Good Housekeeping)

Note - there are a couple other delicious recipes for rugelach in the pink and blue holiday recipe threads!!

For Cottage-Cheese Dough:

8 oz creamed cottage cheese
2 sticks butter (pink, use unsalted)
2 c all-purpose flour

In food processor, blend cottage cheese, butter, and flour just until combined and dough begins to come away from side of bowl. Divide dough into 3 equal pieces; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

For Walnut Filling:

¾ c packed brown sugar
¾ c walnuts, finely chopped
¾ t cinnamon
2 T butter, melted (pink, use unsalted)
1 large egg yolk

In medium bowl, combine brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon.

To assemble rugelach -

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line large cookie sheet with foil; grease foil. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough into 12-inch round. Brush dough with some melted margarine or butter. Spread dough with one-third filling; gently press onto dough. With pastry wheel or sharp knife, cut dough into 16 equal wedges. Starting at curved edge, roll up each wedge, jelly-roll fashion. Place rugelach on cookie sheet, point side down, about 1/2 inch apart.

In cup, beat egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water; use to brush top of each rugelach. Bake rugelach 20 to 22 minutes, until golden. Immediately remove rugelach to wire rack to cool.

--Macaroons (adapted from Good Housekeeping)

Unlike some macaroon recipes, this one is super easy.

1 7-ounce bag (2 2/3 c) shredded coconut
1 c sliced almonds
½ c sugar
¼ teaspoon salt (pink swayers, you can omit this but it is a tiny amount and really improves flavor.)
4 large egg whites
1 t almond extract
Vanilla extract if desired (I always toss vanilla in with my almond extract for macaroons!!)

Preheat oven to 325. Into large bowl, measure coconut, almonds, sugar, and salt. With spoon, mix until combined. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended.

Drop mixture by heaping tablespoons, about 2 inches apart, onto greased cookie sheets. Place cookie sheets on 2 oven racks. Bake cookies 20 to 25 minutes until golden (note - personally I prefer them to be a little LESS done) rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking time. Store cookies in tightly covered container or they get hard as a rock.

[atomic sagebrush]

Christmas Goodies

[atomic sagebrush]

Christmas Eve Dinner

It’s hectic, the kids are going berserk, you have 9 million gifts to wrap, and your husband is watching “Die Hard“ for the 57th time THIS YEAR (oh wait, that’s me.) You have NO time to prepare something fancy, but at the same time you want to have something at least a little special! It’s PIZZA time!

You can order/pick up frozen pizza for DH and the kids and make this recipe for yourself. Blue swayers, you have the option of ordering a vegetarian pizza for yourself, but if you want some more nutrient rich veggies, read on!!

--Matzo/Flatbread Pizza

1 Matzo (I have Yehuda Brand - I bought several boxes after Passover to save $$)
(125 cal 0 fat 3 g pro 0 sodium)

Blue swayers, if you wish to make your own pizza, use a flatbread or one of the premade pizza shells like Boboli. (these have a fair amount of sodium, so may be better for blue.)

1/4 c. storebought pasta or pizza sauce (pink swayers, if you can find lowfat/low sodium, use it!!)
(55 cal, 2.5 g fat, 2 g pro, 310 mg sod 200 mg pot)

1/2 oz. sprinkling of shredded mozzarella (pink swayers, you can use Swiss, but you really need very little cheese so why not splurge on the mozz??)
(40 cal, 3 g fat, 3.5 g pro, 100 mg sod)

1/4 c fresh vegetables that YOU like, cut into bite size (peppers, zucchini, mushroom, fresh tomato, spinach...if you've never tried fresh broccoli on pizza, you might like it)
(30 cals, 0 fat pro sod, 100-200 mg pot depending on veg selected)

250 cal, 5 g fat, 8.5 g pro, 410 mg sod, about 400 mg pot)

The kiddos can have cocoa while you and DH have something a little more festive.

--Irish Coffee

1 cup hot fresh coffee
1 jigger Irish cream
Whipped cream

Combine coffee and Irish cream and top with whipped cream.

[atomic sagebrush]

Christmas Morning Breakfast

For Christmas morning, you want something special, delicious, and yet not something you have to slave over while you miss every joyous moment. I think this recipe fits the bill!

--Banana-Nutella Stuffed Croissant

Croissant (1 per person)
Nutella (3-4 T per croissant)
½ banana per croissant
3 T brown sugar per croissant
1 egg
¼ c milk
2 T sugar
1 T rum
½ t vanilla
Butter
Powdered sugar

Slice croissant in half and spread each half with Nutella. Toss banana with brown sugar and place in baking dish. Broil for 30 sec until sugar melts. Place bananas atop Nutella and close croissant. In a large bowl, combine egg, milk, sugar, rum, vanilla and dunk croissant, soaking well. Heat a large frying pan over med heat and melt a generous amount of butter - cook croissant like a French Toast, turning once. Top with powdered sugar.

[atomic sagebrush]

Christmas Dinner

This is a colorful, non-traditional, Italian-style, Christmas dinner. You will also want to buy or prepare garlic bread and if you are serving carnivores, you can easily make your husband grill some Italian link sausages while you make everything else.

--Caprese Salad

2 large, ripe avocados, halved, peeled, seeded, and cut into wedges
3-4 lemons, juiced
4 large ripe tomatoes cut into ¼ in slices
1 8 oz ball fresh mozzarella, cut into ¼ in slices
¼ c olive oil
1 t lemon zest
16 fresh basil leaves
6 T capers
Sea salt
Black pepper

Combine olive oil and lemon zest, stir well, and set aside. (you may want to do this an hour or two in advance of making the salad).

Dress avocado slices with lemon juice, making sure all surfaces are coated with lemon. Be very careful not to break the slices because presentation is key for this dish.

On individual salad plates, layer tomato slice, fresh basil leaf, mozza slice, and avocado, then make another small stack on the same plate to the (so you want two stacks of these layers per plate). Sprinkle a few capers on top of the stacks and drizzle olive oil over it all (the lemon zest will have sunk to the bottom, so just take care not to pour the zest particles out onto the salad. You want the oil to have the lemon flavor without the actual pieces of zest on the salad. You can strain it if you’re really concerned but I think that’s overcomplicating it.) Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper and serve!

--Ravioli 2 Ways

You’ll need 2, 12 oz bags of frozen cheese ravioli. Each of these recipes serves 4 people so making both will serve 8. If more guests are coming, you’ll need to double up (or just rely on the sheer volume of FOOD that always seems to appear at Christmas dinner, to carry the day!!) Obviously if one of these dishes is more appealing to you, you can make 2 batches of one recipe, but I thought it was festive to have the red and green together and these recipes are quite simple so quite easy to make both.

For Cheesy Baked Ravioli:

1 12 oz bag frozen cheese ravioli
2 c baby spinach
1½ c of your favorite marinara sauce
1 c shredded mozzarella
2 T grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 425 and bring a large pot of water to boil (blue swayers may wish to salt the water but I never do.) Put spinach in a colander in the sink. Combine parmesan and mozza and set aside.

Add ravioli to boiling water (note - you can cook the ravioli for BOTH dishes at the same time and once the Cheesy Rav goes into the oven, you can turn your sights to the Sage-Pesto Rav below…if you do this, you‘ll need to fish out roughly half of tem with a slotted spoon before draining the rest of the ravioli into the colander lined with spinach) and cook until they just rise to the surface. Drain over spinach in the colander to wilt it. Add ravioli and spinach to marinara sauce and toss gently. Lay down one layer of sauce/ravioli/spinach mix in a gratin, glass pie plate, or casserole dish (8x8, 9x9), reserving the rest of the ravioli. Top first layer of ravioli with cheese, then the rest of the ravioli, topping with cheese. Bake until hot and bubbly, 10-12 minutes.

(serves 4, per serving - 318 cal 12 g fat 18 g pro)

For Sage-Pesto Ravioli:

12 oz frozen cheese ravioli
8 oz butternut squash cut into small dice about ½ in (sometimes my store sells these already halved and that’s about as much as you want - ½ a butternut squash)
2 T olive oil, separated
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
¼ c storebought pesto sauce (in your deli department)
¼ c walnuts
16 sage leaves
¼ c parmesan

If you haven’t already, cook your second 12 oz bag of ravioli and toss with pesto sauce while still hot. Set aside. Cook squash ****s in the microwave in a small amount of water till tender - about 4 min. Drain. Heat olive oil in a small skillet and saute squash and garlic clove an additional 5 minutes, seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper. Make sure garlic does not brown. Remove squash to a separate bowl and add another 1 T olive oil and cook sage leaves till crisp, 30-60 sec. Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil. Put ravioli into individual serving dishes and spoon squash over the top. Garnish with walnuts, sage, and parmesan and serve.

(serves 4, per serving 378 cal 23 g fat 15 g pro)

For dessert, you will want to serve the Orange-Date salad alongside the Tiramisu.

--Orange and Date Salad

Easy and yet spectacular.

6 oranges, peeled and cut into rounds (you’ll have some tops and bottoms that you can eat or discard)
6 -8 chopped Medjool dates (you may even want MORE dates…you can never have enough dates)
½ c slivered almonds
2 T fresh mint
2 T lemon juice
1 t superfine sugar
Mint sprigs for garnish

Place orange slices in a glass serving dish with see thru sides. Top with mint, dates, and almonds. Sprinkle with lemon and then dust the sugar over the top of it all. Before serving, garnish with mint.

--Tiramisu

This is a bit complicated, but the other dishes are pretty simple so it makes up for it. You can make it ahead of time and let it chill until serving time.

6 oz. pound cake (about half of a 10.75 ounce package), cut into 1/2-inch ****s
8 oz. mascarpone cheese
1¼ c heavy cream
2 eggs
2/3 c + 1/4 c, sugar, divided
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
6 tablespoons Kahlua or Amaretto
¼ t vanilla
Whipped cream if desired
Cocoa powder if desired

Divide cake among 12 1/2-cup capacity custard cups or other small dishes. With mixer at high speed, beat cheese with heavy cream until mixture falls from spatula in thick ribbon, about 1 minute. In another bowl with mixer at high speed beat eggs until fluffy, 6-8 minutes, set aside.

In pot over high heat, combine 2/3 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water; bring to a boil. Cook until sugar dissolves and temp reaches 250 degrees Fahrenheit on candy thermometer. Gradually beat the boiling sugar syrup into beaten eggs (and I mean GRADUALLY! If you add the sugar syrup too fast the eggs will cook) Continue beating until slightly cooled, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; set aside.

In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of water with gelatin; let stand 5 minutes.

In a small pot over high heat, combine 1/2 cup water with remaining sugar; bring to a boil. Cook until sugar dissolves, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in liqueur, vanilla and reserved gelatin until gelatin dissolves. Fold 3/4 of the liqueur mixture into the egg mixture; fold in the cheese mixture.

Drizzle the remaining liqueur mixture over the cake in thecustard cups, dividing the cheese mixture evenly among the cups. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. Garnish each with sprinkling of cocoa and whipped cream, if desired.

[atomic sagebrush]

New Year's Eve

[atomic sagebrush]

New Year's Day