Dear Cooks,

Whether you’re trying to make your presents look attractive with masking tape because you’ve run out of Scotch (tape, and the other kind!), or you just heard a crunching sound as you stepped on... oops, your great aunt’s vintage ornament, you need help! Peterson’s holiday kind of help. How can one book soothe your frayed nerves you might ask. The answer is simple. Liquor! To keep your spirits high, you need to keep the spirits in you. Literally. In Peterson’s Holiday Helper, you’ll get festive pick-me-ups and calm-me-downs (not to mention some wacky Christmas triva) in the way of celebratory, fully loaded cocktails that you can serve at parties or swig in secret as you pray your cookies come out looking the way Grandma intended them to instead of a fifth-grade science experiment gone awry. The Emergency Ginerator is one that’s sure to keep you—if not your lights—lit.

And don’t forget ... great gifts for the cook in your life

Emergency Ginerator

Serves 1

Your neighbor saw your 5,000-watt crèche with the Light-Up Holy Family and raised you Three Luminous-Halo’d Wise Men. You countered by adding the Animated Waving Santa and Nodding Reindeer to your roof; he got the Ho! Ho! Hover-Over-the-House Motion-Sensored Santa Sleigh Track. Before contemplating your next move, relax with a sparkling, ginger-infused refresher and review the inconvenient truth of your kilowatt hours.

• 1 ½ ounces gin
  
• 1 ½ ounces Ginger-Infused Simple Syrup (see below.)
• 1 ½ ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
• 4 dashes orange bitters, such as Fee's or Regan's
• 4 ounces (½ cup) club soda
• Spiral of a lime peel

Pour the gin, syrup, and lime juice into a shaker filled with ice; add the bitters. Shake well (until condensation forms on the entire shaker). Strain the mixture over fresh ice into a tall glass, top with club soda, and garnish with a lime peel.

Ginger-Infused Simple Syrup

Makes approximately 1 ¾ cups

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 8 ounces (1 cup) water
• 3 3-inch pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into ½-inch chunks (approximately ¾ cup)

Place the sugar, water, and ginger chunks in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool; strain into a glass jar with an airtight lid. The syrup will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Another Holiday Treat

For those of you who’ve got it together (or have had sufficient Emergency Ginerator to at least appear as if you do), The Gingerbread Architect gives you a chance to really wow your friends and family as you create not just any old gingerbread house, but one of twelve classic American homes. With both detailed blueprints of the homes for architect buffs as well as baking and decorating instructions, The Gingerbread Architect offers the ultimate holiday baking projects.

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