Recipe: Frosted Eggnog Bread

Picture mine without icing. Image found here.

So with the leftover eggnog I have (read about that in my previous blog post), I tried another baking recipe to use some of it up. This time, I baked a loaf of frosted eggnog bread courtesy of the Inside Bru Crew Life blog. Dessert breads, like banana breads, are very easy to make. You just throw everything together in a bowl, pour the mixture into a loaf pan, and bake it! So I figured I'd try it.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE BREAD

·      ½ cup butter, softened

·      ½ cup sugar

·      ½ cup brown sugar

·      1 teaspoon rum extract

·      1 egg

·      2 cups flour

·      1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

·      ½ teaspoon baking soda

·      1 teaspoon salt

·      1 teaspoon nutmeg

·      1 cup eggnog

FOR THE GLAZE

·      1 cup powdered sugar

·      2 Tablespoons eggnog

·      pinch of nutmeg

INSTRUCTIONS

1.   Preheat oven to 350°degrees. Spray an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch bread pan with nonstick spray.

2.   Beat the butter and sugars until combined. Add the extract and egg and beat again until creamy.

3.   Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.

4.   Slowly add the flour mixture alternately with the eggnog into the butter mixture until everything has been combined.

5.   Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 58-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

6.   Stir together the powdered sugar and remaining eggnog until a thick frosting comes together.

7.   Spread it over the top of the cooled bread. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Let set. Store in a loosely sealed container on the counter.

Since my eggnog already has alcohol in it, I didn't add the rum extract; it would already taste boozy enough! And I tried the bread first without any frosting. I thought that if it tasted good like that, why bother making the glaze? And it was delicious! It wasn't dry, unlike the eggnog cookies I made recently. So if you like icing, go for it, but otherwise, save yourself some time and just make the bread. Delish!

United Ukrainian Ballet: Giselle

Image found here

I decided not to buy a ballet subscription from the Kennedy Center this year, hoping I could get discounted tickets throughout the season. That has not happened, so I haven't been able to see many ballets (I didn't even get to see the Nutcracker at Christmas time!). But my friend was able to get some tickets during a Black Friday sale (I didn't even know the Kennedy Center did that!), so we went to see the United Ukrainian Ballet perform Giselle. 

Cristina Shevchenko (not to be confused with Christine Shevchenko from ABT) played Giselle, and Oleksei Tiutiunnyk played Count Albert. She was beautiful, but Tiutiunnyk's massive curly hair was distracting... Image found here

I think Giselle is a pretty well-known ballet, perhaps just a step below something like Swan Lake. I had certainly heard of it before, but I didn't really know the story (other than assuming the main character is a woman named Giselle). There was a lot of pantomiming that was a bit over-the-top, but I guess it has to be since there's no talking; I was able to figure out that two different men were in love with Giselle, but I wasn't able to figure out that her mother was trying to dissuade Giselle from dancing because her daughter had a weak heart... After the first act, my friend and I looked it up on Wikipedia so we'd know what to expect for the second act (since the Kennedy Center still does not offer paper programs since COVID, we weren't able to read what the show was about; I HATE the digital programs, particularly since I can't take notes to look at later when I'm writing blog posts like this!). I'm glad we looked the synopsis up, since I'm not sure I would have 100% understood what was going on. 

The second act features ghosts of women who were wronged by men. I wouldn't have known they were ghosts with their pretty dresses and graceful movements. That's perhaps one area where modern dance is better than ballet: there's more room for creativity! Although at one point some of them looked like they were floating, which was cool! Giselle's ghost also "magically" disappears into her grave at the end, which was kind of an interesting effect, too. Image found here.

I was excited to see this particular company perform, firstly since I had never seen them before, but mostly because of the conflict happening between Ukraine and Russia for the last year. The company was actually formed after these dancers had fled Ukraine due to the violence. Their choreographer is Alexei Ratmansky, who has worked for the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballet companies (arguably the best in the world) and ABT in New York (and soon to be with the New York City Ballet), so it is amazing that he is involved with this group. I think the dancers and others in the company are very brave, and it was moving to see the dancers hold up the Ukrainian flag and sing the Ukrainian national anthem at the end of the show. Even people from the audience were singing along!

The show is sold out, but here's a video clip you can watch of the performance:

Now that I know the story of Giselle, I would certainly see it again. It would be fun to compare this particular performance with that of another ballet/dance company.