Steve mentioned about a month ago that he wanted to entertain one of our new neighbors and some mutual friends at the house. I wasn’t feeling all that adventurous, so I went with what I call some of my safe dishes, including a big bag of turnip and ginger soup I had in the freezer.

Now you see, this is exactly why I love soup. There is absolutely nothing wrong with defrosting a big bag of it, warming it through and serving it at a dinner party. No one is going deduct points for lack of effort … or know the damn difference.

I also resurrected my chicken with goat cheese and red pepper jelly recipe, which I hadn’t done in a long time, and sautéed some savoy cabbage from Serenbe Farms on the side.

But dessert stumped me a bit. As you’ve likely read here many times, it’s not my specialty and I’m perfectly fine with store-bought as long as the other courses are homemade. But then I remembered this pretty package of locally made ginger cookies from The Cookie Studio I’d seen at The General Store and decided to do something a little holiday-ish.

I took a James Beard cream pie recipe I love and substituted eggnog for the half-and-half. Then, instead of filling a pie crust, I put a big dollop of the eggnog custard on top of a gingersnap cookie, topped it with another cookie and put fresh whipped cream on top and a little grated nutmeg.

I felt a little off and like it wasn’t one of my better dinners, but everyone raved about the dessert. I thought they were being overly generous, but it really was delicious — and a fantastic example of what happens when a little homemade and a little store-bought come together.

Happy Holidays, friends.

Eggnog Custard

• ¾ cup sugar
• 7 tablespoons flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups eggnog, scalded
• 12 large ginger cookies
• ½ cup heavy cream, whipped
• Crystallized ginger pieces
• Freshly grated nutmeg

Mix together the sugar, flour, salt and eggs. Slowly stir in the eggnog. Return the mixture to low heat, and stir constantly until it begins to boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and continue to stir and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Cool to room temperature.

To assemble:

Place large cookie on individual plates. Spoon desired amount of custard on each cookie. Top with another cookie. Put a dollop of whipped cream on cookie and top with ginger and fresh grated nutmeg if desired.