More vintage holiday recipes

 

Blue cheese cheeseball

The approach of the holidays seems to fill many of us with an urgency to celebrate and see dear friends and family before whatever holiday we observe. At my cottage that means there are lots of cries of, “We’ll get together before Christmas.” The days to do that are slowly counting down, but there are still enough evenings for some happy hours, and I have been searching old recipes for cocktail food ideas.

Cheeseballs have been a standard for the holidays all my life. When I was quite young, my family traveled each Christmas Eve from our inner city home to the home of one of Dad’s colleagues in what was then far south Chicago, a trip of close to an hour. A lavish buffet awaited us, but I particularly remember the cheeseball. Not just any cheeseball, it was, I think, the signature recipe of the hostess, whose name also was Judith. Those traditional evenings stopped for some reason when I was a teen, but we had the recipe and continued to make “the” cheeseball. Later, I served it every year for my big tree trimming party and my kids counted on it. In recent years, one of my girls has made it. We know that some folks consider cheeseballs old-fashioned and out of style, but we don't care. It's part of our traditional Christmases. This year, Lisa and are tactfully tossing that ball back and forth, but I sort of suspect it will land in my lap. It’s not a lot of work. Here’s what I’ll do:

Blue cheese cheeseball
½ lb. Roquefort

1 pkg. Old English cheese (no longer available—I use an 8 oz. pkg of Velveeta)

l eight-ounce pkg. cream cheese, softened

½ lb. pecans, chopped fine

1 bunch parsley, chopped fine

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, chopped fine         

½ tsp. horseradish

Let the cheese soften to room temperature and mix thoroughly. Add Worcestershire, onion, horseradish and half of the parsley and pecans. Mix thoroughly and shape into a ball. Do NOT do this in the food processor, as it will become too runny. Even a mixer makes it too smooth and creamy—wash your hands thoroughly and dig in, so the finished cheese ball has some texture and credibility. Roll the ball in the remaining parsley and pecans. Chill. Serve with crackers. Leftovers will keep a month in the freezer, but mold will grow within a few days if you leave it in the fridge.

The other dish that my kids associate with tree trimming parties and Christmas is bourbon hot dogs. I suppose when they were teens, the hefty amount of bourbon had something to do with it, but they still like these. I made a half batch recently for guests, and they all disappeared quickly.

Bourbon Hot Dogs

2 lbs. hot dogs

¾ c. bourbon

2 c. ketchup

½ c. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. minced onion

Cut hot dogs into half-inch pieces. Combine other ingredients and simmer until sugar melts. Add hot dogs and continue to simmer. Serve warm with toothpicks.

Cheers! Sláinte! Salud! Santé! Prost! Saluti!

 

 

 

Some retro happy hour ideas

 

Football and tailgating aren’t the only reasons that happy hour is such an easy way to entertain in the fall. It has to do with crisp cool afternoons and the new energy that fall and the start of the year brings. Lately I find I have all sorts of ideas for appetizers and snacks, some of them recipes I’ve resurrected from long ago.

Take for instance Jezebel sauce, a sweet and spicy sauce—yes, it gets its name from the Biblical woman. Years ago when I had huge Christmas parties, I used to serve Jezebel sauce on a brick of cream cheese, but somewhere along the way I lost the recipe I really liked. There are lots of versions of this southern staple online, but I never found one I liked until recently. I think what got me is that the base is apricot preserves—and I love apricot in any version. So here’s what  you do:

Jezebel sauce

Ingredients

1 8 oz. jar apricot preserves

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

2-3 Tbsp. horseradish (not the stuff in a cream sauce, but plain horseradish)

Fresh cracked pepper to taste

1 block cream cheese

Crackers for serving.

Mix together the preserves, mustard and horseradish. Pour over cream cheese. Serve with crackers. The Jezebel sauce tends to disappear faster than the crema cheese, so keep a little back to refresh the dish somewhere along the way.

And if you’re serving blocks of cream cheese with topping for an appetizer, don’t forget some people like to top it with Pickapeppa sauce (not me). A real splurge to me is opening a can of flaked crab, spreading it over cream cheese, and tooping with bottled cocktail sauce. Today, you might try using the refrigerated faux crab (Krab). Caution: all these get messy and sticky quickly, so have plenty of napkins and be prepared to refresh the toppings.

Did your mom serve a relish tray for an appetizer or with a big dinner? Mine did, though she was noted for forgetting to put it out because she had so many other dishes. Next day, we’d find it in the outdoor refrigerator. But a staple of any relish tray was stuffed celery. I came across a recipe (who thought you needed a recipe to do that?) the other day and tried it, liked it a lot. Here’s what you need:

Stuffed celery

Ingredients

10 oz. or thereabouts of prepared cheese spread (I used a Pub Cheese from Trader Joe’s, but you could use two 5-oz. jars of Kraft Old English spread

1 heaping Tbsp. mayonnaise

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp. horseradish

½ Tbsp. dried, minced onion

¼ tsp. cayenne (optional; I omitted it)

½ Tbsp. garlic powder

¼  tsp. celery salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

6-8 celery stalks

2 green onions, minced for garnish

Here’s the big deal: string the celery. Wash each stalk and pat dry, and then peel the strings from the back. Use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife. If you look, you can see the strings—and see when you’ve missed some. This is important, because it’s no fun to bite into a piece of celery and find yourself fighting with long strings.

Mix remaining ingredients except the green onion. You can make a pastry bag by cutting a corner off a bag, filling the baggie with cheese, and squeezing cheese into the inside of each celery stalk. Or you can wing it and spoon it in with an iced tea spoon—I actually used a marrow spoon and it worked great.

Cut each celery stalk into three- or four-inch pieces and place on plate, being sure to keep them upright. Sprinkle with green onion.

Note: The stuffed celery does not keep well, but the cheese spread does. You can also serve it is a spread in a bowl, with celery and crackers on the side. It’s that good, but I was initially attracted by the idea of stuffed celery which I hadn’t seen in years.

Many years ago a friend gave me this recipe for a sliced egg appetizer. I smiled sweetly, thanked her, and thought, “Well, I won’t be doing that.” It just didn’t sound right to me. For some reason, I got around to trying it—and it was not at all what I expected, and was wonderful!

Sliced egg and parsley

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, peeled

4 Tbsp parsley finely chopped

Salt and pepper

1/8 tsp. paprika

6 Tbsp. olive oil

5 hard-boiled eggs, thinly sliced crosswise

Grated carrot and sliced olives for garnish, according to your taste (that means I never use the olives but I’m wondering what anchovies would do)

Lay out the eggs on a plate and garnish with carrotd, olives, and whatever else you want. Sprinkle with salt. Make a sauce of remaining ingredients and pour over the eggs. Refrigerate until very well chilled. Will keep overnight but not much longer.

Watch for more happy hour recipes next week. It’s the mood I’m in. Salut! Slainte!  Santé! Prost!

Quick and easy—mostly

 

Back in the day I used to give an annual Tree Trimming Party at Christmas. Each guest was asked to bring an ornament to hang on the tree. At the beginning of the evening there was a bare tree; at the end, there was always a festive, fully decorated tree. And I still have a wonderful collection of ornaments, each with a story. (Of course, there was the year the tree fell over, caught just in time by one quick guest.)

Weeks before the party, I began cooking. And days in advance, the dining table was spread with empty dishes, each with a little note indicating what as to go in that dish. The first year Christian saw those empty dishes, he told Jordan, “You and your mother have a screw loose.” Now he understands our methods.

My Christmas offering to you is some of the favorite recipes from those parties. Mostly, these are standard appetizers that were served twenty or thirty years ago, but you, like me, may have forgotten about them. So here’s a reminder.

Crab and cream cheese brick

Boston lettuce leaves

2 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese

6 oz. frozen snow crab (this is an old recipe and crab may not be available in that quantity; you can use canned crab if necessary)

Bottled cocktail sauce

Line serving platter with lettuce leaves. Place cheese bricks on lettuce. Flake the crab and drain well on paper towels, discarding any membranes, etc. Arrange crab on cheese bricks and drizzle with sauce. Be careful not to use too much sauce as it gets messy quickly. This is good with cocktail rye.

Bourbon hot dogs (my kids’ choice)

2 pkg. hot dogs, preferably kosher

¾ cup bourbon

2 cups ketchup

½ cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. minced onion

Combine everything except the hot dogs and simmer until sugar melts. Cut hot dogs into chunks and add to sauce. Continue to simmer. Serve warm with toothpicks.

Sausage cheese balls

2 lbs. uncooked sausage – you choose hot, medium, or mild

1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1-1/2 cups Bisquick or similar baking mixture

½ cup finely chopped celery

½ cup finely chopped onion

½ tsp, garlic powder

Mix everything together and form into one-inch balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375^o for 15 minutes until golden brown. Makes 6 dozen.

Onion sticks

½ lb. butter, softened

One envelope onion soup mix

12 slices white bread, crusts removed

           Mix soup and butter together and spread evenly on bread. Cut each slice into five strips. Bake at 375^o on ungreased cookie sheet for ten minutes. Makes five dozen.

Imitation escargot

1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls

3 Tbsp. anchovy paste

2 Tbsp. butter

A dash of garlic powder

Unroll the dough on a lightly floured surface and press the seams together until you have four rectangles. Mix anchovy paste, butter, and garlic and spread evenly over each rectangle. Roll up, starting at narrow end. Slice into 1/2-inch pieces and place, cut side down, on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake twelve minutes at 350^o and serve warm. Makes twenty-eight rolls.

My favorite story about these is that once, when my children were very young, they saw a basket of imitation escargot ready to be served, mistook them for pecan rolls (they do look like the miniature pecan rolls they sometimes had for breakfast), and helped themselves. I’m not sure they’ve forgiven me to this day.

Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday entertaining on my mind …

 

Holidays to me mean lots of grazing food – cheeseballs and dips and spreads for all those buffets and happy hours you’re going to host. For years (probably almost fifty), I hosted some version of an annual tree trimming party. When I was a kid, my dad and brother put lights on the tree and walked away; Mom and I were left to decorate. It was not the jolly family shared experience Norman Rockwall would have us all envision. So I swore when I had my own home, tree the trimming would be festive and happy.

Most years I had anywhere from fifty to seventy guests. The price of admission was always the same: bring an ornament and hang it on the tree. As a result, I have a huge collection of unique ornaments, now stored in the attic, because I have only a small, tabletop fake tree. But I can still tell you the story behind many of my ornaments.

My dining table was extended and full of everything from pate and a caviar dip to bourbon-soaked cocktail sausages and cheeseball. The buffet on the side held cookies, a chocolate Bundt cake, and Aunt Reva’s sheet cake. I began cooking at least by early November, and the freezer was stocked. Some of the things I served are now considered passé, cheeseballs and dips among them, but my family and I still love them. Here are three I frequently served.

Caesar dip

If you love Caesar salad, as I do, this is the dip for you. It’s like eating the dressing.

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

½ cup grated fresh Parmesan

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 garlic clove, pressed or grated

1 anchovy filet or 1 tsp. anchovy paste

           Caesar salad was originally finger food—you dipped the base of a leaf of romaine in the dressing. I have had it served that way in restaurants, and at Fort Worth’s Pacific Table where the Caesar salad has uncut leaves, I eat it that way. So a great dipper for this would be small leaves from the hearts of a couple of heads of romaine (use the remaining leaves for a green salad). Other crudities would work well too—carrots, broccoli flowers, green pepper strips, cucumber slices. Baguettes slices and crackers are also perfectly acceptable.

Sherry cheese paté

8 oz. cream cheese

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

1 T. dry sherry (cooking sherry if you must)

½ tsp. curry powder

¼ tsp.

¼ salt

1 8 oz. jar chutney, any flavor you want – I am partial to apricot

2 green onions, chopped

Mix cream cheese, cheddar, sherry, curry powder, and salt. Spread on serving plate and chill. Spread the chutney on top of the mixture and scatter green onion bits for decoration. Serve with crackers and a cocktail spreader or knife.

Caviar Spread

This is the dish that people asked for year after year.

2-1/2 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 c. mayonnaise

1 small onion, grated

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Dash of hot sauce

1 4-oz. jar black caviar

3-4 hard-cooked eggs, finely chopped

Chopped parsley

Mix first seven ingredients with electric mixer until smooth. Spoon into shallow serving dish. Top with caviar, eggs, and parsley. Serve with small pumpernickel breads or party rye if you can find them. Crackers are good too.

You don’t have to wait for Christmas to serve these. They’d be great for that family Thanksgiving get-together.

          

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat!

 

No need to get fat but you can splurge a bit over the holidays. A few days ago I wrote a nostalgic post about the tree trimming party I gave annually for countless years. Today I thought it would be good to share a few of my favorite appetizer recipes with you.

Imitation Escargot (makes 28)

           Once when my children were little, they saw these miniature rolls and thought they were a version of the cinnamon rolls I sometimes made for their breakfast. They got quite a surprising disappointment, but most adults like these, even anchovy haters. Just don’t tell them.

1 pkg. crescent rolls

2 Tbsp. anchovy paste

2 Tbsp. butter, softened

Dash of garlic powder

Mix anchovy paste, butter, and garlic powder. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to form four rectangles. Spread one-fourth of the butter mixture on each rectangle. Roll up from the narrow end. Slice into one-half-inch pieces. Place, cut side down, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350^o for 10-12 minutes, until light golden. Serve hot.

Caesar dip with crudities (serves 8-10)

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 anchovy filet, or ½ tsp. anchovy paste

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate. Serve with assorted dipping vegetables—carrots, celery, radishes, bell pepper, etc.—or baguette slices. If you want to imitate the original Caesar salad, serve with tiny leaves of heart of Romaine or endive for dipping.

Artichoke hearts with caviar (serves 10)

Not to worry. You don’t have to use the stuff that costs upwards of $200 an ounce. A nice Romanoff 2 oz. jar of black lumpish for about $10 is fine and oh so showy! This would be good, but not as spectacular, without the caviar. You could use paprika to add color—or be creative.

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. sour cream

2 tsp. mayonnaise

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 8-1/2 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

2 tsp. grated onion

Dash of garlic salt

Caviar

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, and lemon juice thoroughly. Stir in artichoke (be sure it’s well drained—you don’t want a watery spread), onion, and garlic salt. Again, mix well.

Shape the mixture into a mound (about five-inch diameter) with an indentation in the middle. Fill the indentation with drained caviar. Serve with crackers.

As I look at these recipes, I realize you have to like my strong, fish flavors—anchovy and caviar, so here’s something for less bold tastes.

Sun-dried tomato cheese spread

1 garlic bulb

1 tsp. olive oil

1 11-oz. roll of goat cheese

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

2 Tbsp. green part of green onion, minced

¼ tsp. salt

Cut off pointed end of garlic. Place bulb on a sheet of foil big enough to wrap around it. Drizzle olive oil over cut top, wrap to seal. Bake at 425^o for 45 minutes. After garlic cools, squeeze pulp out of cloves and mash. Mix with remaining ingredients and use hand mixer to blend to smooth consistency. Chill.

Serve with vegetables, crackers or baguette slices.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Nibbling before the Thanksgiving feast

The Thanksgiving menu is pretty standard—a few iconoclasts eschew turkey, but for most of us it’s turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and all the usual side dishes. But we can and do vary appetizers, and I’ve been talking appetizers with Jordan. She’s hosting her first big holiday meal—for Christian’s family—and I won’t be in town to help her. So we’ve been planning and going through old recipes (my idea of fun!).

To her delight, she found a recipe that was always her favorite. It requires Beau Monde seasoning, which is something I don’t usually keep and maybe you don’t either, but it should be in the supermarket. If not, it’s offered on Amazon. The big trick here is to find a round of bread, preferably pumpernickel.

Holiday dip in a bread bowl

1-1/3 cups sour cream

1-1/3 cups mayonnaise

1 tsp. dill weed

1 tsp. Beau Monde seasoning

2 Tbsp. parsley flakes

1 Tbsp. instant onion flakes

Loaf of round bread, preferably pumpernickel

Slice top off loaf of bread and hollow out, dicing removed bread into cubes for dipping. Keep bread cubes airtight until serving time.

Mix all other ingredients thoroughly and spoon into bread bowl. Chill.

Jordan also plans to make our traditional cheeseball.

Holiday Cheeseball

½ lb. Roquefort or domestic blue cheese

1 8 oz. pkg. Velveeta

l 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese

½ lb. pecans, chopped fine

1 bunch parsley, chopped fine

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, chopped fine   

½ tsp. horseradish

Let the cheese soften to room temperature and mix thoroughly. Add Worcestershire, onion, horseradish, and half the parsley and pecans. Mix thoroughly and shape into a ball. Do NOT do this in the food processor, as it will become too runny. Even a mixer makes it too smooth and creamy—wash your hands thoroughly and dig in, so the finished cheeseball has some texture and credibility. Roll the ball in the remaining parsley and pecans. Chill. Serve with crackers. Leftovers will keep a month in the freezer, and you can always reshape the bowl. Sometimes you may want to freshen the outside with more chopped parsley and pecans.

Happy Turkey Day!

For your sweet tooth—easy appetizers with honey

For years I thought I didn’t like honey—too sweet, cloying. But a couple of years ago, something changed. I had a case of the flu or that dreaded flu-that-is-not-the-flu, and coffee just tasted awful to me. So I began to drink tea, and then, because I heard it was better for you, I moved on to green tea. But it needed something, so I began to add a scant teaspoon of honey every morning. Voila! I had found my drink of choice. Now I start every day with a mug of green tea sweetened with honey.

We’ve all heard and seen the dire warnings about bees disappearing form our planet and subsequently taking with them many of the foods we love, foods that they pollinate. For some reason, coffee and avocados come to mind, but there are many others. So I’m a fervent opponent of toxic pesticides that kill bees and a proponent of planting bee-friendly gardens. Bee-friendly plants include daisies, marigolds, zinnias, crocus, hyacinth, foxglove, hosta, and many others. You can find lists and directions for a bee garden online.

But there’s another concern about honey. Most of what we buy in the grocery has been adulterated—mixed with other substances to change the color, flavor, thickness—and above all, the cost. So when you think you’re buying honey, you may be buying mostly corn syrup, a cheap imitation which has none of honey’s healthful or medicinal powers—or its pure taste.

You can buy pasteurized honey, filtered honey, raw honey. Filtered takes out the bits of pollen and beeswax that maybe found in raw honey; pasteurization sterilizes it but may well remove some of the natural benefits. I prefer the raw, mostly because I trust it to be purer and less adulterated. Best choice? Buy at a farmers’ market from a beekeeper.

They say it’s best to buy honey that is produced within 30 miles or something of your home, because it contains antidotes to local allergens. When I can’t get to a farmers’ market or when they don’t have honey, I try to buy Texas honey and avoid some that I suspect come from China. I looked on the label of the jar currently in my cupboard, and the only warning was that you should not give honey to infants under a year of age.

Raw honey sometimes crystallizes. Just remove the cap and set the jar in a pan of really hot water. It will go back to being liquid. If honey doesn’t crystallize, it’s probably been adulterated.

Did your grandmother ever put a teaspoon of honey in a cup of hot tea to soothe a cough or a sore throat (with maybe also a teaspoon of bourbon)? Honey has lots of medicinal uses as well as cooking uses. We find it frequently in marinades (often to balance soy sauce) and in salad dressings. Honey mustard is a classic dressing. But have you ever thought of using honey to create appetizers? It pairs well with cheese and fruit both.

A young friend who occasionally comes for happy hour taught me to put a drop of honey on a hunk of blue cheese served on a cracker or an apple slice or whatever. Here are some other ways to use honey for appetizers:

--bake pear slices with butter until just barely soft, top with goat cheese and drizzle with honey

--stuff figs with cream cheese softened with port, peppercorns, and honey, and bake briefly

--grill peach halves, top with a basil leaf and a drizzle of honey

--mix equal parts of a good blue cheese and cream cheese and serve with honey

--bake a block of good feta in a dish brushed with olive oil; top the cheese with more olive oil and a drizzle of honey; bake until top of cheese is caramelized; sprinkle with fresh thyme, and drizzle a bit more honey if you wish

--bake a wedge of brie; drizzle with honey, and use wedges of apples and pear to dip into the molten cheese

--fry thick slices of firm banana in olive oil until lightly browned on each side; remove from skillet and top each slice with a drop of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Of course, you need a good crisp white wine with these nibbles.

‘Tis the Season…already!

On a Friday night recently, my oldest daughter mentioned she expected twelve adults and twelve kids for dinner and football watching the next night. “What’s for dinner?” I asked. Her reply? “I haven’t thought about it yet.” I would have had a menu planned a week before cooking started, dishes laid out, and so would her sister. She claims that gene missed her, but she pulled it off beautifully—two pots of chili (one vegetarian) with chips, salsa and guacamole. She planned a salad but decided against it at the last minute. Dessert was leftover birthday cake and cupcakes and cookies someone brought. Kids and adults alike loved it.

For me, it’s time now to start planning Christmas, both gifts (half or more of that is already done) and menus.

At Christmas I traditionally have a party for anywhere from thirty to fifty people. With that size group, I avoid anything like canapés—don’t want to make, say, 150 crostini, wontons, or gougeres or anything like that. I focus on things that can be served in bulk. Here are two or my favorites:

Cheeseball

This is traditional in my family. When my brother and I were young, our family always went to a certain house on Christmas Eve for a party. I don’t remember what was served except this cheeseball and lots of fresh shrimp. I suppose there was a roast or something. Today, my kids clamor for this.

½ lb. Roquefort

1 pkg. Old English cheese (no longer available—I use an 8 oz. pkg of Velveeta)

l eight-ounce pkg. cream cheese

½ lb. pecans, chopped fine

1 bunch parsley, chopped fine

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, chopped fine   

½ tsp. horseradish

Let the cheese soften to room temperature and mix thoroughly. Add Worcestershire, onion, horseradish and half of the parsley and pecans. Mix thoroughly and shape into a ball. Do NOT do this in the food processor, as it will become too runny. Even a mixer makes it too smooth and creamy—wash your hands thoroughly and dig in, so the finished cheese ball has some texture and credibility. Roll the ball in the remaining parsley and pecans. Chill. Serve with crackers.

Brie with topping:

I use a 12 inch brie but you can do this with any size, even a slice; just cut down on topping.

Slice away the rind on the upper side of the cheese but leave it intact on the sides or your brie will run \all over the baking dish.

Top with a mixture of one cup dark brown sugar, well mixed with one tsp. cayenne—you can make any amount to fit your brie. Just keep the proportions. I have done ¼ c. sugar with ¼ tsp. cayenne for a smaller round of brie.

Bake until cheese is soft and topping is melted—about 20 minutes in a 350 oven, but watch it closely.

Serve with crackers.

More Christmas ideas to come! Start your planning now!