Merry Magic Christmas 12/25/14

Christmas Days seem to be getting closer and closer together! Think my advanced age might have something to do with the problem? The weeks seem to run together. And with that, making the demands on my fragile mentality to come up with something to write about. After giving it some serious thought, I decided to keep the season in mind and just wish each and every one of you the merriest of merry Christmases and a fantastic new year of all good things.

Let’s keep the recipe department in the Christmas realm. I have the following recipe for a happy family framed and on my dining room wall. Hope you can try it.

            

A HAPPY FAMILY

Combine a family of loving hearts, melt together.

Add a lot of love; mix well with respect and trust.

Add gentleness, laughter, faith, hope and joy.

Pour in much understanding. (Don’t forget patience.)

Sprinkle with kisses and a dash of hugs. Bake for a  lifetime.

YIELD:  ONE HAPPY FAMILY

As parents, we sometimes wonder if our kids are even listening when we try to give them advice and training of Life issues.  It is rewarding to hear them reiterate something that you told them as teenagers that you do not remember that clearly. Here is one that came back to me with some recollection.

      

MAXINE’S MUTTERINGS FOR A MAGNIFICENT MARRIAGE

Keep God and His teachings the center of your home and your spouse a close second.

Then come the kids and that puts YOU last,

If your spouse puts you in your rightful place that moves you way up on the list!

Again a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years  to each of you.  See you in 2015.

Magical Visits 12/18/14

With the temperature forecast in mid 50’s for Monday it is hard to believe it is Christmas, but the weather man half promised a white Christmas for next week. We shall see.

It is hard to break old habits. If you heard me say I was not going to do much decorating this year because I do not have any festivities at my home any more, just forget about it.  As I was going through my Christmas “stuff” I thought, “I have to put that out, it is part of Christmas!" So I did manage to cut back considerably, but I can tell that the season is upon us. I am working feverishly to get birthday “thank  you” notes out before Christmas cards. May have to double up on a few.

The magic moments of each day seem to still be coming to the surface.  Two weeks ago at coffee and rolls after church services, I called to a special friend’s attention the fact that he failed to appear at my birthday celebration. His excuse was that he was not invited. My rebuttal was that everyone was invited and with over 240 people being there my kids said “Mom, I do not believe that Jeff was not here!!" To help balance things he said that he would buy me a roll the next week. My social obligations interfered and I was not able to go to the basement for the usual socializing. During the week my back door bell rang and there was Jeff, looking very apologetic barely able to conceal a grin, with a roll in hand with a birthday candle blazing merrily in it. A magic moment? Indeed. We are now friends again.

Last week a similar instance happened at my front door. There stood a special friend dating back to the years I volunteered at the elementary school after my retirement holding a container that looked suspiciously like one of mine. In it were a number of coconut covered date balls. She acknowledged that the container was mine that I had given her sugar cookies in for her birthday in October when we were at the hairdresser at the same time on her birthday. She needlessly apologized for the way they turned out because I had devoured three of them before she was a block away! See kindness begets kindness and so does magic.

Be sure to create some Christmas magic for someone who needs it and cannot pay you back. That is a sure recipe for Christmas magic.

And that brings us to Christmas recipes. My daughter gave me the recipe for Mexican wedding Cakes that we made for her husband’s mother’s ninetieth birthday celebration. They were quite simple to make because all that I did was roll them in powdered sugar after they were baked!  I am sure you will like them.

        

MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES

I cup butter

½ cup powdered sugar

1 ¾ cup flour

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients together. Roll in balls. Bake on an ungreased or silicone sheet lined tray. Cool and roll in powdered sugar. Store in airtight container. They freeze nicely.

A favorite and simple treat that I like especially at Christmas time are mini pretzel and Rolo treats.

      

MINI PRETZEL AND ROLO PECAN BITS

Line a tray with mini pretzels., I have one that holds 34.  Be sure to use “mini” ones. Unwrap Rolo Caramel candies and place one on top of each pretzel. Place in oven at about 250 to 300 degrees for a few minutes.  Place a pecan half on top of the candy and press down on it.  Cool on tray and remove. Store in airtight container.

Remember to be generous to someone this Christmas who cannot return your kindness.

Santa Cookie Magic 12/11/14

Christmas is coming fast. I have my Christmas tree in place and plan to have a few more decorations in place by the weekend. That is not a promise, just a plan!  Should possibly start my card list before too long, but do not want to scare anyone by getting mine there too early.

Last week was a magic filled one, but kept me on the run.  It started with my daughter who was preparing a reception for her husband’s mother. They wanted to surprise her and have her famous Santa Claus cookies as part of her celebration. Judy mentioned me helping her bake them but did not want to ask me to drive to her house.  That was a simple problem to solve. Why didn’t she come to my house and we would bake them here? One of her high school friends lives in Edgerton, so she asked me if I cared if she ask her to come so they could spend the day together. All was going well until she suddenly remembered that she had a one o’clock appointment in Butler that she had to keep. We had the cookies baked but that left two less-than-expert decorators in charge.

They were quite complicated with rosy cheeks, a white beard, stocking hat with white ball on the end, miniature chocolate chips for eyes, a white beard made with coconut, etc.  Now if I have to draw a moon, I say it looks like a six pointed star! Add that to my old, arthritic fingers and I almost gave up the project. My helper was determined to not let a cookie get the best of her so she was diligently working her heart out when Judy got back. She did not register any disappointment, but I am certain that she noticed the lack of perfection that would have been acquired if Grandma Susie had made them.  But when she saw the plate of Santa Clause cookies, the look of surprise and joy on her face made our less than perfection product well worth while and a very magic moment for her.

Thursday was another magic one.  It was another daughter’s birthday and she always wants to spend part of the day with her Mom.  She managed a half day’s vacation, made soup from leftover turkey, invited her Aunt Mary and me to go to her Aunt Kork’s house for lunch, since we cannot manage her in her wheel chair and we wanted her to be part of our celebration.  I baked an angel food birthday cake, Aunt Mary brought a fruit and cheese plate. We originally planned to play cards after lunch, but when her daughter stopped by after four we were still sitting at the table with no mention of playing cards. It indeed was a magic day full of laughter and just enjoying each other’s company. See, you do not have to travel far and spend a lot of money to have a Magic Day!! I finally got home about 6:00 P.M.

I intended to ask Judy for a cookie recipe to give to you that were especially good and easy to make. We, mostly Judy, made a batch of them for the party, too.  so I had to scratch deep for something to pass on today. I spotted the cookbook that my aunt had given us for our 25^th wedding anniversary in 1972. The recipe I am giving you was from my Aunt Doris who lived at Beaver Dam, near Akron, Indiana.  She was one of my favorite people so her recipes should be good too.

COCKTAIL DELIGHT

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 well beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

Chopped walnuts

1 can (Size #2) fruit cocktail, partially drained

Combine sugar, flour, salt, baking powder. Add well beaten egg, vanilla and fruit cocktail. Mix well. Put in buttered 9 x 13 baking dish. Sprinkle brown sugar and nuts over top. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. Cut in squares. Serve with whipped topping or ice cream.

            

ROSY CINNAMON APPLES

Boil together : 1/3 cup red hot candies

                              1 ½ cups water

                              ½ cup sugar

Add 6 peeled and cored apples. Simmer until tender. Chill. Centers may be filled with cream cheese.

It has been said that a man 60 years old will have spent 3 years eating.  A more interesting fact to me would be how many years did his wife spend cooking that food???

Dilly Mashed Potatoes and Family Magic 12/4/14

The date for today brings a multitude of thoughts to the surface.  Perhaps the most important is my number 4 daughter was born on that day 57 years ago! If I dare to let my mind wonder, that makes all but two of my kids as old or older than my husband was when God called him to eternity. This makes me very aware of how young he was.  When you are approaching 60 you can feel the advancement of aging symptoms and notice your hair is much more silvery than you wished, looking back it is really the prime of life. I think I got off my original subject, so back to the thoughts of the day. That date means we have only 21 more days to Christmas, so I had better get in the mood to get out my stored away decorations. I know I can easily bring in my pre-decorated, pre- lit miniature tree and put it in my east window of the living room. That will make people think I am on target with my decorations! I have my first Christmas party on Monday evening, so guess I better get in the Christmas spirit soon.

Another thought which I choose to not dwell on is the fact that we are getting deeper into the heart of winter and that means snow, snow, snow. I am trying to obliterate all of the memories of last winter’s snowfall. When we get to December, all of those plans that we intended to accomplish in the new year are about to be out of time. I think you can handle all of these negative thoughts by concentrating on the coming Christmas season. Be sure you do not let the fussing and flurry of gifts, food and decorations consume your time and heart and not prepare spiritually. Remember that we are now in the season of Advent which means “to come”. Make it a spiritual renewal as well as tending to all of the extra things that have taken first thoughts and efforts in our celebration.

Hope your Thanksgiving celebration was a preamble to a great Christmas. Mine was a very special day with 29 for dinner and another 20 stopping in in the latter part of the day. Hey wait!  I count, don’t I ? That makes a total of 50. That is about all I can squeeze into my home, but it was a great day. The food was above average, maybe because it was prepared with love in anticipation of a family day. After the main meal people were snacking all afternoon, playing board games around the cleared dining room table and making it an almost perfect day. The families that had other plans were missed but I am certain that their day was special, also. A special ending to the day was the first time that the next generation assumed the responsibility of final cleanup. Two of my granddaughters did all of the dishes, finished trash removal and did a great job while a couple of adults were playing a game with a broken hearted great grandson who felt left out because he did not get to play a game. Frosting on the cake was that  he won!! Thanks so much, Chrissie and Lindsey!

Today I spent a very pleasant visit at my daughter and bonus son’s home with another full course meal celebrating their immediate family’s Thanksgiving with a bonus birthday party for their oldest son,  Happy birthday, Clayton. (Your card is still on the table. Maybe next year?)

With all of this food the past week and leftovers still in my refrigerator, I feel I will have to find something extra delicious, or at least quite different and simple to create any interest. So while resting in my lounge chair making believe I was looking for an interesting recipe, two popped up and caught my attention. Hope they do the same for you. Once again I went to one of my old, old, (not as old as I am) Taste of Home annual cookbooks and found what I was looking for. 

      

DILLY MASHED POTATOES

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups milk

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

2 tablespoons fresh minced dill or 2 teaspoons dill weed

1 tablespoon dried minced onion

¾ teaspoon seasoned salt

Cover potatoes with water. Cook until very tender. Drain, mash with milk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Serves six.

SWEET ONION MUFFINS

1 ½  cups all purpose flour

½ cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup finely chopped onion

½ cup butter, melted

1 ½ cups chopped walnuts

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat eggs, onion and butter until blended. Stir into dry  ingredients just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Fill greased or paper lined miniature muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool for five minutes before removing from pans. You may use regular size muffin tins but bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Large tins make one dozen. Small make 36.

Since both recipes take finely chopped onions, It reminds me of something that I just started doing. Why did I get so old before I heard of it or tried it? So often I let an onion spoil if I use only part of it.  Now I chop it all at the same time, use what I need for what I am making, then place what I have left in a zip lock plastic bag and freeze it.  Then if I want only a bit in an omelet for one person, I used my already chopped onion in the freezer. If need more than I have in the freezer, I do another one then just add what I do not need of that one to my bag of frozen onions. I am so impressed with having them already done, someday when I am bored with nothing to do but clean the house, do the laundry, make my bed, etc., I am going to  chop several onions and put them in the freezer! (That will be after I get my house decorated for Christmas!)

Magic Belated Birthday Phone Call 11/27/14

May each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with plenty of good food and more important family sharing and caring. As usual I am hosting a dinner for all who can make it with open house the rest of the day (where you look after yourself at the abundantly supplied table of leftovers).  Expecting 35 to 40 people at 1:00!! Hope they bring a lot as I am not able to do what I usually do. I will make my usual traditional cranberry salad. Whatever happens it will be a magical day.

Talk about magic, I was amazed and delighted last week.  The phone rang and the caller ID read “Clarence” as I quickly answered. I have a niece whose husband is named Clarence and I was expecting it to be her. Imagine my excitement when I realized it was a voice from my past, but the Clarence was correct. During the 1950’s for 8 years we lived on a farm southwest of Melbern, which we rented , sharing the income from crops. The man who owned the land was an OLD, OLD man (he was  about 80!!) but he was at the farm several times a week.  He had a daughter who lived in Defiance and we saw her a number of times.  Years later, she and her husband built a home on some of the acreage. She still lives there alone and is now 104, with 105 quickly approaching!  We sent her an invitation to my 90^th birthday celebration. She was unable to attend and wanted to call me. What a thrill to hear her voice.  We had over a half hour chat catching up on her great state of health and both of our families. You made my day a very magic one, Margaret Bohn!

Today I had a food experience that perhaps I should not mention. It will spoil my image of those of you who think I know more about cooking than I do. Today I did not use what I really know. Last week’s recipe for the Frito meat balls intrigued me, but I did not want meat balls. I am not fond of corn chips but when I was at the local store I saw some small bags at 2 for $1.00. It would be worth it to try something so when I got home I found them in my grocery bag! First of all I had to crush them. I did not want to make a whole recipe and I had just enough chips to make a half recipe.

From then on it got dangerous. I thought I knew what the recipe stated so I put the soup in the meat. (It was supposed to be poured over the top.) That was not enough to stop me. I prepared my cast iron skillet on the small burner, then made three small burgers, I thought. With the soup in the meat they sprawled all over the skillet. So okay, I will have one big Frito burger. Remember me telling my daughters that you do not put something on the stove and then go into the living room.  I forgot to mention that you do not go to check something on the computer in your bedroom. My almost original concoction was well past the well done stage on the bottom. I quickly turned it over and watched it brown on the other side, trying not to look at the nearly burnt top edge. I know, I will cover it with the rest of the mushroom soup, so I can’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind.  Wrong.  Sometimes I say to myself, “I do not have to eat that”. But with hamburger costing $3.99 a pound, plus my dollar for chips, those thoughts helped me eat the whole thing. I offered it up as penance, but I think I am way ahead of the game with penance.

Now have I scared you out of using any recipe I might offer? In the case that I have not spoiled my reputation I will include a recipe for beets that I found in an Aro cookbook that was a Christmas present to me in 1989 from my daughter’s kids. (It was submitted by Doyle Wines.)  It will probably be a second cousin to Harvard beets.

           

SAUCY ORANGE BEETS

1 can of beets, 303

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter

6 tablespoons orange juice

¼ teaspoon salt

Mix flour and sugar together. Add orange juice a little at a time. Add butter and salt. Drain beets and add to the sauce. Heat on low heat until thickened.

                        

CLUB  CHICKEN

1 cup Club or Town House Crackers

1 package Italian salad dressing mix

2 to 3 pounds frying chicken

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine crackers and salad dressing mix in a large plastic bag. Shake 2 pieces of chicken at a time in the crumb mixture. Place chicken skin side up in a casserole dish. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees.

After Thanksgiving Day you have my permission to proceed with your Christmas decorations, Christmas carols and lights. As for me I will get it done early in December. Each year I do less as I no longer have Christmas festivities at my home, but I want the house to look as if I know it is Christmas.

Beefy Hash Brown Pizza 11/13/14

First I will mention a golden wedding anniversary celebration near Warsaw, Indiana for my niece and her husband. These parties are always a delight to attend. The downside of it is that it makes me realize my age. My kids retiring, the next generation celebrating fifty years of marriage, great grandkids starting school.  Guess God has been good to me to allow me to experience all of this. Congratulations to Jean and Clarence and best wishes for many more.

Well, I am sad to report that my birthday magic has declined to a standstill.  A hearty thank you to all that contributed in any way to make it the fantastic magic event that it turned out to be. I can’t express in words the feelings I experienced from the “Happy Birthday” greetings on the street, hugs in church, many, many birthday cards, all of the hard work, planning and expense from my family for the reception and those of you who took the time and effort to attend. It will be the source of many great and magic memories. Now back to the real world!

This morning I attended the benefit brunch for my nephew’s grandson who is a patient at Riley Hospital. The food was abundant and delicious and of course I had to try it all. I came home to spend a quiet day, avoiding the temptation to stop at the Methodist Church for their soup and pie luncheon. The full feeling, besides the picture of a half of an apple pie on my kitchen counter, made me turn in at my own driveway.

In the middle of the afternoon, I was still not hungry, but my thoughts again returned to food. My guilty conscience would allow some things that were already sitting silently in my refrigerator. First I tried a cold dish of tapioca pudding. Not nearly as good as the warm one I had eaten before. Okay, I will try to finish the left over from Friday cottage cheese that I really like mixed generously with lime Jello and pears with the juice of the pears used as the cold water. That was better than the cold pudding but left me with a full stomach but still a hankering for something more substantial and hot.To fill that need, I got out my old, old Taste of Home Cookbook and found 2 main dishes I think you will like to try.  I am doing this much earlier than usual hoping that reading and mentally savoring the entrees will get me past bedtime. I would hate to have to go make me a 3 egg omelet!

BEEFY HASH BROWN PIZZA

5 cups Frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed

1 can (10 ¾  oz.) cheddar cheese soup, undiluted

1 egg, slightly beaten

Salt and pepper to taste

2 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 can, 4 oz.) mushroom slices and pieces, drained

1 can (15 oz.) pizza sauce

4 cups (16 oz. )  shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Combine potatoes, soup, egg, salt and pepper. Spread mixture into a greased 15 in x 10 inch baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Meanwhile, cook the beef, onion, and mushrooms until the meat is no longer pink. Stir the pizza sauce. Keep warm. Sprinkle 2 cups of the cheese over hot potato mixture. Spread meat mixture over the top, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake5 to 10 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted.

  

At the benefit brunch the pancake detail had it right on this morning. My memories of those brought my attention to this recipe because I am partial to Golden delicious apples. Add them to pancakes and they would have to be good.

      

BAKED APPLE PANCAKES

1 cup pancake mix

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 medium Golden Delicious apple, peeled and sliced

Maple syrup

Combine pancake mix, milk ,oil and egg. In an ovenproof skillet, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and apple slices. Saute until sugar is dissolved. Pour batter over apple mixture. Cook, uncovered, at 350 degrees. For 12 minutes. Invert onto serving platter. Serve with syrup.

Guess I will finish my cottage cheese and go to bed early to control my cravings.