Food for Friday

It’s pumpkin time!  Whether you’re carving scary faces, painting grins with little ones, or seeking out a non-perishable variety for the front steps, how about a delicious pumpkin dinner to go along with the merriment?  I’m happy to share another treat from the recipe files of Chef Aaron Ward!

Sweet Potato Ravioli

Ingredients
1-1/2 lbs red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams)
2 T packed golden brown sugar
1/2 t ground nutmeg
48 square prepared wonton wrappers
2 large egg whites, beaten until foamy
Brown Butter Sauce
3/4 C butter (1-1/2 sticks)
1-1/2 T balsamic vinegar
1-1/2 T chopped fresh thyme

Chopped toasted pecans, optional

Pierce the potatoes all over with a fork.  Cook in a microwave on high until soft throughout, about 6 minutes per side.  Cool slightly.  Cut the potatoes in half; scoop 2 packed cups of potato flesh into a large bowl.  Mix in brown sugar and nutmeg.  Season the sweet potato filling with salt and pepper to taste.

Line a large baking sheet with plastic wrap.  Place 1 wonton wrapper on your work surface.  Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the wrapper with beaten egg whites.  Place 1 tablespoon of sweet potato fillin in the center of the wrapper.  Top with another wrapper.  Press the edges together all around to seal.  Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.  Repeat with your remaining wrappers and filling.  You can complete this step up to 4 hours ahead of time if you cover and keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to cook.

To make the brown butter sauce, melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.  Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat; carefully mix in the vinegar and thyme.

Meanwhile, working in batches, cook the ravioli in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 3 minutes.  Using a large slotted spoon, carefully transfer the ravioli to the hot butter sauce; spoon the sauce over to coat the ravioli.  Transfer to plates, sprinkle with pecans if you like, and serve immediately.

Working with prepared dough makes this a fairly easy dish to prepare, and with sweet potatoes in season, a delicious choice for a chilly fall evening.  Happy Haunting in the kitchen!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Hey, did you ever get your hands on a copy of “Being Dead is No Excuse”, the original compendium on Southern hospitality in the face of loss?  I just discovered a new volume from the same authors, released in 2009:  Some Day You’ll Thank Me For This, The Official Southern Ladies’ Guide to Being a “Perfect” Mother, by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays.

The book jacket sets the tone of the volume with this introduction:  “Southern society is arranged along matriarchal lines, since the Southern matriarch is a far more formidable being than the much nicer Southern male.  She has to be this way; she was put on this earth with a sacred mission:  to drum good manners and the proper religion – ancestor worship – into the next generation.”

More fun!  The back cover of the book jacket lists a few

“Signs that you are the daughter of a Southern mother:
You never leave home without making your bed.
You speak to everybody, even tacky people.
You believe some undeserving Yankee family is still using the silver that their ancestors stole from yours.”

The book opens with a section entitled “You might be a Southern mother if…” including such hints as “You think ‘cheerleading’ is an honorable major for your daughter at the University of Mississippi, though you feel a double major in M.R.S. is best” and “You run into a friend and the first words out of your mouth are ‘How’s yo mo-thuh?’”

Here’s an easy Southern dish from the Stained Glass Manor, a B and B in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Stained Glass Manor Curried Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:
1 big apple (or 2 little apples), cubed
1 big onion, diced
Several tablespoons curry powder
1 stick butter
Rice
3 chicken breasts, cubed

Mix all but the chicken and the rice together and sauté in the butter.  While sautéing, stir-fry the cubed chicken until it is completely done.  Then combine the chicken and mixture in one big pan and cook for a few minutes over low heat.  Serve over rice.

This being a Southern dish, measurements are made by tasting, not by numbers!  Experiment, and enjoy.  Some day you’ll thank us!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

He was my last blueberry of the season.  I named him Bob.  I baked him into a cobbler.  If you have any fruits ready to be transformed into a delicious dessert, here’s an easy recipe shared by a friend this summer.

Mrs. Treece’s Cobbler

1 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C milk
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 T butter
about 2 C, or as much as you like, of the  fruit of your choice, cleaned/ chopped/prepared for baking, and warmed

Melt butter in the bottom of a 9×12 inch Pyrex baking dish.  Mix all other ingredients and add them to the baking dish, incorporating with the butter.  Top with warm fruit, and bake in a 325 degree oven until the batter is golden brown – it rises to the top as it bakes, covering the fruit or berries.

I made a batch of my favorite British treat, Bird’s Custard, and enjoyed it very much over a heated slice of the blueberry cobbler.  Cobblers are so easy and tasty and fresh for summer eating.

Our temperatures are going to be above 90 all weekend – maybe I need a recipe for fresh blueberry ice cream, too!  Any suggestions?

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

C = Cup; t = teaspoon; T = Tablespoon

Food for Friday

In my next life, I will be a person who has time to read cookbooks.  There are so many amazing publications from which to choose, so much creativity in recipes and ways of presenting them.  I have mad love for collecting recipes…and no time to enjoy them all.

Here’s a new discovery in The Gallery, The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook.  This book covers 75 food festivals throughout the South, from Texas to Florida and Virginia to Kentucky, all states in between, and January to November (everyone’s busy shopping at The Christmas Place in December, of course).  Poke Salat Festival in Alabama, Gautier Mullet Festival in Mississippi (high fashion bad hair??), National Grits Festival in Georgia, RC & Moon Pie Festival in Tennessee, Chitlin’ Strut in South Carolina – we celebrate everything from apples to watermelon and spoonbread to shrimp.

Arranged by month, the cookbook includes a few photos along with mouth-watering selections from each festival.  I really want to share from the watermelon treats, but that’s not until next month!  July – hey, it’s the Slugburger Festival.  Let’s see what they’ve got…oh, it’s like elephant stew, but it only serves about 400, depending on how many patties you make from a pound of mixed pork, soy meal, flour, salt, and water.

Okay, I’m still turning pages, but my sister is pathologically afraid of melon in all forms, so I’ll skip the cantaloupe festival.  (Really, it’s like the way some people react to snakes, or those spiders that suddenly appear after they have grown to be three inches in diameter, or cracking gum-chewers.  The girl cannot abide a cantaloupe in her zip code.)  wait, where was I … food … recipes…Grilled Peaches!  I have had these before, and they are amazing.  You just have to try them.

Grilled Peaches

1 peach
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 C sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar (I prefer to use a really good balsamic – it has to be Bravo’s good)
1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Halve the peach; remove the pit; drizzle each half with about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, brown sugar, the remaining lemon juice, and the black pepper and boil until reduced by about half.  Place the peaches cut-side down on a hot, lightly oiled grill.  Cover and cook for about 2 minutes, or until there are grill marks.  Turn over and baste the cut sides with the vinegar mixture.  Cover the grill and cook for about 3 minutes more, or until peach halves are softened.  Enjoy!

Too bad I don’t have a grill.  Maybe I’ll have to see what the neighbors are leaving unattended on their patios, and sneak over after dark…  Doesn’t this sound like a great book to leave under someone’s tree this Christmas?  I’m just saying, only about 150 days to go.

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday ~ and a hot weekend!

The weather man is giving us a heat index of 97 degrees today, and the only thing on my mind is a cold bowl of homemade ice cream!   Fortunately, I found a recipe for just such a treat in one of our cookbooks.

From the Gooseberry Patch book Summer In the Country, a cherry ice cream to cool your day.

Easy Cherry Ice Cream

2 12-oz cans evaporated milk
4 C cherry red pop
2 C sugar
1 pint whipping cream
10-oz jar maraschino cherries, drained & chopped
2-3 C milk

Mix together all ingredients except milk.  Pour into a 4-quart ice cream maker.  Add milk to the fill line.  Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions as instructed for your ice cream maker.  Makes 4 quarts.

I never thought you would use cherry pop to make ice cream!  That’s just too fun.

In looking through this cook book, I found two other recipes that are summer-y fun and I just have to share them, too – mostly because I love the names so much!

Bucket-of-Sand Cake

8-inch yellow layer cake, prepared
24-oz jar applesauce
1 C vanilla wafers, finely crushed
Garnish:  seashell candies, gummy fish & sea creatures
1 new 8- or 9-cup plastic sand pail
1 new plastic shovel

Cut cake into 1-inch cubes.  Arrange cubes in layers in the sand pail, alternating with layers of applesauce.  Sprinkle wafer crumbs over the top for sand, and garnish with candies.  Serve with plastic shovel.

Bee Sting Cake

2 eggs, beaten
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla
1 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 C milk
2 T butter

Topping:
1/2 C plus 2 T brown sugar, packed
1/4 C butter, melted
1/4 C whipping cream
1 C sweetened flaked coconut
1 t vanilla

Beat together eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, and baking powder in a large bowl; set aside.  Bring milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat; mix well.  Add to egg mixture; pour into a greased, floured 8″ x 8″ pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Spread topping over warm cake.  Broil until topping is bubbly and warm.

I don’t know that Easy Cherry Ice Cream works as a topping for either of those two, but I think the kids would love to try Bucket-of-Sand or Bee Sting cake!

Be cool – and come to our Garden Party tomorrow!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Being Dead Is No Excuse – how is that for a book title?  First released in 2005, it has since been a constant favorite among book lovers and food lovers alike.  Combining Southern life and death with appropriate recipes, it’s an entertaining read on all levels!

Each chapter addresses a Southern ritual, such as dying tastefully and the competition between local churches, and includes several recipes to suit each happenstance.  From Chapter 5, Comfort Foods:  There Is a Balm in Campbell’s Soup, I’d recommend “Broccoli Squares,” and not just because the recipe only takes up one page ~ it sounds delicious, and I want to know where you buy square broccoli?  Whole Foods?

Broccoli Squares

Ingredients
2 c cooked broccoli, mashed
1 c Kraft mayonnaise
1 c evaporated milk
3 eggs, well beaten
1 T butter
1 t flour
1/2 t salt
Tabasco to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together.  Pour into a lightly buttered 8-inch square pan.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Serves eight.

Easy and delicious – and the kind of recipe you just might take a notion to top with some crushed corn flakes and shredded cheddar-jack cheese….

Hope you find an excuse to cook up something easy and delicious for your living ones this weekend!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Oops, forgot to add C = cup; T = tablespoon; t = tablespoon.

Food for Friday

We’re coming up on a holiday weekend – can you believe it’s Memorial Day already?  There will be many remembrances of the heroes who have died while in service to our country, and our thoughts are with their surviving family members as well. 

Traditionally, of course, there are picnics and parades and concerts and fireworks.  From the cook book 101 Homestyle Favorites, here is an easy salad to include in your cooler this year – a great accompaniment for something grilled – and it will feed a crowd.

Greek Pasta Salad

Salad
8-oz pkg elbow macaroni, cooked
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
15 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 C yellow or red pepper, sliced
1/2 C green onions, chopped
3/4 C sliced black olives, drained
1 C crumbled feta cheese (I didn’t know feta came any way other than crumbled)
Optional:  3/4 C pepperoni, diced

Dressing
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 C red wine vinegar
1-1/2 t garlic powder
1-1/2 t dried basil
1-1/2 t dried oregano
3/4 t ground pepper
3/4 t sugar

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small bowl.  Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat evenly.  Cover and chill 2 hours or overnight.  Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Give us a call at 800-445-3396 to order a copy of 101 Homestyle Favorites for yourself – item 722027, $14.95.

Christmas Place wishes you a sunny and memorable holiday weekend (unless you’re hoping for rain – we won’t deny that ambition to our drought-stricken neighbors)!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Cookies!  We’ve all been baking cookies (and other assorted goodies) for our bake sale tomorrow.  We’ll be selling homemade creations to the Smoky Mountain Chevy Classics crowd, raising more funds for our Relay for Life team – we’re so close to $10K, we know we’re gonna make it!

Perfect cookbook for today ~ Christmas Cookies, from Gooseberry Patch.  Along with a delicious selection of cookie treats, there are chapters on packaging, cookie mixes in a jar, and cookie swap ideas.  Sprinkled throughout the pages of the book are gift tag templates to copied, colored, and tied to your packages. 

Chapters include Frost-Kissed Cut-Outs, Razzle-Dazzle Drop Cookies, A Blizzard of Bar Cookies, and Candy Cane Lane.

From the Snow Kidding chapter, look what I found!  From Sally Derkenne, Des Moines, IA:

Carmelitas

18 oz. tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
6 oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
32 vanilla caramels, unwrapped
1/4 C half-and-half

Slice cookie dough into 1/4″ thick slices; place slices in the bottom of an ungreased 9″x13″ baking pan.  Pat to make an even crust; bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.  Let cool slightly; sprinkle with chocolate chips and set aside.  Melt caramels and half-and-half together in a double boiler over hot water.  Spread caramel mixture on top of chocolate chips.  Refrigerate for one to two hours; cut into squares.  Makes 3 dozen.

Now, in the book, it says the pan should be 9″x9″.  I can’t figure any way to get 36 reasonable portions out of a pan that small – that’s a brownie pan, right?  I’m saying they meant to say 9″x13″.  Are you with me?

These sound just delicious!  Packaging suggestion is to include a bag of coffee beans and a pretty mug – I’m imagining the heavenly scent as I’m typing.

Hope you have a tasty weekend, and find an outdoor festival to enjoy.  Of course, we’re seeing nickel-sized raindrops right now, but I can tell they are going to blow through quickly.

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Don’t you just love the deliciousness you find in every Junior League cook book?  This week, a selection from The Junior Service League of LaGrange, Georgia.  Their cook book, first published in 1996 and currently in its fifth printing, is titled Southern Born and Bread, a mighty clever word play there, you’ll agree.  A degree of trust is built into this cook book as I notice that the cookbook committee is outnumbered almost three to one by the testing committee!
 

Since summer is almost upon us, which means the kids will be hanging around the house a lot more, how about a couple of quick entries from the Children’s Favorites chapter.

Orange Icee

1 small can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 can cold milk
1 can cold water
2 t vanilla
1/4 C sugar
Ice cubes, about 10 to 12

Mix all ingredients in a blender; makes 4 small servings.  Sounds really refreshing for a warm afternoon!

Cookies on a Stick

1 package Gold Medal chocolate chip cookie mix
1 egg
1 stick butter, softened
12 popsicle sticks
Sprinkles
2 packages of plain M&M’s®

Mix together cookie mix with egg and butter.  Add both packages of M&M’s®.  Roll dough into 2-inch balls and place 6 balls on a single ungreased cookie sheet.  Insert popsicle sticks into each ball.  Slightly flatten each ball with your hand and sprinkle each cookie with candy sprinkles.  Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or so before removing cookies from the cookie sheet.  Makes 1 dozen cookies on a stick.

I like that ratio of M&M’s® to cookie dough!  Two easy recipes that will keep the kids happy – and they’ll enjoy helping in the kitchen, learning things like  the importance of keeping the lid on the blender and not eating all the ingredients before the baking part takes place…

Wait – just spotted another cute recipe I have to share:

E T Candy

18-oz jar crunchy peanut butter
2-3/4 C powdered sugar
1 stick butter
1 large package chocolate chips
1 T butter

Mix peanut butter and powdered sugar with 1 stick melted butter.  Press into 9×13-inch dish.  Melt chocolate chips and 1 T butter.  Pour over peanut butter mixture.  Chill in the refrigerator til firm, then cut or break unto pieces. 

Oh, snap, that sounds YUMMY!  D-ope – there’s a footnote on the page – “Use your cookie cutters to make cutouts from flavored gelatin.  Reduce the liquid in the recipe to 1/4 of the usual amount, pour into a shallow pan and chill until firm.”  Always wondered about that.

C = Cup; T = Tablespoon; t = teaspoon

Have a yummy weekend!  Wave at us in the parade this afternoon – you’ll recognize us – we’re the elves with Santa, of course.

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Usually I pick out a random cookbook based on the appeal the cover has to me and the time of day I am making my selection – the closer to lunchtime, the more likelihood there is a picture of a plate of actual food on the cover.

This week, I started flipping through a couple of books for an interesting recipe.  I think I found one.  From the Gooseberry Patch collection, Super-Fast Slow Cooking.  Hey, I don’t write the titles!  Did you know that there are crock pot recipes for sandwiches, breakfasts, and desserts??  I had no idea.

Pine Cones in Tomato Sauce

2 8-oz cans tomato sauce
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 C water
1 1/4 lbs. ground beef
1/2 C long-cooking rice
2 T onion, chopped
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

In a slow cooker, mix together tomato sauce, garlic powder, and water.  Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl; mix well.  Shape into 24 pine cone-shaped balls; arrange in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low setting for 7 to 8 hours.  Makes 4 servings.

See, you were thinking you’d have to start in the woods, searching out a pine tree, just like I did.  Sounds delicious, though, doesn’t it.

Call us and ask for item 722022 (they promise me it will be on line soon).

~Janet @ The Christmas Place