Holiday Favorites: Grog!

Texas had its first real cold snap last night, and as is family tradition, first freeze means I make Grog. Now, I don't know what people call this drink in other families, this is just what my Uncle Rob always called it. When I was little, and the family would gather for Christmas at my Grandparents' house, Uncle Rob always came ready with the ingredients, and all of the cousins would get to play pirates as we put it all together. Then, we'd take turns sitting on the fold-out stool to roast marshmallows on fondue forks over Meme's electric stove.









YOU WILL NEED:

• Equal parts unfiltered, unsweetened apple juice and "country style" orange juice
• 1 cinnamon stick per 2 quarts of liquid
• 2 stars of anise
• 1 tsp. whole cloves per 2 quarts of liquid
  
• dash of nutmeg
• dash of allspice
• one large orange, sliced
• 1 tbsp brown sugar per 2 quarts liquid

THEN:
In a large stockpot, heat the apple and orange juices until they are just below the point of simmering. You want steam, but not boiling temperatures. Add the anise, cinnamon, and cloves, and steep for 10 minutes, or until the cinnamon sticks become waterlogged. Then, add the nutmeg and allspice. Steep for another 10 minutes, and then turn the heat off. Add orange slices, let it cool to a comfortable drinking temperature, and serve.

I found out in later years that all of the adults laced their grog with copious amounts of rum, brandy, or in my Meme's case, bourbon. I've never tried it, because I refuse to admit that I'm an adult. But if any of you d, let me know how it tastes!

Holiday Favorites: Creamed Corn

Creamed corn from a can is nothing like this treat. All that is is corn plus corn puree. This recipe involves actual corn cooked in actual cream, plus a couple other goodies. It isn't nice to your waistline, but I forgive it based on taste. What's an extra 20 minutes on the treadmill, really?

YOU WILL NEED:

• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

THEN:
In a skillet over medium heat, combine the corn, cream, salt, sugar, pepper and butter. Whisk together the milk and flour, and stir into the corn mixture. Cook stirring over medium heat until the mixture is thickened, and corn is cooked through. Remove from heat, and stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted. Serve hot. 


  

Holiday Favorites: Home-made Clover (Pull-apart) Rolls

I don't know anyone who doesn't love the smell of baking bread. I bake it as often as my toddler will let me, and while it can be time consuming, it isn't hard. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of the best excuses to make breads, and even though easy brown-and-serve rolls are readily abundant in the grocery stores these days, I get a certain sense of pride from making it from scratch. My Meme was the one who made the rolls till I was in high school. By then, she had nerve damage in her hands that made kneading the dough painful, so she would stand over me and make sure that I did it to her standard. Here is her recipe.



YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 Tbsp butter (room temperature)
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 to 4 1/4 cups all-purpose bleached flour
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
• melted butter
• softened butter

THEN:

1. Heat the milk to 120-130 degrees F; add the butter and set aside to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add cooked milk (which has been allowed to return to room temperature), eggs, and sugar ro dissolved yeast and stir to blend. With a wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups of the flour, as well as the salt,; stir until smooth. Add 2 cups of remaining flour, one cup at a time, stirring vigorously for 3 to 5 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and only slightly sticky. 
2. Cover the surface of the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and cover the top of the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, dry place, until the dough has doubled in size (about 1-2 hours.) For extra-light rolls, gently punch the dough down and allow it to rise a second time before shaping.
3. Lightly butter 2 12-cup muffin tins. Punch the dough down gently (not pummeling, just using a fist to press out the air). With lightly buttered hands, pinch off generous 1-inch pieces of dough. With your fingertips, pull the dough into a ball shape. Don't roll it between your palms! Pull the dough smooth and tuck it under, pinching the seal tightly closed at the bottom of the ball. dip the ball in melted butter and arrange three in each muffin cup (seams down).Allow them to rise in the cups until they have doubled in size (about 1 hour).
   
4. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, or until well-browned. If they aren't quite cooked, but seem to be getting too brown, cover the tops loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side out). When browned, remove from oven and brush with softened butter. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes. 
5. Remove rolls immediately from cups to a wire cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before serving.

Some tips for you: use a good, old-fashioned wooden spoon to stir the dough. Don't use an electric mixer of any kind, because it will destroy the gluten and give you dense, tough, nasty bread. If the bread absolutely refuses to smooth, and remains sticky, add the extra 1/4 cup of flour to it, one teaspoon at a time. Too much flour will make your bread dry and crusty.

Holiday Favorites: Giblet Gravy

This is the second half of Mom's annual Thanksgiving offering: giblet gravy. Pretty much every turkey you purchase has a little baggie of giblets shoved into the chest cavity. It also usually has the turkey's neck, too. These are the main ingredients to Mom's gravy.




YOU WILL NEED:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup drippings from roasting pan that have been skimmed of fat
• 1 cup chicken broth
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon dry Sherry (not cooking sherry)
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups turkey giblets (chopped pieces of cooked liver and neck)

THEN
The Giblets: Mom uses the liver, pieces of the neck,and the heart. The dog gets the gizzard. Cook the neck with the turkey -- tuck it down in a corner of the pan. You can cook the liver the same way: submerge it in the broth in the roasting pan about 30 minutes before you expect the turkey to be done, or you can put it in a small saucepan, cover with a cup or so of lightly salted water and simmer it for 30 minutes. Since burner space is at a premium when preparing a holiday meal, we usually opt for the cook-it-with-the-turkey method.

Over medium-low heat, melt the butter in a large saucepan until it is bubbly, sprinkle in the flour and stir quickly for a minute or so to cook the flour. Slowly stir in the turkey drippings and chicken stock, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the gravy is smooth and thickened. (Note about lumps: Lumps are nothing to be embarrassed about. They happen. If you've got some lumps and want to get rid of them, strain the gravy now, because you won't be able to after you add the giblets.)

Reduce heat to low, and check the seasonings. Add salt and pepper only if you think it is necessary. Some people (Mom) like to add a tablespoon or two of sherry at this point. It makes a wonderful difference. Add the giblets and simmer for about 10 minutes.

You can make your gravy early, keep it warm, and heat it back up a bit just before serving, if you like.  

Holiday Favorites: Texas Cornbread Dressing

As I've said in my profile, my mother wasn't much of a cook. Now, that's not to say that she wasn't capable. Far from it... she's great in the kitchen, she just doesn't have any fun. It's a chore. However, one thing she can always be counted on for is making the best cornbread dressing that anybody has ever made. Including my grandmother (sorry, Meme!) So, here we are... Mama's cornbread dressing (I had to fight her for the recipe... I hope you guys use it!)

Now, on to the dressing!



YOU WILL NEED

• 1 9x13-inch pan of cornbread, crumbled
• 10 white or whole wheat bread heels (left out overnight)
• poultry seasoning (see below)
• rubbed sage (see below)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large stalks celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped (2-1/2 to 3 cups)
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup turkey pan drippings (from cooked turkey -- you are cooking a turkey, aren't you?)
• 3 large eggs, slightly beaten

THEN

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Crumble the cornbread and white bread into a very large baking dish or pan (This is the pan you will cook your dressing in, and you need room to stir it while it's cooking). 
   
3. In a large skillet, sauté the celery, onion and green pepper in butter over medium heat until onion is transparent. Combine the sautéed vegetables with the bread crumbs and mix well. Note: The dressing up to this point can be prepared an hour or so in advance.
4. When you are ready to bake the dressing, add the beaten eggs, chicken stock and turkey pan drippings, and stir. (You may need a little more chicken stock -- better if it's too moist than too dry; the uncooked dressing should be a little on the slushy side.) Add 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage, black pepper, and mix thoroughly.
5. After baking for 15 minutes or so, stir dressing down from the sides of the pan so that it cooks uniformly (my mother's term was "rake through it"). Check the seasonings; that is, taste it. If you don't taste enough sage for your liking, add 1/4 teaspoon or so with a little chicken stock, stir it in, and taste again. Careful, a little sage goes a long way.

Total cooking time should be about 30 minutes.

Recipes from Utopia: Sweet Potato-Pecan Bread

My grandmother was the type of woman who always kept the ingredients on hand to make certain things "just in case." Just in case of company, just in case of an emergency, just in case of a broken heart, just in case of a skinned knee. Anything that involved making a day better usually had a recipe attached to it, and this was her favorite "just in case" recipe for the days that she got called to the prayer room at church. It's something that I often make in times of crisis, when something's happened and your run of the mill casserole just won't do. It's pretty quick, there's no real skill involved, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love it.

YOU WILL NEED:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 cups (16 oz) cooked sweet potato puree (fresh or canned)
• 1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts, if you rather)

THEN

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine eggs, oil, and melted butter. Beat for 45 seconds. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients and add to egg mixture, alternately with water. Stir in sweet potatoes, vanilla and chopped nuts.
4. Transfer batter into 3 buttered and floured loaf pans.
5. Bake at 350°F for about 60 minutes or until done.

Yield: 3 loaves. Loaves may be wrapped tightly and frozen for up to 2 months.

Holiday Favorites: Cranberry Dressing

Everybody loves a different kind of cranberry with their Thanksgiving turkey. My brother eats what we lovingly refer to as "canberry" jelly, because he squishes it out of the can in one lump. If he does it just so, he can even keep the serial number from the can base in tact. For him, this is a badge of honor.

I grew up with that kind of cranberry sauce. So, when the time came for me to make my first Thanksgiving dinner, it felt only right that I should try making it from scratch, just to see if it was worth the hassle that mom said it was to make. So, I went to my grandmother and got her recipe. Guess what? It's not hard at all. Here's everything you need to know about making a basic cranberry sauce from scratch, literally as simple as one, two, three.

YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) water
• 4 cups (1 12-oz package) fresh or frozen cranberries
• Optional Pecans, orange peel, raisins, currants, blueberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. 

THEN:

1. Wash and pick over cranberries, discarding any that look bruised or damaged. A good cranberry will be bright red, firm, uniform in shape, and will bounce when dropped. In a saucepan bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst. This is basic cranberry sauce.

2. At this point you can add all number of optional ingredients. We typically mix in a half a cup of roughly chopped pecans with or without a few strips of orange peel. You can add a cup of raisins or currants. You can add up to a pint of fresh or frozen blueberries for added sweetness. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice can be added too.

3. Remove from heat. Cool completely at room temperature and then chill in refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

Cranberry sauce base makes 2 1/4 cups.