Note: I'll be taking tomorrow off to spend with family. (Not to worry, it's a small gathering.) I'll be back on Monday with more yummy recipes to help you through the last week of the year.
SPICE TEA
I used to make this every year for Christmas presents. It's easy to make and tastes yummy. Gift wrap in a decorative tin or in a bag, then placed into a mug.
Ingredients
8 oz loose tea
3 orange peels
1 1/2 - 2 sticks cinnamon
2 T chopped cloves
Directions
Cut orange peels into small pieces. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring occaion-ally. Let cool, add to loose tea, along with broken cinnamon sticks & cloves. Store in tight containers.
ROSE HIP MARMALADE
This recipe is from friends of the family, an Episcopal priest and his wife. Both were involved in the civil rights movement. He past away several years ago, but I still remember them fondly.
Ingredients
3 lbs. rose hips
1 large lemon
2 large oranges
6 C sugar
4 C boiling water
Directions
Remove stem & flower area ends from rose hips. Cut each berry in half. Cover with boiling water; simmer for 30 minutes. Rub through sieve or food mill. Add to pulp juice of lemon & oranges, coarsely ground-up rind of oranges, & sugar. Boil about 20 minutes. Pour into jelly glasses. When cool, cover with paraffin.
ONION SUPREME
My dad came for a week at Christmas, 1987. He fixed this to go with Christmas dinner, along with several other veggies. The day I drove him to Tampa International to fly back to New York, we went for coffee at a shop in the airport. When I asked for a copy of this, he grabbed a paper napkin and wrote down the recipe. It’s a great way to fix onions; I’ve always had onions in things, but never as a side dish. However, this is incredibly easy, as well as fantastic.
Ingredients
2 leeks (discard green), sliced thin
3 - 4 yellow onions, sliced thin
4 bunches scallions (discard green), sliced thin
20 small white onions
1 stick butter or margarine
1 1/2 C half & half
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
Directions
Melt butter over low heat and sauté leeks, scallions, garlic, and yellow onions for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, cook white onions in enough water to just barely cover. Add white onions (after 45 minutes) to skillet and pour in half & half. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes more & serve.
CRANBERRY PIE
My dad sent this in a letter dated "18 Nov '79". He wrote, "Here is a recipe for a pie. 1st the way it was in the paper and the way I made it."
Note: This can be made either with or without a top crust. The original recipe was for a one-crust pie, without top crust.
Ingredients
2 T cornstarch
1 C sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T butter
2 C cranberries
Pie crust
Directions
Blend 1st four ingredients and cook in double boiler until thick. Add next 3 ingredients and cook 10 minutes. Put in pie shell and bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes, covering pie with foil for the first 10-15 minutes. (Crust can be any kind you want.)
Variation
Ingredients
2 T cornstarch
3/4 C honey + 1/4 C molasses
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 C hot water
1 C raisins
1 T margarine
1 1/2 C cranberries + 1 C canned cranberries (kind with berries in sauce)
Pie crust
Directions
Make as above.
EGG NOG PUMPKIN PIE
Ingredients
1 C canned eggnog
1 egg
18 oz. can pumpkin pie filling
9" pie crust
Diretions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In large bowl, combine egg nog, egg & pie filling; blend well. Pour into crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 50 minutes longer or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Garnish with whipped cream.
PEANUT BUTTER PIE
I drove cab for several years. This was given to me by one of my fares, a divorced man with custody of his two kids. It took three trips to get the recipe, including the amounts. I increased the amounts of the peanut butter and sugar from 1/3 C.
Ingredients
1/2 C peanut butter (note)
8 oz. cream cheese (note)
1/2 C confectioner’s sugar
8 oz. tub cool whip (note)
graham cracker crust
Directions
Mix peanut butter, sugar, cream cheese & cool whip together, pour into crust, refrigerate or freeze for 1 hour.
NOTE: The peanut butter should be creamy. The cream cheese can be low fat, but should NOT be fat-free; the pie won’t taste (or set up) right. The cool whip can be low fat, too.
