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Subject: [TnWeakle] Re: Comfort food?
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 18:07:43 EST

I don't know if I would call it comfort food, but we have some traditional
holiday foods in our family that we use every Christmas.
Our dinner consists of:
Roasted turkey
Cornbread dressing
Giblet dressing
Blackeyed peas
Fried okra
Sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows
Mashed white potatoes
Cranberry relish
"Green" jello
Apricot custard salad
Pecan, pumpkin and butterscotch pies
Chocolate cake
Iced tea for the meal, coffee for dessert.

And we always have a lot left over to munch on for supper and snack on for
days to come.

The green jello is special for my grandchildren. It is the one thing they
remember from the holidays we used to spend at their great-grandmother's
house.
2 pkgs lime jello
1 large can crushed pineapple, drained, juice reserved
1 8 ounce pkg cream cheese
1 carton lime-flavored yogurt
Chopped pecans
Miniature marshmallows
Maraschino cherries
Whipped topping

Make the jello according to pkg directions, using pineapple syrup for part of
the liquid.
Chill until syrupy. Add softened cream cheese and yogurt, with a few "lumps"
remaining. Fold in pineapple, pecans and cherries for color. Top with
marshmallows. Serve with whipped topping.
So simple. So good. So colorful. Yes, it is a comfort food.

Cranberry relish
1 pound sack cranberries, crushed or ground in food processor (not pureed)
1 pkg cherry jello, dry mix
2 oranges, peeled and chopped.
1/2 cup finely diced celery
3 tablespoons brown sugar
squirt of lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Lightly saute berries, jello and sugar until sugar is melted. Do not boil.
Add other ingredients and chill.


Cornbread dressing. Everyone has her own recipe, but this one is fool proof.
Bake a pan of cornbread, preferably using yellow corn meal. Go easy on any
sugar called for.
Chop two onions and add to cornmeal batter before baking.
Meanwhile, dice one large or two small green peppers and six-eight stalks of
celery. Simmer in small sauce pan with small amount of water or poultry
stock. Add a little butter for flavor.
Crumb six slices of day-old bread or biscuits. Even the heel is OK.
Crumble cornbread (minus a couple of chunks you have buttered to eat to
sustain yourself while cooking) in a large pan. Add the bread crumbs, two
beaten eggs and the pepper-celery mixture.
Season with one teaspoon (or more if you really like sage flavor). Be sure
sage is fresh bought, it get stale left over year to year. Add a generous
sprinkle of garlic salt and black pepper. I sometimes experiment with other
herbs as well Oregano, chili powder, cumin, thyme or basil, even ginger. (Do
not use all of these, of course) Mix well.
Add two to three cups poultry stock and mix well. You do not want mixture to
be "dry." Add more stock or water if necessary. If stock is not very rich
(like canned) add a stick of melted butter or margarine.
Stuff the bird inside. Make an extra casserole of dressing as well. Baste
with drippings from turkey. The "inside" dressing will be most flavorful; it
bakes as long as the turkey does. The casserole should cook alongside the
turkey, but remove if it gets too brown. Do not let it dry out.

We usually spice up the sweet potatoes with fruit -- mash them with orange
juice as the liquid, cook them with chopped apples, or line the bowl with
pineapple slices before browning the marshmallows in the oven. A little
pumpkin pie spice adds flavor also.

My mother baked the best pecan pies in Texas. Anyone want her recipe, I will
send it along.
love
joan


For this is the day that the Lord hath made
Join me in rejoicing in it, and let us be glad!

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