There were no leftovers, certainly no latkes, at the home of our gracious host and hostess this weekend. The fabulous latkes at their Hanukkah table started as a mountain of golden brown potatoes, but served with apple sauce, the latkes all but disappeared and sustained grateful guests. Many thanks to Ms. P. for treating us to her family recipe. Try this latke recipe from the December issue of  bon appétit. For best results, use a fork to flatten each spoonful of potato mixture in your skillet.

We knew the owners were facing a make-or-break situation at Dimassi’s Southwest location in Austin, and unfortunately, we found a farewell notice on the doors of the restaurant when we arrived to take in a buffet meal this week. I’ll miss the convenient location as well as the hummus and Arabic music feeds. It’s back to making hummus if I want it fresh in this neighborhood. Here’s my take on hummus.

They always catch you at the busiest time – those emails that expect you to ‘send a recipe to 20 of your best friends.’ So you wait for the sky to fall, and feel guilty and move on.

Last week I received one that was manageable. There were just two people on the email. One to whom you send the recipe, and a second name, someone you know, who now moves to first place. Forward a recipe then cut and paste to your friends. The recipe should be one you can write off the top of your head with uncomplicated, unmeasured ingredients. I was amazed at how many lazy friends I have!! One relative, who shall be nameless, said she didn’t mind doing it but she surely didn’t want to have any more recipes.

Anyhow, feeling virtuous I sent one, and the recipient thanked me within an hour so I felt even better.  This is the recipe I sent…. and it really works!

You need:

Inexpensive pork roast 3-5 lbs (or more or less!)

Several cloves of garlic

Can of regular Coca-Cola–not diet

A little corn or vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Sizzle the garlic then add the meat and turn it over and over until it’s well browned. Stand back and add the Coca-Cola.

Transfer the whole lot to a casserole and cook on 350 until it’s done. Time it takes will depend on size.  Baste every now and then and season with salt and pepper.

Oh yes! Here’s another easy one.

1 untrimmed brisket

1 c. soy sauce

1 c. apricot preserves

Set a brisket on a very large piece of heavy-duty foil. Turn up the edges to avoid a spill. Pour the apricot preserves and soy sauce over the meat.  Wrap up tightly.

Cook slowly. It works fine if you cook it in the oven then carefully pour off the sauce and give it 15 minutes outdoors on the grill.  Or you can cook it the whole time on the grill.

© 2009 Jane Manaster. All Rights Reserved.

It’s true, we saw a few flurries of snow in Austin last Friday. But proof of the season, a Christmas present from Pa and Gram, arrived on our door step this week. The Austin “snow” didn’t last long and neither will our tin of fudge.

Here’s an invitation to make your own batch of Pa’s Famous Fudge.

Holly Jolly Dirt Cake

Here’s another no-bake adventure for kids who enjoy cooking. 

Little kids, if making this for an adult, like to pretend the cake really is dirt!

I’ve modified it as the quantity of sugar would have the ‘cooks’ standing on the table throwing the mix at each other and the amount of fat would add them to the list of ‘obese Americans.’

Let the kids participate to the degree least likely to cause chaos; you may prefer to allocate one small pot each instead of a single larger one.

Decorate with plastic holly or flowers according to season. Serve with a tiny trowel.

 Ingredients

8” new (or very clean) plant pot

1 ½ lbs. chocolate sandwich cookies

8 oz. fat free or lo-fat cream cheese

½ stick softened butter

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

3 ½ c. milk

12 oz. fat-free, sugar free (your call on this one!) Cool Whip or equivalent

½ c. powdered sugar

Gummi bears

Small sprig of artificial holly with berries/small plastic flowers
Miniature trowel

Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and butter

Mix milk and instant pudding. Let set for 2 minutes then stir in Cool Whip.

Combine the two mixtures

Place cookies in heavy plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin

Line plant pot with aluminum foil and cover the bottom with 1/12” crumbs. Layer the pot with crumbs and the pudding mixture, ending with the mixture.

Refrigerate for two hours.

Final stage: top with a last layer of crumbs and decorate.

© 2009 Jane Manaster. All Rights Reserved.

Once I stood in line in the grocery store behind a woman whose cart had a pretty ho-hum selection – except for the fourteen boxes of butterscotch pudding. I couldn’t resist asking why she was buying so many and she told me that she lived in Marble Falls and couldn’t buy them there.

What an unsatisfactory answer! Further questioning revealed that they were for a praline recipe so I scribbled it down on the back of my receipt.  I make them every year.

Pecans are plentiful only in alternate years.  The 2009 crop is expensive though not too costly for a holiday treat.

PRALINE RECIPE

1 small box butterscotch pudding and pie mix (not the instant kind).

1 c. white sugar

½ c. brown sugar

½ c. evaporated milk (not the sweetened condensed kind)

1 stick butter

1 ½ c. pecan pieces

Boil the whole lot, stirring often, until it forms a ball when tested in a little cold water. This takes about 20 minutes.

Drop tablespoons, one at a time, onto wax paper.

Thank you, dear lady from Marble Falls!

–JM

Jane Manaster is the author of Pecans: The story in a Nutshell, available at Amazon online or locally at BookPeople in Austin.

© 2009 Jane Manaster.  All Rights Reserved.

Reach into the refrigerator and recycle your leftover cranberry sauce with a festive take on smoothies.

Blend this:

two bananas

8 ounces yogurt

1 cup ice

two tablespoons leftover cranberry sauce (We prepared the sauce two days ago with water, fresh cranberries, grated orange peel, and sugar.)

Yield: Four small smoothies.

Family mealtimes can be a trial, even at home when you have everyone’s likes and dislikes and allergies firmly in place.  Imagine the complexity of preparing and serving institutional meals! We tend to criticize without appreciating the effort they involve.

This week I visited a friend who is in a nursing home, taking a break from her limited lifestyle at home.  It was late afternoon, the time to grab a snack to boost energy until dinner time. Except here it was dinnertime. By 5.30 p.m. everyone was in place at the dining-room, ready for the last meal of the day.

Tonight, (in a manner of speaking), it was hamburgers.  Simple? Not so.  I shared the table with four elderly women, two of whom reached the table in their wheelchairs, and not all of them too sure where they actually were.  First they were given a small cup, the kind that holds ketchup at McDonald’s, but now with pre-meal pills.

Then, one by one came, the plates with hamburgers as the centerpiece. Each plate reflected dietary demands – no sodium, low sodium, more potassium, no fats, less iron, etc.   Three held actual hamburgers, two with a small portion fries, two with zucchini – one fried, one stewed.  The fourth plate had an anemic looking slice of turkey (I think!) as the resident followed a no-red-meat diet.  Juice or iced-tea to meet needs, and a bowl of canned fruit salad – with a cherry in each one.

There was equal precision and variety at the other twenty or so tables.  The only constant was the smile on the servers’ faces: kind and patient, a lesson to all of us who get ticked off when the complaints roll in!

© 2009 Jane Manaster. All Rights Reserved.

Giving –  

better than receiving.

As the holiday season comes around the two perennial bugbears loom closer.  How can we manage gifts when we have neither time nor money to shop?  And how, while we are at this pity-party do we convince the children that it is better to give than to receive?

We make gifts!  This doesn’t involve a visit to Hobby Lobby or Michael’s and a new creative talent, but instead spending five minutes longer at the supermarket buying ingredients to mix hot chocolate powder. And then a brief trip to the dollar store to choose some festive tins and a role of ribbon.

The hot chocolate mix is an ideal task for you and the children who need gifts for teachers, friends and colleagues.  If the recipe seems a little heavy on the sweetness, halve the quantity of confectioners’ sugar. 

Supermarket chains do package differently so quantities are approximate. A few extra ounces here or there won’t be a problem.

HOT CHOCOLATE MIX

3 lbs. non-fat dried milk powder

9 oz. powdered coffee creamer

1 lb. chocolate Nesquik

1 lb. confectioners sugar

Very large mixing bowl.

Spoon for each ‘chef’

Soap (to wash hands prior to working)

Tins, ribbon, decorating doo-dads

© 2009 Jane Manaster. All Rights Reserved.

Dining out or in the home of friends this Thanksgiving? If you’re minding food allergies, give yourself a minute to browse these food allergy awareness reminders.