Canadian Living Pumpkin Pie
Brenda saves cooked pumpkin from Halloween to make this “best-ever” recipe. The rest of us make do with the canned stuff.
2 eggs (slightly beaten)
2 cups pumpkin (mashed)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. (each) ginger, allspice, nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cups light cream
Whisk together all ingredients and pour into unbaked pastry shell. Bake at 400º F for 10 minutes and reduce temperature to 350º For 50 minutes more. Cool before serving.
Cranberry Eggnog Salad
One of Barb’s discoveries. Very “Christmassy”.
1 pkge vanilla pudding mix
1 pkge lemon Jell-O
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkge raspberry Jell-o
1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 envelope Dream Whip
1/2 tsp nutmeg
In saucepan, combine pudding mix, lemon Jell-o and 2 cups water. Cook and stir ‘til mixture boiling. Stir in lemon juice and chill until partially set. Dissolve raspberry Jell-o in 1 cup boiling water and stir until dissolved. Beat in cranberry sauce. Fold in celery and pecans. Chill until partially set. Prepare Dream Whip add nutmeg; fold into pudding mixture. Pour half the pudding mixture in a cake pan; carefully pour cranberry mixture over, and top with remaining pudding mixture. Chill 6 hours or overnight.
Gram’s Brown Sugar Pudding Sauce
Grandma always made this in a cast-iron frying pan.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter
1 cup warm water
Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in pan. Add warm water gradually and cook over low heat 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve hot.
Mom’s Whipped Cream Salad
We’ve argued for over 30 years as to whether this is really a salad or a dessert. Who cares! It’s delicious.
1 can (14 oz) Pineapple Tidbits
( Drain and reserve juice)
Cornstarch
2 bananas-sliced
2 cups miniature marshmallows
2 cups whipping cream
Measure reserved juice and add 2 tsp cornstarch for each 1/2 cup. Heat, stirring constantly until thickened and cool. Whip the cream and fold in the cooled syrup, then the bananas, pineapple and marshmallows. Serve well chilled.
Norma’s Sweet Potato Puff
A family favourite since the early Sixties
4 medium sweet potatoes, boiled
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup cream
Mash yams with sugar. Cool.
Add eggs, baking powder and cream, mixing well after each addition. Turn into oiled or buttered casserole and bake about 30 minutes at 350ºF. Serves 6.
Romaine Salad with Oranges and Pecans
This is a fairly recent discovery from the Best of Bridge series. It’s really refreshing with all the heavy Christmas dinner dishes
2 heads romaine lettuce
(Wash and tear into bite sized pieces)
3/4 cup pecans-toasted
2 oranges-peeled and sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 small red onion-chopped
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tbsp water
Place lettuce, oranges and pecans in salad bowl. Combine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, onion, mustard and water in blender and blend ‘til well mixed. Make ahead and chill until ready to toss salad.
Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Always make your own. It’s like the difference between garden and canned peas; no comparison.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 cups fresh cranberries
2 tsp grated orange rind (optional)
In heavy saucepan, combine sugar and water and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries and return to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until cranberries pop, about 10 minutes. Stir in rind and let cool. Makes about 2 cups.
Dad’s Turkey Stuffing
Dad and Grandma used to argue every year about which one of them could make this best. The recipe has never been written out before. They made it from memory.
12-16 stale hot-dog buns
1
huge
white onion- chopped
3 stalks celery-finely chopped (optional)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3 eggs-lightly beaten
ground sage
salt and pepper
We always just estimated how much of this to make for the size of turkey. Make lots and bake the extra in a foil package for the last 1 1/2 hours of turkey roasting. Bast the package after 1 hour with a little of the turkey drippings.
Moisten the buns under a slow tap until you can squeeze each bun into a ball. Break up the balls into the turkey roaster. (You can rinse out the roaster before you put the turkey in; saves messing up a big bowl) Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the onion and celery until softened but not browned. Add to the crumbled buns and mix well. Add 2 to 4 tbsp of sage to taste (we use lots), about 2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp pepper. Add the eggs and fold thoroughly.
Pack the turkey cavity firmly but gently. Packing too tightly makes the dressing rubbery and tough. Set aside any extra for cooking as mentioned above.