1 Adele Coble with biscuits
Holiday Recipes!
Make the eats from your kitchen super bitchin' this year with a little help from Venus Zine
By Adele Coble, Tim Elfrink, Amy Westervelt, Lauren Johnson, Sheba White & Liz Schroeter
Published: December 11th, 2006 | 5:12pm
Need a delish dish that'll snazz up a holiday celebration? Check out the goods below!
Adele Coble and Tim Elfrink, contributing writers
ANGEL BISCUITS
This recipe comes from the Morning Grange Good Food Recipes Cookbook from Spring Hill, KS. The cookbook belonged to Adele's great-grandmother and the Angel Biscuit recipe has been a family favorite, especially during the holidays; this recipe doubles well for large gatherings!
What you need:
One package of dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 T. sugar (I always use 3 or 4)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. buttermilk (I never keep buttermilk; I use 1 T. lemon juice in 1 c. milk)
What you do:
Dissolve yeast in water; add one teaspoon of sugar to yeast mixture and let it sit for a few minutes.
While waiting for yeast, sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Cut shortening into the dry ingredients.
Stir in yeast and buttermilk, just until all ingredients are combined. Do not over work the dough or your biscuits will be flat!
Let the dough rise, covered and in a warm place, for 15 or 20 minutes. Feminist cooks that we are, Tim bought Rose (the e should have an accent on it, pronounced Row-SAY) the Riveter Wine for the times we had to wait.
When dough has risen, dump on an ungreased baking sheet. Flour your hands and roll/kneed out dough to cover the pan.
Here's where you can get creative: you have the option of very fluffy biscuits or fun shapes. If you choose very fluffy, simply cut the dough into squares on the sheet (again, do not overwork the dough!) and bake. If you choose fun shapes (shown in photo), we suggest playing with your favorite cookie cutters. Camels, stars, bells, and Scottie dogs worked well for us.
Bake at 375 until golden (about 15 minutes). Top with whatever you please! This is a versatile biscuit, folks!
Another note: this is one of my favorite recipes because the dough can be prepared in advance and refrigerated after it has risen; baking can be done a day
later.
Amy Westervelt, Up Front editor
BRAISED BEEF BRISKET
What you need:
Beef brisket, kosher is best, but CostCo will do (figure on about half a pound per person)
1 Onion, chopped
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup red wine
4-5 cups beef or chicken stock (depending on how much brisket you're cooking - you want the beef to be almost covered in the pan)
Dutch oven or other deep baking/roasting pan
Salt and Pepper
What you do:
Preheat oven to 275. Smother the brisket in salt and pepper on both sides. Slap a tablespoon of butter into your pan on the stovetop, and brown the brisket on all sides. Put the brisket aside on a plate. Add the rest of the butter to the pan, let it melt, then add the chopped onions. As the onions begin to brown, add red wine. Continue to sautee the onions in the butter and wine for about a minute, then pull it off the burner and add half the stock. Place the brisket in the pan, cover with the remaining stock, cover the pan and put it in the oven. Cook for 2 hours or more. Start checking at the 2 hour point - once the meat flakes apart when you fork it, it's ready.
GRANDMA WESTERVELT'S HEART ATTACK POTATOES
What You Need:
8 potatoes
1 stick butter
1 tub or stick of cream cheese (low fat if you want to go a slightly healthier route)
1 cup sour cream (low fat if you want to go a slightly healthier route)
Green onions
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup of milk
Electric mixer (nothing fancy, a handheld will do)
1 cup Gruyere cheese (optional)
What You Do:
Wash and boil potatoes. Preheat oven to 350. When potatoes are fully cooked, drain water, and mash them a bit. Add butter and milk and continue to mash, with a potato masher or a fork if you're masher-less. Stir in half the sour cream and half the cream cheese. Fire up the mixer and mix the potatoes until smooth. Add salt, pepper, remaining cream cheese and sour cream and continue to mix. Use scissors to cut tiny bits of green onions into the potatoes. Taste 'em and see if they need anymore sour cream, cream cheese or butter. Pour potatoes into a shallow, rectangular baking pan, sprinkle Gruyere on top (optional) and bake until cheese is melted and the potatoes are nicely browned.
Lauren Liss, Web editor of venuszine.com
CHOCOLATE CANDY CANE CUPCAKES
I like to use store bought mix and icing for this recipe because it takes a
while to make as-is, and frankly I don't have all day to make cupcakes and
icing from scratch. If you are feeling really adventurous, feel free to use
your own cupcake batter and icing recipe.
Ingredients
1 package store-bought chocolate cake mix + whatever ingredients are listed
on the box
1 tub of store-bought vanilla icing
1 box of candy canes (12 ct.)
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
For the cupcakes
Measure out the water needed on the back of the box. Pour this water into a
saute pan over medium heat and add 2 candy cakes (broken up). Simmer until
the candy canes have dissolved. Mix this into the cupcake mix with the
other ingredients, and bake as directed. Let cool while you work on the
filling.
For the filling + frosting
Break up all of the remaining candy canes and smash them to a powder using
either a coffee grinder, food processor, or a baggie and your trusty mallet.
I recommend using a heavy-duty appliance like a processor, because you don't
want any large pieces of cane in your powder.
Whip together the whipping cream with the confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and
2 tablespoons of your candy cane powder until the cream forms peaks and
stiffens up a bit. Using either a piping bag or a ziploc bag with a large
tip, pipe the filling into the cooled cupcakes by inserting the tip about
one inch into the cake (about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon per cupcake)
Ice the cupcakes, and sprinkle with the remaining candy cane powder.
Yummers!
Sheba White, assistant editor
A PARTRIDGE FAMILY MEMBER IN A PEAR TREE
Christmas--with its family get-togethers, trips back home, and reunions with the old chums-- always makes me fondly remember one thing never far from my heart — alcohol. And lots of it! This is the dish you can bake to sneak in that necessary percentage to make it through the holidays. As a Partridge Family member would say, bake this and "Come On and Get Happy!"
What you need:
Six pears, cored
1 1/2 cup of rum
1/2 stick of butter--cubed
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp. of freshly ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of freshly ground cloves
1/2 tsp. of freshly ground coriander
zest of one medium-sized orange
crushed graham crackers
vanilla ice cream
What you do:
Core, but do not peel, pears. Cut off top quarter of each pear and slice off a little of the bottom, enough so that it sits flat in the pan. Add cubes of butter into each pear's cored center, leaving some slices for the general pan area. Splash pears with rum, cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour. Uncover and top with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, coriander and orange zest and a splash of water—two tbsp or so is good. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, checking every now and then, marinating when necessary. Let sit for a half hour until cool and serve with vanilla ice cream on a bed of crushed graham crackers. Add more rum as needed.
Liz Schroeter, contributing writer
CHRISTMAS BALLS*
*The original recipe was for "Christmas Balls", but my mom crossed out
Balls and changed it to Snowballs because I kept giggling and saying how
much I couldn't wait to put her balls in my mouth.
What you need:
1 c. butter
2 t. vanilla
1/3 c. sugar
2 t. water or milk
2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 c. chopped pecans (chop 'em pretty small)
thin confectioners frosting (about 3/4 c. powdered sugar + 1-2 T. milk)
coconut or colored sugar
What you do:
Cream butter and vanilla; add sugar, creaming the mixture until light
and fluffy. Blend in water. Stir in flour, mixing well. Add pecans.
Shape into 1" balls. Bake 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheet in 325
degree oven. Bake 20 min. or until firm to the touch. Cool before
removing from pan. Frost with confectioners frosting and coat with
coconut or with red and green colored sugar (quickly before the frosting
hardens!).
Issue #34
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