27th Annual Children's Holiday Party

Bit late on Children’ Holiday Party reporting, but thanks to Betsy Davis, here are some great photos from the event.


My 3 year old granddaughter loved the crafts - she had Santa painted on her face and made a necklace. She also decorated (and sampled) a sugar cookie with frosting and a large assortment of candies.

My daughter, Beth, managed to get both girls, the baby was 3 ½ months old, on to Santa and Mrs. Claus’s laps, but it was a challenge to keep them from moving. I think this picture attests to the photographer’s skills!

"The Arizona Story"

Monday’s League meeting featured speaker Kyle McKoy, who with AHS staff, wrote the state’s new 4th grade Arizona history textbook, “The Arizona Story.” She was required to follow the state’s new social studies technical standard as well create a text that would appeal to children.

Kyle succeeded. The textbook received the 2009 Award of Merit for Educational Programming Excellence from The American Association for State and Local History. School districts across Arizona have enthusiastically adopted the text.

Kyle’s inspiration were the stories she collected, and her goal was to collect as many stories from as many points of view as possible. She determined to go to the source for stories and didn’t want a Euro-centered view. One of her favorites? “Edith, My Baby Doll.” During World War II, rubber was in great demand for the war effort and citizens were asked to turn in rubber in their possession. The author’s beloved doll was made of rubber. To comply, her mother took off the doll’s legs and arms to turn in, then sewed socks on the doll to replace them.

“The Arizona Story” isn’t just for 4th graders. It’s filled with real stories and anecdotes and has an eye-catching design. The book can be purchased in the museum’s gift shop. For museum information: Arizona Historical Society

Cardinals "Wild Win"

Quite a thrill they gave us with the final score 51-45 over Green Bay. Even a non football fan such as me got caught up in the game and overtime.
We worked up an appetite so our neighbors prepared a wonderful feast. Kathy baked the King Crab, Pat grilled vegies and steak and I made Camelback Inn's Spinach Salad page 70.
Let's hope they get in the playoffs so we can do this again.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
4 ounces bacon, chopped and cooked
1/4 cup Warm Bacon Dressing (below)
1 pound baby spinach
4 ounces goat cheese
1 Bartlett pear, sliced
Slightly heat the bacon and dressing in a saute pan. Pour over the spinach in a salad bowl and toss to coat. Crumble the goat cheese over the spinach mixture and top with the pear slices.
Serves 4

Warm Bacon Dressing
1 1/2 pounds peppered bacon, chopped
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
Sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Remove the bacon to paper towels to drain and reserve for another purpose. Drain the bacon drippings from the skillet, reserving 3/4 cup. Mix the vinegar, Dijon mustard and whole grain mustard in a bowl. Heat the reserved bacon drippings in a saucepan until slightly warm. Whisk into the mustard mixture. Add the sugar, salt and pepper and mix well. Makes 1 1/4 cup

Note: Keep the goat cheese cool. It doesn't crumble when left at room temperature waiting for the overtime game to finish.
Pears are not ripe at this time of year so I substituted with apples. Apples and goat cheese are a great combination.
I only used a small amount of the dressing. Mixing the dressing in a jar was an easy way to transport it and have it ready to heat and pour.

Red Velvet Cake

We spent the evening in a limo with our son, daughter in law and daughter sipping wine and enjoying the Christmas lights at Phalen Park in St Paul. This was a birthday gift to my husband and it was a lovely idea. Dinner at Salute followed with a Red Velvet birthday cake topped with sparkler. This cake is so moist and rich with cream cheese frosting. Yummm.

But Polly Rosenbaum's 100th Birthday Chocolate Cake is still my favorite on page 136 in Tastes & Treasures Cookbook.

Red Velvet Cake (Interesting history of this cake at the end of the recipe)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 oz red food coloring
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
1 tablespoons vinegar

Directions:

Cream shortening; beat in sugar gradually. Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition. Make paste of cocoa and food coloring; add to creamed mixture. Add salt, flour and vanilla alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Sprinkle soda over vinegar; pour vinegar over batter. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Bake in 3 8-inch pans or 2 9-inch pans for 30 minutes at 350°.

History
Although the details are sketchy at best, red velvet cake is not as Southern as many like to think. The story, which began circulating some time in the 1940s, claimed that Manhattan's elegant Waldorf-Astoria granted a diner's request for the recipe, then a short time later sent her a bill in the amount of $100. The angry woman, apparently with revenge in mind, then began circulating the recipe along with the story. Another "baked" legend with the same storyline is the $250 Chocolate Chip Cookie, also known as the Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.

Minted Walnuts or Spicey Pecans??

Minted Walnuts, page 186 in Tastes & Treasures cookbook, are a wonderful snack. This is another great recipe using pecans. These fragrant, skillet-roasted pecans get their earthy, spicy bite from rosemary, Spanish smoked paprika, and chili powder.

Photo: Landon Nordeman from Saveur Magazine

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 cups pecan halves
2 tbsp. light brown sugar
2 tbsp. roughly chopped
rosemary leaves
2 tsp. Worcestershire
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1⁄2 tsp. Tabasco
1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black
pepper
1⁄4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Heat butter in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add pecans and cook, swirling skillet constantly, until nuts are toasted, about 5 minutes.

Add brown sugar, rosemary, worcestershire, paprika, chili powder, salt, Tabasco, black pepper, and cinnamon and stir until pecans are evenly coated. Continue cooking pecans, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1–2 minutes.

Transfer pecans to a parchment paper–lined baking sheet, spread into a single layer, and let cool, stirring pecans and breaking up sugar and spices occasionally.

MAKES 2 CUPS

Note: Bump up the sugar or chili powder to sweeten or add more spice.

Cowboy Caviar Variation

Needing a dish to take for a New Years Eve party led me to Tastes & Treasures cookbook. I have made Cowboy Caviar page 180 many times so decided to embellish it this time. We had red and orange sweet peppers in the refrigerator. We had black olives in the cupboard. Chopping them up fine with my new Farberware knife (birthday present - woo hoo), I added them to the basic recipe.

Shopping for a jalapeno pepper was a real job. The grocery store had several signs for Hot Yellow Peppers, Halopeno Pepper (what kind of spelling is that?), Chile Peppers and some others I never heard of before. But the signs were not on the bins of peppers. So which ones where which? I got a small green one but when I tasted it at home (just a teeny taste) my mouth was on fire. Wow. Only a small amount went into the Cowboy Caviar. Help. I need an expert to orient me to the various peppers and their tastes.

John Wayne Eggs

The Duke would have liked these. Fluffy and cheesey with little chiles for bite. This was a special treat for Christmas morning. Easy to make and with 45 minutes to bake, it gave us time to open presents. Santa came to visit us so we were busy unwrapping gifts.

John Wayne Eggs page 194

1 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 pound Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
6 egg whites
2/3 cup evaporated milk or whipping cream
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 tomatoes, sliced

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the Monterey Jack cheese, Cheddar cheese and green chiles in a bowl and spread the cheese mixture over the bottom of a buttered 9 X 13 inch baking dish. Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.

Beat the evaporated milk, egg yolks, flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl until blended. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and pour over the prepared layers. Use a fork to make sure the milk mixture seeps through the cheese. Bake for 30 minutes and top with the tomatoes. Bake for 15 minutes longer. Serve immediately.

Serves 8

Note: We used Mozarella cheese instead of Monterey Jack. Also substituted fat free evaporated milk to watch calories. A new Christmas gift was a Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender to whip those egg whites into shape. It was very efficient.