Holiday Meatloaf

Holiday Meatloaf
Dorcas Annette Walker

Meat is considered to be the main dish of a meal as it contains the most complete source of protein along with other vitamins and minerals. Often the highest portion of grocery money is spent on meat. Using hamburger to make meatloaf is one of the diversified ways of using ground beef. I have one recipe book with over fifty-five ways to prepare hamburger. Meatloaf is a family favorite and one I use often.

Meatloaf consists of seasoned ground meat that is formed into a loaf shape and baked. During the Great Depression it was popular to add oatmeal to hamburger to help stretch the meat. Oatmeal is still used today in some meatloaf recipes. Most of the time meatloaf is served hot as part of the main course, but leftover meatloaf can also be eaten cold or sliced to make tasty sandwiches. Many meatloaf recipes are adapted from the Northeastern United States that uses a sauce poured over the top to form a crust while baking. In the Midwestern United States ketchup is used, while in Texas barbecue sauce is a favorite way of topping the meatloaf.

Over the years I have tried different recipes for meatloaf. There is limitless ideas on making meatloaf; each cook having their own favorite method. Holiday Meatloaf evolved from a couple of ideas that I have experimented with to make a quick and easy meat dish that not only has a distinctive flavor, but is colorful for the holiday season. Preparation time for my Holiday Meatloaf takes only about fifteen minutes and this recipe serves sixteen.

Holiday Meatloaf

Mix together thoroughly in large bowl:
4 lbs hamburger
1 box of chicken stove top stuffing mix
2 c salsa
2 eggs

Form in loaf and put in 9 x 13 baking dish lined with tinfoil. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top.

Topping:
Mix together in small bowl:
½ c ketchup
½ c syrup or honey
½ c brown sugar
1 tsp mustard

Pour over top of meatloaf letting the topping run down the sides. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350º for two hours. Uncover and turn off oven the last fifteen minutes. Serve hot with meal. May garnish with basil leaves!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Watergate Salad

Watergate Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

An attractive salad gives an added touch to a meal rounding out whatever may be nutritionally lacking. Many people love to make a meal out of a salad, especially in hot weather. Today there are oodles of salad recipes that one can choose from. Watergate Salad is a favorite that I often use as you can make it ahead of time or at the last minute.

Salads have been eaten since ancient times. Sources say that salad came from the French salade of the same meaning as the Latin word salt (sal), while others claim that the term salade derived form the Vulgar Roman herb slata meaning literally salted herb. The ancient Greeks and Romans enjoyed a variety of salad dishes using raw vegetables dressed with vinegar, oil, and herbs. After the fall of Rome salads became less important in Western Europe. During the first half of the twentieth century the American salad consisted mainly of iceberg lettuce with summer vegetables or in the winter various fruits. In 1915 the evolution of salads started with Hellmann’s mayonnaise until 1930 when molded salads became popular using Jell-O. Today our American culture enjoys both tossed and molded salads.

A salad is a mixture of chopped or sliced ingredients and can be served cold or at room temperature. Salads can also be used as a filling for a sandwich. Depending on your whim you may eat the salad as an entrée, along with the main meal, a side dish, or as a dessert. Not only are salads ideal for the calorie conscious, unless loaded down with a calorie-laden dressing, but salads can be as varied as your appetite. The variety of salads makes it easy for the cook to use whatever is on hand or in season. While some salads are complex others use only a couple ingredients. Be creative in make salads by adding leftover pieces of meat, raw vegetables, or fruit.

Interesting enough no one claims credit for the Watergate Salad. To advertise the launching out of the pistachio pudding mix in 1975, the Kraft Company developed a recipe using pistachio pudding called Pistachio Pineapple Delight. According to Kraft Kitchens when the recipe was sent out a Chicago food editor renamed it Watergate Salad to promote interest, which became an instant hit due to the political situation in Washington. Neither article nor editor has been tracked down. The name Watergate Salad stuck and has remained popular. Preparation time for the Watergate Salad takes about ten to fifteen minutes and serves twenty.

Watergate Salad

In large bowl mix together:
1 can crushed pineapple
1 box instant Pistachio pudding

Add:
1 (16 oz) container cool whip

Mix thoroughly with Wisk and then fold in:
1 bag mini marshmallows
½ cup nuts of your choice
Pour into dessert dish or individual molds and chill. Can serve molds on lettuce leaf or as a dessert. Watergate Salad also freezes well. May garnish with mint!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Christmas Punch-Bowl Cake

Christmas Punch-Bowl Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

Punch-bowls go hand in hand with celebrating holidays and are an important part of our history. When I got married a punch-bowl was considered a requirement for setting up a household. By the time my daughter got married she considered the punch-bowl a nice decorative ornament but not a necessity. In the past punch-bowls were used on a daily basis.

Punch was first an Eastern drink taken from the Hindi word panch meaning five for the five ingredients used to make punch as early as the mid 1600’s. Punch was introduced to the West in the late seventeenth century and soon became the drink of England spreading to the American colonies by the eighteenth century where making punch was considered a social accomplishment and flowed freely. Punch drinking experienced its height from 1650 to around 1850. Punch-bowls were used at husking parties, apple bees, timber-rolling, elections, house-raisings, land sales, church dedications, baby christenings, and weddings. At funerals experienced committees were appointed who took extra pains to mix and flavor the funeral punch. On Christmas Eve the punch bowl- some which held up to two gallons- was filled and a silver coin and wedding ring dropped in to bring good luck to whoever received the item in their punch as people went from house to house.

Punch-bowls ranged in different sizes from seven inches in diameter up to eight gallons. The earliest bowls were made from the English and Dutch. In the mid-eighteenth century Chinese porcelain became fashionable among the upper class. It wasn’t until the nineteen century when cut glass punch-bowls were produced to use at festive occasions. George Washington established the tradition of serving punch to Congress on July four, 1790. The largest punch-bowl is the grand blue and white punch-bowl used by the first Continental Congress. The finest punch-bowl is of Liverpool Delft (twenty inches and one half across) painted with blue ships and landscapes. The oldest punch-bowl is eighteen inches in diameter, decorated in red and gold, and resides in New York.

Fashionable people in Boston served punch before dinner. By 1810 the Temperance movement was gaining momentum, which disapproved of punch drinking. Non-alcoholic punches began to circulate and soon punch became affiliated with church socials and ladies teas. Today the punch-bowl is used more as an ornament except for special occasions. So I was excited a couple of years ago to discover a dessert recipe that uses a punch-bowl. Christmas Punch-Bowl Cake is easy to prepare using a variety of ingredients that highlight the red and green Christmas colors when put in a glass punch-bowl. Preparation time equals about fifteen minutes and serves around fifteen to twenty.

Christmas Punch-Bowl Cake

1 angel food cake already made
2 cans crushed pineapple
2 boxes of vanilla pudding made up
16 oz container of cool whip
2 cans of cherry pie filling
green sprinkles

Tear angel food cake into small pieces. Layer angel food cake pieces in bottom of glass punch-bowl. Sprinkle with green sprinkles and layer pudding on top. Spoon on crushed pineapple, and then cherry pie filling. Layer cool whip. Do this four times. Garnish the top cool whip layer with red & green sprinkles to form wreath, use small red & green decorative candy pieces, or pipe red and green icing gel in circles and weave knife through. Cover with saran wrap and chill. Can serve the punch-bowl cake in the punch glasses!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies
Dorcas Annette Walker

Holidays are a wonderful time to try new recipes, bake cookies, and make candy as we celebrate with family and friends. A favorite holiday tradition in our family is making gingerbread cookies each year. The spicy aroma of baking gingerbread wafting through the house signals for our family the beginning of the holiday season.

Gingerbread cookies first originated in Germany around 600 years ago in the monasteries consisting of a flat cake made with honey, ginger, and flour that didn’t spoil easily, was used in journeys, and given to the sick. Ginger spices originated from Indo-Malaysia and were believed to sooth an upset stomach or prevent a cold. Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries and spread through Western Europe by the end of the eleventh century. Germany was known as the gingerbread capital of the world. Soon gingerbread became a fairground delicacy using different shapes to associate with the many celebrated seasons and holidays. Buttons and flowers were sold at fairs in Easter while animals and birds were featured in autumn. There was even a village tradition where unmarried women ate gingerbread husbands to give one a better chance of getting married.

In the nineteenth century gingerbread houses increased in popularity with the publication of a German fairy tale; Hansel and Gretel. By the end of the century America had been baking gingerbread for decades. It is during Christmastime that gingerbread becomes most popular. America holds the greatest repertoire of gingerbread recipes varying in taste, form, and presentation. American recipes usually call for fewer spices than in Europe and often use ingredients from local regions; maple syrup in New England and sorghum molasses in the South.

Today with a varied choice of ingredients, baking aids, decorative items, and ready-made gingerbread kits any cook can create spectacular gingerbread houses and cookies. In Pennsylvania the German tradition of making gingerbread was the greatest and it was here that the first pudgy gingerbread man was made. Our family decorates gingerbread cookies outlined with white icing in the traditional pattern. When my children were small a couple of times I made gingerbread cookies at Halloween for something different, decorating the gingerbread shapes into various career people with all kinds of facial expressions for my kids amusement. Our family recipe makes around four dozen cookies and preparation time takes about two hours.

Gingerbread Cookies

Combine in saucepan:
1 c sugar
½ c water
1 tb ginger
½ c dark syrup or molasses
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

Bring to a boil and pour over:
1 c shorting in large bowl

Stir until dissolved and add:
4 c self-rising flour

Mix well and put part of dough on floured surface. Roll out thin and cut out cookies with gingerbread cookie cutter. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350º for 10 minutes until slightly brown. Cool and then ice.

Powered Sugar Icing

Mix together in small bowl:
2 c powered sugar
½ c shortening
2-3 tb milk

Beat together with a wire Wisk until smooth and stiff. Fill decorator icing bag with icing and use medium circle to outline gingerbread cookies. Add two dots for eyes, one dot for the nose, and a half circle for the mouth. Finish up with thee dots for buttons on the chest. Let icing harden and store cookies in covered container.

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.