Cheese Wafers

All Southern women, even those who don’t cook, have a recipe for cheese wafers. (They also all have a recipe for lemon ice box pie made with condensed milk, but that’s another post for another time). Cheese wafers are a great “little something” to have with a drink. And during the holidays they make a welcome hostess gift in contrast to all of the cookies and candy on offer.

My Mother’s recipe makes a wonderfully “sandy” wafer with a texture akin to shortbread. The secret is to use the finest holes on the grater to prep the cheese—a tedious task, but well worth the effort.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

½ pound of sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

scant dash of red pepper

pecan slivers (optional)

Process:

Set butter out in a ceramic bowl to soften. Stir in the grated cheese, preferably using an electric hand mixer to make sure that the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Mix together the flour and spices and gradually add to the cheese mixture. The dough will be quite stiff.

Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Pinch off a small amount of dough and roll into a ball about an inch round. Place on cookie sheet two inches apart. Press each gently with a finger, then top with a pecan sliver. Bake in a 425 over for about 10 minutes or until dry and slightly golden. Watch them carefully! Cheese wafers burn easily.

Remove from oven and quickly transfer to a large plate to cool. Store the wafers in a metal tin where they should keep for about a week.

Theme and Variations:

To make a gift bag of cheese wafers, let them cool completely. Purchase some cellophane bags and glittery pipe cleaners at a craft shop like Ben Franklin or Michael’s. A 12-inch bag holds about two dozen wafers. Close with a festive twist tie and take to a party.

Low Key Holiday Party

A family friend and new mom invited a small group to her place for a wonderfully low-key holiday party. She offered pie and coffee with tea lights and classical music in the background. It was great to sit and talk and take a break from the “too muchness” of the season.

Raise a pie pan and toast your friends this New Year: champagne is a treat—but warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream is even better!

Recipe adapted from The Williamsburg Cookbook (1971)

Ingredients:

Two 9-inch whole wheat frozen pie crusts (I like the Wholly Wholesome brand)

5 to 6 Granny Smith apples

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons of cold butter, cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon lemon juice

Process:

Thaw the pie crusts on a kitchen counter while you work.

Peel and core the Granny Smith apples. Cut them into slices approximately ¼-inch thick and place in a large ceramic bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the sugar, flour and spices. Toss into the apples and stir to coat them evenly. Prick the bottom of one of the pie crusts with a fork. Spoon the apple mixture into the crust, creating a high mound in the center. Dot the pie with butter and sprinkle with lemon juice. Invert the remaining pie crust over the first like a cap and gently pull off the aluminum pie plate. Crimp the top and bottom crusts with your fingers. With a sharp knife or cookie cutter, cut a pretty shape on the pie top. Next cover the pie loosely with aluminum foil

Place the pie on a cookie sheet lined with more foil to catch drips. Bake at 425 for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove the foil cover and bake for 20 minutes more or until the top is brown and the apples have softened.

Remove and let sit for 15 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream flavored with a dash of vanilla and sugar.

Theme and Variations:

• If you live in the Silver Spring area, try this pie with ginger or cinnamon ice cream from York Castle Ice Cream on Georgia Avenue.

• This recipe calls for Granny Smith apples which are sharp and tart; if you prefer a sweeter apple, try Courtland or Gala apples and reduce the sugar by ½ cup.

Baked Manicotti Shells

One of the many details I loved in The Sopranos was how American-born-but-Italian-bred characters would refer to their favorite foods by shortened names: manicotti was manicot; procuitto, proshute. These diminutives made what are to most of us lavish restaurant dishes into something served at home.

In keeping with that sensibility, here’s a recipe for manicot that’s both rich and simple, ideal for family celebrations during the holiday season. An added plus is that manicot can be baked ahead of time, then easily transported to your vegetarian cousin’s house.

Adapted from Leone's Italian Cookbook (1967)

Ingredients:

Pasta:

Two large boxes of pasta shells (I use Barilla Jumbo Shells)

Sauce:

Prepare a double recipe of Veggie Spaghetti Sauce found on the Kitchen Tango post dated
March 12, 2007. Let sauce cool and set aside.

Filling:

¾ cup ricotta cheese

¾ cup mozzarella, diced

2 tablespoons butter, cubed

3 eggs, slightly beaten

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese (plus extra for garnish)

½ teaspoon salt

dash course-ground pepper

Process:

In a medium-size ceramic bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella and butter. Beat the eggs separately, then gently toss into the cheese-butter mix. Sprinkle with spices and the parmesan cheese, stir again and set aside.

Prep the large pasta shells according to the directions on the box. When shells are al dente, drain and put in a large buttered dish where they’ll keep reasonably moist while you work with them.

Butter an 8” x 12” Pyrex dish and spread it with about a two cups of tomato sauce. Gingerly pick up each shell and fill with two spoonfulls of the cheese mix. Eyeball what seems right; the shell should be plump, but not bursting. Line the filled shells about a quarter inch apart in the baking dish. I’ve gotten in as many as thirty manicotti into a long casserole. If there’s more, grab another dish, coat with tomato sauce, and fill with stuffed shells. (Hey, there’s no such thing as too much manicotti. If you don’t want it, a neighbor, friend or nearby working parent will).

Top each shell with a large spoonful of veggie sauce and sprinkle with more grated parmesan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in preheated 350-degree oven. Remove and serve at once with steamed green beans, garlic bread and Chianti. For dessert, have something simple like tangerines with biscotti or macaroons and a round of strong coffee.

Manicotti To Go:

If you plan to transport your manicotti to another holiday venue, follow these directions:

Let the casserole cool to room temperature. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate up to a day.

To reheat, keep covered and place in a 250-oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cheese Note: Skim or Regular?

I’m all for cutting calories as along as flavor doesn’t suffer! I’ve prepared this dish with skim ricotta and can’t taste the difference. But there is a significant difference, I think, between skim and regular mozzarella. The first tastes pale and wimpy; the later, rich and mellow. If manicot is a dish you prepare for special occasions, why fret over fat content? Go for the real thing and add a mile to your walk the next day.

As for the parmesan, it is far tastier and worth the money to buy a hunk of the authentic stuff and grate it yourself. If you don’t use it all up for the manicot, be lavish with the parmesan on your pasta the following week. While ladies age gracefully, cheese does not.

Mom’s Meatloaf

Meatloaf is one of those reassuring foods: simple to make, relatively cheap, nostalgic. Monday was typically “meatloaf night” at our house growing up. We’d have it for dinner with baked potatoes and some sort of green vegetable and watch M*A*S*H while we ate. I’m not sure what’s on now Monday nights, but the recipe is still good.

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup milk

1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

¼ finely chopped onion

1 cup small bread cubes

1 pound ground beef (the leaner, the better)

Process:

Beat together the egg, milk and Worchestershire sauce. Add the salt, pepper and onions and beat again. Stir in the bread crumbs and let them “sit” a moment to soak up the milk and egg mixture.

Next fold in the beef , blending it thoroughly with the other ingredients. Divide the mixture into two portions and shape into small loaves—one for tonight, one for later in the week. Place them a few inches apart in a Pyrex dish and bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes. Serve with some homey vegetables like mashed potatoes and kale that’s been sautéed with onions and garlic.

End of Summer Salad

Figs are a summer fruit, but Black Mission Figs are still available at the grocers. Their deep sweet flavor counterbalances the intense saltiness of Smithfield Ham in this dinner salad. And the richness of that pairing fits with the “over-ripe” quality of nature right now as the afternoon light mellows and the trees start to turn.

Before assembling the salad, first make a sherry vinaigrette. While that seems pretty “foodie” with all sorts of high end ingredients like shallots and walnut oil, it’s actually a snap to make and an investment in future meals. The vinaigrette will last up to three weeks in the refrigerator, so bring it out to dress some steamed spinach to go with the chops next Tuesday night.

Both dressing and salad recipes are from Katy Sparks’ Sparks in the Kitchen (2006)

Ingredients:

For the dressing—

1 shallot, peeled and minced fine

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ sherry vinegar

3 tablespoons walnut or hazelnut oil

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

pepper to taste

For the salad—

Bag of arugela or mixed salad greens

8 oz package of Black Mission Figs (if fresh are out of season, used dried Mission Figs)

Half a small roll of goat cheese, broken into crumbles

2-3 paper thin slices of Smithfield Ham, torn roughly into small pieces

Handful of toasted walnuts*

Process:

In a shallow bowl, combine the minced shallot with salt. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes so the shallot will “weep” for a richer flavor. Stir in the mustard, vinegar and nut oil. Next pour the olive oil in a thin stream while vigorously beating the dressing with a fork to emulsify the oils. (The oil and vinegar mixture will separate later, but no worries; simply beat them together again.)

Put the salad greens into a wide-mouthed salad bowl. Slice the figs into halves, reserving about five or six slices for the top. Toss the salad with two scant spoonfuls of dressing. Be careful!
You only want enough to flavor the mix, not drown the greens. Strew the goat cheese crumbles, ham, walnuts and remaining fig slices in an artful manner.

With some whole wheat rolls, this salad serves two hungry types for dinner or four as a first course.

*For tips on toasting nuts, see the Kitchen Tango recipe for Strawberry Spinach Salad.

Veggie Quiche

This quiche recipe originated from the 1986 edition of Laurel’s Kitchen. And as fine a cookbook as that is, the authors tend to over-emphasize nutrition at the cost of flavor. So I tinkered with their quiche (reduced the milk, added an egg, increased the cheese, added more salt, etc.) until it morphed into a recipe I can honesty claim is mine. Just about every home cook does this—not out of vanity so much as making sure that the resulting dish is something your family will eat.

Ingredients:

½ purple onion, finely diced

1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped into small pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

4 eggs

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1 cup grated Gruyère cheese

pinch of nutmeg

1 9-inch pie crust

Process:

Sauté the onion and pepper in the olive oil with the spices until the peppers are soft. Drain on paper towels until cool. If using a store bought crust, remove it from the freezer, prick with a fork and let it thaw. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the four eggs with the milk until thoroughly blended. Add the ½ teaspoon of salt and a bit of pepper, beat again and set aside.

When the veggies are completely cool, toss with ½ cup of the Gruyère and spoon into the waiting pie crust. Top with the remaining cheese. Put the crust on a cookie sheet lined with foil and carefully pour in the egg and milk mixture. Dust the surface with nutmeg, then bake for 30 minutes or so at 350. Check the quiche by slipping a knife into the center—if it comes out clean, it is ready. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes so that the quiche will “set.”

Serve with a salad of baby spinach tossed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a handful of toasted walnuts. Don’t forget the baguette!

Theme and Variations:

• Instead of bell peppers and onions, sauté ½ pound of sliced mushrooms in two tablespoons of butter with a dash of salt. Be sure to drain the mushrooms on paper towels before adding them to the quiche.

• Sauté a quarter of a finely chopped onion in olive oil. Add a bag’s worth of fresh spinach, lightly steamed. Cook a moment more with a dash of salt and nutmeg. Drain and cool, then mix with the cheese to fill the crust.

Gazpacho

It’s the end of summer, but not the end of the heat. And happily, not quite the end of the tomatoes. If you are lucky enough to grow your own or have ready access to a farmer’s market, grab a few and chop them up for gazpacho. If possible, put together the ingredients and let the soup chill in the refrigerator overnight; the flavors of the fresh herbs will really strike though and the tomato juice will subdue the raw-ness of the onion.

Adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook (1977)

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

2 cups diced fresh tomatoes (If tomatoes aren't in season, go on and use a can of chopped tomatoes. Progresso and Fugamo are two good brands.)

1 green pepper, chopped

1 diced cucumber (Keep the skin on for color and crunch!)

1 clove of garlic, crushed

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup chives, minced fine

1 teaspoon dried basil

Dash of cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of half a lime

Dash of Tabasco (optional)

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 cups tomato juice

Process:

In a large ceramic bowl, mix together the chopped vegetables and fresh herbs. Next sprinkle in the dried spices. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, lemon, lime and oil. Beat vigorously, then pour over the vegetables. Add the tomato juice, stir well, then cover and chill for a minimum of two hours.

Serve the gazpacho with some rolls or a baguette for a simple lunch or dinner.

Theme and Variations:

Let the gazpacho serve as a centerpiece for “sort-of-tapas” at home. Offer some small side dishes of olives, manchego cheese bits, slices of Serrano ham, toasted almonds and green beans sautéed with garlic and oil. Add a loaf of sour dough bread and open a bottle of Rioja white for a festive dinner with friends!

Olé!