New Year's Eve Edna's Seafood Casserole

For anyone throwing a New Year's party tonight, here's a recipe that Grammy has designated for the holiday. I especially like the use of crushed potato chips as a topping! Yes! My inner five year old says: Best casserole ever!

Edna's Seafood Casserole

1lb crab and lobster meat

1 lb cooked shrimp

1 cup mayonaise

1/2 cup green pepper, chopped

1/4 cup onion, minced

1 1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 ts salt

1 TB worcestershire sauce

2 cups potato chips, crushed

paprika

- Mix ingredients except chips and paprika, and pour into casserole dish.

- Top with paprika, then with chips.

- Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

And HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

French Dressing... again

Good evening,

Today's recipe is one of several French Dressing recipes. Hoping to discover why Grammy had more than one, I tried to look up the popularity time range of French Dressing. Alas, I didn't find what I was looking for...

...but thanks to Wikipedia, I did find this:

UK

In the UK the most common recipes for “French Dressing” contain olive oil and white or red wine vinegar or lemon juice as a base and can often contain salt, sugar, pepper, mustard, and garlic. There is no set manufactured recipe and companies often make several different types of dressing to suit different tastes.

[edit]United States

In the United States “French dressing” is almost always a reddish orange color (never true red, never white). It is a homogenized, pureed, uniform viscous sauce with a tangy sweet flavor. Unlike a French vinaigrette, there are no bits of herbs or spices floating in it. It is generally made from vegetable oil, vinegar, ketchup (or tomato puree), water, paprika, other spices, and sweeteners, all thoroughly blended.

[edit]Switzerland

In Switzerland, French style salad dressing is not a “vinaigrette” but a white dressing with mayonnaise or cream,^[3] which is often called “French dressing” when ready made and bottled.^[4]

Grammy's got both English and Swiss heritage, so I hope she enjoyed that trivia bit. Onwards!

French Dressing

1 cup catsup (aka ketchup)

1 cup veg oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vinegar

1 ts salt

1 TB worcestershire sauce

2 lemons' juice

3 or 4 garlic cloves, chopped

-Combine all of the above.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Ah, the magic of Christmas....

Every year, my family throws a neighborhood Christmas Eve party for our primarily Jewish neighbors. It involves a lot of food, alcohol, and pointed questions, like, "Amanda, I hear that the local film industry is failing. What are you going to do for work now?"

There will be latkes, Christmas cookies, chips, dips, little bowls of nuts, and hot cider on the stove. Our neighbor will tell her adult daughter that she's "had enough to eat", and my sister will be told repeatedly that she's "had enough wine." The three sons of our Irish Catholic neighbors will slyly drink enough to walk into trees/shrubs/telephone poles on the 100yd journey home. Everybody has a great time.

Today's Christmas Eve recipe is actually made by my mother and served at the above-mentioned party. Grammy Gertie liked it so much, that she started making it too.

Ellen's Hot Crab Appetizers

1 stick butter

1 jar Old English Cheese spread (Kraft, 5 oz)

1 1/2 ts mayonnaise

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1 can crab meat

6 English muffins

-Let butter and cheese spread soften to room temp.

-Mix both together with mayo, garlic salt and seasoned salt.

-Add crab meat.

-Spread mixture onto English muffin halves.

-Freeze for 10 min.

-Cut each half into 8 triangles and broil until bubbly.

Ginger Snaps

Though I can't recall ever eating ginger snaps, it sounds like a Christmas cookie recipe. Check below for Grammy's tips.

Ginger Snaps

1/2 cup shortening (or butter)

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup dark molasses

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups pastry flour

2 ts baking soda

1 ts cinnamon

1/2 ts cloves

1 heaping ts ginger

dash of salt

-Mix ingredients into dough. Spoon into drop cookies and place on baking sheet.

-Bake at 350 for 10 min.

"If you want them to be fancy -- when thoroughly mixed, take a rounded ts of dough, roll into ball in hands, then roll that in white sugar. Place on baking pan."

"I just make drop cookies, they taste just as good."

Cider Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries

We just had something remarkably similar to this at my mother's house over the weekend. Must be a holiday thing!

Cider Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries

3 1/2 lb sweet potatoes

1 1/2 cup apple juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

5 TB butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 ts all spice

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/8 cup chopped green onions.

-Cook potatoes until half done.

-Add the spices, remaining ingredients, into sauce pan. Cook until the juice is syrup.

Gingerbread Cake

Good evening,

As we narrow in on the Christmas, it seems a nice time to pull out some holiday recipes.

Gingerbread Cake

1/2 cup oleo (or butter)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 ts baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup molasses

1 cup hot water

-mix ingredients together

-bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

Meat Rollups...

I wish, WISH this recipe card had a date on it!

1960s? Maybe?

This recipe takes the best that processed meat has to offer, and glams it up by turning it into some sort of hybrid pig-in-a-blanket, then, THEN suggests pouring condensed soup over the top. With American cheese. Whoa. I'm so excited and disgusted that grammar escapes me! And what an enticing name....

"MEAT Roll-ups"

2 cups flour (our sponsors suggest GOLD MEDAL)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup cooking oil (again, the sponsors suggest Wesson)

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 1/2 cups chopped bologna of "chopped luncheon meat"

-Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add oil and milk. Stir until dough forms.

-Mix together egg and meat-like product (my phrasing, not theirs)

-Roll the dough out like a pizza crust. Top with meat-egg mixture and roll into a jelly roll shape.

-Slice into smaller pastry sizes.

-Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

WAIT! It gets better! There's a sauce!

-Bring to boil 10 oz condensed cream of mushroom soup. Stir in 1 cup of grated American cheese.

Et voila! Meat roll-ups.

Happy Hannukah!

Greetings, all!

We're closing in on the end of Hannukah. Though the Treat family is not particularly Jewish (at all), Grammy would encourage us to partake in our neighbors' celebration. Thus, she has not 1, but 2 recipes for latkes!

The gist of both recipes is:

3-4 potatoes, coarsely shredded

1 egg, beaten

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 TB flour

S&P

One of the recipes is calling for shredded carrots, but NO! That's gross!

-Basically, mix everything up like pancake batter, then make little potato pancakes out of them. Fry them up and serve hot with applesauce. The applesauce is non-negotiable.

Happy Hannukah!

Sandwich Spread

Good evening,

Here's a quick notecard for "Sandwich Spread". I'm not sure if this is meant to be layered or all mushed together. It all tastes the same, I suppose.

"Sandwich Spread

3/4 lb pressed ham

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 TB onions

2 eggs, mashed

1/2 cup mayonnaise"