What do you make with pomegranites?

It was time for the annual Ward Christmas Party. We had great local entertainment and it was fun to have the kids visit Santa Claus again. The youth served us potatoes and beef and the salads and desserts folks brought. I wanted to use some great pomegranites we had, so I looked around and chose

Pomegranite Apple Salad I found at http://kosherfood.about.com/od/koshersaladrecipes/r/pom_apple.htm. It was yummy and colorful.

INGREDIENTS:

• DRESSING (can be made days in advance):
• 1/3 cup vinegar
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 1/2 small onion
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• SALAD (make fresh):
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 pomegranate, seeded
• 1 green apple, chopped

PREPARATION:

DRESSING:
1. In a food processor, combine vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard and onion. After the ingredients are well blended, slowly add in oil.
2. Pour dressing ingredients into a jar. Add poppy seeds and shake well.

The A-K Christmas Cookies are Here!

Each year our dear friends, whom we no longer live near, still UPS us a plate of their Christmas cookies. I just counted 15 varieties on the plate!!! They have been baking one type a night since early December. Then they freeze them and finally arrange them nicely on a plate and deliver them. Our family always anxiously awaits their arrival and love this tradition.

A good Finnish Hostess offers 7 varieties

We had our Home Teacher and his family over for dessert this week. He is such a great home teacher who always come prepared to teach our children and offer them a new physical challenge, which he ties into teaching the gospel, they love and we appreciate as parents.

We served cookies and hot chocolate. An "Old World" Finnish hostess must serve 7 varieties at her "hot chocolate" table. My Mother always had quite a spread. The 7 varieties we ended up serving include:

1. The traditional American Butter Spritz Cookies
My Mother said she just used the recipe included with her Spritzer, so since I don't know what it is, I googled Spritz, read several and chose this one found at
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1910,157180-228196,00.html
Yield approximately 4 dozen.

Cream 1 cup butter. Add 1/2 cup sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract. Blend in 2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour. Divide dough into thirds.Add a few drops red food coloring to one third. Green coloring to one third.

Leave one third plain. Fill cookie press with each color or combine colors for rainbow effect. Form into desired shapes and decorate. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Finnish Joulu Torttuja -- you'll find my Mother's recipe posted here under December
2006
3. Six Layer Cookie Bars -- my sister-in-law's version you'll find posted as FHE Baked Bars here November 2007. My husband likes her version better because it's not so gooey!
4. Belgian Speculaas Cookies -- Sunset magazine's recipe is posted December 2006. My husband's family and our guests each have special ties there.
5. Pull aparts -- bread dough rolled in melted butter, then dipped in brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. They are then arranged in a bundt pan and baked at 350 degrees. I also remember these from my childhood, but hadn't had them in years.
6. I ran out of time to make Finnish gingerbread, so so I served Anna's from IKEA.)
I was just sending this recipe to another Mom who is making them for me for our kids' School Christmas party, so here's My Mother's recipe.

Title: Piparkakut (Finnish Christmas Gingerbread Cookies)

Description:
My Mother says, "The aroma of these cookies baking takes me back to my childhood in Finland." We make various large to small sizes of these in heart shape and hang them in the kitchen window during Christmas. Heart is the symbol of Christmas in Finland. We also had plenty of other shapes to eat as well.

Ingredients:
3/4 c margarine or butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 T dark Karo syrup
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ground cardamom
1/2 t baking soda
2 1/2 c flour

Directions:
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg, spices and syrup. Then add flour and soda sifted together. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Roll out on floured surface very thin and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a very lightly greased cookie sheet about 5 min at 375 degrees. Do not overbake! Store in an airtight tin and they will keep "forever".

7. And our guests brought Oreo cookies dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy -- her trademark for dressing up any cookie! She says she just melts chocolate chips in the microwave, dips any cookie halfway and either adds sprinkles or drizzles chocolate on it.

Don't get saucy with me!

Our kids didn't know what it meant when Dad told one of them, "Don't get saucy with me." I said that a sauce adds flavor or spice to something bland like pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. Well, I was in the middle of making Alfredo sauce for the first time. Last night we had spinach ravioli, which we boiled and served marinara sauce over. We boiled way too much, so we had ravioli for leftovers today, but wanted a different sauce.

One of ours made the observation that whatever has sauce has more calories. She is so right and is on a sauce strike, but our pickiest eater loved it!

You've probably made it hundreds of times, but since I had never made Alfredo sauce, a quick google search showed me the basic ingredients and directions over and over again listed below.

Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cup grated *Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper

I melted the butter and milk in a frying pan, then removed it from the heat and added the cheese, salt and pepper. *We didn't have enough parmesan cheese on hand, so I used shredded mozzarella and some swiss cheese.

Our vegetable was asparagus and the sauce even tasted great over it, as did the toasted bread the rest of us dunked into olive oil.

Serve Raisin Soup over Rice Porridge

I'll make a quick post of the Raisin Soup recipe Finns pour over their Rice Porridge. The rice porridge recipe is in the previous post.

Rusina Soppa (Raisin Soup)

6-7 cups water
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks cinnamon
3 tablespoons potato starch (you can substitute corn starch)

Place water, raisins, sugar and cinnamon sticks into a kettle. Let it come to a boil. Lower heat to medium and let boil for 20-25 minutes. Mix starch in a little cold water. Take kettle off burner and whisk starch into the soup. Place kettle back on burner for a couple of minutes. Remove from burner and pour mixture into a pitcher or bowl large enough to contain. Sprinkle sugar on top. This keeps a film from developing. Cool and keep at room temperature. DO NOT KEEP IN REFRIGERATOR, as the soup will separate and become watery.

No Crock, it's Crock Pot Rice Porridge

Tonight is our recipe exchange themed "Crock Pot Recipes". The idea being that in this busy month, we need to eat good food amidst the sugary temptations and hustle and bustle. There are a myriad of foods, even beverages, one can make in a slow cooker. Stephanie Ashcraft from
http://www.recipes-101.com/ says, "The slow cooker can do what no oven or stovetop burner can--cook flavorful and healthy food while its owner goes blissfully about the business of the day."

If you are new to crock pots or slow cookers, I suggest investing in one or both of the 101 books Stephanie Ashcraft has -- each full of 101 recipes for beverages, dips and fondues, main courses, side dishes, desserts, along with suggestions for how and what to serve with each dish, time-saving meal preparation tips, and easy modifications to fit your family's tastes.

I'm anxious to try her wassail, hot chocolate, appetizer meatballs, and fondue during this busy Christmas season. It sure has me thinking about what else I can make the slow cooker way.

For me, it's also about which traditional foods I'll make anyway this month, can I make the slow cooker way, while I'm blissfully doing other things and time them ready to serve when I need/want them served. Since I want my rice porridge ready for Christmas morning, and since I'm blissfully busy Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, I'm going to try this out and see if it will work to have it cook overnight and be ready for breakfast to serve with Pulla boys and girls. (See my Dec. 20006 pulla blog for the recipe.)

So, today I'm going to try something different -- make rice porridge or "Santa Food" as my nephew calls it, in a slow cooker. It will be interesting to see if it turns out this way or not.

Okay, here's the traditional recipe I use to make Rice Porridge on the stove top. My plan is to combine all of the ingredients in my greased slow cooker, cover it and cook it on low heat for 4-6 hours, or until the rice in done.

Title: Riisi Puuro (Mummo's Rice Porridge)

Description:
Often served as the dessert on Christmas Eve or as the breakfast on Christmas morning with a lone almond placed in before serving. The one who gets it in his/her bowl will receive good luck in the coming year.

Something new I read in Christmas in Finland edited by World Book, Inc. Staff, World Book Encyclopedia, is "the almond bearer must rise to entertain the others or may be assigned a job for the day to earn his or her good fortune." Oh, this will be fun to incorporate into our tradition starting this year!!


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
3 cups boiling water
1/2 t salt

4 cups of milk (can use mixed powdered milk)
1/2 cup sugar
2 T margarine
1/2 c heavy cream

Directions:
Steam covered for 20 minutes on low. Then start adding milk, stirring it well and let cook on a little higher heat. Stir occasionally, adding more milk when needed. Keep adding milk until it is all used up. It usually takes about 1/2 hour. Then add 1/2 cup of sugar or a little more and 2 T margarine and stir well. After the porridge is done, you may add (optional) 1/2 c heavy cream for a real creamy taste. If making for Karjalan Piirakka, (posted later) omit the sugar and heavy cream.

Serve warm with either milk, cinnamon and sugar or traditional Raisin Soup (posted later) poured over it. I'm not a raisin fan, so we're used to the first version.

The lid to my slow cooker broke, so I heard I could just place foil over it instead. It works!! I read a slow cooker tip you may find useful also. To speed up cooking time, place the ingredients first into an oven bag and it will speed up you cooking time -- especially useful when slow cooking a roast.

Since I'm in the market for a new crock pot or slow cooker, I saw this advertisement for one I think I'll find especially useful. http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/products/cooking-slow-cookers.phpSome of its features include:
# Clip-tight lid locks on to prevent messy spills
# Large, full-grip handles make carrying easier
# Convenient lid rest keeps lid out of way for stirring and serving
# Dishwasher safe stoneware and lid

Check it out at: http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/products/cooking-slow-cookers.php

My Breakfast Green Drink

Since it's so easy for me to skip breakfast and since I know it's better for me to eat something, I make a "Green" Drink for breakfast, where the green comes from "Spring Mix and/or Spinach". It actually tastes great and I feel more satisfied when I drink this during the morning.

Blend together:
2 cups 100% pineapple juice
2 cups 100% papaya juice
very large handful(s) of organic spring mix and or spinach
1 avocado or 2 tsps. flax seed oil
1 banana

Fresh and organic is best, but I use what I can get. Sometimes I use a frozen banana instead or ice cubes to make it cold then. Usually I just drink the first glass as is and put the rest into my empty juice bottle and put it in the fridge and drink more a little bit later.

We use a Vitamix, http://vitamix.com/ but a blender or blender/juicer combination will work,
depending upon what you want to put into it. You can add lots of things to it, but right now, mine is very simple. Sometimes I add an apple.

As a friend who knows about eating more raw foods explains it:

Straight juice goes directly to our bloodstream.
Fruits and veggies blended are like pre-digested food on our system.

What do you put in your green drink and why? Or try it and experiment with what works for you.

Oh, and I feel even better when I drink a glass of water about an hour before I have breakfast. A friend from the "Old World" suggested it, saying it's great for your digestive system too.