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.