Winter is Coming: A Winter Wonderland of Books, Recipes, Films, and More!: Recipes Shared by the NVC Community

Great Aunt Jane's Jell-O Salad

Submitted by:  Amy Catania

Ingredients

• 1 package lemon Jell-O
• 1 package lime Jell-O
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cut cottage cheese
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

In a large, rectangular cake pan (glass works better than metal), add the packages of lemon and lime Jell-O and 2 cups of boiling water.  Stir until all of the Jello-O is dissolved (about 2 minutes).  Add the rest of the ingredients in the order listed.  Stir to make sure that all ingredients are evenly distributed.  Chill until the Jell-O is solid (2-4 hours).  Serve cold.

Peppermint Martinis

Submitted by Amy Catania (courtesy of her sister-in-law)

Ingredients

• 2 oz vanilla vodka (can adjust amount for your own taste)
• 2 oz peppermint Schnapps or crème de menthe  (can adjust amount for your own taste)
• 2 oz Godiva white chocolate liqueur (can adjust amount for your own taste)
• crushed candy canes (for the rim of the glass)
• ice

Directions

In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, Schnapps, liqueur, and ice.  Shake vigorously.  Coat the rim of the martini glass with the crushed candy canes.  Pour the mixture from the shaker into the glass.  Enjoy!

Non-Alcoholic Drink from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

Submitted by Amy Catania

Ingredients

• pomegranate juice
• orange juice 
• fresh mint
• seltzer water

Directions

In an ice cube tray, freeze orange juice into cubes.  In a glass, mix equal parts seltzer water and pomegranate juice.  Add four orange juice ice cubes and garnish with fresh mint to taste.

Pozole

Submitted by:  José Sanchez

Ingredients

• 1 lb. pork neck bones cut into large chunks
• 2 lb. pork shoulder cut into small chunks
• 1 full chicken breast (both halves) with skin and bones
• 4-6 cloves garlic (or equivalent garlic powder)
• 5-6 bay leaves
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon (or equivalent powder)
• 2 boxes Kitchen Basics chicken stock (lower salt and better flavor)
• 2 #10 cans of Juanita’s hominy (drained) – (I typically use all of it)
• Olive oil
• Optional – 1 white onion
• Bag of dried chile ancho (usually in the Mexican foods section)
• 1 head cabbage finely shredded
• Green onion sliced into fine rings
• Radishes sliced thinly
• Limes
• Tostadas – your favorite
• Hot Sauce – Tapatio is magic stuff, I tell ya!

Directions

To prepare the chiles:

• Tear off the stems, open the pods and discard the inner membranes and seeds
• Soak all the chiles in warm water for at least 1 hour – change the water every 20 minutes
• Drain the chiles, put them into a blender or food processor with a little water and blend into a smooth, pourable paste. 
• Set the paste aside for later. 
• You will not use all of it and whatever is left over freezes extremely well for months at a time.

To prepare the soup

• Grab a large stock pot (8 qt. or bigger) and only use that for the whole cooking process.  You want the browned crispy bits in the bottom (fond) to be part of the soup
• Add some olive oil and brown the chicken, then the pork (in batches)
• IF you decide to add the optional white onion, finely chop it, and brown it after the meat.
• Add all the meat back into the pot.  Also add the chicken stock and enough water to cover the meat by a couple of inches – You can also use more chicken stock and adjust how much chicken buillon you add later – DO NOT add extra salt at this point.
• Bring to a boil and simmer the meat until the chicken is cooked through and can be separated from the bones (about 20 mins) Remove the bones and skin from the chicken, break into small chunks and add back into the pot
• Bring back to a high simmer, add the garlic and the bay leaves and cook until the pork chunks easily pull apart (about 15 more minutes)
• Add all the hominy, about ½ cup of the chile paste and enough water to cover the hominy by an inch or so.  The liquid level will be quite high in an 8 qt pot, so adjust how much hominy you add in.  You can always eat a bit and add more hominy later.  At this time, also add the dissolved chicken buillon and cook for 10 minutes, then taste for salt.  Add salt as necessary.  You can also just add more chicken buillon instead of plain salt to deepen the flavor.

Serving the Soup

Traditionally, all the garnish is placed on the table and people add items to their heart’s content.  If you have a nice large table, you could even put the pot of soup in the center.  I like to start with pozole in the bottom of the bowl, then lime, then hot sauce and stir.  Top with cabbage and green onion, grab a tostada and dig in!

Notes

Remember that the oil and seeds inside the chiles are the spicy parts.  DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES OR ANY OTHER PART OF YOUR ANATOMY, without first washing your hands or you will find it to be a very uncomfortable decision.  Wearing some disposable gloves is recommended by some, but dish soap will clean your hands just fine.

I start with about ½ cup of the chile paste, but I keep tasting the soup and adding more until I like the balance of flavor.  If you start with ¼ cup you can always work your way up to where the balance of flavor to spice is just right for you.

Great Grandpa Wright's Stuffing Recipe

Submitted by:  Amy Catania

Ingredients

Note:  My great grandfather was not big on actually measuring out ingredients, so the amounts are approximate based on my great grandmother's estimates from watching him.  Feel free to play with the amounts as needed.

• 1 cup chopped onion (or 1 medium sized onion)
• 1/2 cup chopped stalk celery
• 3 Golden Delicious apples (for a bit of tartness, use Granny Smith or a bit of sweetness, use Honeycrisp) chopped into bit-sized pieces
• 1 tsp butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup chapped fresh parsley
• 2 boxes of stuffing mix
• 1/2 - 1 cup milk
• 2-3 large eggs
• 1 cup currents (can substitute raisins, but works best with currents)
• 1/2 cup walnuts

Directions

In a large frying pan, melt the butter or margarine.  Add the onion, apple, and celery to the frying pan.  Cook on medium to medium-low heat until the apples, onion, and celery are soft and can be mashed with a fork.  Then, add the parsley to the frying pan and cook for about a minute.  Pour the items from the frying pan into a large bowl.  Use a potato masher to mash them until you have a mush.  Add the stuffing mix, milk, and eggs to the bowl.  Mix everything together using your hands until ingredients are combined.  Then, add the currents and walnuts and continue mixing.  You want to make sure that the mix is not too dry, as it will crumble, and not too moist or it won't absorb the juices of the turkey.  Now, stuff the turkey.  You will have stuffing left over (see below).

Wait for the turkey to start cooking (about half an hour to an hour into the cooking should be about right, depending on the size of the bird).  Put the remaining mix into a cake pan.  Cook it next to the turkey and add juices from the turkey at the same time that you are basting the turkey.  That way you still get some of that good flavor.  The stuffing in the pan should form a crust and needs to be cooked to a temperature of 165 F.    

Chicken (or Turkey) Soup

Submitted by:  Amy Catania

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (or chicken carcass) or whole turkey (or turkey carcass); include the neck to add a bit of extra flavor if you have a carcass
• 2 quarts water
• 1 large onion (cut in half or in quarters)
• 4 large carrots scraped
• 4 stalks celery with tops and hearts
• 2 sprigs fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons salt (sea salt best)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper (or more if you would like)
• 1 box of ABC pasta (optional)

Directions

In a large pot or saucepan, combine all of the ingredients.  Simmer over a low flame for 1-2 hours (sometimes longer depending on the stove) until the carrots fall apart when pierced with a fork.  Get a large bowl and colander ready.  Pour the pot's contents through the colander so that only liquid remains in the bowl.  Remove the chicken or turkey if you cooked it whole from the colander.  Otherwise, discard the items in the colander.  Add pieces of the chicken or turkey to the broth.

As one option, pour the contents from the bowl back into the pot or saucepan.  Bring the soup to a boil.  Add the ABC pasta and cook until tender.  You can serve the soup or freeze it.

The soup will keep frozen for up to a year.  One suggestion is to freeze it in small containers and save it for the inevitable colds and flus that happen every year.

Ground Turkey and Kabocha Squash, Szechuan Style

Submitted by:  Brian Lym

Ingredients

• 1 Medium size Kabocha squash
• 1 lb ground turkey (or pork)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon Szechuan Chili Bean Paste
• 1 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
• Tbl or so grapeseed or peanut oil

Directions

Cut up Kabocha squash into 2 inch square pieces--after discarding seeds of course.  Ok to leave unpeeled.
Mince garlic
Add  oil to wok or similar pan till hot,  and  add garlic and sautée at for 30 secs​, then
add ground turkey or pork, stir fry cook till no longer pink
Add Szechuan chili bean paste
Add Kabocha squash and 1  cup stock
Simmer and stir at medium high heat  covered till squash cooked, about 15 minutes
 

Zuppa di Pesce

Submitted by:  Elena Sirignano

Ingredients

• 4 Tbs olive oil
• ½ Onion- Small Dice
• 3 cloves Garlic- Fine Chopped
• 1 cup Fresh in Season Roma Tomatoes Peeled, De-Seeded and Small Diced or Canned San Marzanos
• 2 qts Fish or Chicken Stock
• ¼  lb Calamari- Cleaned and cut into rings, leaving tentacles whole if small
• 1 lb White-Fleshed Fish cut into 2” pieces- Striped bass, Red Snapper, Red Mullet
• 1 dzn Mussels- Cleaned and Free of Sand (make sure they are all tightly closed)
• 1 dzn Littleneck or Manilla Clams- Cleaned and Free of Sand (make sure they are all tightly closed)
• 1 lb Shrimp- Peeled and Cleaned
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs Flat Leaf Parsley Leaves- for garnish
• 8 each Crostini to Garnish- Slices of baguette toasted with extra virgin olive oil rubbed with raw garlic

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium flame, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook until translucent, stirring frequently. Add garlic and roma tomatoes. Sauté for 5 minutes.
2. Add fish or chicken stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Lower  the heat that it’s cooking over.
3. Add all the fish and shellfish and bring again back up to a gentle simmer over low heat. Cover with lid, cook until the clams and mussels are open and the fish pieces are cooked all the way through (this will only take a few minutes). Add the parsley leaves and serve immediately.
4. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and top with garlic rubbed crostini.

Rum Balls

Submitted by:  Jason Bell

• 12 ounce pkg of vanilla wafers
• 16 ounce pkg of pecan pieces
• ½ cup of honey
• 1/3 cup bourbon
• 1/3 cup of dark rum
• Powder sugar or vanilla wafer crumbs for last step

Pumpkin Pie Filling (From Scratch)

Submitted by:  Luis Alcazar

Check out this pumpkin pie filling recipe that begins with an actual pumpkin (not a can of pumpkin).  You can use this same recipe for butternut squash or another favorite squash.  You can even substitute in different sweeteners ((honey, maple syrup, raw sugar, etc).  Luis also recommends adding nutmeg.  In case the link has trouble, here is the URL:   http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php.

Pie Crust

Submitted by:  Luis Alcazar

Check out this pie crust recipe.  You can use many different kinds of flour (buckwheat, rye, spelt, whole wheat, amaranth, etc).  Luis recommends using butter and coconut oil for a flaky crust.  In case the link has trouble, here is the URL:  http://www.pickyourown.org/piecrust.php.

Poached Quince

Submitted by:  Brian Lym

Ingredients

6-8 quince

lemon peel 

1/4-1/2 cup palm sugar 

vanilla bean

water

Directions

Peel quince, core and cut each quince into several slices

Fill medium size Dutch oven or pan with water, bring to boil

Add quince slices, sugar, lemon peel, and vanilla bean and bring to simmer and cover

Simmer for 20 minutes or so, till slices are poached and pierceable, but not too soft

Serve chilled with good quality vanilla bean ice cream or gelato