LIFESTYLES

Recipes recall the taste of Christmas

IF EVER I wished that our kids were still kids it is at

Christmas.

My gawd it was easy back then. Of course, I didn’t think so at the time but what did I know? I was still a kid myself.

I still liked snow!

I used to sit up nights, after the kids were in bed making doll clothes. Brian assembled doll bug- gies and Barbie campers — with instruction sheets from Taiwan and an unequal number of pieces.

One day of shopping, right after the last pay day in November usually covered everything.

We would spend the day at Sears toy shop in Burnaby and then un- wind at the bar at the Villa Hotel, drinking a bottle of beer and mun- ching pretzels with their marvellous, free cheese dip.

budget beaters

Barbara McCreadie

That’s not there anymore, either. The hotel is, but don’t look for any free cheese. I doubt if you can even buy the dip — I checked many years ago and they not only discontinued it but wouldn't give me the recipe.

- However, I fooled them. I Sought a bunch of varieties of cheeses and experimented until I duplicated the recipe. I've printed it before but it deserves a re-run.

Make up a batch and treat yourself -

after a day in the toy shop. Villa Cheese Dip

8 oz. cream cheese 8 oz. strong cheddar cheese - Kraft has the best texture for this 34 cup real butter 3 dashes Wercestershirc sauce Y teaspcon seasoned salt cayenne pepper to taste coffee cream

Grate the cheddar cheese and br- ing both cheeses and butter to room temperature. Combine with seasonings and whip, adding cof- fee cream, a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is firm enough to stay on a pretzel but soft enough to dip.

One Christmas, when J was a lot more ambitious than today, I made up a big batch of this for hostess gifts.

Zeller’s had a sale on sets of onion soup bowls, white with cute little lids — I paid about five bucks for each set.

Everywhere we went that Christmas the hostess received a bow!ful of cheese, decorated, and with the recipe attached.

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It’s not too late to prepare other hostess gifts that are very welcome this time of year. It certainly balances your budget a lot better than that ‘‘desperation run’’ to the grog shop.

When I do that I get embarrass- ed about anything less than the premium quality and end up buy- ing some pricey stuff.

It’s fun to decorate the con- tainers, too. Canning jars, % pint size, are useful — try using scraps of fabric for hats. skirts or bow ties. Glue on cut-outs or buttons

for eyes, cotton balls for eyebrows |

or moustaches and highlight the whole thing with the recipe in your best printing.

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Fruit Chutney

This makes enough for eight pint jars. Keep some for yourself.

’ If you are giving it away, suggest that they store it in the refrigerator.

If you decide to make up a batch and want to store it, it should be processed in a proper set of cann- ing jars with new lids.

After the mixture has thickened, pour into jars, follow directions for adjusting the lids and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Check lids for seal.

7 tart apples, peeled and cored 7 tomatoes

2 green peppers

4 onions

1% cups seediess raisins

4 cloves garlic, peeled

% cup candied ginger

142 cups cider vinegar

i cup, packed, brown sugar Y2 teaspoon dry mustard

V2 teaspoon nutmeg Y2 teaspoon cloves (powdered) dash cayenne pepper salt to taste

Finely chop the first seven in- gredients — a food processor is ideal or run through your old food grinder.

Bring vinegar to a boil with re- maining ingredients. Add ground vegetables and simmer very slowly until thick, about 1% hours. Bottle as directed.

set Potted Shrimp

This is a recipe that arrived at my house as a hostess gift. The guest had purchased a small pot- tery bow! from a craft fair in shades of blue. She sealed the top with plastic wrap and added a pretty bow.

1 pound raw shrimp Y cup butter

1 bay leaf

pinch dill

Y, cup butter, melted

Shell and de-vein shrimp. In top of double boiler, over simmering water, melt first 2 cup butter.

Add spices and !et stand 10 minutes. Add shelled shrimps and cook, covered until shrimps are just tender.

Lift out shrimps and arrange in small dishes. Pour seasoned butter over. Chill.

When firm, top with an addi- tional layer of melted butter. Grind a layer of pepper on top.

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Another hostess gift that re- quires last-minute preparation but only takes a couple of minutes is this ciab dip. I've been making it for years and use tinned crab. But for a gift, use the real thing — and not the commercial crab substitutes,

I tried one in this recipe and found the flavor all wrong — probably it didn't like the sherry.

1 tin, flat, crab or about

6 oz. fresh

Ya cup grated green pepper, sqeezed dried

Y2 cup sour cream

2 cup real mayonnaise

either: 42 teaspocn onion powder

43 - Wednesday, December 21, 1988 - North Shore News

NOW OPEN © PARK « TILFORD CENTRE reatly to serve you!

or one green onion, diced

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespcon dry sherry

sail, cayenne pepper to taste paprika to garnish

parsley to garnish

Pick any filaments from crab and break up. If using canned crab, squeeze out as much liquid as you can.

Combine with remaining ingre- dients (not garnishes). Chill and allow to sit several hours to develop flavors.

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