Festive Ice and Pickled Gifts for the Holidays

By Marilyn Michael

Christmas lights, doesn’t every family have a story? My folks turned our house into Disneyland, I swear, vying for that silver bowl top prize in the town decorating contest. The pinnacle was the year Santa kept pulling Rudolph up the side of the house with a pulley…don’t ask. I remember being pretty embarrassed as a teenager having the whole town drive by our house. Looking back, though, I’m proud of my parent’s enthusiasm and willingness to brighten people’s lives at the holidays.

We’ve lived on a boat for years in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle. My husband, Hank, wrote a humor/food column for a couple magazines. Below is his take on Christmas decorating followed by a couple of tasty ideas for holiday entertaining and gift giving that he offered his readers one year.

One of my most embarrassing memories from childhood was having kids over to play and trying to explain why our Christmas lights were still up on July 4^th. Putting lights on the boat is a real hassle, with the twist ties, tape, tangled bulbs, extension cords and all. Last January 10^th I was standing on the dock looking at those colored strings circling my boat wondering if I could pass them off as running lights.

Every year I swear this is the year of no lights but I’m compelled by an unknown force to put more and more lights up. My wife, who’s always right by the way, reminds me that I’m going to have problems with so many. Well, the big moment came and when I threw the switch I swear the Space Needle dimmed for a glorious moment that was punctuated by a popping breaker.

Actually there is a reason why every December I’ll crawl around the deck with twist ties hanging out of my mouth like tooth picks dragging stings of lights. One year a cancer patient I was seeing said to me, “Just think of all those tired people driving home from work down Interstate 5 who look down on Lake Union and see the boats all lit up, I bet it lifts their spirits”. So, up go the lights and onward with plans for having guests on board for the boat parade and other celebrations during the holiday season.

Holiday Ice

Not everyone drinks hot toddies in December. If you are serving drinks with ice, alcoholic or other, why not liven up those ice cubes. Put a twist of lemon or lime in the water before freezing. Gourmet markets sell edible flowers. Adding a flower to each cube before freezing can add an interesting and festive element to drinks you serve. You can add whatever you like, your only limitation is your imagination olives, pieces of fruit, you name it.

If you don’t want alcoholic drinks diluted by the ice cubes, add 2 parts water to 1 part alcohol to keep those drinks lively. Keep those cubes separate from ones the kids may use and party hardy but don’t drink and drive (in boat or cars.)

If you are attending a holiday gathering and want to arrive with a unique and appreciated hostess gift, food is always welcome and home made food is celebrated. I’m always a hit with jars of Pickled Shrimp and Pickled Onions.

Hank’s Pickled Shrimp

If you’re serving Bloody Marys for that New Year’s Brunch, hang a shrimp on the side of each glass.

Ingredients:

Tiger Prawn

8 cups white vinegar

3-4 Tablespoons pickling spice

Red onion

Garlic cloves

Small attractive canning jars with lids

Instructions:

Throw the shrimp (I prefer tiger prawns) in boiling heavily salted water for 10 to 15 seconds until shells turn pink. (Heavy salt brings out the shrimps flavor.)

Remove them with a slotted spoon and put cold water over them immediately to stop the cooking. (Overcooking the shrimp makes them tough.)

Peel the shrimp.

Place in a pan:

8 cups of white vinegar

3-4 Tablespoons pickling spice (I like it heaver so I use 4-6 Tablespoons)

Bring the brine to a boil then let it cool down.

Pack small, clean, attractive jars, layering each with:

Shrimp

Thin slices of red onion (some jars with and some jars without)

1 clove of raw garlic

If you like it spicy, add crushed red pepper to taste.

Cover with the brine.

Put lids tightly on the jars.

Chill overnight then gift or enjoy.

Pickled Pearl Onions

Make up some jars as above and fill with raw, peeled pearled onions

one clove of garlic, and crushed red pepper to taste.

HANK'S OXTAIL GOULASH
By Marilyn Michael

OXTAIL GOULASH

For several years my husband and I lived three days a week onboard our sailboat moored at the edge of Washington's San Juan Islands, ninety minutes north of our home in a suburb of Seattle. By the time we completed the drive, we had shed the stresses of our work-a-day world. The weekly time onboard took us out of any suburban rut. It stimulated our creativity, brought us closer, (one TV channel will do that.) It introduced us to a different group of people and inspired us to new adventures. 

We never took the boat out much in the fall and winter and observed a quieting, literally an emptying, of “the dockside neighborhood.” They didn't know what they were missing, we'd think, as we walked past boat after boat sitting empty throughout the colder months. One neighbor we hadn't met walked by one evening and stopped to observe my husband who was standing on the back deck in a snow storm, with martini in hand, monitoring the barbeque. "What are you doing?", he called over. "Barbequing a duck." my husband replied. "You and I are going to very good friends." the guy smiled and walked on.

My husband, passionate about cooking, reveled in his hobby. Morning breakfasts with treats like Szechuan Eggs with Black Forest Ham were amazing. We had two Grover Washington cassettes we played a lot (this was the 1980's) To this day those songs, take me back to sitting on deck with a steaming coffee cup in hand looking out over steel gray water with neighboring boats appearing out of the mist and delicious smells wafting from the galley.  

Many times he’d cook all day Saturday challenging himself by doing it all in a large, stainless steel wok on the stovetop. No, he rarely cooked stir-fry in it. He would 'roast' a leg of lamb serving it with a jalapeno jelly sauce, simmer choppinos with fresh northwest fish and shellfish, fix a melt-in-your mouth marinated chicken, cabbage and potato concoction. It was during this time he developed one of our favorite of his dishes, Oxtail Goulash. 

HANK'S OXTAIL GOULASH*

Dutch oven or electric frying pan

Ingredients

6 meaty oxtails or lamb shanks (can use beef stew meat, but you will love the richness of the oxtails or lamb.)

1 14.5 oz. can beef consommé 

1 14.5 oz. can beef broth 

1 to 2 cups red wine 

1 bottle of Bloody Mary Mix - split (Mr. T’s is a favored brand) 

2 cans of Great Northern beans 

1 large onion cut into 1/8’s and separated 

Vegetables of choice. (At different times we've used: turnip chunks, slices of Portobello mushrooms, winter squash chunks, fresh green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, Crimini mushrooms, pea pods, baby carrots, Yukon Gold potatoes, rutabagas, parsnips, turnips, and Brussels sprouts.)

Wide noodles for serving.

Instructions

Boil some wide noodles, coat with a little butter and set aside.

Sear meat briefly. With lid on Dutch oven or electric frying pan, boil the seared meat in the sauce (consommé, water, 1 cup wine, ½ bottle Bloody Mary Mix) for about 15 or 20 minutes on high. 

Add vegetables of choice and 1 can Great Northern Beans continue simmering covered on low heat until the meat comes easily off the bone and vegetables are done. Keep adding the rest of the Bloody Mary mix and more wine, if desired, as the meat and vegetables cook. 

Oxtails and lamb shanks are rich and they do have grease. Remove the meat and vegetables when done and add a tray of ice cubes to the sauce to degrease. The grease will cling to the ice cubes for easy removal. 

Add meat and vegetables back into the sauce with a second can of Great Northern Beans. Simmer for about 5 minutes. 

With oxtails, we like the meat left on the bone, but for a dinner party etc. you can remove the meat from the bones and place it back in the sauce. 

Serve over wide noodles.

* As this is a blog of interest to Foodies, I'm assuming readers are adventuresome eaters. If you haven't tried oxtails, I highly encourage you to. If they aren't readily available, ask the butcher to bring some in. We always find them fresh at a large Asian Supermarket in Seattle called Uwajimaya.

LINDA'S SINFULLY SIMPLE TORTILLA SOUP
By Linda Vernon

~~"You can't go wrong with relatively simple comfort food. It's also about ease. Some cook to impress. I cook for people to enjoy the food."~~

~~Al Roker

There are some things I love. Soup is one of them; another is Mexican food. Both speak of my southern California childhood and the comfort foods created in my mother’s kitchen. So what could be more perfect for me than Chicken Tortilla Soup?

Of course, there are some things I don’t like. I don’t like cilantro. There, I said it. I know, I know, in some circles that’s just blasphemy. So, I’m a blaspheming foodie. Sue me. I find the flavor overpowering, and consequently often leave cilantro out of dishes that traditionally contain it. You won’t find it in here. If you like it, add it.

Being over 50, as our blog title proclaims, means I’m also an empty-nester. That means I have no earthly need for the vats of soup I once made. I also don’t care to spend half-a-day preparing soup for one (or maybe two, if I can convince my dear husband that there’s nothing in the pot that will poison him).

So here is my very quick chicken tortilla soup recipe. It refrigerates well, if you don’t eat it all the first night. Be careful with the salt. Because of the canned foods used herein, I find I don’t need any salt at all. 

This dish is prepared using items you probably have in your cabinet or freezer right now. And if you don’t, add them to that list on the back of the envelope in the side pocket in your purse. 

No, not that pocket. The one with the broken zipper.

Enjoy!

Linda’s Sinfully Simple Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 chicken breast

1 15oz can chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 4 oz can diced green chilis (not jalapenos, but Anaheim. I use Ortega brand)
1 15.5 oz can whole kernel corn with the juice
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed WELL, otherwise your soup will be grey. Like dirty sweat-sock water.
1 cup commercial salsa, medium to hot
½ fresh jalapeno, minced
½ to 1 tsp chili powder
Granulated garlic
Onion powder

Garnish with:

Tortilla Chips/strips
Avocado
Sour cream
Shredded jalapeno jack cheese

Trim fat from chicken breast. Dust chicken with granulated garlic and onion powder. Mince jalapeno. Put chicken, jalapeno, and chicken broth in large, microwave-safe bowl with lid. Cook until chicken is done (about 5 minutes, depending on your microwave), remove from microwave and shred meat with two forks. Dump all contents into medium stockpot.

Add soup, chilis, corn, and black beans. Mix well. Add salsa and chili powder. Simmer for twenty minutes. Adjust seasoning. Serve with garnishes. Even cilantro.

Just don’t expect me to eat any of it.

VENISON CHILI 

By Barbara Winters 

VENISON CHILI 

After I mentioned that we got a backstrap of venison in trade for some of my husband's excellent smoked pork ribs, my house keeper asked if I liked venison.  Well, the conversation went more like this:

Her:  "You like derr?"
Me:  "What?"
Her:  "The derr?  You like the derr meat?"
Me:  "Oh, yes, yes we do.  Especially the sausage."
Her:  "Jose's cousin goes hunting and he brings us the... the derr heep."
Me:  "Mm hmm."
Her:  "Joo know.  The heep."
Me:  "Oh, yeah, the hip, ok, the haunch."
Her:  "Jess.  But two is too much."
Me:  "I'd think so."
Her:  "Joo wan' one?"
Me:  "Ah... Sure, that would be good."

So I got a very solidly frozen package of deer meat and began asking myself what we were going to do with it.

I  texted my husband that we had this and what should we do?  He said, "Stew.  Or chili."

Well chili sounded fascinating.  I began to explore the recipes for venison chili online and they seemed to be the same as beef chili.  I fell back on my absolute favorite chili recipe which I've used for ages.  It calls for 2 lbs. ofstew beef, shredded.  We ended up with 2 1/4 lbs of venison.  My husband gave it a brief time on the smoker for
a little bit of extra flavor first.

2 lbs. lean meat
1/3 cup chili powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 tablespoons masa flour (corn flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
2 cups picante sauce or salsa
2 cups water

Brown the meat and drain off fat.  In a Dutch oven, combine meat, water and salsa.  Bring to a simmer.
Ladle off 1 cup of hot liquid into a bowl and whisk thoroughly with the masa flour.  Slowly stir in to thicken.
Spread the cumin in a small pan and toast it over medium high heat, to bring out the flavor.
Add cumin and other ingredients.  Simmer on low for 1/2 hour to an hour.  Serves 8.
For hotter chili add jalapenos or more cayenne, to taste. Delicious ladled over cornbread.
*This recipe is taken from the pre-prepared mix credited to Carroll Shelby's Real Texas Chili.