Grandma Cluff's Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

Living with my grandfather, I am getting to know a lot about how my grandmother cooked. The other day, he mentioned the Blue Cheese Salad Dressing she used to make that he liked. Taking the hint, I pawed through her recipe boxes and followed her instructions to produce it for him. Blue Cheese is not my favorite dressing, but this was edible. More than that, it was a way to remember my grandmother.

Grandma Cluff's Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
1 clove garlic
3 TBSP chopped onion
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise (do not use light mayo)
1/2 to 1 cup Blue Cheese

Mix in blender. Thin with additional lemon juice if desired. Add chunks of Blue Cheese.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 cups.

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I couldn't find the blender base or the food processing cup, so I just minced the garlic and onion really fine with a chef's knife, but I can see how the use of electric kitchen helps would have sped the process up. Still, it's nice to know the old-fangled ways still work sometimes.

Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed with Marinated Feta

From July 2009 Bon Apetit Magazine.

Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed with Marinated Feta

One 7-8 oz package feta cheese, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP minced shallot (green onions are a good substitution)
1/2 tsp chopped fresh oregano (fresh basil is also good)
1 pound large cherry tomatoes (the larger the easier)
12 pitted Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise

Toss the cheese, oil, shallot, and oregano in a bowl and add a little salt & pepper to taste.

Cut your tomatoes in half (on the equator) and scoop out the pulp. (I saved the pulp and put it in cottage cheese at my house, in salsa when Gazpacho and I made this at her house, but you do what you think is best with the tomato innards.) Put the hollowed halves on a serving plate and sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Stuff the hollows with the cheese mixture and slide the olive in alongside the cheese. If you wish, you can drizzle with additional olive oil. Cover and chill.

Bon Apetit says you can make these 6 hours ahead of when you plan to serve them.

Raspberry Citrus Bars

Thanks for the recipe Gazpacho!

Raspberry Citrus Bars

1 cup butter (no substitutions says the recipe)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour

Cream the butter until soft, and then add your dry ingredients in. (This is easier if you do it in batches: otherwise flour kind of explodes everywhere.) When this is thoroughly combined, press it into a greased 13x9x2" pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes (it will look slightly golden brown). While that's baking, continue with the rest of the recipe.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 TBSP orange peel (I used lemon for this since I was squeezing the lemon for the juice anyhow)
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine the above ingredients thoroughly so that this custard is ready to pour over the top of the crust you're baking.

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries, washed (I used boysenberries since that is what is growing outside, and when Heather and I made it we used a frozen berry blend from the store that contained raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Use whatever berries you have and like and I'm sure it'll work out great.)

When the crust has finished baking, remove it from the oven and distribute the berries evenly over it. Then pour the custard over the berries and return the pan to the 350 oven for another 30 to 35 minutes (done when the middle is set).

Cool in the pan set on a wire rack. If desired sprinkle with additional powdered sugar when serving.

Scratcheroni and Cheese

Several years ago, Gazpacho gave me the brilliant idea of adding sour cream to a cheese sauce when making macaroni and cheese. This recipe takes a remarkably short amount of time to whip up, but is worth it when you really want macaoni & cheese but don't want to face one more boxed dinner. Unfortunately...or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the recipe is highly imprecise, which means that you can alter it for any amount of persons you want.

Scratcheroni & Cheese

Macaroni (or other pasta shape if you prefer)

Cook this until al dente and drain it thoroughly. While you're cooking this, create a white sauce. I like mine thick, so it's usually equal proportions of flour and butter and about 1/3 cup milk for every 2 TBSP butter, but you can thin it however you want. Once your white sauce is nice & thick, add in SHARP (or Extra-Sharp) Cheddar cheese, a heaping dollop of sour cream, and cook/stir until the cheese is melted. Stir this all over into your pasta, add salt & pepper (and more sour cream if you want) and enjoy!

The sour cream makes it creamier, holds the cheese in suspension better so that leftovers aren't all greezy and separating, and it adds a piquancy that the mac-from-a-box just can't achieve (though you can stir in some sour cream and a little dill weed if you want to better up your box lunch).

Iced Citrus Wafers

This recipe comes from the Monster Cookies cookbook which I'm not even sure my mom still has, but in there it's called "Iced Lemon Wafers." I personally like to make these with lime juice/peel (and substitute vanilla for almond extract) better, and Bonitinha has experimented with other citrus fruits and found (if I recall correctly) that orange doesn't yield a nice icing: too much water in fresh squeezed juice I guess. Still, you could concentrate that down if you're just dying for some orange frosted cookies. I believe Gazpacho once experimented with a Lime Rickey variation that involved some cherries in the lime wafer version. Whatever you decide, enjoy!

Iced Lemon Wafers
1/2 cup margarine (this actually works best with margarine, not butter. Go figure!)
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP finely grated lemon peel
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 TBSP cornstarch

Lemon Juice
Powdered Sugar

Thoroughly combine all ingredients (dough will be dry), shape into a cylinder and wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour. (I actually just refrigerate the dough in the bowl: I don't like having to cut my wafers and prefer to roll them into balls and then flatten them with the bottom of a cup, but you do what's easiest.) Cut your wafers into 1/8" slices and bake on a cookie sheet (greasing not necessary) at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack and then ice with a combination of lemon juice and powdered sugar thinned to either a drizzling consistency or thick enough to spread (whatever your choice).

Funeral Potatoes

Don't you hate it when you have a recipe you know you like but every darn time you want to make it you have to go back and find the recipe somewhere in your collections of books or call people to get it or run a google search (now that that's an option)? Yeah: this is one I keep losing, so I'm putting it in this ONE place along with some others I know I like and never can quite put my fingers on. I'm sure it has a better name than funeral potatoes, but what it is, I'm sure I don't know.

Funeral Potatoes
6 cups diced, peeled potatoes (~6-8) (or 2 lbs frozen hash browns)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 soup can of milk
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
salt & pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes (or thaw) until tender and put in 2-3 qt casserole (9x13" pan). Combine soup, milk, sour cream, cheese, and onion with salt & pepper to taste. Mix that goop up and spread it on the potatoes. At this point, if you want a crispy topping, crush enough corn flakes to yield 3/4 cup crumbs and mix them up with 3 TBSP melted butter and put this all over the top.
Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (hot/bubbly throughout).

FCG: Grandma's Christmas Punch

Grandma's Christmas Punch

Boil for 10 minutes:
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 quart water
Add:
12 whole cloves
4 sticks cinnamon
4 whole allspice berries
Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.
Add:
3 cups orange juice
2 cups lemonade
2 quarts apple cider

Heat through and serve warm.