Tradition? Tradition!

So it’s been over a month since our last update, as my loyal followers keep telling me. Truth be told, Turkey Day kind of wiped us out. We hadn’t even been grocery shopping since that week. Pathetic, isn’t it? We haven’t really cooked anything of note in the meantime, so we felt no urge to update here.

With that annual, over commercialized, hyped up, gift giving holiday now past I felt inspired to write about some of my favorite “traditional” holiday dishes. These are recipes I know by heart (by stomach?) and ones that I only learned through watching them be made every (or so) year.

Now the Smith family does not really hold to “traditions.” You won’t find us doing the same thing every year for any reason, we don’t have special places we go or special stories we read. We rarely even erect the oh-so-pagan “Christmas” tree.

Side note: Karin and I did buy a tiny little white one this year, which I displayed my Grimmleigh’s Jolly Eyebally on (shout out to Rachel and Leigh. Check out their blog/shop over in the sidebar!) Total impulse purchase.

Anyway, we don’t do “normal” family activities. Who needs tradition?! However, there are a few recipes that we make almost every year (at least 3 out of 5, so we will call that traditional.)

Sadly, one of these recipes can no longer be made in the way we have always done it. This year our Cheeseball Dip was retired as Kraft Foods stopped making one of the vital ingredients, Roka Blue Cheese jar cheese. They stopped making the Old English variety a few years ago, so we were forced to use the American instead. I will list the recipe so you can all marvel at the calorie and fat laden delight that was “Cheeseball Dip.” I call it dip because we never could get it to form into a ball, so we served it in a bowl and usually mixed the nuts right into it, as opposed to rolling the ball in chopped nuts.

 Now I can hear some of you asking “What in the heck (hey it’s Utah) is jar cheese?” It’s the tiny glass jars of cheese food stuff that are usually located above the Velveeta and Cheeze Whiz (the horror!!) This stuff:

Five Cup Salad is a wonderful fruit salad that is also calorie laden, but isn’t that required at this time of year? Being a holiday recipe it also requires marshmallows and maraschino cherries, which makes it a pink fluffy delight! I would eat bowls of this stuff as a child and always looked forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas just for this dish.

Finally, most of you will probably be familiar with (and have your own recipes for) “Funeral potatoes” aka “Sunshine potatoes” aka “Cheesy potatoes” aka “Mormon Tates.” I have it on good authority that Mos are not the only ones to make these, though probably the most prolific (pun intended!) This is my mother’s recipe, though I often eliminate the onions or replace them with green onions when I make it. Additionally crumbled potato chips or panko bread crumbs are always an option for a topping instead of the cornflakes.

Thanks to Mom for having these recipes all typed up, it saved me much work!  :D

 Cheeseball Dip (Retired?) 

2- 5 oz jars Kraft Old English cheese (or American)

1- 5 oz jar Kraft Roka Blue cheese

1 -3 oz package cream cheese

Dash of Accent or Seasoning Salt

1 Tbsp Dried Chives or ¼ c fresh chopped green onion

¼ c chopped pecans or almonds

Mix all cheeses together in a bowl until cream cheese is all blended in. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve or start eating right away. I recommend letting it sit for a few hours to give all the flavors a chance to meld. I absolutely love this served on Triscuits, Mom is partial to Wheat Thins.

I have made this with the Bacon flavored jar cheese before and liked it, but if you do not like smoky flavors I wouldn’t recommend that. We might try making this with some crumbled blue cheese and some extra cream cheese, but only if we can find a super mild blue.

5 CUP SALAD

5-6 servings

1 cup chunk or tidbit pineapple (drained)

1 cup mandarin oranges (drained)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mini-marshmallows

Optional:  chopped maraschino cherries

In a bowl, combine all ingredients.  Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Mom calls the cherries optional, I say they are necessary! The pink tinge and extra sweetness just add to this ambrosial delight. Children love this salad, not surprisingly.

FUNERAL POTATOES

Serves 8

2 lb. pkg frozen cubed hash brown potatoes or shredded (I like the shredded myself)

1/3 cup diced onion (green or white)

1/2 cup melted margarine

1/4 tsp pepper

1 Teaspoon salt

1 -2 Cups sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup (could use cream of mushroom, potato, celery)

2 Cups grated Cheddar cheese

2 cups lightly crushed corn flakes mixed with

2 Tablespoons melted margarine

Mix all ingredients together while potatoes are still frozen, except corn flake mixture.  Put into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.  Top with the corn flake mixture.  Bake at 350^o for 55 minutes. 

I prefer the shredded potatoes as the cubes are sometimes still hard. To mix it up and add flavor and color you could use the frozen Potatoes O’Brian

Those are the only three recipes I can remember having at practically every holiday dinner. Not fancy, not really unique, but comforting and familiar. This is the closest my family has ever come to tradition and that is ok by me.

Speaking of holidays, Karin got an Indian cookbook for Xmas, so be prepared for a lot of curry and saag coming your way!