Posts from the ‘Halloween’ Category

Oct 21

A HALLOWEEN DINNER AT HOME

Over the years I’ve written posts on dinner for Halloween night, approaching the subject from the standpoint of dealing with trick-or-treaters-in the family, at the door or both. That tradition, however, changed with the pandemic but Halloween is still a popular holiday. So this year, I decided to create a dinner menu to share with family, or a few friends. Here are my suggestions. The dishes are quite simple but convey the spirit of the holiday. Oh! The Biersuppe is fine for kids, and they love the idea of the ingredients-especially boys. It became a family favorite of ours.

If you still have trick-or-treaters to consider, below is a list of my posts, with embedded links. They discuss the pros and cons of options from casseroles able to be served in shifts, to fast food, to finger-food dinners. All suggestions are offered with an eye to being easily consumed without danger to costumes.

October 14, 2015- Great Dinner Ideas For Trick Or Treat Night
October 20. 2016–6 EASY TRICK-OR-TREAT SUPPERS–
September 27, 2019 –TRICK OR TREAT SUPPERS

RECIPES

Halloween Cheese Ball: Yield about 2 cups
(1) 8 oz. package cream cheese
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot sauce
½ tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbs. sour cream
½ tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. paprika
½ cup black sesame seeds
Process first 6 ingredients until smooth, adding more sour cream by the teaspoon if mix seems too stiff. Chill mixture on waxed paper until firm enough to roll into a ball. Combine last 3 ingredients and roll the cheese ball in it until completely covered. Chill until ready to serve.

Sun Dried Tomato Pate: Yield 1 ½ cups
½ cup sundries tomatoes in oil
8oz. cream cheese softened
¼ cup=1/2 stick butter
½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
¼ tsp. each dried oregano and basil
½ tsp. rosemary

Combine all ingredients in a processor. Pulse until smooth, pausing often .to scrape the sides. Chill at least 4 hrs. before serving. Can be served with toasted slices of Italian bread .Leftovers make good sandwiches.
Serving Suggestion: Break bread sticks in half. Using a Q-Tip or small paint brush, paint fingernails on the rounded ends of the bread sticks with black food coloring.

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Biersuppe: Serves 4-From recipeland.com
1 ½ Tbs. flour
1 ½ Tbs. butter
(2) 16 oz. cans or bottles bock beer
1 small cinnamon stick
1 tsp. to 1 Tbs. sugar-to taste
2 egg yolks
½ cup milk
1 slice bread per serving-diced in croutons and toasted-suggested Jewish rye
Brown the flour in the butter, then add beer. Add cinnamon and sugar and bring to a boil. Whisk together the egg yolk and milk and stir into the hot (but no longer boiling) beer. Strain and serve garnished with toasted croutons.

Stew in a Pumpkin; Serves 6-8
3 Tbs. butter
2 lbs. beef for stew cubed
3 Tbs. cornstarch
2 large onions diced
3 tomatoes chopped
2 Tbs. butter
¼ tsp. EACH salt and pepper
3 cups beef stock
½ lb. prunes
½ lb. dried apricots
3 sweet potatoes sliced
(2) 10 oz. packages corn –thawed and drained
1 pumpkin, top cut off and reserved, cleaned of pulp and seeds.
Melt 3 Tbs. butter in a Dutch oven. Roll the meat in the cornstarch and brown. Set aside. Melt 2 Tbs. butter in a separate pan and sauté vegetables until tender. Add to meat with juices. Add all remaining ingredients except pumpkin, cover and simmer 1 hr. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Ladle stew into the pumpkin; set in a roasting pan with 1 inch of water, and bake for 1 hr. Carefully transfer pumpkin from the pan to a serving dish and replace its top as a lid for garnish. Serve at once scooping out some of the pumpkin meat as you ladle out the portions.
Single servings can be made using individual tiny pumpkins or delicata squash. Reduce oven time to 45 min.

NOTE: I save clean-up by sautéing the vegetables in the Dutch oven first and then browning the meat. It’s one less pot. Also if you have it on hand, replace one cup of stock with beer. It deepens the flavor.

Carrot Slaw; Serves 4
4 medium-small carrots
1/3 cup dark raisins. optionally plumped in water
¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts- optional
¼ head of iceberg lettuce
Choice of dressing*
Peel carrot skins and using a vegetable peeler, slice them one half the length at a time, into a “slaw”. Toss with the dried fruit and set aside. If not using right away, keep chilled Cut the lettuce into very thin slices and then cut them in half lengthwise, removing the tough core pieces . Arrange the lettuce equally on 4 plates. Toss the carrots with choice of dressing and divide among the plates. Garnish with nuts.
*This salad goes well with several dressings. French. Peppercorn Ranch, Vidalia onion, Cole Slaw, Caesar.

Chocolate-Orange Sour Cream Pie: Serves 8-10
Crust
2 Cups crushed plain vanilla cookies
(1) stick butter= ¼ lb.-melted
3 Tbs .unsweetened baking chocolate powder
Mix the ingredients and press into the bottom, up the sides and over the rim of a 9 inch pie pan. Bake 8 min. in a preheated 350 deg. oven, remove and cool.

Filling

(1) 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk MIXED WITH
Sour cream-sufficient to equal 2 cups – about 2/3 cup
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 Tbs. orange zest
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 Tbs. orange liqueur-Optional
½ cup dark chocolate-grated or chopped chips.
Soften the gelatin by soaking 5 min. in the orange juice. Combine the Condensed milk, sour cream and zest in a bowl. Dissolve the gelatin by heating the orange juice in the microwave 30 sec. If it doesn’t dissolve easily, heat it an additional 5 sec. or so, but be sure it is completely liquid before proceeding. Add the juice with gelatin to the bowl with the
milk, sour cream, liqueur, if using, and zest. Whisk well to incorporate. Pour the filling mixture into the pie
shell, sprinkle over chocolate morsels and chill at least 2 hours until well set. Serve cold.

Oct 25

CASUAL MUSHROOM SOUPS FOR FALL

As a parent, I’m well aware of the problems of feeding a family on Trick or Treat Night. Depending on the children’s age range, dinner can take three servings, with the adults eating after the door finally closes. So the food has to fill certain requirements. It has to be tempting enough that kids will stop to eat; quickly consumed, needing few utensils, with minimal risk of spills, keep fresh for hours and be an easy clean-up.

After discovering casseroles dry up, stews, chunky soups and hoagies are messy, take out and pizzas get cold and soggy, I finally found a platter of sandwiches and a hearty, drinkable soup were the answer. The sandwiches can come from a Deli, as long as they’re covered and on rolls or a dense bread like rye, they’ll stay fresh. The soup should be thick enough to satisfy, yet thin enough to drink from a mug.

I’ve written posts on this subject with suggestions particularly Oct. 14, 2015 and Oct. 20,2016, but then it occurred to me that mushrooms, though available all year, really are fall produce. Most people like them and they make wonderful soups and easily made, hearty, satisfying recipes are welcome additions to a casual meal at any time.

I’ve given nine recipes below which fill the bill. The first has a ‘company’ version and the last plays both ways, but generally they’re all casual fare, to be served in mugs and re-heatable in the microwave. There are a few tips first. Unless otherwise specified, Portabellas or Baby Bellas are the mushrooms of choice. However, for creamed soups, buttons can be substituted or mixed in to keep the color light. Heavy cream, half-and-half and skim milk are the only ones to use in cooking. The fat content in other grades of milk and cream cause them to ‘break’ or curdle when heated.

Even if you don’t have Trick or Treaters, treat yourself to one of these wonderful soups.

Cream of Mushroom Soup 1:

Serves 6
1/3 cup butter
1lb. mushrooms –sliced
1 quart chicken or beef stock
3 Tbs. flour
2 cups heavy cream or half-and-half
Salt and pepper
½ cup sweet or dry sherry-optional
Saute mushrooms in butter until juices render. Add stock, cover and simmer 15 min. Drain mushrooms, return stock to pot, placing ½ cup in a lidded jar, add flour to jar. Puree mushrooms and return to stock. Shake jar to dissolve flour and add to soup. Bring to a simmer, stirring until thickened slightly. Add dairy and seasonings and heat through. Add sherry before serving.

Cream of Mushroom Soup 2:

Serves 6
Modifications to above ingredients:
¼ cup butter
1Tbs.flour
1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
¼ tsp. EACH paprika and caraway seed
½ lb. puff pastry dough
1 egg lightly beaten
Dill weed
Follow the above directions adding the seasonings and sherry with the dairy. Pour soup into 6 custard cups and roll out pastry cutting 6 circles to fit the cup tops and brush the cup edges with egg. Cover the cups with pastry, poke air vents in each and bake at 400 deg.for20 min. until golden. Serve garnished with dill.

Mushroom and Bread Soup:

Serves 8 –From 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby
6 Tbs. butter
2 lb. mushrooms-sliced
2 onions- chopped
3 cups skim milk
8 slices white bread
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Saute vegetables in butter over low heat until soft but not browned. Remove from heat, add milk and bread, cover and soak 15 min. Puree, return to pot, add cream, seasonings and 3Tbs.parsley. Reheat and serve, garnished with parsley.

Dried Mushroom and Barley Soup:

Serves 6- From Soups and Stews by Barbara Grunes
¼ lb. dried mushrooms
1 quart boiling water
1 quart chicken or beef stock
¼ cup butter
2 large onions – diced
3 Tbs. flour
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2 cups cooked barley
Salt and pepper
Reconstitute mushrooms in water, strain well, reserving 1quart liquid and slice mushrooms thinly. Return to pot with liquid and stock, simmer for 1 hr. or until fluid is reduced by half. Saute onions in butter until soft, stir in flour to make a roux—smooth paste—add 1 cup of soup stock and cook until thickened and stir into soup pot. Add seasonings and barley and heat through.

Mushroom and Potato Soup:

Serves 6- From Soups and Stews by Barbara Grunes
1 lb. mushrooms- sliced
1 ½ quarts beef stock- ½ cup reserved
1 large onion –halved and thinly sliced
2 carrots-thinly sliced
4 potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
1Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. caraway seed
Place first 5 ingredients in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 min. Stir flour into reserved stock until dissolved and add to soup with butter and caraway. Stir until thickened slightly, about 5 min. Serve hot.
NOTE: For children, soup can be pureed before flour is added.

Mushroom and Brie Soup:

Serves 6-From Rozanne Gold’s Recipes 1-2-3
2/3 cup dried mushrooms
3 cups boiling water + 2 cups
1 ½ lb. onions-thinly sliced
9 oz. Brie cheese-rind removed-in small cubes
Salt and pepper
Reconstitute mushrooms in hot water 30 min. Drain mushrooms, strain and reserve liquid. Saute onions in a non-stick skillet about 15 min. until golden and chop mushrooms. Simmer onions, soaking liquid and water for 45 min. Gradually add cheese, stirring until melted, then mushrooms to taste –you may not want them all. Add seasonings and serve just warm.

Mushroom and Herb Potage:

Serves 4-6- Modified from 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby
1lb.mushrooms- roughly chipped
1Tbs, butter
1 Tbs. oil
1 large onion or 3 small shallots-chopped
3 cups vegetable or beef stock
1 cup skim milk OR 4 cups stock
2 Tbs. sherry
2 Tbs. chopped fresh mixed herbs OR 2 Tbs. tarragon
¼ cup Greek yogurt OR sour cream
Cover and sweat onions and mushrooms in oil until softened and juices are released. Add remaining ingredients but yogurt and simmer, covered for about 10-12 min. Puree, reheat and serve with a dollop of yogurt.

Mushroom and Celery Soup:

Serves 4- Modified from 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby
4 ½ cups chopped mushrooms
4 thinly sliced celery sticks
3 garlic cloves- mashed
4 Tbs. sherry or white wine
3 cups beef stock
1 tsp. EACH Worcestershire sauce and nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Over low heat, cook the mushrooms, celery, garlic, wine and ½ cup stock about 30 min. covered, until soft. Add I cup stock and puree. Return to pot with the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil, season and serve, garnished with celery leaves.