Guide to holiday cooking...Make a plan, choose what's best and serve it with love!

As we approach the holidays it is good to plan ahead, taking stock of our pantries, our time and other resources. With a plan you will prevent stress and overkill and give yourself a true gift: peace of mind. I believe that the food traditions we establish and enjoy from year to year are those that best reflect our love…including self love and self care. Often the best choice is simplicity.

Today I share a mélange of really good recipes for a variety of occasions…from leftovers of Thanksgiving to holiday favorites that have been a part our family for many years.

As we enter the holiday season I believe that what matters most is that whatever you do, do it with love…and remember that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. He is the ‘reason for the season.’

Today most Americans will have a meal that features turkey. After dinner it becomes the cook’s challenge as to the next use of this special leftover. Here is a recipe combining two packaged sauce mixes, noodles and turkey. It is a recipe that has served our family well…especially when we have had houseguests…it’s easy, simple and attractive.

Turkey Noodle Milano

1 envelope sour cream sauce mix

1 envelope cheese sauce mix

1 ½ cups milk

1 (8-oz) pkg. medium egg noodles

2 tbsp. butter

2 cups diced cooked turkey

2 tbsp. finely minced parsley

½ tsp. paprika

Prepare the two sauce mixes as directed on the packages, using ½ cup milk for the sour cream mix and 1 cup milk for the cheese sauce mix.

Meantime, cook noodles in boiling salted water until just tender, then drain and rinse with hot water. Add butter and toss with a fork to coat with butter. Add turkey to cheese sauce and heat to serving temperature. Add sour cream mixture and heat only a minute or so.

Turn cooked noodles onto a hot platter or serving dish. Push toward the sides to form a nest. Fill nest with turkey mixture. Sprinkle with parsley and dust lightly with paprika. 4-5 servings.

Alas, I have no source to credit for this recipe! However, our family has adopted it since my first year after college…so it is surely one-of-the-family by now. It is an excellent choice to accompany turkey, pork, chicken, duck or goose. And, as it makes a generous salad, think of it, too, for a holiday buffet or potluck.

In our family, whenever we think of Aunt Pearl at the holidays, we all remember her painstaking and loving ways with cookies. She planned it all, carefully mixed, baked and lovingly stored the cookies that were then shared with family and numerous friends. I was blessed with inheriting her recipe box and thus her wonderful cookie recipes.

A family favorite, Melting Moments, is reported to have been on the label of a box of cornstarch decades ago. It matters not when or where it came about…it’s a great little cookie. For holiday “dress” tint the cream cheese frosting with red or green food coloring.

Cranberry Burgandy Salad

2 packages raspberry-flavored gelatin

1 ¼ cups hot water

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup sugar

1 can (1 ½ cups cranberry sauce

2 cups Burgundy wine

2 cups finely chopped celery

Salad greens

Mayonnaise or sour cream

Dissolve flavored gelatin in hot water. Add salt, sugar and cranberry sauce. Stir until well blended. Add wine, blend and chill until mixture begins to thick. Fold in chopped celery. Turn into large ring mold or individual salad molds and chill until firm. When ready to serve, unmold on lettuce-lined salad tray. Serve with whipped mayonnaise or dollops of sour cream. 10-12 servings.

Melting Moments

1 cup butter

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

¾ cup cornstarch

1 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour and cornstarch. Mix and chill. Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350-degree oven 10-12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (3-oz) pkg. cream cheese

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth and blend in vanilla or almond. Divide into two portions. Color each as desired with a few drops red or green food coloring.

Thumbprint cookies might be the most family-style cookie you’ll find for the holidays. Even the smallest child can participate in one part of making Thumbprint cookies…they can fill the thumprint with jelly, tinted confectioners’ sugar frost, Cream Cheese Frosting or chopped candied fruit. Older children can make the thumbprints…and teens could do the whole recipe. Grandparents can observe or supervise. Here’s our family version of an old favorite.

Thumbprint Cookies

1 cup flour

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup soft shortening

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg, separated into yolk and white

½ tsp. vanilla

¾ cup finely chopped nuts

Whisk flour with salt. Cream shortening. Gradually add sugar and continue creaming until mixture is light and fluffy. Blend in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour-salt mixture. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Beat egg white slightly. Put nuts in shallow bowl. Dip each cookie ball into egg white and roll in nuts. Place 1-inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375-degree oven 5 minutes. Remove from oven and quickly press thumb gently on top of each cookie. Return to oven and bake 8 minutes longer. Remove from oven. Cool on rack 1 minutes. Remove to wire racks and cool completely.

When cool, fill thumbprint with jelly, tinted confectioners’ sugar icing or bit of chopped candied fruit.