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Happy Thanksgiving!

In lieu of our regular Wednesday post, our writers have decided to share some of their favorite holiday recipes. We at Winter Street wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Liz Ciampa

Auntie Kerry's Kissed Caramel Hot Mulled Cider

Fresh apple cider

Mulling spices

Caramel-flavored vodka

To prepare the hot mulled cider: place loose mulling spices (such as crushed cinnamon, whole cloves, dried orange peel, whole allspice, nutmeg, etc; also, they are seasonally available prepackaged at supermarkets) in a cloth garni bag, a tea ball, or cheesecloth.  Place the spices and their container into a pot of fresh cider; simmer. Use 2 T spices per quart of cider; simmer 30 min for 1 quart; 60 min or more per gallon. When hot mulled cider is ready, enjoy as-is or add caramel vodka and stir: 1/2 jigger (3/4 oz.) per 8 ozs. cider. Adjust to taste and enjoy! This is a wonderfully warming drink in the fall and is fun to share with family and friends throughout the holiday season.

--Liz Ciampa, Beverly, Mass.

Law Hamilton

Base is a flavored butter that we traditionally make in the fall and use all winter.  We baste our turkey with it, saute veggies, pan sear pork chops, etc.  It takes sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary well.  Store in the refrigerator, it may separate and can be mixed back together.  

4 cups fresh apple cider 

2/3 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pepper

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks) - room temperature

In a large sauce pan over medium heat reduce the apple cider and maple syrup until reduced to 1 cups.  Remove from heat and cool slightly.  Add lemon peel, salt and pepper.  Whisk in butter until melted.  Pour into storage containers. Wait until completely cooled before putting into the refrigerator, stirring if it starts to separate.

Beth Walsh

My recipe for Crabbies may be one you already know, but I felt compelled to share because I cannot remember a family gathering where these delicious little nuggets did not make an appearance. Enjoy!

1 stick butter or margarine softened 

1 jar Old English cheese spread

2 tab. mayonnaise 

1/2 tsp. garlic salt 

1/2 tsp. seasoned salt 

7 oz. crab meat 

6 English muffins 

Mix all ingredients together. Spread on muffins. May freeze until ready to use. Broil until golden brown. Cut each muffin into 6 wedges and serve

Lauraine Lombara

 STUFFING OR DRESSING FOR THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Stuffing: cooked inside the bird-not my choice anymore.

Dressing: cooked outside the bird in a casserole-safer, more convenient to carry as a side and less cook time for the turkey. When butter, stock or a little pan drippings are added-same flavor results.

This recipe for dressing is enough for a 12-15lb. bird and will serve about 12 people. Double the recipe, if necessary. You can add or subtract from the ingredients or “improvise”; my favorite way of cooking. This is a recipe from my parents, both great cooks, which I have tweaked each time I make it; so folks, if you need “precise “ measurements, I say you should move on to the cookbooks or internet.

You will need:

12 cups soft breadcrumbs-hearty white, wheat(or mix) bread 1 stick of butter

½ cup broth or stock, chicken, vegetarian 1 cup sliced celery(@2 large ribs)

2 large onions, chopped small 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1lb. fresh mushrooms, any kind, rough chopped ½ cup raisins, dark or golden

½-3/4 lb. Italian style chicken sausage meat 1 apple, cored and rough chopped

(use hot, pork; your choice-squeeze meat from casing) ½-3/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

½ cup grated parmesan, romano(or mix)cheese

Spices: dry or fresh-I usually use @ 1tsp. poultry seasoning, 1-2 tsp. each, fresh rosemary and thyme and ½ tsp. sage. I limit the salt b/c of content in cheese, sausage meat and stock/broth. Use salt and pepper(fresh ground black) or dried red to taste.

In a large fry pan, saute sausage meat until lightly browned; pour off excess fat and set aside the meat.

Add 2 Tbs. butter to pan and saute onions, celery, garlic until wilted. Add apples and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.

Microwave the broth to heat; pour small amt. over raisins to soften for a few minutes. Remove raisins-save broth. Add raisins and herbs/ spices to pan mixture ; heat few minutes to combine.

In a large bowl(with room to toss), combine the bread crumbs(not as small as dried stuffing mix-about the size of small croutons), cheese , parsley, sausage meat, veggies from pan, reserved broth and butter which has been melted). Toss lightly to combine. If it seems too dry, add more broth, melted butter some pan drippings, or water; if too moist, add more bread or dry stuffing mix.

Bake at 350F in one large or two smaller, well coated (butter, oil, spray), oven-proof c asserole dishes, for about 45 minutes. I cover with foil for the first 30minutes and then uncover the last 15 minutes.

This can be done as Mr. Tom Turkey sits and rests from his oven roast.

N.B. If you care to add nuts, especially, pignoli or other tree nuts, warm in a pan to increase flavor prior to adding to mix; grated carrots, chestnuts, pre-cooked and chopped, fresh chopped fennel(blanched for a few minutes), eggs, beaten, or ground pork instead of sausage meat.

This is a surprise stuffing/dressing. You can tailor it to your taste. Have fun and enjoy the prep. In the words of my dear mother, “If you put in good ingredients and make it with love, it will come out delicious”!!!!

Have a very HAPPY Thanksgiving and be thankful for all our blessings.

Gail Balentine

Mincemeat Pie

Minced Pies are an English tradition, dating back centuries, that are said to have originated when the crusaders returned from the Middle East with recipes for what became a way to preserve meat without salting or smoking it. The pies were typically made with mutton, lamb, venison or beef, suet, fruits and spices and soon became known as Christmas Pies. Because they were associated with the holiday, three spices (usually cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg) were used to represent the three wise men and the pies were baked in oblong shapes to represent a manger. Pies like these are still made and enjoyed today.

A lighter, sweeter, meatless version evolved over time, also. It’s called “Mock Mincemeat” and is made with fruit and spices or with green tomatoes, fruit and spices. Recipes for how to make mincemeat from scratch with meat or without are available online and in cookbooks.

A shorter and simpler way to enjoy mincemeat pie today is to buy one of the prepared products (such as None Such) at the supermarket. Read labels carefully as ingredients vary - some prepared mixes may contain meat or brandy as well as fruit, sugar and spices.

Prepare a pie shell and EITHER follow package directions to use as is OR some manufacturers provide recipes for adding other ingredients on the label itself or on their website. Since this pie is very filling, if it’s being made to serve the next day, a lattice crust top works well to keep it a bit lighter. If you want to make the pie ahead and freeze it, a full crust top works best.

Over the years, I’ve made Mock Mincemeat from scratch at the end of the growing season when the garden is full of green tomatoes and the apples are just coming in but I’ve also bought jarred products and added ingredients. Either way, it has been a delicious family tradition that I hope you try sometime. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Marriage Testing Event

by Law Hamilton

The match burned out from between his fingers… darkness.

“Ouch,” he uttered, before sucking on the burned appendages, “I guess I should have a bowl of snow for such injuries..”  A long exhale and a small chuckle.

The storm had hit with enough force to take out six telephone poles at the top of the road.  Even if they had dug out the cars there was no where to go.  Plows could not make it into the town.  They were expecting the snow, but the winds had left the neighborhood dark.

The electricity had been out for four days. The sun had set and the cold started creeping in from the corners of the house.  The cold like a dark blanket from an unwanted friend.  The fire no longer provided illumination and was a slow smolder.  The futon was in front of the fire with a wool blanket and a down comforter on top with the dog as close to the fireplace as it dared.

“We should do another wood run,” he said.  

She looked at the empty wood rack that they had just filled at what she thought was noon.  They had both lost feeling in fingers and toes as they hauled the wood into the house. All wood they had stacked on the porch was gone, as of yesterday.  It had taken an hour of shoveling through three feet of snow and high winds that lashed at them on the way to the woodshed earlier in the day.  The distance had seemed so short, when they had stacked the wood from the fallen oak in the spring.  Now it was their only source of warmth and so far away.  

 Neither sleeping well the past few days - lack of food, caffeine, and warmth - as one or the other had to stir the fire in the negative degrees that was night.

“What’s your plan for dinner?” he asked.

“Whatever you can make,” she answered.  She loved to cook - but without a stove and a previous day’s argument about how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, she was at wit’s end.  The lingering smell of the burnt cheese both nauseated her and made her hungry.  She would have to deal with the pan when the power was back, but she had half a mind to throw it out and not have it linger as a souvenir.

“I need to know there is food at the end of our next wood run...”  he said, trying to soften the request.  Neither had any coping mechanisms at the moment.

She lit a candle from the coals in the fireplace, cupped the flame and headed to the kitchen.  They had finished the bread and milk trying to make coffee (burned) and sandwiches.  The canned soup was gone two days ago, and all the tea that was left was herbal.

“There is tinned crab meat and gin, left - no limes and no tonic.”  She tried to remember the recipe she had purchased the tinned crab meat for, but dropped the candle in her wanderings, “F%$K!!!”  

The candle went out.  She longed for warm summer days when after a Saturday lawn mowing and tending to the veggie garden, they would ceremoniously pour a gin and tonic, heavy on the lime and enjoy their bounty.

“Let’s bundle-up for the next wood run,” he replied to the darkness.

Epilogue - The power come on in the wee hours of the fifth morning.  After waiting for the hot water heater to do it’s job and for batteries to recharge, they grabbed hot showers and started a google search on how to survive power outages.  Their Amazon Wish List now included, a generator, a butane burner, waterproof matches, a coffee percolator, and several other survival items.

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Thanksgiving's Bounty

by Charlotte Savage

An hour’s ride to New Hampshire

To a rural town, just a main street.

Snowflakes flying everywhere

A virgin blanket everything so neat.

Farmland covered and sleeping,

Newly made footsteps in the snow;

A wild turkey ran across a field,

Safe for the present, I know!

A table laden with delectable food,

Family and friends gathering to share;

Two birthdays--- an engagement,

The Thanksgiving spirit definitely here.

Two families coming together

Future in-laws join in the fun;

Truly a celebration of families

Asking God’s blessing for the years to come.

I gaze out over the pristine land

Thinking of this day we have shared;

Hearing a one year old's chatter,

Watching grandsons playing tag.

A momentary glow in darkening skies,

Sun filtering through trees laden with snow;

Pine needles sparkle like diamonds on velvet;

Giving off a borealis glow.

I spied a squirrel in an old oak tree

Watching humans milling about;

Happy for the warmth of logs from the fireplace;

To be the person on the inside looking out.

© 2015 Charlotte Savage all rights reserved

Memoir 101

by Elizabeth Aharonian Moon

Assignment: Halloween

How do you spend Halloween? the teacher asked.

Write for ten minutes, the teacher said.

For twenty years now, we have a birthday party for a dead guy. Six, eight, sometimes nine of us gather at his granite coffee table in the cemetery, always at dusk (the universal cocktail hour!), always on the 31^st. Cynthia brings her silver candelabra and sometimes a fat pumpkin carved with a crescent smile; someone else brings a pot of chrysanthemums; we “set” the table and suddenly a plate of cheese and crackers is there amidst the candlelight; Arny spreads the caviar on squares of pumpernickel with chopped red onion and sliced boiled eggs on the side. George lets down the back of his SUV and puts in the tape. The Yale Russian Chorus blares out, over tombstones and headstones, over darkening hills and trees—and then—we hear him, the dead guy, our friend Bill, sing out, solo, in his luscious baritone. He is with us, resurrected, and we toast him with our little glasses, re-membering him; he is with us.

Sometimes it's colder than a witch's tit in that cemetery; sometimes it is raining like hell and we crowd under the big black umbrella Nancy has borrowed from her brother-in-law, the funeral director. Once, the moon was so full it almost fell on us as we poured what little there was left of the Stoli onto his sunken grave. Happy birthday, Bill...Happy birthday, Dubs...Happy birthday, Dr. A.--you, the man of many names and faces, you who, in life, gathered us up and drove us nuts and then up and died on April Fool's Day. The irony of it.