Sugar Cookie Murder (23 page)

1 ½ cups boiling water

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon paprika

2 cups cold ginger ale (Andrea uses Vernor’s)

2 cups sliced canned pears, drained

2 cups pineapple tidbits, drained

2/3 cups slivered almonds

Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Add salt and paprika. Let cook to room temperature.

Add cold ginger ale. Refrigerate until partially set. (Andrea’s instructions are: “It should look like jelly on hot toast.”)

Stir in sliced pears, pineapple tidbits, and slivered almonds. Pour into a 2-quart mold and refrigerate overnight.

Dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise

¼ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon honey

Mix up the mayonnaise, cream, and honey. Put them in a little dish with a spoon next to the Jell-O on the table.

To serve Jell-O, turn out on a platter and invite people to take a slice and top it with a little dressing.

HOLIDAY JELL-O MOLD

Andrea’s recipe again. She collects Jell-O recipes.

1 large package (6 ounces) lime Jell-O

1 cup boiling water

¾ cup cold water

Stir Jell-O powder into boiling water until dissolved. Add cold water and set aside to let cool.

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 medium-sized rip avocados, mashed

1/3 cup sour cream

2-3 drops of green food coloring

Combine salt, lemon juice, mashed avocados, and sour cream. Stir until smooth. Add food coloring and mix thoroughly.

Coat a Bundt cake pan or other 2-quart mold with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Stir avocado mixture into cooled lime Jell-O and pour into Bundt cake pan. Refrigerate until firm. (2-4 hours — overnight is fine, too.)

1 1/3 cups boiling water

1 large package (6ounces) cranberry or raspberry Jell-O

one 8 ½-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice

32 ounces canned whole-berry cranberry sauce

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Add pineapple, cranberry sauce, and horseradish. Mix thoroughly. Refrigerate until syrupy (approximately 1 hour).

Spoon cranberry mixture carefully over the avocado mixture. Refrigerate until firm (at least 4 hours — overnight is fine, too.)

Unmold on a pretty platter to serve.

Andrea complains that this recipe is too complicated for her, but if we beg, she makes it every year for Thanksgiving, and it’s wonderful with turkey. She does the lime Jell-O layer the night before and the cranberry Jell-O layer on Thanksgiving morning.

PRETTY COLESLAW

This is what Andrea calls “Green Jell-O.” She makes it for special occasions.

2 large packages (6 ounces each) lime Jell-O (we like it with lemon, too)

4 cups boiling water

2 cups mayonnaise

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup vinegar (Andrea uses raspberry vinegar)

2 cups cold water

4 cups cabbage, finely shredded (Andrea buys it pre-shredded)

2 cups celery, finely diced

¼ cup onion, finely diced

In a large bowl, dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Let cool slightly. Add mayonnaise, salt, and vinegar. Stir until blended. Then add cold water and refrigerate until mixture is syrupy, but not completely set. (This will take an hour to 1 ½ hours.)

Coat Jell-O mold(s) with nonstick cooking spray. (Andrea uses one Bundt cake pan that holds 8 cups, and one small, 2-cup mold.)

Beat partially set Jell-O mixture until fluffy. Then mix in the shredded cabbage, diced celery, and diced onion.

Pour or ladle the mixture into the molds you’ve chosen and refrigerate them for another 2 hours. Then cover the tops with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least another 4 hours before unmolding.

To unmold, you have two choices. Andrea sets the molds in the back of her Volvo and drives around town for ten minutes or so to jiggle the Jell-O loose. This works just fine if you’re taking it to a potluck dinner at the Lake Eden Community Center, or to someone’s house for dinner. If you’re not, you can do what I do.

I pull the Jell-O away from the sides (and from the funnel in the middle, if you’re using the Bundt pan) by putting the pads of my impeccably clean fingers close to the edge and pulling back gently. If that hasn’t loosened it enough, I go to plan B and partially immerse the mold in warm water for a very few seconds, then pull it out and dry the bottom. I place the serving platter upside down over the top of the Jell-O mold and invert the whole thing at once (and over the sink, to avoid spills).

QUICK PICKLE SALAD

This is Reverend Knudson’s recipe. He says to tell you that if you make these pickles in the morning, you can serve them at suppertime. He also says they’re even better the next day, but he bets they won’t last that long.

34 ounces canned sliced beets

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½ slices

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons whole pickling spices*

2/3 cup white vinegar

2/3 cup white (granulated) sugar

• Pickling spices are a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, mustard seeds, coriander, ginger, chilies, cloves, black pepper, mace, cardamom, and bay leaves. The Reverend says that if you don’t like one of those spices, you can mix your own pickling spices and just leave out the one you don’t care for.
  

Drain the beets and reserve 2/3 cup of the liquid. Place the drained beets, sliced cucumbers, and sliced onions in a large saucepan on the stove. Stir them gently with a wooden spoon to mix them.

Tie the pickling spices in a square of cheesecloth and drop them in on top of the pickles-to-be in the saucepan.

Add white vinegar and beet juice and stir everything around until it’s mixed.

Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until the liquid boils. Immediately take off the heat, transfer to a glass or ceramic bowl, cover tightly with a cover or with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Remove the pickling spices before serving.

The Revered also says to tell you that you can do this whole thing in the microwave if you like. (That’s the way he does it.) Just put everything in a microwave-safe bowl, heat it on FULL power for approximately 12 minutes, or until it boils. Stop the microwave every 4 minutes to stir it. When it’s ready, cover the bowl and refrigerate the pickles, just like you’d do if you made them on top of the stove.

WALDORF SALAD JELL-O

This is another recipe from my sister Andrea. It’s the last Jell-O mold, and I think it’s the best.

1 large package (6 ounces) of lemon Jell-O (or other light-colored flavor)

2 cups boiling water

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup cold water

2 cups apple, finely diced (you can leave the peel on if you wish)

1 cup celery, finely diced

½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Dump the Jell-O into a large bowl and dissolve it in the 2 cups of boiling water. Add the mayonnaise and stir until it’s evenly distributed. Then add the cup of cold water, stir, and refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until it’s partially set.

Beat the partially set Jell-O with a wire whip to make it fluffy. (You can also do this with a spoon, but it’ll take a bit more effort.)

Stir in the diced apple, diced celery, and chopped walnuts. Spray a 2-quart Jell-O mold with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the Jell-O mixture.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. (Overnight is really best.)

Unmold and serve on red or curly lettuce leaves. You can also leave it intact on the platter and let everyone serve themselves.

Yield: approximately 7 cups of really delicious Jell-O.

AUNT GRACE’S BREAKFAST MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F., rack in middle position.

This recipe is from my friend, Terry Sommers (no relation to Becky Summers.) These muffins are just incredible. When we tested that at the Christmas potluck, we came very close to putting them on the dessert table.

1 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly ground is best)

½ cup white (granulated) sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

½ cup milk

1 ½ cups apples, cored, peeled, and then shredded (measure after shredding)

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In another bowl, blend the sugar and melted butter together. Let cool to room temperature.

Add the egg, milk, and shredded apples to the butter and sugar mixture. Stir well. Then mix in the dry ingredients you’ve set aside.

Fill well-greased muffin tins 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20-25 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the tins for 10 minutes, and then turn them out.

Topping:

¼ cup butter

½ cup white (granulated) sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

*Use ½ cup if you really want to be sinful! It’s wonderful!

Melt the butter and pour it into a shallow bowl. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in another shallow bowl. Roll the muffins in the melted butter and then in the sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Yield: 12 muffins

These muffins are wonderful warm, following Aunt Grace’s recipe, but they’re also good at room temperature, or even refrigerated! There is no way to serve them that’s not good. To borrow an advertising slogan, “Nobody doesn’t like Aunt Grace’s Breakfast Muffins.”

CAN BREAD

Do not preheat oven — bread has to rise for several hours before baking.

This bread recipe is from Cheryl Coombs. She says it’s almost foolproof, even for somebody who’s never had the nerve to bake bread from scratch before.

½ cup butter

2 cups boiling water

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup oatmeal (I used Quaker Oats Quick 1-Minute)

two packages (1/4 ounce each) dry yeast (any type)

2 eggs

4 ½ cups flour (approximate measure)

Melt butter in a saucepan with the boiling water. Pour it in a bowl. Add the salt, brown sugar, and oatmeal. Stir it all up.

Add the yeast quickly, before the mixture cools. Pour mixture into a bowl.

Crack the eggs in a glass and beat them up with a fork. Add them to the bowl and stir thoroughly.

Add the flour, one cup at a time, until it feels about right for bread dough. (That’s a moisture level midway between muffin batter and cookie dough.)

Turn the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured breadboard, or table top. Let it rest a couple of minutes. (It doesn’t need to rest, but you probably do.)

Knead the dough, adding flour as it becomes too sticky to work. (Kneading is just punching it down, turning it over and folding it a bunch of times. You’ll like it — it’s therapeutic.) There’s no need to knead (that’s a terrible pun!) any longer than 5 minutes . . . just until dough is no longer sticking to your hands like stringy glue.

Wash your hands, wash the bowl, dry the bowl, and then spray the inside of the bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Dump the dough inside the bowl and cover it with a moist towel. Set it in a warm (but not hot) place to rise until doubled in bulk. (This will take from 1-2 hours.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you don’t want to bake your bread today, don’t let the dough rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. It can wait up to 12 hours. Then just take it out in the morning, remove the plastic wrap, cover the dough with a damp towel, and set it in a warm place to finish rising.

Once the dough has doubled in bulk, turn it out onto a floured board again and punch it down. Divide the dough and shape it into loaves, rounds, rolls, little animals, braids, or whatever. Place free-form breads on greased metal cookie sheets. Place loaves in greased loaf pans. You can even use greased metal coffee cans for rounds and amaze your friends when you give them round sandwiches.

Cover whatever you’re used to contain your dough with the moist towel again and let your creations rise for approximately 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position for cookie sheet loaves and loaf pans, or lower for the taller coffee cans.

If you want a glaze on the top of your bread, brush the tops with egg yolk mixed with a little water before you bake.

Bake large loaves and coffee cans for approximately 60 minutes, 45 minutes for smaller loaves or rounds. Rolls take about 30 minutes.

Let cool in pans (or on cookie sheet) on to of wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out of pans and cool directly on a wire rack.

CHEESY SPICY CORN MUFFINS

This recipe is from Danielle Watson. She apologized that it really isn’t a recipe, since it’s not made from scratch, but we told her that didn’t matter.

1 package corn muffin mix, enough to make 12 muffins

4 ounce diced green chilies, canned, well drained (Danielle uses Ortega brand)

½ cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (or Monterey Jack)

Preheat oven according to the directions on the corn muffin package.

Prepare the corn muffin mix according to package directions. Add the green chilies and the shredded cheese, and stir well.

Line muffin pans with a double layer of cupcake papers and coat the inside with nonstick cooking spray.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake papers, three-quarters full.

Bake according to corn muffin package directions.

Danielle says to tell you that if you have visiting relatives who don’t like any spice at all, you can substitute a half can of well-drained, whole-kernel corn for the peppers.

Yield: Whatever it says on the package and little more.

CRANBERRY MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

These are from Becky Summers. They’re perfect to serve for a Thanksgiving dinner.

¼ cup butter

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup dried cranberries

2 ¼ cups flour (no need to sift)

½ cup milk