Happy holidays: From our kitchens to yours
Kathie Warco serves cranberries in this dish handed down by her great-aunt.
Brenda Kurczewski bastes the Christmas goose.
Lothar Kurczewski carves the Christmas goose.
Turkey croquettes may take a little work, but are a tasty way to serve leftover turkey.
Lillian Senich, mother of Barbara S. Miller, prepares her Chocolate Chiffon Pie.
German gingerbread boys from the home of Lothar Kurczewski
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Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets
One of Kathy Spray’s gingerbread creations on display at PPG Place, Pittsburgh
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Kathy Spray assembles a gingerbread house.
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As those who work with me at the Observer Publishing Co. know, I am a German. Before working for the newspaper, I was an instructor pilot for jet fighter pilots in the German Luftwaffe (Air Force). I was sent to America for part of my pilot training in the early 1970s, and it was in Phoenix, while training on the F-104 Starfighter, that I met my American wife, Brenda. She returned to Germany with me, and we were married. We lived 18 years in Germany, and both our boys were born there. When I retired from the Luftwaffe, we came back to America to live, settling in the house in Moon Township of my wife’s grandmother, who had passed away the year before we moved.
Although my wife is American, her mother’s parents were German. She acquired the love of German cooking and baking from both her German grandmother and her grandmother on her father’s side, long before she met me. But living in Germany afforded my wife the opportunity to learn much more and perfect her culinary talent.
Our traditional German Christmas dinner is a fabulous roast goose stuffed with apples. It is always accompanied with red cabbage made with apples and bacon, boiled parsley potatoes, tiny green peas, roasted apples from the goose and a homemade cranberry/orange/apple relish with apple schnapps. The meal is served with a nice, robust red wine.
Dessert is the best part, however. Everyone eagerly looks forward to the 35 different Christmas cookies and homemade chocolates that my wife makes, along with a magnificent marzipan christstollen. These cookies are very elaborate, and each is a piece of art.
A great many of the recipes have been handed down through the generations – some are more than 100 years old. She also bakes everyone a gingerbread boy, elaborately decorated and personalized in icing with our names. She begins all this baking in October, as many cookies need to be aged.
We top off our dessert with a very special Christmas after-dinner drink. My wife’s German grandmother started this traditional drink, and passed it down to her daughter, and now to my wife.
For anyone wanting to attempt some authentic German Christmas cookie baking, my wife has shared some of her oldest recipes.
Christmas After-Dinner Liqueur Drink
You will need:
A small liqueur glass
Grenadine syrup
Green crème de menthe
Fresh heavy whipping cream, unwhipped
Pour a small amount of grenadine in the glasses. Slowly pour the crème de menthe in the glass on top of the grenadine, allowing it to flow down the side. Follow with the heavy cream, again allowing it to trickle down the side of the glass on top of the crème de menthe.
Anislaibchen
Coat two baking sheets thinly and evenly with butter and set aside.
Mix together and set aside: 290 grams (2?5/8 cups) sifted flour (measure exactly), 1 teaspoon whole anise seeds and a small pinch of baker’s ammonia or baking powder.
Beat together 250 grams sugar (1?1/8 cup) and 4 medium-sized eggs for a half-hour. Do not cut time!
Using a wire whisk, gently fold flour mixture into egg mixture by hand. The dough needs to be the perfect consistency or the cookies will not work.
Drop very small piles onto greased baking sheets, about an inch apart. The dough, if it is the right consistency, will slowly spread into smooth, round cookies.
Let the cookies dry completely overnight at room temperature – at least 12 hours.
Set oven rack up one notch from the middle position, and bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. If the cookies work right, they will rise up like little mushrooms. Do not brown; bake until firm only.
Cool on sheets. Store in an air-tight tin in a cool place. Add a few anise seeds to the storage tin
Note: This cookie is simple but very tricky. Many times, it has taken me several tries to get them right. One year, I made them five times before they worked!
I found this recipe on a package of sugar in Germany when we lived in Walleshausen.
Punschbrezeln (Punch pretzels)
You will need a scale for this recipe – one that measures grams/kilos, available at any kitchen retailer.
Ingredients
200 grams unsalted butter (not margarine)
300 grams powdered sugar, divided
1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon)
The inner scraping of a whole vanilla bean
300 grams flour
1 egg white
6 cl. (ounces) Pott Rum or Jamaican rum
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Knead together the softened butter with 100 grams of the divided powdered sugar. Add the egg yolk, salt and vanilla bean scrapings. Sift the flour into the butter mixture, and mix only until blended – best done by hand at this point. Wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate at least 2 to 3 hours.
Using a pretzel cookie cutter, roll the dough ¼-inch thick. If not available, you can make pretzels by hand, rolling a small piece of dough to a long rope and twisting into a pretzel shape. Bake in a 350-degree, preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes until firm and golden-colored on the bottom side of the cookie. Cool. Glaze.
Glaze: Mix remaining 200 grams of powdered sugar with the egg white, rum and lemon juice. Brush over the tops of the pretzels. Store in air-tight containers in freezer.
Recipe from my German baking book, “Backvergnuegen wie noch nie”
Guten Appetit, und Froehliche Weihnachten!
Lothar Kurczewski
Single-copy sales manager
This recipe came from a former newspaper colleague, Joyce Howard, who got it from a Patti LaBelle cookbook. Patti LaBelle now sings the praises of moderation, since she was diagnosed with diabetes and lost weight. So, keeping that in mind, know that this recipe is richer than a Powerball winner. If you can eat it, have just a little. It’ll be your piece of heaven at the holidays.
Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound elbow macaroni
8 tablespoons (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Muenster cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup (8 ounces) Velveeta, cut into small cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a deep 2?1/2-quart casserole.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the oil, then the elbow macaroni, and cook until the macaroni is just tender, about 7 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain well. Return to the cooking pot.
In a small saucepan, melt 8 tablespoons of the butter. Stir into the macaroni. In a large bowl, mix the Muenster, mild and sharp cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses. To the macaroni, add the half-and-half, 1?1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, the cubed Velveeta, and the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the buttered casserole. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and dot with the remaining one tablespoon of butter.
Bake until it’s bubbling around the edges, about 35 minutes. Serve hot.
Note: It is sometimes difficult to buy some of the cheeses shredded. So we often buy blocks of the cheese, shred what’s needed, and freeze the rest for the next time we make this dish. Who knows? You might have another craving for it at Christmas.
Margi Shrum
wife of Rick Shrum
Business writer
There wasn’t much time for creating holiday food traditions in our working-class family while I was growing up in the 1960s in the Mon Valley.
The daily routine for my parents centered more on how to pay the bills and put dinner on the table rather than ensuring Christmas dining traditions were honored. My mother worked full time when most women she knew at the time were 1950s versions of stay-at-home moms. Truth be told, she didn’t like to cook, either, and strived to be a modern woman.
It was time about a decade ago that I decided to create some holiday traditions in my house, and that led me to bake shortbreads. The cookie is a holiday tradition associated with Christmas in Scotland, and I love its simple, buttery flavor.
Shortbread
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whisk salt into flour and set aside. In another bowl, mix the butter until creamy, add the sugar and beat until smooth; add vanilla. Slowly fold in the flour, shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to create shapes and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies turn golden brown around the edges. Cool on wire rack.
Scott Beveridge
Staff writer
When I was growing up, Thanksgiving and Christmas meals meant lamb, pasticcio, feta cheese and baklava, intermixed with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.
My grandparents had come from Greece, and they had no problem supplementing the traditional holiday meal with their old-world favorites.
One of my favorite dishes from My Big Fat Greek Thanksgiving is pasticcio, a meat and pasta dish. Some people liken it to a Greek version of lasagna, but I think pasticcio is in its own class with its alternating layers of savory meat and buttery noodles topped with a thick layer of béchamel sauce.
One of the secrets to making a good pasticcio is using cinnamon. I know what you’re thinking – isn’t cinnamon used in baking sweets? Actually, cinnamon has a very similar taste to saffron, the ingredient traditionally used in pasticcio. The problem is that saffron is one of the world’s most expensive spices, averaging around $70 an ounce. Using cinnamon is the poor man’s way of getting around saffron.
Pasticcio is great served as a meal or as a side dish. This recipe makes a pretty large amount of food, so you may want to make two smaller trays or invite some friends over. I’ve also had luck with freezing a prebaked pasticcio if you want to freeze one and serve the other.
You’ll want to give yourself ample time for all the steps involved: There’s a reason the old Greek ladies complain about how hard it is to make pasticcio.
Pasticcio
Ingredients
1.5 pounds macaroni (elbow, ziti or penne style are usually best)
1 cup butter
4 egg whites (reserve the yolks for béchamel sauce)
2 pounds ground beef
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, plus a little more to sprinkle on top
1 onion, chopped
24 ounces canned tomatoes, drained
Cinnamon to taste
Cook macaroni for 6 minutes; drain and rinse. In a large skillet, melt a half-cup of butter. Pour the melted butter over the macaroni, and add the egg whites and ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese; mix well.
In a large pan, melt almost all of the remaining butter, except for 2 tablespoons. Add the diced onions, and cook until soft. Add the ground beef, and cook until browned. Add drained tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and cinnamon to taste. (There’s no right amount of cinnamon. I start with a teaspoon, and then add to taste. You do not need a ton!)
Simmer on medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed. Prepare béchamel sauce from recipe below. In a large greased pan, place half the macaroni in an even layer, then an even layer with the meat mixture on top. Add the other half of macaroni. Pour béchamel sauce over the top in an even layer. Drizzle the last 2 tablespoons of butter on top with grated cheese, salt, pepper and some cinnamon.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the béchamel sauce has a golden-brown color.
Béchamel sauce
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 quart (4 cups) milk, warmed
4 egg yolks, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter in a large pan. Using a whisk, slowly add flour while blending thoroughly. Take pan from heat and slowly mix the warmed milk into the flour/butter. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat until thickened, stirring constantly so the mixture doesn’t burn. Once thickened, add the egg yolks to the sauce. Stir in salt and pepper.
Nick Kratsas
Online editor
My first married Thanksgiving, I asked my mom what to bring to dinner. She said sweet potatoes. She probably thought I couldn’t mess those up, since I don’t like being held captive in the kitchen. I found this microwave recipe, and guess what? They liked it! I bring the same sweet potatoes to all holiday meals.
Hawaiian Sweet Potatoes
2 (1 pound) cans of sweet potatoes or yams (drained)
1 can (8 1/2 ounces) crushed pineapple
½ cup melted butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup chopped pecans – optional
Miniature marshmallows
Melt butter, drain sweet potatoes or yams, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Add sugars, pineapple and cinnamon. Microwave on high for 4 minutes; take out, stir and microwave 2 to 4 more minutes. I add marshmallows and put in the oven right after the turkey is removed from the oven and brown for a minute. Very sweet. Enjoy!
Pam Haschets
Lifestyles clerk
I’ll spare you my recipe disaster stories, but I do have a food tradition:
My family serves sauerkraut with the Thanksgiving turkey. My mother’s family is from Maryland, and it is a tradition with many old families there. I add a chopped onion, apple slices and celery to the rinsed kraut and simmer it all day. Sometimes I add bouillon or drippings from the fully cooked turkey.
Lucy Northrop Corwin
Director of news
On Christmas Eve my family always gets together to exchange gifts and to eat dinner. We always have ham and other goodies, but they always want me to make my shrimp salad. It is a favorite every year.
Shrimp and Pasta Salad
I box small shells
4 cans tiny shrimp or 1 can and 1 small bag of frozen salad shrimp (reserve the liquid from one can for sauce)
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, shredded
8 ounces Hellmann’s mayonnaise
8 ounces Miracle Whip
3 egg yolks
Vinegar and sugar to taste
Boil the shells until tender. Mix in onion, carrot and shrimp. In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise and Miracle Whip, liquid from 1 can of shrimp, and egg yolks until well-mixed. Add vinegar and sugar to taste. Save leftover dressing to add just before serving; it will absorb into the shells while resting in the refrigerator – I like to moisten it a bit before serving.
Chill until ready to serve. It is better when done a couple hours in advance to let the flavors blend.
Tracy Jewett
Retail advertising sales consultant
While other families’ Thanksgiving dessert was a pumpkin custard pie, ours were chocolate chiffon and pumpkin chiffon pies. My mom said my Dad didn’t like traditional pumpkin pies, preferring pumpkin chiffon. But the real star of the Thanksgiving desserts at our house was that chocolate chiffon pie. One year, my parents transported this pie in an iced cooler from Pittsburgh to suburban Philadelphia for a family dinner, whipping the cream for the topping after they arrived. As a youngster, I wasn’t schooled in the difference between an ordinary chocolate pie and chocolate chiffon. One day before Thanksgiving, with my mom sick in bed, I baked the pie shell from her recipe, but I randomly checked a cookbook other than Betty Crocker for the filling. It was a chocolate pudding pie, and although I made the pudding from scratch on the stovetop, it was no match for the light and airy chocolate chiffon.
Chocolate Chiffon Pie
Ingredients
9-inch baked pie shell (see below)
1/2 cup sugar
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 ounces melted, unsweetened chocolate (cool)
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chilled whipping cream
Bake pie shell. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, the gelatin and salt in small saucepan; stir in water and chocolate. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until blended. Remove from heat. Beat egg yolks slightly; slowly stir in chocolate mixture. Return mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly just until mixture boils. Place pan in bowl of ice and water or chill in refrigerator, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from spoon. Stir in vanilla.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Beat in 1/2 cup sugar, one tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Fold chocolate mixture into meringue. In chilled bowl, beat cream until stiff; fold into chocolate mixture. Pile into baked pie shell. Chill at least three hours or until set. If desired, serve with sweetened whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate curls.
Water-whip crust (for 9-inch pie)
Ingredients
1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon milk
1 1/4 cup flour
Place shortening and salt in mixing bowl. Add boiling water and milk and whip with fork until thick and all liquid is absorbed. Add flour and stir quickly into dough. Roll between two 12-inch squares of waxed paper into a circle an eighth-inch thick. Peel off top paper. Fit over pie pan, remove paper and flute edges. Prick shell with fork. Bake in hot oven, 450 degrees, for 14 to 19 minutes. Cool. Add pie filling.
Barbara S. Miller
Staff writer
Turkey Croquettes
(Great use for leftover Thanksgiving turkey)
Ingredients
2 cups cooked, ground turkey
1 cup heavy white sauce (see recipe)
1/8 cup finely chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for breading (eggs, flour, plain dried breadcrumbs)
Oil for deep frying
White sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
Make the white sauce first. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until smooth and well-combined. Pour in milk and stir with whisk until thick. Allow time for sauce to cool.
Add white sauce to turkey and chopped onion. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Note: You may not need a full cup of white sauce. Make sure mixture isn’t too wet so they can be shaped. Shape turkey mixture into about a 3-inch pyramid. Roll in flour, then beaten egg plus a little water, then breadcrumbs. Put them on waxed paper to set up for about 30 minutes before deep frying. Heat oil and deep fry until golden brown. Serve with mashed potatoes and leftover gravy.
This recipe is a little bit of work, but well worth the effort!
Emily Petsko
Staff writer
For as long as I can remember, cranberries on Thanksgiving have been served in this gorgeous crystal dish handed down from my Great Aunt Mary Tait to my grandmother, Margaret O’Brien Gee, and then to my mom, Patricia Gee Opferman. When I started hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner, my mom would fix the cranberries and bring them along with the dish to our home. She passed away six years ago, leaving the crystal and many memories. The recipe is simple: Put a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of cold water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly until berries start to pop, or about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Kathie Warco
Staff writer
Brined turkey
Ingredients
For the brine:
4 gallons cold water
2 cups salt
2 cups brown sugar
4 oranges, quartered
4 lemons, quartered
12 sprigs fresh thyme
8 sprigs fresh rosemary
To make the brining solution, dissolve the salt and sugar in 4 gallons of cold water. You can use a big pot and do it half at a time. Pour the liquid into a large (nonperfumed) plastic food-grade bag sitting inside a large picnic cooler, making sure it doesn’t spill out. Add the oranges, lemons, thyme and rosemary. Remove the neck and giblets from a thawed or fresh turkey. Rinse the turkey inside and out under cold running water. Place the turkey in the bag with the brine mixture, roll around the turkey to mix the ingredients with the bird, and tie up the bag. Place water and ice cubes around the bag to keep the turkey cold. Brine at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the turkey occasionally without opening the bag, and adding ice, as needed, to keep the water around the turkey cold. Be careful that the wing tips or any other sharp edge do not pierce the bag while the bird is being turned. Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse well under cold running water. Pat the turkey dry inside and out with paper towels. Cook as desired. Enjoy.
Brant Newman
Associate editor
Gingerbread dough
This recipe makes enough dough for a basic house with porch and chimney. A heavy-duty mixer will ease the process.
Cream until light and fluffy:
2 sticks butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
And blend on slow speed:
3/4 cup molasses
Sift, add and blend until all flour is absorbed:
5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
Add and blend:
3/4 cup cold water
Spread dough on a sheet pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to roll it out (ideally overnight; three hours minimum). It should keep well in the refrigerator for about three days.
Bake at 350 degrees until the dough is deep brown but not black; about 20 minutes.
Tip: Softening butter by getting it to room temperature before beginning the creaming process will allow for a helpful head start, especially if you’re kneading by hand.
Royal icing
Ingredients
5 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 cup egg whites
Sift sugar after measuring it. Add egg whites and cream of tartar to the sugar mixture. Combine ingredients with a hand mixer on slow speed, then beat them on high for two to five minutes, until they’re snow-white and fluffy.
Keep your icing bowl covered with a damp towel to retain moisture; the mixture crusts quickly when it’s exposed to air.
Tips: Royal icing is the best for assembing and decorating gingerbread houses. Most other icings contain shortening or butter that will eventually soak into the gingerbread and could cause your house to soften and collapse.
Because icing will eventually dry out, you might want to make half the recipe for constructing the house, then make the second half when you’re ready to decorate.
Recipes and tips from “Making Great Gingerbread Houses,” by Aaron Morgan and Paige Gilchrist (Lark Books, a division of Sterling Publishing Co. Inc. Copyright 1999)
Kathy Spray
Wife of Tom Spray
Assistant managing editor for production