Old Fashioned Bread Stuffing Balls and Filling Balls

It wasn’t until I married that I was introduced to Stuffing or Filling Balls. I’ve never liked bread stuffing because it is so “mushy” in texture. With stuffing balls there is an element of crunch that has made me for the first time actually ask for “stuffing.” These recipes come from my mother-in-law. I prefer the first recipe.

My dh is from Altoona, Pennsylvania. The grocery stores during this time of year sell bagged cubed bread that has no spices. This is the step saver I use to make these balls. But I have to buy my cubes up in PA when we visit, as down in Virginia I haven’t found these items.

Old Fashioned Bread Stuffing Balls

1 cup chopped celery
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 cups dry bread cubes (make sure hard and crunchy)
3/4 cup chicken broth or water

Mix together all ingredients except broth. Add broth and form balls. Dry an hour or overnight. (You might want to double the butter and seasonings to make the balls stick together better.)

Bake at 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Filling Balls

1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 eggs, beaten
12 slices stale bread (if using premade bread cubes, handful for each slice of bread)

Dice bread, add onion, celery, eggs, butter salt and pepper. Mix baking powder in hot milk, mix with bread mixture. Form into balls, dry an hour or overnight.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Rice Dressing

Because of my son’s food allergies, we can’t use bread stuffing the turkey. Instead we make a Wild Rice dressing for inside the bird, and then I bring stuffing balls. Here’s my paternal grandmother’s Rice Dressing, with a note in the margin “Dad’s favorite for Thanksgiving”. I still can’t use this recipe, because it calls for eggs, but I wanted to make sure I kept it in a “safe place”.

Rice Dressing

2 cups cooked rice
2 large onions chopped fine
3 or 4 stalks celery chopped fine
1 green pepper chopped fine
Liver, gizzard, heart, chopped fine
½ cup butter
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning
2 eggs
1 cup nuts (pecans) chopped
½ cup parsley
(Oysters & mushrooms if desired)

While rice is cooking, sauté onions, celery, pepper, liver, gizzard, heart in butter until cooked. Add seasoning & mix.

Beat eggs until frothy. Remove onion mixture from heat, add rice (here I add some liquid from the cooked giblets) fold in beaten eggs & mix thoroughly. Add nuts & parsley.

Stuff turkey or bake in buttered shallow casserole 30 minutes 350 degrees.

Mom’s Apple Pie

My mother is hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but I’m providing the rolls, stuffing balls, and apple pie. I thought I would share our apple pie recipe. This is a crumb topped apple pie, and quite delicious. Recipe taken from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook edited by Nell B. Nichols, copyright 1965. I always make two pies, so I make double the pie crust, but it’s only for two bottom crusts, since the crumb topping is the top crust. This year I confess that since I’m sick, I’m using Trader Joe’s frozen pie crusts.

Old-Fashioned Apple Pie, with the Crumb Apple Pie variation:

Pastry for 1 crust pie (see below)
3/4 – 1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
6 to 7 cups sliced peeled apples (2 to 2 1/2 lbs)
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

NOTE: Amount of sugar you will need varies with tartness of apples.

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix lightly through apples (sliced 1/4″ thick). Heap in pastry-lined 9″ pie pan. Dot with butter (don’t forget this step!). Normally, adjust top crust and flute edges; cut vents. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees F) 50 to 60 minutes, or until crust is browned and apples are tender.

Variations:
Our family likes to make the:

Crumb Apple Pie

Use 3/4 cups sugar. Omit top pastry crust; instead, sprinkle filling with crumbs made by mixing:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup flour
(Mix together until pea sized crumb mixture. Don’t overmix or it becomes a dough-like substance. Ask me how I know.)

Bake in hot oven (400 degrees F) 45 to 55 minutes or until crust is browned and apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream or pass a pitcher of cream for pouring over pie.

Dutch-Style Apple Pie: Cut large vents in top crust and omit butter. Five minutes before baking time is up, remove pie from oven and pour 1/2 cup heavt cream into pie through vents. Return to oven and complete baking.

Cinnamon Apple Pie:
Omit cinnamon and nutmeg and add 3 Tblsp. red cinnamon candies (red hots) to sugar. use a lattic pastry top if desired.

Speedy Apple Pie: Substitute 2 (1 lb, 4 oz) cans sliced apples for the fresh apples.

Green Apple Pie: Add 1/2 cup more sugar. Omit spices completely, or reduce amounts. If apples are very juicy, add 2 Tbsp. more flour.

Flaky Pastry for 1-Crust Pie

(Traditional Method — Makes enough for 1 8″ or 9″ pie shell or top crust for 1 1/2 quart casserole.)

1 cup sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or 1/3 cup lard
2 to 2 1/2 Tbsp. cold water

2-Crust Pie (or two pies bottom crusts)

(Traditional Method — Makes crust for 1 (8″ or 9″) 2-crust pie, 2 pie shells, 8 or 9 (4″) tart shells, 1 pie with latticed top or topping for 2 deep-dish pies)

2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup vegetable shortening or 2/3 cup lard
4 to 5 Tbsp. cold water

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender or with two knives until mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal or tiny peas.

Sprinkle on cold water, 1 Tbsp. at a time, tossing mixture lightly and stirring with fork. Add water each time to the driest part of the mixture. The dough should be just moist enough to hold together when pressed gently with a fork. It should not be sticky.

Shape dough in smooth ball with hands, and roll. Or if you are not ready to make the pie, wrap it in waxed paper and refrigerate 30 minutes or until ready to fill and bake pie.

To Make the Pie Shell:

On lightly floured surface roll Pastry for 1 crust. Roll it lightly from the center out in all directions to 1/8″ thickness, making a 10″ to 11″ circle. Fold rolled dough in half and ease it loosely into pie pan, with fold in center. Gently press out air pockets with finger tips and make certain there are no openings for juices to escape.

Fold under edge of crust and press into an upright rim. Crimp edge as desired. Refrigerate until ready to fill.

Triduum and Easter Plans

I’ve been neglecting my food blog. I visit here often, because I have found it so convenient to print out my recipes, and not have to search around. But I haven’t been very creative in the kitchen, so I haven’t added to the blog.

But for those that are tired of seeing blueberries on the top venue, this post is for you.

I have to mention that I’ve decided blogging is the best thing for me. Why? Because when I write down my plans and/or the events of the feast days, I can remind myself next year what I did. It was nice to see last year’s events, and easy for me to remember what cake recipe I actually did make for the lamb.

I’m keeping meals at basic for the Triduum. After seeing Joanna Bogle on Feasts and Seasons, it made me want Hot Cross Buns, which I may buy from the grocery store. I preferred her recipe which had a flour and water cross, but the whole bun had a sugar glaze. The local ones just have icing crosses, which seem less penitential. But Mrs. Bogle said having the buns on Good Friday, even with their spicy sweetness makes that day special. It’s a special food only eaten on that day (although she did mention some serve the buns on Easter morning, too).

She also mentioned something about being in the kitchen more during holydays, such as Holy Week than the rest of the year. I’ve been feeling guilty that I bake only during these times, that it’s not a good representation of my life, and I worried I was detracting from the feast. But she said just the opposite — spending the extra time making these treats for the holy days marks the time and food as special, unique. She said it more eloquently, but it made me feel more confident to continue.

Tonight I’m serving roast beef and mashed potatoes. We’ll rushing out to get a good seat for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, but we’ll try to do similar to last year.

We’re spending Easter Sunday at my mother’s. Her meal will be roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, asparagus, green salad, rolls, and I will bring the Lamb Cake for dessert.

I’m making two cakes, one allergy safe for my son. I can’t praise enough the mixes from The Cravings Place. These are the best egg, dairy, and gluten free mixes ever. Trust me, I can’t make something this good from scratch. We’ve now had the brownies and chocolate cake mix. Yummy, even for those who don’t have to abstain from certain foods.

Easter Monday, part of the Octave of Easter, when each day is Easter Sunday all over again. I’ll be serving up Ham with Spirit Glaze. I love serving ham. It makes me feel frugal, when I can whip up several meals and lunches from one ham. It also is one of my son’s favorite meals.

And now to work….

Easter Ham

Christ is risen, Alleluia! He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!

My mother hosted our Easter family celebration this year. For the main meal, she decided to have roast beef and ham, and I offered to bring the ham and bake it for her. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but many glazes on hams have allergens, particularly wheat. Some hams have injected juices, so it’s important to read labels before buying ham.

I bought one at Costco. I follow the reheating instructions, 325 degrees at 8 minutes per pound, but I do not use the glaze packet, instead I follow the recipe from the old version of Joy of Cooking for Spirit Glaze for Ham. This is really taste, keeps the ham moist, and is my family’s favorite. When serving dinner, the question came “Is this Jenn’s ham? Allright!”

Spirit Glaze for Ham

1/2 to 1 cup dry red wine
1/2 to 1 cup bourbon whiskey (I use Maker’s Mark)
1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar
6 bruised cloves
2 tablespoons grated orange peel

Heat all ingredients in a small saucepan until sugar is melted. Pour over the ham and baste throughout the cooking cycle, about every 15 minutes.

The best thing about ham is that it can do double or triple duty for meals. So this ham was part of our Easter feast on Sunday, then a repeat meal on Easter Monday at home. On Wednesday we had Red Beans and Rice, one of my favorites.

Epiphany Cake — Eggless, Milkless, Butterless

Ethel Marbach is an author I really enjoy. Most moms will recognize her by the name Ethel Pochocki and her Bethlehem Books titles such as Once Upon a Time Saints.

Her earlier works as Ethel Marbach are all out of print, but I’ve had fun reading Holy Housewivery: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook and the companion, Holy Housewifery Cookbook. She is a wonderful, humorous writer, with a great grasp of the Catholic faith and traditions and what it entails to be a wife and mother. I’d say she’s a combination of Mary Reed Newland and Erma Bombeck.

My favorite works by her are these tiny series of pamphlets entitled Family Liturgical Customs printed by Abbey Press in the 1960s. They are small, but packed full with ideas. And I was just thrilled to come across this suggestion for an Epiphany Cake. I plan on substituting the wheat flour with a wheat-free combination so my son can share in cake on Epiphany. This comes from her Family Liturgical Customs No. 2: Christmas.

(As an aside, dear reader, there are 5 pamphlets in this series: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. I still haven’t found a copy of Advent and my Easter copy seems to have disappeared. I’ve been looking for these for many years. This Christmas pamphlet was a new-found addition. Anyone have a copy that they could share? Copy it for me? I am also offering scanning text or copies of my pamphlets in exchange, and I have a duplicate of Pentecost that I can swap.)

Our King’s Cake for Epiphany contains three beans (or a dime, nickel and penny wrapped in foil) and they who find them are Kings for A Night. There’s much X-Ray eyeing and, when Mother turns her back, secret probing of promising-looking lumps on the cake. We bake an inexpensive spice variety in a tube pan, spread it with simple vanilla butter frosting, and crown it with a ring of gumdrops. Gumdrops can be such regal jewels! Here is the recipe for our King’s Cake (Mother called it Eggless-Milkless-Butterless Cake):

Epiphany Cake

Mix in saucepan:

1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup shortening or lard
2 cups seeded raisins
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and cloves, each
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Boil for 3 minutes. Cool. Add mixture of

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon water

Sift and blend in:
2 cups flour (I’m going to do a mixture of barley and oat flour, with some starches)
1 teaspoon baking powder

In a greased and floured tube pan, pour batter. Drop in beans or money.

Bake at 325 degrees about one hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.