Fare Exchange: Here are plenty of recipes for special holiday meals

Good morning, dear readers. Here I sit among Christmas plenty. Your generous letters merit a week with only one request and that one for shopping guidance. Mrs. Nicholas Aspen of Lookout Mountain cannot find artichoke bottoms at any of her family’s favorite stores. Can you give her a local source?

Today we dispense the only first portion of recipes suited to the territory between Dec. 21 and 25.

Thank you Charlotte Bastnagel for responding about rhubarb. “Publix carries frozen rhubarb year-round as does the Village Market in Collegedale. As for recipes, the 20-minute tapioca box has fruit-pie recipes printed on the back, one of which is strawberry-rhubarb.”

SAVORY BRUNCH

Here are two brunch items on the savory end of the scale, from Margaret McNeil.

Baked Omelet Roll

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Put the eggs and milk in a blender. Add flour, salt and pepper. Cover and process until smooth. Pour into a 13-by-9-inch baking pan that has been coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the eggs are set. Sprinkle the omelet with cheese. Roll the omelet up in the pan, starting with a short side. Place seam side down on a serving platter. Cut into 1-inch slices.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together the first three ingredients. Add milk and stir until combined. Place dough in greased muffin cups. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Melt butter and mix with garlic salt. Brush biscuits generously with butter mixture as soon as they come out of the oven.

Makes 12-15 servings.

GOURMET GRITS

Our mailbox was piled high with grits recipes, and here is the beginning of sharing them.

Lloyd Smith makes cheese grits every year for Christmas brunch, this one from her Birmingham Junior League Cookbook.

“We have it at my mother-in-law Margaret Smith’s house with Hunters Eggs from ‘Dinner on the Diner’ (the first Chattanooga Junior League cookbook). “

Gourmet Cheese Grits

1 quart milk

1/2 cup butter

1 cup uncooked grits

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 egg

1/3 cup butter

4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Bring milk to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Add 1/2 cup butter and grits. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is the consistency of oatmeal, about 5 minutes. Remove grits from heat. Add salt, pepper and egg, beating until well combined. Add 1/3 cup butter and Gruyere cheese. Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Can be made the day before and cooked just before serving. Makes 10 servings.

HOLIDAY HITS

The next two are from Roseann Strazinsky of Fairfield Glade in Cumberland County, sent especially for a holiday meal.

Crab-Cream Cheese Bake

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed

1 can (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 can (6 1/2 ounces) crabmeat, drained

1 egg yolk, beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, onions and dill weed. Unroll crescent roll dough onto a greased baking sheet, being careful not to separate dough into pieces.

Press dough into an 8-by-11-inch rectangle. Spoon crabmeat lengthwise along center of dough. Spoon cream cheese mixture over crabmeat. Fold long edges of dough over cream-cheese mixture, slightly overlapping edges; pinch edges together to seal; place seam side down on baking sheet. Lightly brush top of dough with egg yolk. Cut slits in top of dough. Bake 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and flaky. Cut into one-inch slices and serve warm.

Broccoli Delight

1 large bunch fresh broccoli, about 4 to 5 cups

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup sliced red onion

10 strips fried crumbled bacon

1 cup sunflower seed

Dressing:

3 to 4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Combine veggies and dressing, mix well.

Variation: Try cauliflower with the broccoli, a mix of both to equal 4 to 5 cups.

ROASTED RISOTTO

Valerie Bowers noted that this recipe from Ina Garten “is a definite hit for winter.” It calls for roasted butternut squash.

Ina’s Butternut Squash Risotto

1 butternut squash (2 pounds)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

2 ounces pancetta, diced

1/2 cup minced shallots (2 large)

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon saffron threads

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. You should have about 6 cups. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a small, covered saucepan. Leave it on low heat to simmer.

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and sauté the pancetta and shallots on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the shallots are translucent but not browned. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter.

Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 full ladles of stock to the rice plus the saffron, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Stir and simmer until the stock is absorbed, 5-10 minutes. Continue to add the stock, two ladles at a time, stirring every few minutes. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Off the heat, add the roasted squash cubes and Parmesan cheese. Mix well and serve.

MINI MUFFINS

Mrs. Nicholas Aspen sent a most welcome category: quick and easy. And it is also special-occasion. “It came from Anne Byrn’s ‘The Dinner Doctor’ and has only three ingredients plus one optional one that I added. The orange zest takes the recipe to a new level.”

Dun-Buttered Muffins

2 cups biscuit mix such as Bisquick

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (I use Breakstone which Publix carries)

Optional: 1 teaspoon or more to taste of freshly grated orange zest

Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Set aside at least two miniature muffin pans holding 12, or 1 pan with 24 miniature cups.

Place biscuit mix, butter, sour cream – and orange zest, if using – in a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients come together. Spoon the batter by the tablespoonful into the ungreased muffin tins, filling the cups two-thirds full.

Bake the muffins until they are light brown, 15-18 minutes. Remove the muffin tins from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Then run a sharp knife around the edges of the muffins and invert them onto the rack. Transfer them to a platter and serve at once. Freezes well once cooled. Makes at least 2 dozen small muffins.

JUST A DASH

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Sunday for this one.

“We’ve just learned a new make-ahead trick from Stella Parks (at BraveTart.com and SeriousEats.com). Mix the leavening, salt and spices (if any) into the sugar in your cookie recipe instead of the flour. Why? When you cream the butter and sugar together you’ll coat the leavener in fat so it won’t activate until the cookies hit the oven. This lets you have nearly instant fresh-baked cookies that puff up like normal. Bonus: The salt and spices get completely mixed in and the butter can extract more fat-soluble flavor from the spices. Good for as much as a week of hold time in the fridge. We don’t bake much but Brave Tart hasn’t let us down yet.” Find the link at seriouseats.com, how to bake Christmas cookies.

OK, you nice people. There are recipes waiting on the desktop, but no more space to share them. I can guarantee you will still be cooking next week, though it doesn’t seem possible now. Please come back then for the promised goodies.