~ A Christmas Story Dinner ~

I've been fixing this dinner for a long time; my now teenage boys have come to expect the month of December. It's the meal the Parker's are seen eating just prior to the 'old man' getting his major award and after Ralphie's fight. The only thing I changed, is the purple cabbage - we don't care for it, so I use green cabbage - actually, I buy the shredded cabbage or cole slaw mix in the bag because it has carrots in it, and I like the sweetness (and convenience.) I also serve a platter of cornbread with mine. Remember, I cook for a family of six, five of them men so this meal could be a bigger one than you need; either reduce the quantities by half or this could be a 'cook once eat twice' meal.

I hope everyone enjoys this as much as my family - and of course, it's best served while watching 'A Christmas Story.'

Meatloaf Smeatloaf

3 lbs ground beef

1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs (if making fresh breadcrumbs, that's 5 slices of bread)

2 eggs slightly beaten

1/4 grated onion

1 small clove minced garlic

1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp sloppy joe sauce (can reserved for topping)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, mix eggs, onion, garlic, Kitchen Bouquet, salt, black pepper, and sloppy joe sauce. Give it a quick mix; add ground beef and breadcrumbs, mix gently until everything is incorporated - be careful not to over mix, or your meatloaf will not have a moist texture. (It's very fra-gee-lay...) In the meantime, mix 2 tbsp brown sugar into the rest of the sloppy joe sauce, reserve for topping.

Form mixture into 2 even loaves, place in oven proof roasting dish. Top each loaf with a few tablespoons of sauce, and put in the oven for 45 minutes, remove from oven and add a little more sauce if desired. Bake until internal temperature is 165, or about 1 hour and 15 minutes. (every oven is different, so check periodically for best results.) Heat the sauce on the stove for about 5 minutes, until hot. Serve on the side.

Mashed Potatoes

10 peeled potatoes, cut into chunks (I use russet potatoes)

10 cups cold water

1 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine

2/3 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan over high heat, bring potatoes & water to a rolling boil; after 15 minutes, check for tenderness, a knife should go right through without them being mushy. If not, you may need to add 5 more minutes to cooking time. When potatoes are tender, strain and return to dry pan. In the meantime, heat milk and butter until butter is melted. Add milk and butter to potatoes, part at a time, whip with mixer or potato masher, whatever is best for you. Don't beat them too long, you don't want them to be like glue (save the glue to repair your major award...)

Sauteed Cabbage

1 lb bag cole slaw mix or 1/2 large head cabbage, shredded

2 tsp butter

1 tsp kosher salt

Pepper to taste

In a hot skillet, melt the butter over medium high heat - add the cabbage and using tongs or a spoon and a fork saute the cabbage until covered in melted butter and hot but still crisp, this happens quickly - usually just about 5 minutes. Cover and keep warm until the rest of the meal is done.

This dinner is best served with a plate of white bread, a plate of dill pickles and tall glasses of ice cold milk.

From my family to yours, I wish you all the happiness in the world, and may all your wishes - like Ralphie's - come true.

Eggnog Pound Cake

My sister sent me 2 pieces of this cake tonight and it was positively delicious! It would be great to take to an office pot luck or family gathering. And it's not hard to make, doesn't cost a lot and takes minutes to prepare so you can still have time to enjoy your holiday. It's from the Southern Living magazine.

Eggnog Pound Cake

1 package pound cake mix (16 oz package)
1 1/4 cups eggnog
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan (I'd use real butter, you get a great texture.)

Beat all ingredients together on low speed: Increase to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Pour into greased pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool in a pan on a wire rack, about 10 minutes, remove the bread from the pan and continue to cool on wire rack. Slices clean in about an hour (but I bet it would taste sinfully good while still warm.)

Nothing says holiday like eggnog! And make sure you take a copy of this recipe, because anybody who eats it will want to know how you made it!

Catt's Homemade Dill Dip

I know this is a retro recipe, and I know you can buy it - but it's so much better if you make it yourself. And if you can't find the round bread to use, then use a bowl and surround the dip with crisp vegetables, and cubes of good crusty bread. The original recipe called for a spice, Beau-Monde; some can't find that in their area and I hate buying one spice for one thing. In this day and age, it's too expensive. So I've made an appropriate change.

Catt's Dill Dip

1 cup mayonnaise (use a good brand)
1 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon celery salt

Whisk together all ingredients. Let sit overnight, so the flavors can marry. Serve in a hollowed round loaf of pumpernickel bread, or in a green pepper and a red pepper, which have been hollowed out also. Can also serve with crackers and vegetables even though I have to tell you, the best thing to dip in this is bread cubes. I just take a loaf of french bread and cut it into bite sized cubes. Yummy!

Do you remember making No-Bake Cookies / Wheat Fudge?

This is the first thing I ever made - I think it was in elementary school, and I don't know why it was called Wheat Fudge. What I do know, is you can buy them made by Lofthouse, $3.99 for 8 cookies. Yikes. You can make triple that amount by making them homemade, at a fraction of the cost.

No Bake Cookies / Wheat Fudge

2 cups sugar
1 stick margarine (I use the margarine that's 80% vegetable oil from Kroger)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
3 cups quick oats
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

In heave saucepan, combine sugar, margarine, cocoa, and milk. Stir and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly and boiling for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and quickly fold in peanut butter and vanilla. Next add the oats, stirring rapidly. Work quickly dropping by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper.

Cool & enjoy!

Great gift item too for the holidays! Put them in a nice serving tin, plastic containers or holiday boxes. I've been getting mine at the dollar store - or my local Big Lots has nice holiday cello bags, a 20 ct. package for $1.50. I wrap mine individually in the holiday plastic wrap then put them in the serving container that's lined with tissue paper. They stack nicely in the cello bags, but they should all be the same size. I drop mine by tablespoons so they look alike but still have that rustic, homemade look.

Fudge ... The Queen-Mother of Dirty Words

For so many of us, Fudge is something either you make well, or you never attempt it since the day you wasted all of your ingredients and made chocolate water. I've had fudge taste like ocean water sand, made fudge that looked and tasted good but never went past the flood water consistency (therefore, I gave lots of 'hot fudge sauce' that year.) Batch after batch, I tried and each and every time - regardless of how it tasted, you could either drink it or use it to fill in the potholes of your driveway. I'm pretty sure during the wind storm we had here in September of 2008, our home was the only one on the block whose roof stayed firmly intact; it was the great fudge of 1996 my husband used to glue those suckers down.

All that changed in 1996. It was the year I lost my mom, and that Christmas I thought I would try one last time to make the fudge she was so famous for. Now my mom had long given up the fudge made by my grandmother; I remember when they made the old time fudge, you had to beat it until it lost its gloss. If that's the fudge you remember, then these recipes are not for you. This is a creamy fudge, like pure silk. And it was December of 1996 that I finally got it right. It may have helped that I used my mother's pan; it's a heavy, turquoise Club Aluminum pan my father actually bought her before I was born. And she had one wooden spoon that was used only for fudge. Her recipe, she has timed exactly right so she never used a candy thermometer or dropped some in cold water to get to the soft ball stage. I remember standing at the stove and knowing this was my last chance to get it right. I followed her recipe, used a timer so I wouldn't have to guess at anything. When I poured that fudge into the buttered pan and realized it was actually going to turn into fudge, well I knew it was the combination of her pan, her spoon, her recipe and most of all, with one taste of that fudge I could actually close my eyes and remember as a child how it felt to be with her again - if only for a second.

As I got better at making fudge, I started playing around with flavors. I now make at least four flavors each year; Chocolate and Peanut Butter which are pretty standard at the holidays. But I have two flavors, Snickerdoodle White Fudge and Orange-Walnut White Fudge I've made on my own and they are just as popular as the traditional.


Catt's Chocolate Fudge

3 cups sugar (I use only Domino's)
1 1/2 sticks butter (I use salted butter, or Kroger brand 80% vegetable oil margarine)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
2 teaspoons pure vanilla


Grease 1 13x9 pan, or 2 8 oz square pans.

Basic instructions for all fudge:
Stir together sugar, butter and milk in a heavy saucepan (mine is 3 qts) over a medium heat. Bring to a full boil, and boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and add the marshmallow cream, mixing until blended (make sure you work sort of quickly at this stage; you aren't in a race but you shouldn't stop.) Add the chocolate chips, mix until melted then add the vanilla - remember, work quickly. Pour into greased pan. Let it cool at room temperature about 2 hours, then cut into small squares. I've started putting parchment paper on the bottom of the pan (I just ever so slightly grease the parchment paper) that makes it easy to pop out of the pan, and gives you a cleaner cut since there is no lifting each piece from the pan with a spatula.

If you want 'male fudge' then add 1 cups finely chopped walnuts after adding the chocolate.


Catt's Peanut Butter Fudge

3 cups sugar (again, I use Domino's)
1 1/2 sticks butter (I use unsalted butter for the PB fudge or the 80% vegetable oil margarine)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package Reese's Peanut Butter Chips (10oz bag)
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
2 tsp. vanilla

Follow the basic instructions above, substituting peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips.



Catt's Snickerdoodle Fudge

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (I use salted butter or the 80% vegetable oil margarine)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 (12 oz) package white chocolate chips (I use Nestle white chocolate chips)
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
Red or green sugar or Cinnamon Sugar (optional)


Follow basic instructions above, substituting white chips for chocolate chips; blend both extracts and add last. When you pour into pan while fudge it still hot, sprinkle the top of the fudge with colored sugar, or cinnamon sugar. Tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie!



Catt's Orange Walnut White Fudge


3 cups sugar (I use Domino's)
1 1/2 sticks butter (I use unsalted butter for this recipe, or the 80% vegetable margarine)
2/3 cups evaporated milk
12 oz white chocolate chips (I use Nestle)
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
3/4 cup chopped walnuts


Use basic instructions above, substituting white chocolate chips for chocolate chips; after adding extracts, quickly stir in zest and walnuts.


I hope this will become a holiday tradition for you and your family, as it has mine!

Baking tips!

People tell me all the time how my cookies, fudge and other desserts always look like a picture. I have no secrets - I'm not into crafting nor do I have anything special in my kitchen, I'm just a regular po-dunk mom. I do, however, think there are some tips & tricks anyone can do.

• Use a good, name brand flour & sugar - I prefer Domino's in the yellow plastic container and either Pillsbury, Gold Medal or White Lily all purpose flour . Does it cost more? Not enough to notice in your overall food bill, and if you are spending your time over the stove, you might as well cook with the best.
• Throw away those old spices! All of my spices are current, and I usually order from Penzeys; they are small containers so I know they are just a few months old. I grate whole nutmeg because I like the good clean taste.
• Good pure vanilla extract and pure almond extract are a must; I use both in my grandmother's pound cake recipe and I wouldn't risk my ingredients like eggs, sugar and flour to be enhanced with an imitation extract.
• My cookware is heavy quality; some are Club, belonging to my mother from back in the day; some are pieces I've saved for and bought individually. My cookie sheets are either food service baking sheets or the air-bake cookie sheets, but I line all of my cookie sheets with parchment paper - it makes a big difference if the bottom of the cookies are as pretty as the top. You'll notice a better texture all around.
• Wooden spoons keep my cookware from being scratched; I was lucky enough to find a bundle of Amish-made wooden spoons.
• Clean fresh eggs - they are just a must. And for cookies, I let the eggs come to room temperature.
• Butter, margarine or shortening; I like unsalted butter, a good margarine that's 80% vegetable oil (Kroger has a good brand - it says "Better for Baking" on the package.) And Crisco shortening is the only thing I buy. You can't beat it.

With the economy being what it is today, many people are going to make homemade gifts - I've been using the tips above for years, and I have people who ask to be on my gift list. And believe me, if I can do it, anyone can do it!