Luckily for me, these Butterscotch Brownies with Chocolate Ganache ended deliciously! The only thing that disappointed me about them was the lack of texture – and that was totally my fault. I had toasted up some nuts to mix in, but forgot them. If you decide to give these a whirl, I strongly recommend adding the pecans; they’ll give you a bit of texture to break up the incredibly smooth, very sweet brownie. Without the nuts, it’s a little too much.

Butterscotch Brownies
From Cookie Swap: Creative Treats to Share Throughout the Year, by Julia M. Usher

Caramel Topping
8 ounces caramel candies (about 27 cubes)
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Butterscotch Brownies
2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3⁄8 teaspoon salt
1¼ cups (2½ sticks) unsalted butter, chopped into tablespoon-size pieces
2¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons dark rum (optional)
2 cups pecan halves, toasted and coarsely chopped

Ganache Glaze
16 ounces premium semisweet chocolate finely chopped or ground in a food processor
1½ cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions:
Make the Caramel Topping. Unwrap the caramel candies and combine with the cream and butter in a small nonreactive (stainless steel or coated) saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring regularly to prevent scorching, until the caramels and butter are completely melted and the mixture has boiled. Remove from the heat. Stir in the flour, mixing well to break apart any lumps. Add the vanilla extract and set the topping in a warm place so the caramel stays fluid while you prepare the brownie batter.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 10 x 15 x 2-inch glass baking dish (sometimes called a roasting pan, p. 10) with foil, leaving a 1-inch overhang around the top edge of the pan. Smooth out any big wrinkles in the foil and then lightly coat the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix the Butterscotch Brownies. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Place the butter in a medium (3-quart) saucepan over low heat. Once the butter has fully melted, remove it from the heat and stir in the brown sugar, mixing until smooth. (Note: Don’t be surprised if the butter and sugar do not completely come together at this point; some separation is normal.) Cool a few minutes; then add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and rum, if desired.

Gradually add the flour mixture, whisking all the while to keep the batter lump free. Stir in the pecans. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and level with a small offset spatula. (The batter will be less than 1 inch thick, but it will bake to about twice its original thickness.)

Drizzle the caramel topping evenly over the batter. (If the caramel has thickened and is difficult to drizzle, gently reheat it.) Marble the top (and break apart any large caramel blobs) by drawing a spatula through both the topping and the batter in a random pattern.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs on it, and the brownie has pulled away from the edges of the pan, about 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely in the pan. (Areas that had larger helpings of caramel topping may sink slightly, but don’t worry; the ganache will completely cover any holes.)

Prepare and apply the Ganache Glaze (below). Make the glaze only after the brownies have completely cooled.

While the ganache is fluid, pour it evenly over the brownie. Gently tilt or shake the pan so that the ganache completely coats the brownie top. Cover with foil, taking care to keep it from touching the ganache. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours, or until the ganache is firm enough to cut cleanly.

Remove the brownies from the pan in one block by gently pulling up on the foil overhang. Place directly on a cutting board. Remove all foil, and trim any uneven edges before cutting into 1½-inch squares. For the neatest cuts, slice the bars while the ganache is firm and wipe the knife clean with a warm, damp cloth between slices. Serve at room temperature.

Ganache Directions:
Place the chopped (or ground) chocolate in a large bowl so it forms a shallow layer. Set aside.

Pour the cream into a medium (3-quart) nonreactive (stainless steel or coated) saucepan. Place over medium to medium-high heat and scald the cream. (That is, heat the cream to just below the boiling point. The cream will put off steam, but no bubbles should break on its surface.)

Immediately strain the hot cream through a fine-meshed sieve directly onto the chocolate. Let the mixture sit 1 to 2 minutes without stirring, and then gently whisk until the chocolate is entirely melted. (If the chocolate does not completely melt, set the bowl over barely simmering water in a double boiler and stir regularly until smooth. Do not overheat, or the ganache may break.) Stir in the corn syrup.

To use the ganache as a glaze, pour it while lukewarm. Alternatively, for piping ganache, pour it into a shallow pan to a ½- to ¾-inch depth, cover, and refrigerate 20 to 25 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Stir occasionally during chilling to maintain a uniform consistency. (Hard, overchilled pieces of ganache should be broken up, as they can easily clog pastry tips when piping.) Chilling time will vary with starting ganache temperature, refrigerator temperature, and depth of the ganache. Watch the ganache closely, as it can quickly overchill and become difficult to pipe.

I know what you’re thinking when you hear the word “lasagna”: Heavy. Saucy. Salty. Cheesy. Though the dish incorporates all four of those elements, it’s a wonderful example of restraint and is still a satisfying meal. The white topping you see in the photograph below isn’t cheese, it’s a simplified bechamel that is spread over the top of the pasta and baked.

Serve this with side salads and garlic bread.

The recipe below serves 10. I cut the ingredients in half, serve Friday night, and still have more than enough to serve for Saturday lunches and dinner.

Lasagna-Style Baked Ditali with Meat Sauce
Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine

1 pound pennette or ditali
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 pounds ground meatloaf mix (or 1 pound lamb, 1 pound veal)
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons marjoram
2 tablespoons chopped fresh, flat-leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 quart milk
2 large egg yolks
3/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain well.

In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the ground lamb and veal and cook, stirring to break up the lumps, until the meat is beginning to brown, 10 minutes. Drain all fat from the pan.

Remove from the heat and stir in the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, marjoram and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over moderate heat, whisking, for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, until the sauce is very thick and boiling, 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks and the Romano. Stir all but 1 1/2 cups of the sauce into the meat mixture along with the pasta and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the pasta into a 3-quart baking dish. Spread the reserved 1 1/2 cups of sauce on top.

Bake the pasta in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes, until bubbling. Preheat the broiler. Broil the pasta 8 inches from the heat for about 2 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbling. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

I know. I’m a party animal.

Friday nights are now spent tidying up the house, preparing for my big day. I even make a dish that will perform well as leftovers to carry us through Saturday lunch and dinner. So far it’s been really great, and this past weekend I even decided I’d make a breakfast that would handle the same type of idea.

Enter the strata.

Like “Enter the Dragon”, but cheesier.

Cook’s Illustrated actually introduced strata to me. I had never heard of it until I started cooking through their “2008 Holiday Baking” booklet for the AwK monthly segment. The breakfast dish features a layer of toast with other fillings and cheese, then the layer is repeated. On top, smother the entire dish with egg, milk and sometimes with a reduced white wine. The dish sits and soaks, then is later baked. If you want to see a photo step by step process, you can find it on AwK here, from the Breakfast Strata with Sausage, Mushrooms and Monterey Jack post.

Friday night, I assembled my strata. The dish was very simple and I was able to organize it while my dinner baked in the oven. Normally you’re supposed to totally compact the dish down with weights, but I couldn’t because my plastic wrap wasn’t tight enough to keep the egg from spilling out. Instead, I covered it as best I could and placed one box of chicken broth in the center. Good enough for government work. Then I stuck it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I threw it in the oven to bake…

50 minutes later I had a fluffy egg, cheese and spinach breakfast that fluffed up in the oven beautifully. The toast gives it lots of great structure. Cut into squares and serve.

On Sunday morning, I wrapped the leftovers loosely in foil and baked it in my toaster oven for 15 minutes to warm up. What a fantastic little breakfast. Highly recommend!!!

Breakfast Strata with Spinach & Gruyère Courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated
Serves 4

8 – 10 slices supermarket French bread (1/2-inch thick) or Italian bread (6 – 7 ounces)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 medium shallots, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach , thawed and squeezed dry
1/2 cup medium-dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
6 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 large eggs
1 3/4 cups half-and-half or milk

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 225 degrees. Arrange bread in single layer on large baking sheet and bake until dry and crisp, about 40 minutes, turning slices over halfway through drying time. (Alternatively, leave slices out overnight to dry.) When cooled, butter slices on one side with 2 tablespoons butter; set aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sauté shallots until fragrant and translucent, about 3 minutes; add spinach and salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach and shallots are combined, about 2 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl; set aside. Add wine to skillet, increase heat to medium-high, and simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup, 2 to 3 minutes; set aside.

3. Butter 8-inch square baking dish with remaining 1 tablespoon butter; arrange half the buttered bread slices, buttered-side up, in single layer in dish. Sprinkle half of spinach mixture, then 1/2 cup grated cheese evenly over bread slices. Arrange remaining bread slices in single layer over cheese; sprinkle remaining spinach mixture and another 1/2 cup cheese evenly over bread. Whisk eggs in medium bowl until combined; whisk in reduced wine, half-and-half, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread layers; cover surface flush with plastic wrap, weigh down (see note, above), and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

4. Remove dish from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature 20 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Uncover strata and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese evenly over surface; bake until both edges and center are puffed and edges have pulled away slightly from sides of dish, 50 to 55 minutes (or about 60 minutes for doubled recipe). Cool on wire rack 5 minutes; serve.

Years later, I came to know who he was: The Godfather of American Cooking. By then I had forgotten I had even bought the book, and didn’t realize until about a year ago when I was putting my kitchen through a hefty re-org.

The book, Beard On Pasta, is now very expensive, though you can probably find most of his recipes in his consolidated, complete tomes, or on ebay. In my opinion, if you love pasta, it’s a book worth having. He’s come up with some incredibly creative dishes that play with flavor and texture, and are absolutely fantastic. My favorite thus far is an interesting dish that combines the technique of souffle and jelly roll — but as a pasta dish. By using really tiny pasta (like pastini), whipped egg whites, and grated mozzarella, he creates a light and fluffy pasta dish with a texture that’s just fun to eat.

This is a light and fluffy pasta-y, cheesy, egg-y goodness topped with a simple and delicious tomato sauce. I’m really excited to share this recipe with you. It’s so good.

Pasta & Cheese Roll in Tomato Sauce
4 – 6 servings
Adapted from James Beard’s Beard on Pasta

3/4 cup acini di pepe (or pastina, orzo, or star-shaped stellini – whatever you use, make sure it’s light enough so they don’t drag down the souffle mixture)
6 eggs, separated
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3 cups light tomato sauce (below)

Butter the four corners of a 15×11-inch jelly roll pan (it keeps the parchment in place during the baking process.) Line the pan with parchment, leaving an overhang of about 2 inches at each end.

Cook and drain the pasta. (Note: I did not salt my pasta water. Enough salt goes into the egg mixture later, and Parmesan/Romano also adds salt.)


I used Acini de Pepe, which look like little peppercorns when cooked. Very fun to eat.

Beat the egg yolks until they are light and lemon-colored, then gradually stir in the pasta, butter, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft, unwavering peaks. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture quite thoroughly.

Be gentle when folding. You don’t want to pound out the egg whites and undo all the work you put into whipping them.

Spread the mixture in the prepared pan, smoothing it with a knife or rubber spatula so that it is the same thickness overall. Sprinkle it evenly with mozzarella and bake it in a 375-degree oven for 15 minutes, until it is firm and puffy.

Take it out of the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 325-degrees.

With most souffle-roll mixtures, you would now quickly invert the pan onto a towel and peel off the paper. But you want to keep the mozzarella on the inside of the roll; so, instead, you grasp the extended ends of the parchment paper or foil, lift it out of the pan, and lay it on a large cooling rack.

Let it cool for 10 minutes, and then use the paper to help roll it up, starting with one long side. As you roll, peel off the paper. You may have to use a small, sharp knife to help you along.

Slice the roll into 10 rounds.

Arrange them in an overlapping row in a buttered baking dish. Cover them with tomato sauce, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan and heat at 325-degrees for 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Light Tomato Sauce
Makes 3 cups, enough for about 1 pound pasta

28-ounce can Redpack whole tomatoes in puree
2 small onions, sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried basil (optional – I use 1 tbsp. fresh sage, but whatever you have handy works just fine)
4 tablespoons butter

Cook the tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper and basil over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. If you want a smooth sauce, strain it or puree it in the food processor. Then add the butter and continue to cook while it melts.

Variation
Instead of the basil, substitute 1 teaspoon dried oregano or tarragon or any other herb that you fancy. If using fresh herbs, increase to 1 tablespoon.

But it’s done. Next year I plan to be more prepared and get them out one week in advance. YES, YOU HEARD IT HERE.

I’m a lot happier about this year’s selection of cookies than I was with last year’s. Last year I was a lot more experimental and ended up with things I was really unhappy with and did not travel well. I did package up some chocolate shortbread which I am really nervous about traveling, but overall everything should be fine. Here’s the list of goodies I made this year (most of it can be found on AwK if you’re looking for ingredient listings):

Rocky Road Bark
Chocolate Shortbread
Grasshopper Squares
Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies
Poppy Seed Thumbprints
Double-Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I always have this nervousness that everyone’s going to hate what I sent, or maybe I didn’t send enough… Don’t know why I do that to myself.

Now I just have to make sure I have enough stuff for Tom’s family on Thursday…

This year, I went back to my roots and made a mess in my kitchen that would have had my mother praying to Jesus. I’m feeling a little more confident in what I’m sending out, although it’s hard to be completely assured that what you’re sending will make everyone happy. Also, I’m excited that I’ve been able to add good friends Jeff and Caroline to my list, even though I have no clue what kind of sweet treats they enjoy.

So I went with half cookies, half chocolate confections. Right now I have a batch of raspberry shortbread dough chilling in the freezer, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit them into the packages. It was my one and only fruity cookie, but I don’t think it will make it. Another time, perhaps. Here’s what we ended up with for this year:

Butterscotch Blondies
Peanut Butter cookies with Hershey’s Kisses
Orange Chocolate-Chip Biscotti
Chocolate Mint Candy (Fudge)
Chocolate-Cranberry Truffles
Fantasy Fudge
Chocolate Earl Grey Truffles

Have a very, merry Christmas, and enjoy!

Hilarious and clever. And scary. Great tastes that go together.

This is the first Thanksgiving that Tom and I would not be spending at home, just the two of us. His mother ended up not having to work on the holiday and wanted to have a family gathering. Since this is the first time it’s happened since Tom and I have been married, I didn’t make an issue or express my disappointment. Also, I had declared and coordinated the first church potluck for Thanksgiving so I knew I could get some cooking out of my system.

What I didn’t realize is how much cooking I would get out of my system.

We had been planning this for a month, and I had been talking to my pastor and her husband about this for weeks. Her husband, Dave, loves to cook. So do I. The last we spoke, they had a roaster, and were looking forward to bringing a turkey. Great, I said, I would bring everything else.

Fast forward to Friday morning before the Sunday potluck. I get the message on my cell phone:

“Hi Jen! Dave’s working this weekend, so he’s wondering if you can bring the turkey? Thanks!”

If you’ve never cooked a turkey before, let me explain that you can’t thaw a turkey in a day. I know I have to buy a fresh turkey, which doesn’t excite me because it’s more expensive. If I were cooking for my family or for Tom’s family, I would go all out with some fancy fresh turkey. It’s not. It’s my church friends and, as much as I like them, I don’t think they warrant the price of a fresh turkey. Although it’s too late, and now I have no choice.

Next, I turn to Ken and complain that I’ve been saddled with this turkey two days before the potluck. His response:

“Oh man, you’ve gotta brine it!”

I’ve never brined a turkey, but of course I value Ken’s culinary opinion. Immediately I consult the Grand Poobah of Food, Alton Brown.

From the “Romancing the Bird” episode of his show, Good Eats, I find the recipe for the Good Eats Roast Turkey.

Basically, you take the ingredients for the brine…

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
(Note: Candied ginger can be expensive so I did not buy any and it turned out just fine.)

…and you put it into a bucket. Put your turkey in there and add ice water until the bird is covered.

Before Tom posts this in the comments section, I will go ahead and tell you that I didn’t have an appropriate bucket. I had considered a couple of different tubs, but they were so big that the turkey would not have been covered and the brine would have been really diluted. We go into the basement and start looking at our storage shelves. We see an empty bucket sitting on a bottom shelf amidst a stack of boxes.

Tom points it out and notes that it really is the best shape and size for a turkey brine in our whole house. He sees the contemplative look on my face and starts to laugh. Hard. I can tell he will not be eating the turkey.

I cleaned the bucket out. I did! In fact, I scrubbed it out twice. I mean, it never had USED cat litter in there. The cat litter was clean! Oh sure, it’s toxic and can kill you, but the Soft Scrub with Bleach I used to clean it out is probably worse!

So after I scrubbed it with harsh, people-killing chemicals, I washed it out again with hot water and dish soap, and brought it upstairs.

It’s good to note that no one in my church reads my blog – they don’t even know I have one. But I digress.

I bring the bucket upstairs and, after my brine had heated up in a pot, I poured it into the bucket. After cleaning the turkey, I set it into the bucket, breast-side down. Then I added my iced water. The lid sealed up the bucket nicely and I set it out in the garage overnight to keep cool.

In the morning, I got up, took the turkey out of the brine and thoroughly cleaned it – if you do not thoroughly clean your turkey, it will be salty. Rinse it. Then rinse it again. Then rinse it once more just to make sure! Pat dry. I put it into a disposable roasting pan that I had set on top of a cookie sheet – for structure.

After you roast the bird, uncovered, at 500 degrees (gives the turkey a nice golden color), cover it in a double layer of foil. Seriously. I think this is the key. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another couple of hours. I had to leave for church early because I had to do worship, so I reduced it to 300 degrees and let it cook. Never basted it. Never touched it. I left for church at 9:45am and got home at about 12:00 — the turkey was done. When we took it out of the oven, the roasting pan was filled with juice from the turkey, which has never happened to me before. Originally we intended to have someone carve it, but it was so tender that even the white meat could be carved with a spoon. The meat was fallling off of the bone, it was so tender. The flavor was equally amazing. I will never go back to the “old” way of cooking a turkey. Not only was it delicious, but I barely did any work on it. After it sits in the brine, you just stick it in the oven and let it sit there until it decides to be done!

Tom still pines away for a deep-fried turkey, which he once had at his brother’s house, but I don’t care for (A.) all that grease and (B.) lighting my house on fire. So for me and my house, we will brine the turkey.

The next time you make your turkey, consider brining it. You won’t be sorry.

The grocery store was packed with people. My strategy was to leave my cart nearby in a safe spot, and then run into an aisle, grab all of the items I needed, and then run back to my cart. Off to the next aisle and repeat the process.

This strategy was brilliant until I looked down and realized that at some point I had walked off with someone else’s cart. There were two realistic options for me:

1. Sneakily, and without honor, skulk away from the cart and go off in search of the one I had abandoned.
2. Suck up my pride and return the cart to the poor soul I had stolen it from.

In the end, I went with option #2, even though option #1 looked really, really good. I employed a much different strategy this year: Plan ahead. If you haven’t made any plans, don’t panic – there’s still time.

My brother, Neall, will be arriving tomorrow evening, so it gave me a reason to plan – and explore some new recipes. The Williams Family Tradition on Thanksgiving is the following: Appetizers and finger foods with endless games of cards (where we never cheat), more finger foods, and a matinee movie. And then surprisingly enough, more appetizers and finger foods. Later that evening, we are somehow able to eat a smaller, traditional Thanksgiving meal. Then maybe a dessert if we can fit it in, and then we either pass out from eating so much food, or sit down to a final game of cards and some more appetizers. Then we play until someone passes out from a food coma, or explodes. It’s an unhealthy food orgy that we only indulge in once a year.

Overall, our main event is the finger foods. I love ‘em.

If you plan on going anywhere this Thanksgiving and will not be cooking the main meal, don’t show up empty-handed. Everyone loves appetizers and finger foods – we crowd around them to chat and snack! They are the lifeblood of any good gathering. Well, that and being with people you don’t hate. Unfortunately I can’t help you with that, so I’ll have to stick to the food.

Every year around this time, Better Homes & Gardens releases a series of holiday magazines. Of course I usually pick up the cookie magazine, but this year something else caught my eye – the BH&G Holiday Appetizers Magazine.

Inside this nifty magazine you will find a variety of helpful and quick appetizers and holiday beverages – for a twist, they encourage beer. From now until the end of the year, I will be trying some of the various recipes in here. With most cooking publications you just don’t know what you’re going to get, but most of the recipes listed within sound delicious. If I find any worth sharing, I will let you know here, and enter it into the recipe index.

Another great boon to the magazine is that it also has a small section on soups, and all of them sound amazing. I will probably try all of the soups listed – that’s how wonderful they sound.

Still, if you have to go with just one amazing appetizer this year, I would suggest Grandma Nancy’s Stuffed Mushrooms

And before you ask, she isn’t my grandmother. I found this recipe on the Food TV website. It is quite popular, even though it was submitted by a viewer and never tested in a Food Network kitchen. To date it has been tested in my kitchen and in my mouth, not to mention seven or eight parties.

Although not everyone likes mushrooms, I would pick this one because it is (A) a hot appetizer, and anything hot gets great response and (B) unlike other traditional mushrooms that call for either pork or shrimp. Grandma Nancy’s, on the other hand, calls for poultry sausage. I find that more people are inclined to eat them because the main ingredient is poultry – in fact, whenever I bring these to a dinner party, they have never lasted more than 20 minutes. That’s the downside to the mushrooms, so when I make them for a party, I usually set aside a few for myself.

If you’re taking them to a family event of party, double the recipe – just trust me and double it.

For those of you who do not care for mushrooms as much, I would suggest a Williams Family Tradition: Meat Rolls. I have no idea where this recipe came from, it’s just something that was handed down to me from my mom. In fact, I still have my mother’s handwritten 3×5 card – but it’s developed a few food stains from use! Maybe my Grandma Wolf made them? That sounds familiar, but I can’t be sure. These little finger foods are a chilled appetizer, and nice for the pickiest of eaters as they are served with toothpicks.

1 8-oz package of cream cheese, softened 1 tsp. horseradish a dash of worcestershire onion salt (to taste) a little bit of mayo (to make it creamy) Assorted Sliced Sandwich Meat

Combine the first five ingredients. The recipe says to let them sit overnight so the flavors can meld, but I usually eat it right away. What can I say – I’m an instant results person! Spread the mixture onto a slice of deli meat and roll it up. Depending on the size of your deli meat, you may need to cut it in half. Stick a toothpick in that sucker and then pop it in your mouth!

I most likely will not be able to add anything here until after the holiday, so have a wonderful Thanksgiving!