12. HOLIDAY PARTIES

Food traditions are commonly followed in planning menus for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. This is also the case, although to a lesser extent, for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day parties. Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually family affairs to which we may invite close friends and sometimes include a few strangers far from home who will appreciate particularly an invitation to dinner at holiday time. A simple but plentiful meal is usually the choice. In many households, the same menu is served year after year, and the family looks upon even minor changes with a cold eye. They are more interested in the turkey and fixin's and are so hungry for these that an introductory course is often omitted.

Parties for New Year's Eve are usually buffet style and often co­operative. The hour at which refreshments are served is elastic—it may be any time up to or after midnight. The menu will be little different from that at any buffet meal (see chapter on "Buffet Suppers"). Instead of the usual drinks, you may like to offer hot buttered rum or a hot mulled wine, so suitable for the cold crisp weather common at this season. Desserts are sure to include fruit cake and holiday cookies. On New Year's Day, the eggnog party is popular, and we will ask friends to drop in between certain specified hours. These may be around noonday or in the late afternoon. Dainty sandwiches, salted nuts, fruit cake and cookies, and a bowl of nuts and raisins are all that are needed to accompany the eggnog.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Sherry

Roast turkey

Giblet gravy

Roast turkey

Relishes

Celery

Carrot strips

Molded cranberry jelly

Potato puff

Giblet gravy

Celery stuffing

Candied sweet potatoes

Squash

Creamed onions with chestnuts

Red and white wine

Cole slaw

Plum pudding

Eggnog sauce

Pumpkin and mince pie

Coffee

Coffee

Fruit bowl

Nuts and raisinws

Fruit bowl

Nuts and raisins

New Year's Eve Buffet

Hot buttered rum

Hot mulled wine

Cold turkey

Cold ham

Casserole of chicken

Cold tongue

Horseradish Applesauce

Tartare sauce

Macaroni and cheese

Savory rice

Avocado salad

Jellied grapefruit salad

Ice cream

Butterscotch sauce

Fruit cake Cookies

Coffee

Sand tarts Coffee

New Year's Day Refreshments

Eggnog

Hot buttered rum

Crabmeat sandwiches

Cream cheese and pickle sandwiches

Minced chicken and    olive sandwiches

Shrimps with dunking sauce

Butterscotch cookies

Crackers Hot appetizers

Light fruit cake

Hermits Dark fruit cake

CREAMED ONIONS WITH CHESTNUTS

Allow 1½ pounds small "boiler" white onions for each 6 servings. Wash, peel and cook uncovered in large amount of boiling salted water about 20 minutes until tender. Drain and dress with 1 cup medium cream sauce. Add ½ pound boiled chestnuts that have been peeled, scraped and cut into large pieces.

MOLDED CRANBERRY SAUCE

1 quart cranberries

1½ cups water

2 cups sugar

Pick over cranberries. Wash, and add water. Cover and cook just until skins burst. Remove from heat. Add sugar and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Pour into 1-quart mold and chill. Yield: 8-10 servings.

DUNKING SAUCE

¾ cup mayonnaise

½ cup chili sauce

dash Tabasco sauce

2 teaspoons paprika

2 tablespoons mustard seed

Place mayonnaise in bowl. Add other ingredients and mix well. Let stand at least 1 hour. The amount of the ingredients in the recipe may be doubled and this sauce may be kept in the refrigera­tor as flavor constantly improves. Store in covered jar.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING

½ leaf day-old bread

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cloves

1 cup scalded milk

½ cup currants

1½ cups seedless raisins

½ cup cut figs

½ cup cut dates

¼ cup finely sliced citron

¼ cup finely sliced candied orange rind

½ cup sifted flour

¼ pound ground suet

3 eggs

¼ cup fruit juice or wine

Crumb bread, discarding crusts. Add sugar, salt, spices and milk. Mix well and cool. Mix fruit with flour. Add suet and blend well. Beat eggs. Add to cooled mixture. Add fruit mixture and fruit juice or wine. Blend thoroughly and pour into greased 2-quart mold. Cover and steam 2 hours. Uncover and cool. Re­cover and store in cool place. Re-heat at least 1 hour before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

Note: If pudding is to be kept more than 2 weeks, it should be stored in t

he refrigerator. If pressure cooker is used, steam 15 minutes without pressure, and 40 minutes at 15 pounds.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING SAUCE

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 egg yolks, well beaten

¼ cup melted butter

2 tablespoons brandy

2 tablespoons rum

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Stir sugar gradually into well-beaten egg yolks. Beat in butter and flavoring. Fold in whipped cream. Yield: 12 servings.

HOT BUTTERED RUM

2 quarts sweet cider or apple juice

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 bottle dark rum(fifth)

Heat cider almost to boiling. Add sugar. Stir until dissolved and add butter. When melted, add rum. Serve in small pottery mugs or in punch glasses and sprinkle with nutmeg. Yield: About 25 servings.

HOT MULLED WINE

1 large orange

1 large apple

3 3-inch sticks cinnamon

3 quarts red wine

cloves

Stud orange with cloves. Core apple and pare 1 inch at top. Place 1 stick cinnamon in center and bake with orange in moderate oven (375° F.) 30 minutes. Heat wine and remaining cinnamon in covered kettle, and let simmer while fruit is baking. Place fruit in metal or pottery punch bowl and pour hot wine over it. Serve in small mugs or punch cups. Yield: About 30 servings.

NEW YEAR’S EGGNOG

2 cups sugar

12 egg yolks, well beaten

1 pint brandy

1 pint dark rum

1 quart homogenized milk

1 quart heavy cream

nutmeg

Add sugar gradually to egg yolks, and stir vigorously until sugar is dissolved. Stir in brandy and rum slowly. Chill several hours. Fold in milk and cream. Pour into punch bowl and ladle into punch glasses. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Stir before refilling glasses. Yield: 50-60 servings.

SAND TARTS

1¼ cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 egg, well beaten

1 egg white, unbeaten

1 tablespoon water

sugared cinnamon

blanched almonds

Mix and sift flour and baking powder. Cream butter or marga­rine, add sugar slowly, and cream until fluffy. Stir in well-beaten egg. Add sifted dry ingredients, blend well and chill. Roll ⅛-inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut in desired fancy shapes. Brush tops with egg white diluted with water and sprinkle with sugared cinnamon. Split the almonds and arrange 3 halves on each tart at equal distances. Bake on ungreased sheet in moderately hot oven (425° F.) 8 minutes. Yield: 10-12 dozen small tarts.

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