Waldorf Salad the Crystal Chef way

I had a pretty severe craving yesterday for Waldorf salad. I am not even sure how that happened! It is not something I have ever made, its just a dish that I always hope someone makes at a pot-luck dinner at church. I decided it was time to figure out one of my own.

I started with the following:

1 cup of celery chopped very small (if you like celery bigger, go for it but I like it small in this case)

2 cups of large red seedless grapes, cut in halves to quarters (if you are lucky enough to find the really big ones you will need to quarter them)

4 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2/3 cup of dried cranberries

1/2 cup of Duke's Mayonnaise (okay, I don't usually list a brand name but seriously, I don't believe there is any other brand better than Duke's! I am a total Duke's devotee. You can use whatever mayo you want...but I would not recommend it!)

3 tablespoons of Daisy sour cream (yep, did it again, Daisy is the only sour cream I use...)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

In a large bowl whisk the mayo and sour cream together with the lemon juice and the sugar until nice and smooth. Next add your apples, grapes, celery and cranberries and toss well to make sure everything gets coated. DO NOT EAT IT AT THIS POINT. Put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. The flavors need a chance to marry.

Something to remember when you are making this, when chopping your apples, add a squirt of lemon juice to them while you chop so that they do not turn brown while you are making the rest of the salad. It helps.

I will tell you....the dressing does not taste the best right after you first make it. It takes 24 hours of sitting in the refrigerator and marinating with all of the fruits and celery to develop it's flavor. And it is so worth it! I know that I am the one that made it, but this is the best Waldorf salad I have ever had. Of course, tradition states one is supposed to put this salad on top of lettuce to serve, but I do not follow tradition. I just put it in the bowl and eat it. Serve it anyway you like. Just enjoy it.

PS...I added some chopped walnuts to the top right before serving. I liked the added texture. I would not add them until you are ready to serve. I like the crunch.

Tommy True's Cream Dreams

Another night, another chance to make a recipe from the stack of Helen's treasures. I wanted something quick and easy as it's Saturday night and I need to get to bed on time because I have church tomorrow. As I culled through the whole box, I found this interesting one. It is labeled (2nd grade) Tommy True's Cream Dreams.

I have to say, I wonder who Tommy True is to Helen? Is he real or is it just a cute name for the recipe? I guess I will never know.

Here is what you need to do:

(6) ounces of cream cheese (okay, Helen says you need two packages of three ounce cream cheese but I don't think they sell it that way anymore, at least I have never seen it. But you are in luck! The very smart people at Philadelphia Cream Cheese have their eight ounce packages of cream cheese marked in ounces on the package)

(4) cups of powdered sugar, sifted
(3) 1 ounce square of unsweetened chocolate
(1/2) teaspoon of vanilla
dash of salt
(1/2) c. chopped walnuts

Let the cream cheese soften and then beat well in your mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid and beat it until it was smooth)

Sift your powdered sugar. This is an important step. It gets all the lumps out of the sugar and makes it light as snow.

Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese two cups at a time and beat well. DO NOT forget to scrape the bowl so that all the sugar and cream cheese gets mixed together. It will develop into a rather stiff dough.

Don't worry, keep on mixing and keep on making sure you scrape down to get all the sugar and cream cheese well blended.

Next melt the chocolate. I have a confession. I did not use the unsweetened chocolate squares Helen called for. It is not an ingredient I keep readily at home. I used three ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead. (1/2 cup of chocolate chips is equal to 3 ounces). I melted it in my microwave (I bet Helen did not!)

Add the chocolate and the vanilla to the cream cheese mixture and blend well. Scrape down again to make sure you combine all the ingredients together. It was at this point I tossed in the pinch of salt. I have no idea when the right time to add the salt was, but this was when I added it.

Additionally I did not add the walnuts. My family is pretty weird about added nuts in their desserts, so no nuts for us! (At least no nuts in the dessert! Trust me, there are plenty of nuts in the house!)

Butter a dish and spread the finished mixture in it and then place in the refrigerator to chill. Do not use cooking spray, use BUTTER.

This dessert is very, very sweet. I have not decided what it really should be used for. I think it would make an excellent filling for something, not sure what yet? It is pretty close to a cannoli filling if it were not so thick.

Tommy, wherever you are, this 2nd grade dessert of yours is quite the sweet little bit of joy. I am glad I found it in Helen's recipes.  I wonder what you are doing now?

Helen's Little Gems aka Thumbprint Cookies

Tonight I got the urge to try another one of Helen's recipes. As I poured over the many I have, this one stood out mostly because I have all the ingredients on hand. I love recipes that use staple ingredients that the average person keeps in their kitchen/pantry.

The title of this recipe is "Little Gems". I recognized it as one I have made in the past called "Thumbprint Cookies" but Helen's recipe calls for a lot more butter and I can tell you, I am totally okay with using MORE butter!!

Here is what you need to do:

3 cups of unsifted flour
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of vanilla
strawberry preserves
pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment (Helen's note: I just spray them with Pam, forget the parchment! Isn't she adorable? It works too, I did not use parchment either)

Combine the first three ingredients using a mixer or food processor (I used my Kitchen-Aid). Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. (This worked great in my Kitchen-Aid). Beat yolk with vanilla and add to flour mixture.  Beat or process until completely blended.

Pinch of pieces of dough (about 3/4 teaspoon each) and roll into balls. Place on baking sheets. Using your finger (I used my thumb) make an indention in the center of each ball. Place about 1/8 teaspoon of jam in each and top with a pecan half. (I did not use the pecans.) Bake until light brown, about 20 minutes. Helen says to watch this carefully. Makes approximately 6 - 9 dozen if you make small cookies...Mine only made about 2 dozen because I made BIG cookies.

Feel free to substitute anything else for the strawberry jam. My favorite is raspberry preserves. I have even been known to drop chocolate chips in the thumbprint. The cookie is so wonderfully buttery that just about anything can go in that spot.

I hope you enjoy!