Thursday, November 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving from Moonlight Ridge


Thanksgiving Day came, cold and bright. Our little kitchen was crowded and cozy, everything smelled right spicy, and everybody was in a holiday mood, talking and laughing over the delicious feast.



Recipes from
"The Witches of Moonlight Ridge"


Hoppin’ John

½ pound bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp chopped parsley
Black-eyed peas, cooked and drained
Salt to taste (1 tsp salt for 2 cups dried black-eyed peas)
Cooked white rice

Sauté diced bacon, chopped onion, and chopped celery until onion and celery look translucent. Drain grease. Add garlic, parsley, and cooked black-eyed peas, simmer until peas are tender but not mushy.
In a large pot or bowl, gently combine peas and cooked rice, or serve peas separately over mounds of cooked rice.
Note: Before cooking dried black-eyed peas, sort through them thoroughly for tiny pebbles or other debris, then rinse and drain.
Note: Cooked ham, chopped, can be used in place of bacon. 



Raisin Biscuits

2 ½ cups unbleached self-rising flour
1 egg (optional)
Small pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter
¾ cup milk
1 tbsp unbleached sugar
1 ½ cups raisins

Preheat oven to 450°.
Sift together flour, pinch of salt, sugar. Cut butter into the flour mixture. Beat egg and add to the milk, stir into flour/sugar mixture. Add raisins. Turn onto well floured board, knead gently, using more flour if necessary for a smooth dough. Cut with small biscuit cutter and bake at 450° for approximately 15 minutes.



Persimmon Pudding

3 cups persimmons
2 cups buttermilk
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ½ cups unbleached sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg ½ tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 4 x 8 x 12 inch pan with 1 tbsp butter.
Puree 3 cups persimmons, which will yield 2 cups puree. Combine puree with buttermilk. Beat stick of butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In a large mixing bowl, stir the puree into the butter/sugar/eggs.
Sift all dry ingredients together and fold them into the persimmon mixture. Fill baking pan with mixture, place the pan into a larger pan and fill the larger pan halfway with warm water.
Bake uncovered for 1 ¼ hours or until the pudding is firm in the center and has pulled away from the sides of the pan, and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding comes out clean.
Serve hot with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

How to puree persimmons: Remove skins from ripe persimmons. Persimmons can be mashed through a colander, and seeds will be removed and left in colander. If using a food processor, remove seeds before processing.