Column: Recipes to ring in the New Year

Here we are, already approaching the new year. 2000 seems to have sped by. These recipes can help the old year on its way and welcome 2001.

Eggnog

Serves 12-1/2 cups

It is my understanding this process will take the egg/milk mixture to 160F which I believe is the temp necessary to kill off those baddies.

4 eggs

1/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 quart milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup rum (optional)

ground nutmeg to taste

In a small bowl beat eggs well. Add sugar and salt. Set aside. Heat milk until hot, not boiling. Take from heat. Add about 1 cup hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring vigorously all the time. Continue stirring vigorously as you return this mixture to remainder of hot milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture leaves a path behind the spoon, about 5 minutes. Do not boil. Stir in vanilla and place saucepan in a bowl of ice and water stirring occasionally, about 2 hours or until well cooled. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Beat cream to soft peaks and fold in. Add rum and top each serving with nutmeg.

Low Calorie Eggnog

Serves 6

This recipe avoids the danger of using raw eggs, and will greatly reduce the calories. I have not tried this recipe, though I've had it for many years.

1/2 cup (4 ounces) egg substitute

1/4 cup sugar

1-13 ounce can evaporated skim milk

3/4 cup low-fat milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon imitation rum flavoring

2 cups vanilla non-fat frozen dessert

ground nutmeg to taste

Beat egg substitute and sugar until blended, about one minute. Add milks, vanilla and rum flavoring. Beat about one minute. Refrigerate about 2 hours to blend flavors and chill thoroughly. Pour into punch bowl, add scoops of frozen dessert and sprinkle with fresh nutmeg.

Date Drops

This is an easy recipe because the dough requires no refrigeration or rolling. In the 1930s it came to my mother from a friend in Syracuse, NY by the name of Ella Linder. I recall she was a very good cook.

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon hot water

1 pound dates, seeded and cut up

1/2 cup nutmeats, chopped

1 cup sifted flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cool butter and add eggs and hot water. To dates and nuts, add some of the flour, then mix flour, sugar and baking powder and add to floured dates and nuts. Stir in liquids. Drop by small spoonfuls on a greased or sprayed baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until delicately bronzed. Remove immediately to rack and cool. Store tightly covered.

Yellow Pound Cake

Many cooks do not have scales in their kitchens today, and I think the saying, "A pint is a pound the world around" I learned in grade school is off base, according to my scales. This rich, moist pound cake has a very fine texture. It came from my great grandmother, and I remember my grandmother would cut it in thin slices and serve it with tea or coffee as a treat for guests, rather than a dessert for family meals. There were no directions, as it was assumed any cook knew how to put the ingredients together.

1 pound butter

1 pound sugar, about 2-1/4 cups

20 large eggs

1 pound flour, about 2-3/4 cups unsifted*

1 teaspoon almond flavoring

Cream butter, add sugar and cream until very fluffy. Add eggs, beating, one at a time. Slowly stir in the sifted flour and almond flavoring. Pour batter into greased and very lightly floured loaf pans. Place in a cold oven, set for 350F and bake for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours until a cake tester comes clean from the center.

*Weight of flour is difficult to judge as moisture can change its weight.

Out of condensed milk? Here is a recipe I have been told will work, though I haven't tried it yet.

1 cup powdered milk, dry

3 tablespoons melted butter

pinch salt

1/3 cup boiling water

2/3 cup sugar

Blend until smooth, holding the lid firmly, and refrigerate until needed.

Need a recipe? Have a cooking question? E-mail NVAda2@aol.com or write Ada Roelke, The Nevada Appeal, 200 Bath St., Carson City 89702.