Mini Sausage Bundles

1 package (17¼ ounces) puff pastry, thawed

3 Tbsp. Dijon-style mustard

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ pound mild sausage, cooked, crumbled, drained

Set oven at 350 degrees.

Cook, crumble and drain well the sausage. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out each sheet of pastry to a 10-inch square.

Spread mustard evenly over pastry. Sprinkle cheese evenly over mustard.

Cut pastry into 2½-inch squares. Press each square into a miniature muffin tin.

Spoon about 1 teaspoon sausage into each cup. Bring corners of pastry together and twist to seal.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

If not serving immediately, store in an airtight container in refrigerator. To re-heat, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Bake uncovered on an ungreased baking sheet 3 – 5 minutes or until heated through.

Makes about 2½ dozen sausage bundles.

From Christmas Gifts of Good Taste, by Leisure Arts, 1991, pg. 98.

Linda’s Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

1 cup chili sauce

¼ cup catsup

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. cream-style horseradish

Couple of dashes garlic powder

Fishin’ off the peer

Mom and Dad recall: At Grandma and Grandpa Wendt’s house, the kids wanted to fish off the edge of the peer. Dad rigged up some fishing poles for Dave, Deb and Brian, but they didn’t have hooks.

After many hours without success, Dave turned to dad and said, “How the Hell am I supposed to catch a fish without a hook?!”

Dave was about 3 at the time…

Bruce early morning fishin’

Christmas Gifts of Good Taste, by Leisure Arts, 1991, pg. 87.

Snapshot memories…

Dad’s shoeshine kit

Buzz haircuts

Fuzzy orange blankets

Farah Faucet poster

Cuckoo clocks; there’s nothing worse than a sick cuckoo as its pinecone weights hit the floor, “Cuckk…oo” it would croak

Disco SUCKS!

The Brat

Bruce’s war games and sibling pranksters moving pieces around when he wasn’t looking

The old water pump-thing at Aunt Catherine’s

Grandpa Wendt’s tobacco pipes

The old mammoth freezer with enough food to feed a small army

Dad playing tennis and snapping his tendon; a full cast on his leg

Playin’ cards

Mom’s high heels clanking on the linoleum floor while preparing dinner

Pig tails and pony tails tied up with ribbons

Fat-bellied plastic piggy banks filled with pennies

Next door neighbors on the court: This Land is Your Land, this Land is My Land…

Pinwheel Cheese Biscuits

⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1½ tsp. black pepper

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

⅛ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. dried minced onion

¼ cup butter or margarine, chilled, cut into small pieces

⅔ cup sour cream

⅓ cup half and half

½ pound thinly sliced deli ham

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Set oven at 450 degrees.

Place cheese and black pepper in a blender or food processor. Process 5 – 10 seconds or until finely ground.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cayenne pepper. Stir in cheese mixture and add the onion.

Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut ¼ cup butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in sour cream and half and half; knead until a soft dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough to a ¼-inch thick rectangle.

Place 1 layer of ham on dough. Beginning with 1 long edge, roll dough jelly-roll fashion. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour. Using a sharp knife, cut roll into ½-inch thick slices. Transfer to greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. If not serving immediately, store in an airtight container. To reheat, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake uncovered 2 – 3 minutes or until heated through.

Nathan’s Italian Appetizer

1 pizza crust mix

1 – 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Garlic Powder

Also use fresh minced garlic, if available

Italian Seasoning (Italian Herb Blend recipe in the Holiday Treats and Gifts section)

Rosemary, crushed

¼ cup grated Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese

Olive oil

Pepper

Preheat oven based on pizza dough directions.

Using a medium size bowl, prepare pizza dough according to package directions. Then spray dough with vegetable oil cooking spray, cover with a paper towel, and place the bowl in the sink filled with a couple inches of hot water. (The longer you let it rise, the easier I find it is to work with the dough.)

Meanwhile, coat baking pan with vegetable-oil cooking spray. After the dough has risen, work slowly to flatten dough on pan. I like a large, thin crust and will work the dough to the edge of the pan, raising the outer crust just a little.

Lightly spread the melted butter across the dough. Then sprinkle with garlic powder and add a teaspoon of fresh minced garlic, if available. Also sprinkle with Italian seasoning and a little bit of crushed rosemary across the dough. And finally, top with cheese.

Cook based on pizza crust directions. Since there aren’t a lot of ingredients, you’ll want to watch that the appetizer doesn’t burn.

Cut into serving size and serve with olive oil sprinkled with pepper.

God: One Man’s Definition

It is commonly said that from the mouth of babes come the most unexpected questions. I found this out first-hand when I took my seven-year-old nephew Nathan out to lunch at a floating restaurant on the river.

We had the restaurant practically to ourselves with only a restaurant employee on break occupying a table near ours.

As we ate, my nephew and I talked about many things: soccer, school, and girls. Then out of nowhere, Nathan asked, “Do you believe in God?” When I said that I did, he then asked me curiously, “What is God?”

My first thought was, “Thank goodness he didn’t ask me where babies come from!” But since he was quite serious, I asked for a few moments to compose my answer.

Stalling, I inquired why he wanted to know. He said a good friend of his believed in God, but that his parents didn’t. His father told him he’d be able to make up his own mind when he was older. But how could he do that if he didn’t know what God was? I couldn’t argue with that logic!

The dictionary defines God as “a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.” On that day, frankly, I’m happy I didn’t have my dictionary with me, since it took me a moment to comprehend all those big words!

The minister of the first church I attended believed God created all that there is, that God knows everything that we’re thinking, and that the only way to get to heaven was to believe in God. (He also believed only Baptists, for the most part, would ever make it to heaven.)

If you ask my close friend, Bob, he‘d tell you God is just a fairy tale, a fictional character created because man could not deal with his own mortality. And the bible is nothing but a work of fiction, a great moral story, but fiction nonetheless.

Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanon would tell you that God is a Republican, and that God is a he, and most definitely not a she.

Considering the fact that neither my former minister, Bob, nor either of the Pats were on hand at the moment, I considered my personal beliefs:

Many years ago, I read a book by Stephen Hawkings, titled A Brief History of Time. The great astronomer and theorist says that man is not capable of answering the question, “Is there a God?” because we believe in cause and effect.

In other words, I’m here because I have a mother, and she one before her. The problem arises when you try and find out how things all started. The theory of cause and effect says that something always precedes the latter. But this only goes so far.

Atheists ask, “If God exists, who created him?” Creationists ask, “If the Big Bang started with the explosion of gases and dust, then where did the gas and the dust come from?” Mr. Hawkings contends that we are incapable of thinking beyond this point. Until we come up with a completely new way of thinking, we may never settle this argument. I agree with that assessment.

Breadsticks

3 to 3½ cups flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder, optional

2 packages active dry yeast

¼ cup olive or salad oil

1¼ cups hot water (120° to 130°F)

1 egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp. water

Sesame, caraway, poppy seeds, (kosher-style) coarse salt, Italian Seasoning or Parmesan cheese, optional

Set oven at 375 degrees.

To prepare dough, stir together 1 cup of the flour, sugar, salt, garlic powder and yeast in a large bowl. Add oil, then gradually stir in hot water. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add ½ cup more flour and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Mix in 1½ to 2 cups more flour to make a soft dough.

On a well-floured board, and with well-floured hands, work it into a smooth ball. Then divide into 4 large pieces. Roll out each piece, cutting the dough into ½-inch wide, 8-inch long strips. Hold each strip at both ends and twist. Then place 1 inch apart on oiled baking sheet, pressing down on each end of the stick so it remains twisted. Lightly spray the breadsticks with vegetable oil cooking spray.

Set breadsticks in a warm place, cover and let rise in a warm place until puffy (about 15 minutes).

With a soft brush paint each stick with the egg white mixture. Sprinkle sticks lightly with sesame, caraway, poppy seeds, coarse salt, Italian Seasoning, Parmesan cheese, or leave plain.

Bake in oven until lightly browned all over (about 15 minutes). Transfer to racks and let cool completely. Makes about 36 8-inch bread sticks. Wrap airtight; store at room temperature for up to 1 day, in freezer for up to 1 month (thaw unwrapped).

Marmalade Cheese Tarts

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups flour

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

¾ cup orange marmalade

1 egg, lightly beaten

In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter, flour, and cheese. Knead until well combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.

Set oven at 350 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough to ⅛-inch thickness. Cut out dough using a 2-inch round cookie cutter.

Place about ½ teaspoon marmalade in center of each circle of dough. Fold dough in half and seal edges by pressing with a fork.

Transfer tarts to ungreased baking sheets and brush tops with egg.

Bake 10 – 15 minutes or until tarts are set and lightly browned.

Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Makes about 5 dozen bite-size tarts. From Snack Time Cookbook, by Leisure Arts, 1991, no page number.

Yogurt Fruit Dip

Strawberry Yogurt or other favorite flavor

Sprig of fresh mint, optional

“For lack of a better word, I am content to call whatever this “force” might be: God. I believe that God is non-denominational, that God did create the universe, but whether or not God still takes an interest in my everyday life is uncertain. I try to live my life with high moral standards, with the knowledge that I am human, and hope that’s enough. When I die, I’ll find out if it is or not. If I’m wrong about God, I’ll not know the difference, but I hope I find out I’m right!” I concluded.

“Yeah, that’s what I believe, too!” said the eavesdropping employee sitting nearby. I briefly considered starting my own religion on the spot, but then Jerry Falwell crossed my mind, and I discarded the idea quickly!

I explained to Nathan that this was my opinion, and that other people have their own theories on God. Someday, he would have to decide what God meant to him.

Answering the question of whether or not I believe in God is fairly easy to do; it’s quite another thing to define what God means to me and then explain it to a child. I’m happy Nathan asked because it forced me to organize into words what God stood for in my own mind.

In twenty years or so, after Nathan has had the time to think about it, I’ll be curious to know whether his explanation is similar to mine or not.

You know, looking back on that day, answering where babies come from may have been an easier question!

Snapshot memories…

Cool fall evenings, the smoke from burning leaves thick in the air; raking tons of leaves on Cherrywood; Beau Brandy and Duffy running thru our tidy piles of leaves

The dent in dad’s leg from where he was run over as a child

Deb-ism: Don’t get your panties in a wad!

Playing the license plate game in the car during long trips between Wisconsin and Kentucky

Graffiti-painted water towers

Grandma and Grandpa Wendt’s boat-shaped bathroom

Going to rock concerts in the late ‘70s and early 80’s; saving the ticket stubs

The day the Olympic torch passed thru St. Matthews

Applying make up for the first time and using a lot of blue eye shadow!

Dad’s “Gooey” poem:
Oonie Goonie was a worm. A mighty worm was he.
He sat upon a railroad track A train he did not see…“Gooey.” Dad’s cousin Vern taught him that!

On wintry days, mom making a fire for us; lying on our backs with our feet up on the hearth to warm them; then we’d drink hot chocolate, put on some dry clothes and go back outside to play

Linda’s Broiled Stuffed Mushrooms

1 pound large mushrooms

3 pounds mild Italian sausage

1 tsp. fennel seed

2 Tbsp. minced celery

2 Tbsp. minced onion

½ tsp. dried basil

½ tsp. dried parsley flakes

⅛ tsp. dried red pepper flakes

⅓ cup breadcrumbs

½ cup grated cheddar cheese (gruyere also works well)

Set oven to 450 degrees.

Remove stems from mushrooms; trim and finely chop stems. Set aside. Brown sausage with fennel; transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add celery, onion, chopped mushroom stems and seasonings to pan drippings; cook for a few minutes on low heat until vegetables are softened. Add to meat mixture, stir in breadcrumbs and cheese. Mound filling in mushroom caps.

Put on baking sheet; bake for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.

Cheese Tray with Crackers

Favorite Wisconsin Cheese Spread and/or any variety of cheeses, example:
Swiss

Mild and/or sharp cheddar

Pepper Jack

Mozzarella

Parmesan

Gouda

Your favorite crackers

Karin’s Antipasto

Hard-boiled eggs, cut into wedges

Red Onion, not chopped, but bite-size pieces

Italian salami, cut into bite-size pieces

Pepperoni slices

Calamata black olives and/or green olives

Romano cheese, cut into square bite-size pieces

Mozzarella cheese, cut into square bite-size pieces

Artichoke hearts (don’t throw away the oil)

Sun-dried tomatoes

Banana Peppers

Olive oil

Red pepper flakes, optional

Be creative when making this appetizer, but do include at least one kind of meat and cheese, onions, and olives (of course!) in your recipe.

Throw all of the items together into a bowl. Drizzle the artichoke hearts oil onto the ingredients and mix well. Add a dash or two or red pepper flakes. If a little dry, add some olive oil to help coat.

Cover and refrigerate 2 – 4 hours, or overnight. When ready to serve, place on a platter or in a bowl.

Mom’s Vegetable Dip

⅔ cup mayonnaise

⅔ cup sour cream

1 tsp. onion flakes

1 tsp. dill weed

½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. seasoning salt

1 Tbsp. parsley flakes

2 – 3 drops Tabasco sauce

On the next page: this is mom’s puffs (with the addition of garlic powder and red pepper) and Leisure Arts filling recipe from Delightful Lites, 1994, last page.

Promise Yourself –

To be so strong that nothing can disturb
  your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity
  to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is
  something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything
  and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for
  the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the
  success of others as you are about your
  own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and
  press on to the greater achievement of the
  future.

To wear a cheerful countenance to the
  improvement of yourself that you have
  no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for
  anger, too strong for fear, and too happy
  to permit the presence of trouble.

Snapshot memories…

Mom’s aprons

Nightly sit-down dinners together as a family

Brian Time

Gold cookie tin with the dented lid, filled with chocolate chip cookies

Troll dolls with green hair sticking up

Wind-up alarm clocks

Painted seashell jewelry boxes

Mom cutting our bangs

Clean sheets

Just sawed wood in dad’s basement workshop

Debbie’s bedroom (aka the dining room) furnished with antique white furniture

Brian waking the neighborhood with “Hello World!”

Dad coming home from work and Lori running out to the garage to greet him. Mom yelling “Let your father get in the door!”

Collecting and playing in rocks

The aroma of popcorn popping in the old popper

Ping-Pong tournaments in the basement

Brian walking across the top of the swing set, jumping off and on his way down, catching his arm on the chain link fence. “Mom, I BUSTED my arm!” he cried at the back door. “No, Brian,” mom said, “You BROKE your arm!”

Chicken Puffs

1 cup water

½ cup shortening (Crisco)

1 cup flour

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

⅛ tsp. red pepper

3 eggs

Set oven at 425 degrees.

In a saucepan, bring water and shortening to a boil. Now turn heat down to low. Add flour and salt all at once. Beat fast with a wooden spoon ‘til mixture leaves side of pan and forms a stiff ball of dough.

Remove from heat. Break 1 egg into mixture. Beat hard until batter is shiny smooth. Add second egg and beat again until smooth. Add third egg and beat again until smooth.

Spoon 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet. Bake on middle shelf in hot oven until puffed and golden brown—about 25 minutes. Makes 24 big or 36 small puffs.

Filling:
2 Tbsp. margarine or butter

1 cup evaporated skimmed milk

2 Tbsp. flour

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

2 cans (5 ounces each) chicken, drained or about 2 cups diced, cooked chicken

½ cup cucumber, peeled and diced

¼ cup onion, chopped

2 Tbsp. white cooking wine

Pasta Snack Mix

2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. ground cumin

¾ tsp. ground oregano

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. garlic powder

Vegetable oil

8 ounces Christmas tree-shaped (or other unique pasta shape, based on your occasion) pasta, cooked, drained, patted dry

In a small bowl, combine cheese, cumin, oregano, salt, and garlic powder.

Heat oil in fry pan to 375 degrees. Stirring occasionally, deep fry 1 cup pasta 4 – 5 minutes, or until pasta is golden brown and oil stops bubbling.

Drain on paper towels.

Transfer warm pasta to lightly greased aluminum foil. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons cheese mixture over warm pasta.

Repeat with remaining pasta and cheese mixture. (You may need to prepare more cheese-seasoning to cover all of the pasta well.)

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 4½ cups snack mix.

Recipe from The Spirit of Christmas, book 12, by Leisure Arts, 1998, pg. 123

Easy Cheese Spread

1 package Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Small jar pimento

Favorite crackers

Shows that we watched…

All My Children (every day during lunch)

And Ryan’s Hope

Little House on the Prairie

Gunsmoke

Twilight Zone

Kung Fu

Dark Shadows

Wonder Woman

The 6 Million Dollar Man

Gilligan’s Island

Charlie’s Angels

The Rookies

Mod Squad

Daktari

Star Trek – original series

The Electric Co.

The Partridge Family

Dr. Welby M.D.

Medical Center

The Flying Nun

Father Knows Best

The Archies, “Sugar, Sugar, My Honey, Honey…”

Dennis the Menace

“To invite a person into your house is to take charge of his happiness for as long as he is under your roof.”
--Brillat-Savarin

Golf crochet, anyone?

Dad recalls: About the first or second time I took Bruce and Brian out to play golf, they were on the fairway and Brian, who was about 11, swung his ball at the same time another player on a parallel fairway also hit his ball. Brian’s ball actually hit the other man’s ball in the air. It was like golf crochet! That’s like a one and a million thing.

The irony of this was that if Brian’s ball hadn’t hit that man’s ball in the air, the ball would have hit Brian.

Linda’s Layered Taco Dip

1 16-ounce can refried beans (with chilis is good)

1 cup sour cream

1 pkg. taco seasoning

¾ cup thick salsa

1½ cups chopped lettuce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup diced tomato (let drain a little)

¼ cup chopped green onions

¼ cup sliced pitted black olives

Spread refried beans on large plate or platter. Combine sour cream and taco seasoning. Spread on refried beans. Sprinkle each remaining ingredient across sour cream mix in layers.

Variations: You can also add seasoned taco meat, guacamole and/or sliced jalapeno peppers. If there’s anything in the basic recipe that you really don’t like, just leave it out; this recipe is flexible.

Linda’s Fruit Dip

7-ounce jar marshmallow cream

8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1½ tsp. grated orange peel

Dash of powdered ginger

Stir together thoroughly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours so flavors can blend. Serve with your favorite cut up fruit.

Linda’s Dill Dip

1 cup sour cream

1 cup real mayonnaise (don’t substitute salad dressing – it won’t be very good!)

½ tsp. sugar

½ tsp. salt

½ celery seed

1 Tbsp. dill weed

1 Tbsp. parsley flakes

Linda’s Cucumber Rye Sandwiches

Sliced small round cocktail rye bread

Softened cream cheese

Cucumber slices

Dill weed

Spread cream cheese on rye rounds. Top with cucumber slices, sprinkle with dill weed. Yum!

Linda’s Bacon Hot Dog Bites

1 pound Little Smokies weiners

½ pound bacon (cut strips in half)

1 cup brown sugar

Set oven at 350 degrees.

Wrap each hot dog with ½ strip bacon; fasten with toothpicks. Lay in single layer in shallow baking pan, sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake until bacon is cooked; drain grease. Can be chilled and reheated later.

Linda’s Chex Mix

1 small box Wheat Chex

1 small box Corn Chex

1 small box Rice Chex

4 cups Cheerios

12-ounce can mixed nuts

½ bag pretzel knots

3 cups vegetable oil

⅓ cup Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. garlic salt

1 Tbsp. Lowry’s seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Mix cereal, nuts and pretzels in very large roasting pan (large enough to stir mix). Whisk Worcester-shire sauce and salts into oil; pour over cereal mixture. Stir. Bake for 2½ hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Cool before eating.

Snapshot memories…

Begging mom and dad for a nickel to buy a gumball from the machine; blowing huge bubbles and getting gum stuck in our hair

Lalaisms: “It’s all good!” And, “It’s all about the black!”

The old electric ice crusher

The very persistent raccoon that kept getting into the attic above the garage on Cherrywood

Mom sticking the vacuum cleaner down the laundry shoot to get some clothes out that were hung up and getting the vacuum cleaner stuck! Dad had to take apart the metal opening to get it out! “It was always getting clogged,” she says.

Making pit stops at the Oasis and seeing familiar faces

Devouring Chips Ahoy, Oreos, and bite-size frosted oatmeal cookies; mom didn’t bake ALL the time!

Brian shootin’ buckets from the rooftop on Cherrywood

The creepy crawl space down in the basement on Cherrywood—creepy because the mesh dad put across it would move like it was breathing

Debbie’s Orphan Annie perm as a teenager; a look made complete with a black eye

Wisconsin: dairy farms and dark rich soil; alphabet highways; Indian-named towns, populated by people of Scandinavian and German descent