November 2020 Tidbit

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…🎼🎼🎼….We both have big families that eat a lot of food! Here are our favorite holiday crowd pleasers. (In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we are obsessed with food 🐷!) You can find both of these wonderful recipes in The Ministering Circle cookbook, Cape Fear – Still Cooking.

Helen says:

Party Ham Rolls:

1 package of Martin’s Dutch Potato Rolls 24 pack

1 stick butter – room temperature

1 small whole onion, minced and sautéed in butter

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

1 lb thinly sliced ham (I prefer Boar’s Head Tavern Ham)

1/2 lb thinly sliced Swiss cheese

Evenly slice top halves of rolls away from bottom halves. Mix butter, mustard, worcestershire sauce, onion and poppy seeds. Spread evenly over bottom halves of rolls. Layer ham and cheese. Replace tops . With a sharp paring knife, cut through tops and bottoms, separating each roll from the others. Wrap in foil (can freeze at this point). Bake 20 minutes at 300 degrees.

Holly says:

This dish has appeared at every Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration where my family has gathered for the past who knows how many years (I can vouch for more than half a century’s worth), prepared by different hands, and enjoyed by all.

HOT PANNED OYSTERS:

1 quart select oysters

1/4 pound saltine or soda crackers, finely broken

1/4 pound butter

5 celery stalks, chopped very fine

3 tbsps. Worcestershire sauce

20 drops Tabasco

Salt & Pepper, heavy

Paprika

Drain oysters well in colander. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In pyrex baking dish, place 1 stick of butter and run in oven until pan is hot and butter is melted. Into to the pan drop a layer of oysters, a layer of chopped celery, a layer of the 4 condiments, and a layer of crackers. Repeat the layers in the same order. Sprinkle paprika over the top layer of crackers. Bake for one hour. If any oyster juice remains after one hour, continue baking until juice is absorbed. Serve hot in same pan in which dish was cooked. (Never stir the mixture because you want oysters whole with their juices retained, which is made possible by dropping them in scalding hot melted butter. This process sears the outside of the oysters and keeps the juice inside.)