New Year’s Day Dinner 1993 – a Rare Episode with Recipes!

Well, Happy New Year Day to you. I hope that the festivities at your house have been really great throughout this holiday season. I kind of feel like it’s time to wind down, though. I’ll tell you, I don’t know how many more parties I could attend, or how many more gatherings. Now it’s time to kind of start to undecorate, pack it all away, and settle into life again, right; just normal everyday living. I love it when it comes, but when it’s time to put it away, I’m ready to do it. Enjoy it while it’s here, but when it’s over, it’s over. And New Year’s Day is a good time when people undecorate on New Year’s Day and pack it away. I think it’s kind of nice to wait until a couple of days after that, just to enjoy it. But if it’s creeping in on you, go ahead. This evening, that’s the thing to do. Well, I want to talk to you today a little bit about the past year. Sometimes the year holds good things for us, and sometimes it doesn’t. And if this year has not been an especially good year for you, there’s been some breakup in some relationships, maybe you didn’t hear from that son that you’ve been concerned about, or you’ve been thinking about all year; or maybe that daughter that decided she didn’t want to live under your jurisdiction or your rule or authority anymore and she moved out, and you’ve been wondering about her and you didn’t hear from her through the holidays. I know there have to be times of concern for you. But I just ask you to please try to think that this year will be different. And ask God’s help in reaching out to that one that does not want to reach out to you. You know, I always feel when I get to this point every year that as one year is ended, you stand on the threshold of a new year. And it’s a golden opportunity to start all over again. I think that’s why God made it that way. I think that’s why there’s a beginning of a year and an ending of a year, and a beginning and an ending. Because I like to read the Scripture of the beginning of every year. And I’m going to share it with you today. It’s from the Bible from Philippians — that’s a Book in the New Testament, Chapter 3, Verse 13 and 14. And this is what it says. And this is what I hold in my heart that helps me to make it through the old year passing and the new year beginning. And it says, “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Says it all, doesn’t it; forgetting those things, the disappointments of last year, things that you can’t do anything about. You just have to leave them with the Lord. But here’s a new year. You forget the old ones and you reach forth. “Boy, God, this is the year that my son and I our relationship is going to be restored,” or, “This is the time in the next couple of months I know that something is going to happen. “That husband’s going to come back home,” or, “My kids are going to be restored,” or a broken relationship with maybe you and your church or you and your workplace. Press forward. Look and reach towards that goal for the new year. And above all else, it’s important to keep the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart and in the center of your relationship. Well, we’re getting started with our New Year’s Day dinner, a traditional dinner. Now, when I say, “New Year’s Day food,” what do you think of; you’re right, sauerkraut. We’re going to fix a real good quick, easy, tasty way in just a minute. But I want you to listen to this resolution that I think would be good for you and I both to follow. We’ll be back in just a minute. Please join me for our New Year’s resolution. “As we begin the new year with God’s help, we resolve to set our priorities in proper order, developing our relationship first with God, then with our families, and finally, with our friends.” Well, today we’re going to start our roast pork with sauerkraut. We’re going to make mashed potatoes; we’ll have those on the table at the very end of the program. But what I like best with sauerkraut is a fried apple. You say, “A fried apple? Is it a pie?” No, it’s a fried apple; slice of apple that you do in a skillet. It has some butter and brown sugar. And the sourness of the kraut and the sweetness of the apple, mmm, it tastes so good. We also are going to do a corn pudding that we’re going to bake in the oven, and a really nice light dessert because I think we’re tired of the cookies, tired of the pies, tired of the cakes, tired of the candy. Let’s just go for something fruitful and light. Well, that’s what our dessert is going to be today. First I’m going to get started because we want this to get in the oven and get baking. We’re going to start with our corn pudding. Now, you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, graze your casserole, like we have grazed here. Set that aside. Now we’re going to take three egg yolks only, put them in a bowl, and we’re going to mix those up. [Blender whirring] And we’re going to add a tablespoon of corn starch —

Teaspoon of salt; just a — sorry — yes teaspoon of salt. Little bit more than what I thought it was; beat this together.

Slow it down here for a minute. [Blender stops] We’re going to add one large can of whole kernel corn. Put that there. Just going to mix that in there [Can knocks] like this. And some melted — we need to melt our butter in our pan here, in our sauce pan. And we’re going to mix this together. You separated your eggs, and your egg whites need to be stiffly beaten too. To this we’re going to add a cup of milk also. While we’re waiting for our butter to melt, we’ll go ahead and mix this up. I love corn pudding. And you know, there are all kinds of recipes. Some are hard, and some are easy, and you think, “Oh my goodness, which is the best?” Well, I think the best is whatever you can make and do it well. Get some more of that cornstarch out of there, because the importance — because that’s what’s going to thicken it. It’s important to follow the directions as closely as you can when it comes to something like this, because if you don’t make it right, it’s not going to taste good. And we’re melting our butter. And you say, “Well, do you need to use butter?” Well, you can use Olio, but butter tastes better. And from what I’m understanding, the study is that it’s better to use butter than the Olio now because your body cannot digest the process that they put the Olio through. It lays like a wad of gum in your system, and it’s hard for you to digest it. So that’s just another point. Now, I know that at the beginning of the year we’re all thinking about dieting and going on that infamous New Year’s resolution to lose those pounds. And here’s something we need to think — certainly need to think about cutting out fats and cutting out sugars and the starches. And I think everybody — I don’t care if you’re as thin as a pencil, if you eat a lot of junk food and you eat a lot of that type of thing, you need to be thinking about eating the proper foods more than just because you’re thin and you can get away with it; you’ve got a higher metabolism. I think it’s important to eat the right — the proper foods. Get rid of these because we’re not going to use them anymore. Now we’re going to fold in [Spatula knocks] our egg whites. And I like to do that with a spatula. These should be nice and dry; and they are. And you know, to fold you just up and down fold them like that; very — I have a feeling we should have drained that corn, but we didn’t. And let’s see what happens, okay? That’s what I like, I like to do stuff that I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. And we’ll all find out together, right? I think so, too. Okay, this is going to go into our baking dish. And here we are. It’s going to be like a custard. [Batter pours] We’re just going to pour that, corn and all. It’s amazing what a corn pudding can do when you think it’s not going to turn out right. I have a feeling it will. And this goes into the oven, 350 degrees. And we’re going to do this for 35 minutes. So you want to keep an eye on it to see what happens. You never leave your oven door open for a long period of time because if you do, you’ll lose the heat that you’ve been working so hard to get it up to, so you need not to do that. All right, now I’m going to show you the first thing what we’re going to do with our apples. These are just about six or eight Macintosh apples. And I’m using Macintosh because I like the way they cook up. And we’re going to put them in a skillet. Don’t slice them up quite as thin as you would for say like an apple pie. Have them a little on the thicker side, because you want these just to steam through. And I’m going to add a little bit of water to them; not too much. But they need to get cooking because you want to soften them, and then we’re going to make them — fry them after they soften. Well, the crown of this whole meal is our roast pork with sauerkraut. That’s a tradition. That’s one that’s as ever I can remember we’ve been doing is every New Year’s Day we had to have that sauerkraut; not so much that I’m superstitious. And I don’t think — I think it’s just fun to have traditions. And if you don’t have any with your family, might be fun to come up with something new and different for the new year. Basically what we’re going to do is take — this is a wonderful pork roast. You can see its nice fatty — this is the loin end. That means it’s got more good meaty part to it. You can see on the back. If this is a bone here and you want to slice this down, have them crack the bone in the back because they can do that for you, the butcher will do it. But you want to roast this with the bone end down, keep this little bit of the fat that’s on the top. That’s going to flavor the meat so it doesn’t dry out. And basically you just want to put it in the pot, in your Dutch oven. And I take my two-pound bag — now whatever you do, do not — read my lips, do not buy sauerkraut in a can. To me it picks up the flavor of the can. And I know that they process it and all that, but it still does. Now, some people — if you don’t like real sour sauerkraut, you drain this juice that’s coming out of this bag off and rinse your sauerkraut. If you do that, then you don’t have to follow the next step that I’m going to tell you about. But if you like it a little on the tart side, like I do, then just dump the whole bag right in on top of your roast; okay? And I like to put a little black pepper all over the top, [Pepper grinds] because I think that flavors it beautifully. [Grinding stops] Okay. Next we’re going to add — this is some brown sugar; just a little bit. That’s the part you omit if you rinse the cabbage off, because you only need this brown sugar to counteract the sourness. There’s a sour sourness of the sauerkraut. If you rinse it, don’t do the brown sugar; you don’t need it. And Mom always said, “Put one onion –” this is a little bit large so we’re just going to half this down. Put an onion in the pot, and put an apple that’s been cored but not peeled. Tuck that in there somewhere. You say, “An apple and an onion?” That is supposed to counteract the gassiness that happens with cabbage so much. And the balance — I don’t know why, but that’s what Mom did, and it always worked for her. Now, what I want to do is add water. Add some water to this. And you’re going to turn this on and let this cook. I’ve started on a higher flame; or you can roast it in the oven, whatever you want to do. Either way is fine. But start it, and when it starts to cook, reduce it and just let it simmer if you do it on top of the stove. If you do it in the oven, start it at 375. When it gets cooking, reduce it to about 350. Let it go for about two hours. To me you cannot overcook pork. I like pork until it’s falling off the bone. That’s the way I enjoy it the most, because I think it’s very well-cooked, and a lot of the fat is cooked away, and it just tastes good. And I think the longer it cooks, the flavor of the sauerkraut gets into it more, and more, and more. And then at about I would say half hour before you’re ready to serve it, then you can add your kielbasa; piece of kielbasa. You cut it in pieces or add it one piece at a time. And you can add some of your good flavored all beef or all meat hotdogs, if your family likes that. I know the kids always like that. That’s something that’s like a staple with them; you’ve got to have those hotdogs. So so far we have — we’re going to just go ahead and cook. And remember, don’t put the brown sugar if you rinse off the sauerkraut. You don’t need to. Let me check and see what our apples are going over here. They’re cooking very well. And you can see — boy you can smell it. Smells so good here. Smells great. These don’t take long to cook as far as cooking up. You don’t want them to be mushy. You certainly don’t want them to be like they would be with applesauce because it’s too far done then. These are just about there. And what you’ll do when they get soft is you’re going to strain or drain the juice that’s left. Sometimes if you just get it right, the juice will dry up and then you can go on to the next step. But you can drain it off if you have to. And when we’re almost there, I’ll be doing that. Let’s see, next we’re going to make our dessert. And this is a really very easy dessert. And this needs to refrigerate; so you can even make this a little bit earlier in the day. Let me turn this down just a little bit before we — here we go. What you do is you can either use Dream Whip or Cool Whip. And what I have done is taken a store purchased — if you have time to bake one, fine. But this is a quick dessert so I took a store purchased angel food cake, cut it up in little chunks, just like this, and layered it into my parfait glasses. And what I’m going to take now is some of my Cool Whip. You can use Dream Whip if you prefer. Cool Whip is easier. And I’m going to spoon it into a bowl. Now, you can make this light because angel food cake is pretty light in calories. And you could use the light Cool Whip if you wanted to. You can use the pineapple that’s — drain — that’s its own juice. You drain it very well. And the maraschino cherries you wouldn’t have to do if you didn’t want to. But I’m going to take my maraschino cherries and the pineapple, I’m going to mix it in [Plate drags] with the Cool Whip. They’re pretty colors, huh? Just fold it in. You don’t want to beat it because if you beat it, you know, it will all break down, and you don’t want that to happen. Just lightly fold it in; right, very easily. Now what we’re going to do is spoon that on top of the angel food cake. And what will happen is I think a really tasty light dessert. Because this will be refrigerated, and then you can serve it whenever. You could also do this, if you wanted to, in a large bowl, and then just dip it out of the bowl. But I kind of think this looks nice this way. And I know that you’ve been entertaining and a lot has been going on, but it’s still nice on New Year’s Day while the guys are there watching the football games. And maybe you just got to watch the parade, the Rose Parade or something, but the guys, they’re still glued to the set. I know everybody around here is talking about, “Yes, I’ve got to watch that parade,” “Got to watch that game.” I think it would be a nice treat for the ladies to have a chance at that television set for just a little bit on New Year’s Day, besides those parades. I know it almost makes it like you have to have a two television household, just because of the holidays. And I always think about the families of the guys that are playing the football. What are they doing for the holidays while these guys are running up and down the field? As you probably notice, I’m not a great football player. No, Dale, they’re not at home; the wives are not counting the money at home. Why, they probably are, but I’d like to think that maybe they aren’t. [Laughs] But anyway, I know these are all traditions. And probably some of your families or your husband’s got the kids and saying, “Oh –” saying to his son, “Oh, look at this neat play this guy –” we — my dad was never much into foot — now he was a baseball man. And Paul is a baseball man; my husband. So we never got too much into the football on New Year’s Day. My brothers they like football. But anyway, whatever your day is like today, it will be fine, if you just spend it together with your family. You say, “Arlene, don’t you ever get tired of being with your family?” Well, some days I feel like maybe I do. But then I remember that my family, they’re a blessing from God. And that what He gives me, my family, He expects me to treasure them and to keep them close in my heart. So that brings me back to reality when there are times when they get on your nerves; and they do. And probably — since the kids haven’t been in school all this time, you’re probably ready to send them back just as soon as you can. And that’s fine. But just remember that they are a treasure from the Lord. Okay, let’s go back and take a look at our apples. And I believe that they have done — have — they have done their thing well. And I’m going to [Pans rattle] strain these into a pan, when I can find them. Let me just strain them over the sink over here. Because we’re going to put them right back into our skillet. There’s hardly any moisture coming off. And we’ll put them right back in. Because when it gets to this point, there should not be much on here at all; much of a moisture. And you want to turn the fire on and dry up any little bit of moisture that might still be there. Okay? Because now we’re going to take some butter; a little chunk of butter. See they’re still bubbling a little bit. So when that starts to dry up, you know you’re ready with the next step. This is one of those things — I don’t know if it’s a German or what it is, but boy, I’ll tell you, I enjoy the fried apples with the sauerkraut and smell of the sauerkraut. Look at that; that’s going to town. It’s about ready to be turned down. Some people put garlic in. Whatever you desire, whatever you enjoy, whatever you like, do it. It’s all right. Now, here, I’m going to put the brown — or I’m sorry, the butter right in the middle of the pan. And this is going to melt. Start turning it around so the butter gets evenly distributed. And when we — when you’re making this, you can add — if you like, you can add some cinnamon. See how quickly these apples cooked up? They could even be a little more firmer than this. But boy, they cooked up very quickly today. And the Macintosh does. I should have kept a closer eye on it, but I got carried away with that dessert going over there. And when it — the butter starts to melt, take a little brown sugar. This is what’s going to fry your apples; [Sizzling] because it will like — you know how you get those candied sweet potatoes like you had them for Thanksgiving? Well, this is similar to it because it’s got the butter and the brown sugar, but not as much as the sweet potatoes were. And really, you’re just going to keep turning these over. And I’ll tell you, you’ll really, really enjoy. This is a simple, easy, traditional New Year’s Day dinner that you can put on. And honest, when it gets time to serve it, do up some potatoes and you’re ready to go. It doesn’t take long to prepare this. And I do think that it’s good to introduce some new traditions like each year when you get to this point. So you always have your pork roast, you always have sauerkraut, but try different vegetables with it; or try some new salad of some kind. You could add some cottage cheese to this, or a green salad, or some — I was going to say coleslaw, but I don’t think I’d go with coleslaw when we’ve got — already we’ve got the cabbage going to town there. So these will caramelize. And those are your fried apples. And I’ll tell you, you’ll — if you ever start to make it like this, this is the way you’re going to prepare your sauerkraut, because it just tastes so good. Just really tastes good. Okay, we’ve got the corn pudding going. [Spatula knocks] All we need to do now is make our mashed potatoes, and we will be ready to roll. I believe that our New Year’s Day dinner is just about ready to be served. We’ll be back in just one minute.

To receive your special Christmas recipe packet 175, containing all of this month’s holiday recipes, listen very carefully. Just send a self-addressed, business-sized, double-stamped envelope. Yes, that’s two stamps with a dollar or more to At Home 175, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. You will only need to write once this month to receive all our Christmas recipes from “At Home”. And have a blessed holiday.

Well, here we are sitting at our New Year’s Day dinner. And I want to take you on our guided tour, like I always do. There at the front is our roast pork with kielbasa hotdogs. And don’t forget to serve that little piece of onion, too, because some people like that flavor that’s in that onion. You notice how it’s really just falling off the bones. It is so tender and so delicious you’re going to want to try that simple easy recipe. The longer that bakes, the better it gets; at least two hours or more, okay? Next to it is the sauerkraut that we have taken from the pan where the roast was, and we added our traditional mashed potatoes. You have to have mashed potatoes when you have sauerkraut and pork. And next to it is our corn pudding, golden brown on top with bits of corn; delicious and a nice accompaniment to the sauerkraut and pork. There’s the fried apples that you’re going to enjoy. Take a little taste of that and a little taste of the sauerkraut together. What a good accompanying flavor. I mean, you’re going to enjoy it. And here is our crowning glory, a very light but very, very tasty dessert, our cherry pineapple dessert. And I think it’s pretty when you put them in the little dishes, or you can do it in a large bowl and serve it from there. And I think it’s nice to have a little centerpiece of maybe some streamers and a nice little candle. You kind of want to tone down maybe the holiday — Christmas holiday part of it and just come in with something that’s kind of neutral in color, just for a change. Well, don’t forget now, we have been offering you our booklet, which is our “At Home Christmas 1993” booklet, all the whole month of December, because it includes all of the recipes from the cookies from the very first week right after Thanksgiving, through the second week of cookies, through another week of gifts from the kitchen, to our Christmas brunch, and finally, to our New Year’s Day dinner. It’s important if you’d like to still receive them, as long as the supply last, we would be glad to send it to you upon receipt of your self-addressed stamped — it must be this size envelope, and your contribution of a dollar or more to CTV — At Home Recipes 175, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. And I have to tell you, we’ve got a lot of wonderful volunteers that have helped us during this season to make sure that you get your recipes on time. You say, “But Arlene, now the holidays are over. What would I do with a booklet?” How about next year? It’s never too soon to begin planning for what you’re going to do next year. Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed our special programming during the holidays. And I hope that you took seriously the resolution that we talked about earlier in the program. That’s what I’m going to resolve this year, put God first, put my family second, and put my friends last. So be sure to join us the next time because it will be the first part of January, and it won’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then. Happy New Year.

Fresh produce provided by Jordan Banana, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, PA. Cookware provided by Wholey’s. Your favorite gourmet deserves the best for less from Wholey Balcony Cookware. Groceries provided by Foodland, where the answer is always yes. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.