Cooking a New Year’s Day Dinner for Friends Melanie and Debbie Duke

Make yourself at home ♪ ♪ Enjoy the time we share ♪ ♪ With a dash of this and a pinch of that ♪ ♪ Mixed all up with care ♪ ♪ The best company and conversation ♪ ♪ Recipes and new creations ♪ ♪ We’re cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪ ♪ We are cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪ Well hello and happy new year’s. Please, this is the week that we’re doing new year’s, and if you’ve got my cookbook, my “At Home For The Holidays” cookbook, there’s a lot of good menus in there. I hope you’re gonna use some of them or all of the suggestions that we have. Plus today I’m doing, some of the recipes are in the cookbook, some are not, I’m doing a traditional new year’s day dinner. Let’s face it, the holidays are winding down. Time to take down the trimmings, pack them away, but not today, ’cause this is a still holiday, but this kind of a day is like, when like it’s a cold day, you watch the games, the ballgames on television and you just wanna eat just some comfort food just like getting warm, get some nice warm clothes on and get cozy. If you have a fire going, that’s great. That’s what this is about. This is also, we’re on a threshold of a brand new year. I always feel when we get to this point that God’s giving us another chance because it’s a brand new year. No matter what happened last year, it’s a brand new year and we have a brand new start. And there’s nothing like a brand new start, as long as it’s in the right direction, to help you for the new year. So I hope that today when we’re at the table and also when we are thinking about the new year, that you will include God in your plans, because that’s how you really do and you really can have a new start, is with Him. Bring Him into your life if you haven’t. Well, I think I better check on the roast, and we’re gonna give you the hint. When we come back, we’ll be starting our new year’s day dinner. Stay with us. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. When purchasing raw pork, be sure that the meat is a nice pale pink color. The darker the meat, the older the animal, and pork should never be left at room temperature for more than one hour before being refrigerated. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d like to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone TeleVision, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. All righty. Looky here. We have our pork roast getting together in the oven. Look at this, do you believe this? Now I didn’t do it traditionally with the sauerkraut on it because sometimes you have people that don’t like sauerkraut. That is a whole boneless roast, loin pork roast. I think that’s what it is. I think I repeated myself there. Just, all I did was flour, salt and pepper, rub it all over the surface, put it in and let it roast for an hour. And then you put a cup of water in it and let it roast for another hour for 350. That’s ready to go. I’m gonna make gravy with that later. Now, with that, traditions with, you know, in my family with Paul, we have to do the traditional thing and that is fried potatoes with sauerkraut and pork. So I have my pan here and I have a good many apples. These are Macintosh, because Macintosh apples work so well because they cook up nicely. They really cook up nicely. We got the core here in that one. We don’t wanna serve that, okay? So, and you’re gonna cut them in eighths. You cut your apples and you put them in a skillet like this. Now I’m gonna add a little water because what we’re gonna do before we start frying them, we’re just gonna give them a little steam bath, just to get them a little soft. So we’re gonna put water on them and we’re gonna let them cook just like that. I’m gonna turn up the fire here to get it going. You don’t want these to cook for a long time because they get to be mushy, and you don’t want, we’re not looking for apple sauce. We’re looking for fried apples. And what will go in here, we’ll put some butter once the water dries up, we’ll put some butter, brown sugar, and we’ll just keep turning them over. Oh, they’re awesome. Absolutely awesome. The next thing that’s a little unusual on this traditional, well, I should say the Williams family tradition is rutabaga. I know you don’t know what that is. Most of the people here didn’t know what it is, but it’s one of those things that is so good. You start this about the time you’d start your mashed potatoes, maybe a little bit sooner because you know what a rutabaga is? It’s that round ball, it’s brown in color, and they dip it in wax to preserve it. You peel all the brown off of it. A very hard surface and it’s hard to get a knife. Be very careful when you’re cutting it, okay? But you wanna cut it in small pieces. You put it into cold water. Cover it with cold water, all right? This is rutabaga. Now, once it comes up to a boil, you stop and take it off the stove and you’re gonna take it to the sink and drain it. Drain the hot water. You’re gonna cover it with cold water again and bring it up a second time. That would be what we have going here, okay? This would be the second time it’s boiled, and we want that to boil because that has to be fork tender. You notice how small the cubes are? You do that because if you don’t, now this has been on cooking for a good while, and just now it’s starting to get soft. So you’re gonna wanna leave a lot of time for the rutabaga, okay? Be sure you get that cranking, and when it’s soft, like a fork goes in like a potato, you know you’re there. Okay, we have the apples going. We have our meat in the oven, and we’re gonna let these continue to go, we have the rutabaga. Now, let’s move on. Stay with us, ’cause we’re gonna come back to some of these things, all right? They have to cook a little while. Now for a salad, this is great because this is like a fruity salad, because you have a lot of vegetables, so you need a little balance with some fruit. So isn’t this beautiful? This is from Jordan’s, who provides us with groceries and produce, a lot of it. This is called red lettuce. Isn’t this beautiful? Color? Gorgeous. We’re going to take a couple of oranges. three or four or five, and we just want the segments that you cut out between the membrane, you see? And we’re just gonna put them into our lettuce. Now you can make all different kinds of lettuce, I mean combine different kinds of lettuce. If you like the romaine, you could add that. If you like, you know, whatever you like, put some endive, put anything you want in there. Whatever flavors of lettuce is combinations that you like, that’s what you’re gonna use. All right, let’s just use all this ’cause we like it. Okay, next we have some red seedless and the green seedless and we’ve cut them in half, and we’re gonna add that to our bowl for our salad. Isn’t this gorgeous? When that color starts mixing up, look at that. It’s beautiful, I just love it, okay? Now, we’re gonna add one more color, and that’s kiwi, And we’re just sliced two kiwi and we’re gonna put those in there, too. Now these are absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous ideas, gorgeous for color and the taste is incredible and you’re gonna love the taste. All right, now we’re gonna make a dressing for it. Let me get my cloth here. The apples are going good. Let me give them a quick stir just to make sure that they are all getting, yeah, it’s going good. Make sure they get down in there. Great. Now, you take some honey. We have about a fourth of a cup of honey and we’re going to add a fourth of a cup of lemon juice. Fresh squeezed is always better, always better. And we have a little bit of cinnamon. We’re gonna drop that in there, too. And I’m just gonna take a fork and mix that around together. This is gonna be your dressing over this wonderful citrus salad. The combination of these flavors are incredible, just incredible. I have to tell you, I have a very special guest with me today. This is a precious friend of mine and her mom. She wrote to us a while back. She’s with the Amazing Kids! Organization, and she’s an amazing kid, she really is, and her name is Melanie Duke, and her mom’s here too, Debbie, and I’m just so glad that they could be with us in the studio today, because you know what? When people like this are around, they just make you feel good. She’s a special lady, very special, and she loves to watch the program, so she’s really special to me. But anyway, okay, we have our dressing ready. I’m gonna clean it all out really good. Now, all you’re gonna do is just mix, mix, mix it around like that. Isn’t it great? The color’s beautiful. And I tell you, once you get that totally covering the lettuce and all the vegetables, you have a wonderful salad. Now you wanna put this in the fridge so this will stay nice and crisp. But I noticed that this lettuce doesn’t seem to wilt as quickly as normal head lettuce would, so you wanna keep that in mind. Okay, we’re gonna take a break. When we come back we’ve got a whole lot more for our new year’s day dinner, so stick with us. We’ll be right back. Well, we’re having our new year’s day dinner still in progress, and our apples are cooking well, and I’m just gonna add some butter in there, and along with that, you can see they’re starting to break down, along with that we’re gonna add some brown sugar because that’s gonna sweeten them up, okay? Yeah, sprinkle it. You want them to be nice and soft like that, okay? Oh boy, when this starts to evaporate, when the the juices start to evaporate and that butter and the apples begin to thicken together, I’ll tell you what, that’s the most incredible, wonderful tasting apples. It’s nice because the sauerkraut, you said, well, you haven’t had any sauerkraut yet. We’re getting to it. But when the sauerkraut and the sweetness of this mixed together on a fork when you’re gonna bite, oh boy, it just tastes too good. All right, I’m gonna move that to the back burner so that can get cranking, ’cause I wanna show you something else. Now we’re gonna show you how we do the sauerkraut. Okay, here’s our sauerkraut. This is, let me tell you how we did it just so you’ll know. Whoops, I’ve got the wrong burner going here. There we go. We started this morning, I put this on so that it’s ready to the point where I can show you the next step. We took a ring of kielbasa and we just cut it up in two inch pieces like that. We took, now you can use, if you like a lot, use more, it says a 16 ounce can of sauerkraut that you have drained well and rinsed it, just like that, okay? That’s a large can, but you could put more if you want to. And then you put a half of a medium head of cabbage that you shredded on top. Did you ever hear that? Me either, but boy, is it good? Okay, then you’re gonna put that on with two cups of water, and you’re gonna put that on to cook, and that’s gonna cook about 30 minutes or so. In the meantime, while that’s cooking, come on over here and let me show you what you get. Here’s what it looks like. Oh, look at that. If it gets a little dry, add a little more water. That’s okay. If you like that real strong sauerkraut, add the juice that comes off the sauerkraut, that’s fine. But you want water on there because we’re gonna make dumplings to go in there. Oh, I’m so excited. Okay, here’s how you do it. You can take, you know, dumplings are easy, one-third cups of flour, just like that, a little bit of salt, about a teaspoon of salt, they have to have some flavor, and two teaspoons of baking powder, not the soda, but the powder. And then we’re going to take one egg. Let’s mix that flour and stuff up there a little bit before we put that egg in there. There we go. Now we’re gonna do one egg, no shells, please, and I’m gonna mix that up a little bit to break it up. And then we’re gonna add three-fourths of a cup of milk all at once. Voila, mix it around. That’s your homemade dumplings. Now somebody told me that they knew a person that used to make these and they would make them with potatoes. They would actually grate potatoes in this. That sounds awesome. I’m gonna try that sometime, but not today, because today we’re just making plain old dumplings. And once you get this mixed together, you can see the dumpling dough is forming and you wanna make it nice and smooth. See, it’s so easy, such an easy thing. You know, at our house when I was growing up, well, new year’s day was my mother and dad’s anniversary, so that was another part of our celebration every new year’s, ’cause dad always had something for my mom, and as kids, my two brothers and I, he would always present it when we had our dinner, and he always gave her a card that said “love Paul” ’cause my dad’s name was Paul, too. And then he’d kiss her and we’d be he, he, he, look at them kissing. But you know what? That was such a wonderful sight, ’cause that was security for me as a child I knew that my parents loved each other and that they were gonna be there for me. No matter what, they would be there for me. That is an awesome feeling for a kid, I don’t care who you are or how old you are or how young you are. Okay, now we’re gonna, look at this baby boiling. All you do, you start dropping them into the liquid. Boy, these came up beautiful, too. Just drop them. Try not to let them touch, but you wanna drop them in the boiling liquid. Now, once we get them all in here, you will not, you’ll put the lid on it, you will not open this for 15 minutes. If you do, your dumplings will not have cooked well and they will not be good. They’ll be, they will be not be good. Just trust me when I tell you. That’s gonna make probably maybe 12. Just take it and spoon it off from the spoon and right into the boiling liquid, and this is how you make dumplings and sauerkraut. Oh man, I can’t wait to get into this. You know, I like when we made, maybe Mike remembers when we made fried cabbage and we made the dumplings with that. That’s just another element, just something really different. So you wanna place them any place you see a spot. Try to make room for them, and you’ll want this to, I’ll move that one over there a little bit, all you wanna do with this now is put the cover on and now you’re gonna turn it down to a simmer, ’cause you don’t want all the liquid to boil away. So let’s go down to a simmer. There we go, down to a simmer, and that’s gonna cook 15 minutes. Don’t you dare looking in there. No looking allowed, okay? Let’s check on our rutabagas. You know, sometimes this takes longer than you think, so start these early in the day. Even if you make them completely early in the day and then pop them in the microwave to heat them up, guess what? They’re delicious that way, too. All we’re gonna do with these is drain them and mash them either with a mixer or with a hand masher, put a chunk of butter, some salt and pepper, and right before you go to put them into the serving plate, you’re gonna add a teaspoon of sugar. That’s the key. You say, why do you bring ’em up to a boil and throw that water off? Because sometimes rutabaga has a strong flavor, and if you don’t like that real strong, strong flavor, then the way to get rid of it is to bring it to a boil, like I said, throw it off, cover it with cold water, bring it up to a boil again, and then boil ’til they’re fork tender. And the smaller you cut them the better, okay? So that’s gonna hit the table. It’s not quite there yet. Now I have another thing to show you. This is all parts of our dinner today. Now I told you I had a boneless roast loin of pork, and I showed you. I have since taken the loin of pork out of this pan. You say, oh Arlene, that’s a horrible pan. Oh, if you knew how wonderful this pan was, you wouldn’t say that because in this or all the drippings from that wonderful pork roast, and guess what we’re gonna do? We are now going to deglaze this pan. We’re gonna put water in it. We’re gonna put it on the flame and we’re gonna bring it up to a boil. And the whole time, I wanna make sure my flame’s good and high, the whole time we’re gonna scrape all the little goodies. Now I’m gonna take this big piece out because we don’t want that obviously, but you’re gonna scrape down every little bit of browned. See that? All those juices that have cooked. Look at this. That’s what you look for when you roast meat. Don’t you ever throw that out because that makes the most delectable gravy, and pork gravy with a rutabaga and with a fresh pork roast, it is so good. Oh man, that’s one of Paul’s favorites. It’s just, you know, he could eat that without it being any kind of a holiday, just cook it and he’ll eat it. But that is how you’d make a nice gravy. You say, well, what about all those things in there? There’s bits of the flour? You can put that through a strainer if you don’t like that kind of a gravy. You can put that through a strainer after we get it made, but first of all, we’re gonna scrape this out real good, scrape up all those little bits, get all the brown loose from the edge of the pan. And then until that comes up to a boil, we’re gonna leave that to stay right there. You’re gonna mix cold water, and I’d say about three-fourths of a cup of flour. And what you wanna do with this, I’m also gonna add a little salt to this, and then you’re just gonna make this into a paste, okay? Make it into a paste, because this is what’s gonna be the thickening for our gravy and this you’re not gonna wanna miss. Oh boy, I can’t wait. Yummy, yummy, yummy. Tell you what, we’re just about there. I’ve got everything cooking, everything’s in the oven. I’m just gonna make the gravy and we’re gonna be in the dining room in just a minute, so stay with us. Here’s how you get today’s recipes. Well, here we are in the dining room, and I’m so happy because Melanie and her mom, the Dukes, has come to dropped in on us today and they’re enjoying our new year’s day dinner, and we’re glad that they did. It’s so nice to have you, and it’s so nice to have Melanie with us today. Let’s take a trip around the table. Right there is our roast pork loin, roasted to perfection. Didn’t do it with this sauerkraut, just did it a roast, and made gravy right next to it. We’ve got our gravy in the gravy boat. Next to that, going down the front, we have our fried apples. Oh, that combination with the roast pork is wonderful. Next to it we have dumplings and kielbasa, and there’s the sauerkraut right by you, Melanie. Yummy, huh?

• [Melanie] Yeah.
• And next, this is our rutabaga. Remember, all we do is add a little bit of butter. We mash that down, add some butter, salt and pepper and sugar to that great accompaniment with the wonderful gravy from your roast. Don’t forget about that. Then we have our delicious kiwi and orange and grapes salad with our red leaf lettuce and our honey and cinnamon and lime juice dressing that goes on there, and then we’ve just added some mashed potatoes. This is a well-rounded meal. You don’t even have to have a bread or any kind of a bun because your dumplings take the place of that starchy, heavy bread. Of course you could if you wanted to. If you wanted to add some hotdogs to that, you could too. But I have to say on this first day of the brand new year, as I said before, we have an opportunity. And I hope that once all the trimmings from all over the house are down and packed away and we’ve just started out in January, and sometimes people get the doldrums, especially here in the north, we think, oh boy, a long, cold winter, let’s try to keep a a right attitude. Let’s remember that every day is a gift from God. Every single day God gives us is a gift, but what do we do with every day? Let’s not get to the end of this year feeling like, boy, what have we accomplished? What have we really done with our lives this year? Something has to be accomplished every day. Every day is a gift, and I hope that that will include a time of meditation with the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be a time of helping your neighbor because the Lord wants us to do that, that will be a time of worship every week to get to the Lord’s house so that we can worship Him and honor Him as the true and the living God, and it will be a time where every week and every day, not just Thanksgiving, not just on specific days, but we place our arms out and we gather those that we love around about us and we’re thankful to God every single day for where we live, number one in this wonderful country, and number two, the family and friends and most of all for our relationship with Him. We’re so thankful that you could be with us here on this new year’s day, and I hope that you don’t get too tired of the ballgames and all the other stuff. And don’t you dare take that tree down yet. This is still a holiday and we want you to enjoy it. Tomorrow’s another day. Tomorrow’s the packing away day. I never liked that, I don’t know about you. But thanks again for joining us and thank you for joining us because it just wouldn’t be the same without you here at home. We’ll see you then.
• [Narrator] Furnishings provided by Levin furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.
• [Man] Cornerstone TeleVision wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.