In September of 1994 I became the proud owner of a house that predates the Great Chicago Fire. I proceeded to gut it and create an 1,100 sq. ft. space where I can entertain and live comfortably. Since so many of my friends assisted with this project, I wanted to thank them with a party. This also gave Joan and me a forum to test recipes and hone our entertaining skills. December 21, 1995 I hosted the first of my annual Winter Solstice parties.

What to serve, what to serve…. That first year I over-reached, serving too many hot appetizers. I spent much of the evening running up and down between my kitchen oven and second oven in the basement. My guests never saw me! I learned lessons about menu planning slowly, but a pattern emerged of what works for me and what my friends enjoy.

Cheese. A varied cheese plate adds some ease for the host. I carefully included Neal’s Yard Dairy selections on mine. Introducing my friends to this London distributor that restored the farm-made cheese industry in Great Britain, was great fun. (Visiting and getting a tour was even more fun, thanks Shelley!) Now that most friends know and appreciate Neal’s Yard, the individual farms where their cheeses originate are distinguished on flags stuck in each cheese. Since I do make much of the menu myself, there are always queries about whether the cheese is homemade (yes, this is a tough crowd to entertain). So last year, I added homemade Bonhaus mozzarella, thanks to the teachings of the Cheese Queen. It disappeared very quickly!

After years of comments about the crackers not being handmade (again, tough crowd), I began making crackers a few years ago to accompany the cheese. It really is not difficult to make the dough ahead and keep it in the freezer until ready to bake a few days prior. Inverary Oatcakes, a recipe from a Nova Scotia trip, go especially well with creamy goat cheese. I also include crisp flatbread now since,  it too is easy to roll out and bake.

Cold items. A vegetable tray adds color to the table and some freshness to the palate. Moroccan Spiced Olives from Barbara Kafke’s Party Food are well received, though in recent years I’ve had a hard time finding plain oil-cured olives. The Marinated Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato and Pesto Torta are clamored for each year (yes, more cheese) and a Paulina Market smoked turkey holds court.

Hot items. The mini-quiches from Barbara Kafka’s Party Food cookbook continue to disappear off the serving trays. A bit tedious to make, they are fully prepared ahead and stored in the freezer until baked during the party as needed. This year I am confident enough to create a new one with caramelized fennel, cumin and coriander…we’ll see how they turn out. A few years ago, I created a corn empanada that became a huge hit with demand reappearances from my diverse crowd.

Cookies. An essential for me. I usually present a number of Cookies of Good Fortune along with Alice’s Sugar cookies, and chocolaty Special Florentines out of the Bon Appetit, December 1985 issue. There are also Shortbread and Orange Snowballs from Betty Crocker recipes which I learned to make with Mom and my sister, Ginger, while growing up.

While it is a marathon to get this party off the ground each year, the traditions we create for and with our family and friends bring us joy. To gather together and see friends from different parts of my life, happily greet each other and launch into “catching up” is a real delight. Every year I ask myself if I really want to do this again. But I imagine the setting, and the people, and know that this joy and delight is what makes my house a home.

Resources

• Party Food, Small & Savory by Barbara Kafka (1992) is a party planning inspiration.
• My mother has (and I covet) the binder version of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book. I found the hard cover version (second edition, 1956) at a book fair enough years ago that it is now binding challenged. I see a copy is being sold used on the Internet for $59.98, yikes!

As a PK (Preachers Kid) I grew up appreciating that congregants like to give their minister and his family a little something at the holiday, and often it was fruitcake. It might be ordered and sent from Grandma’s Fruitcake, or as a part of a Harry & David package. Often it was homemade and then it could be dark or light. We didn’t have many treats, so when those heavy loaves arrived and were displayed on the dining room buffet next to the advent candles, I was just delighted. The best one arrived every year in the mail from Aunt Maggie who liked to try different recipes, so it was a little new and different each year. Sometimes Mom would make a hard sauce to accompany little slices of the cake…butter and sugar spread thickly on a slice was a little piece of heaven to me.

Once I moved away from home, and Aunt Maggie’s baking days slowed down, I asked her for recipes and recreated some of them. None of the recipes I tried brought me the same joy as when I was little…until I discovered The Cake Bible. While living in New York, my dear friends Beth and Gail gave me a copy for my birthday the year after it was first published. Right away I noticed the Less Fruity Fruitcake recipe that Rose Levy Beranbaum created to counteract the movement toward heavier and heavier cakes. (Of course our society accepts that heavier texture in power bars.) Rose decided to create a cake that had…cake! Actually there are plenty of fruit and nuts, too, but they are joined by cake rather then pressed together until their molecules spontaneously bond.

Now I have been making this cake for years. September 25th always means to me to be the day the fruitcakes should be made. I really try to meet this deadline because Rose drenches them with rum and they are intended to age for three months before being served.

I am forever grateful to Aunt Maggie for those early treats in my life, so I always mail her one. Once she looked at me and said with a twinkle, ”You know dear, yours is really a rum cake.” Aunt Maggie is in her 90′s now, and last year her daughters found this wonderful woman in her room, days before Christmas, eating her annual fruitcake out of the tin with a spoon!

Over the years, the closet fruitcake appreciators have made their desire known. Aunt Denise, Mom, Gail, R, and now Joan’s son Jack will get theirs this year. All made in September. They are now ageing as prescribed in the Bonhaus basement, drenched in rum, encased in their tins, ready to mail in time for the holiday. This year, Mom said she does not need anything else, just a fruitcake!

Resources

The mere mention above of  The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum (1988), does not do it justice. It is truly a kitchen essential!

Sarah being a Nantucket caterer, the emphasis of her first cookbook is warm weather sea coast. For some reason it took me a while to figure out that almost every recipe is intended to serve a lot of people. Since I was taught to stick to the recipe the first time I make anything, at first I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of food as I tried new recipes. Luckily, the book’s arrival coincided with a desire to entertain more often, and enthusiasts of the clean plate club assisted with the overages. Quickly I learned to halve the recipes for favorite salads and appetizers, like Marinated Goat Cheeses and Scallop Puffs Que Sera.

Ahhh, the goat cheese. Simple, straightforward, beautiful, current (at least for the past 20 years), herby, spicy, creamy and essential to all parties at the Bonhaus.  I suspect some friends would refuse invitations unless I promised to provide it. (Not long ago, I even made a stoneware serving plate designed especially for serving this particular recipe.)

As for the Scallop Puffs—a creamy concoction of gruyure and scallops on top of toast rounds—any recipe that specifies it will keep in the fridge for seven days is worth trying.  When I made it the first time (for a dinner party for four), it took seven days of scallop puff meals to finish off the batch! Again, halving recipes is okay, halving is okay, halving is okay….

Making Scallop Puffs also taught me the importance of fresh versus frozen fish. Previously frozen fish will weep. If you only have access to previously frozen scallops, this recipe is somewhat forgiving since the extra liquid can be reduced, but be alert!  This crowd favorite can only be executed by a cook willing to watch while they broil and serve them hot. It is difficult to execute with 60 people at the Bonhaus for a Winter Solstice party, five of them planted in front of the oven door…though it never seems to be the same five.

There are plenty of other terrific recipes in Open House, but the Scallop Puffs, along with Sarah’s marinated goat cheeses and Joan, gave me the courage to entertain.

Recipes and Resources

• Marinated Goat Cheeses, Nantucket Open-House Cookbook by Sarah Leah Chase (copyright  1987 Sarah Leah Chase, Workman Publishing Company, Inc.). p. 22
• Scallop Puffs Que Sera, Nantucket Open-House Cookbook by Sarah Leah Chase (copyright 1987 Sarah Leah Chase, Workman Publishing Company, Inc.). p. 15
• In addition to her own cookbooks, Sarah Leah Chase was the Nantucket caterer who contributed to the Silver Palate cookbooks, and who inspired cooks like Ina Garten. Learn more about what Sarah Leah Chase is doing now here.

What makes this recipe stand out from other apple pie recipes? It could be the crushed Heath Bars that stud the streusel topping. That is genius. But I love it for the foolproof method used to caramelize the apples before they are piled into the par-baked crust. First butter is melted in a large pot on the stove, then four pounds of apples are added,which have been thinly sliced and tossed with cinnamon, brown and white sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. The apples simmer in the pot as the sugars and butter create a decadent caramel sauce. Then, once the apples are slightly soft, into the crust they go, to be patted with a thick layer of the streusel and then topped off with a final layer of pastry crust. Slightly cooking the apples on the stove before the pie goes into the oven eliminates the risk of watery filling, and the filling is buttery, toasty and delicious.

This might sound like extra steps and a lot more work than your average apple pie. It’s worth it, though, and I usually opt to save time and avoid crust stress by using refrigerator pie dough. (It’s just fine.)

After all these years, pulling out the apple peeler contraption to bake this pie each fall is as close to tradition as we get in my house. My husband used to be in charge of apple peeling before we had children. When Jack was old enough, he took a turn, and now Max has stepped up for peeling duty. It’s a special pie. Absolutely irresistible any time of year, but especially when the apples begin to fall from the trees.

Recipes and Resources

• Blue Ribbon Apple Pie, Prairie: Cuisine from the Heartland by Stephen Langlois with Margaret Guthrie (1990).