Five finalists chosen in Holiday Recipe Contest

The Leader Holiday Dinner is slated for Friday, Dec. 13, in the Viking Room at Jefferson College. Recipes from the five finalists in the paper’s annual Holiday Recipe Contest will be featured at the dinner, along with a main dish chosen by the chef. All recipes will be prepared and served by students in the college’s Area Technical School culinary program.

Each finalist receives $50 as a category winner. Diners at the event vote for their favorite of the five dishes, and that winner will receive grand prize recognition and an additional $250.

Barnhart cook scores with crunchy veggie-topped snack

Sherrie Crane of Barnhart took top honors in the appetizer category with her Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta recipe.

Crane, 67, is no stranger to the winner’s circle over the 25-year history of the Leader’s annual recipe contest.

“I was a finalist once in the early days, when we used to make our dishes ourselves and bring them to the Leader office,” she said. “And I was a finalist in 2020, when they didn’t have the dinner because of COVID. But it’s been a few years since I entered and won anything.”

Her tasty appetizer features a lively blend of seasoned vegetables heaped on crusty, buttery bread rounds and topped with melted cheese. The recipe originally came from a recipe book and has been tweaked along the way.

“I do alter it, depending on what I have on hand,” Crane said. “You could use canned tomatoes, use crackers or toasted French bread. Sometimes I add deli chicken for a little protein, or leftover pork chops.

“I do ‘clean out the fridge night,’ when I use leftovers of this, that and the other to become creative.”

The veggie topping can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge, giving the flavors time to meld together, Crane said.

“I’m retired, so I have plenty of time, but that would be a time saver,” she said.

Crane said she learned to cook from her family.

“My mom and dad were both really good cooks,” she said. “I was blessed in that way. When I was growing up, it was a lot of meat and potato meals. We had a huge garden, so we ate fresh and then canned in the winter.”

Necessity has forced her to change her cooking methods over the years, Crane said.

“When my husband became a heart patient 20 years ago, it became necessary to learn to cook in a different way,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun to learn a new way, to go out and find recipes.

“We’re really blessed to live in a country where we can get whatever we want.”

Crane and her husband, who is retired from Boeing, often host family for meals.

“Our daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren live very close, so I enjoy having them over for a big meal,” she said. “I do a chicken tetrazzini I like and a cheesy chicken Dorito casserole they like.”

Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta

• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained well and finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped plum tomato
• 1/4 cup finely chopped purple onion
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Dash of sugar
• 1 baguette, cut into 28 slices
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup crumbled garlic and herb-flavored feta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine peppers, tomato and onion in a bowl. Combine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar and then pour over pepper mixture and toss. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
3. Arrange baguette slices on a large ungreased baking sheet. Brush or drizzle slices with oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 4 minutes or until barely toasted.
4. Spoon about 1 tablespoon pepper mixture onto each toast and top with cheese. Broil about 6 inches from heat for 3 minutes or until bubbly and barely browned.
5. Serve warm. Makes 28.

Hillsboro cook wins soup category with first-ever entry

Linda Martin of Hillsboro was named the finalist in the soup category with her Wild Rice Soup.

“It’s comfort food,” she said. “It’s a go-to recipe for when you want to snuggle on the couch in a blanket and have some warm soup in a mug.”

Martin said she got the recipe, like many others, from her daughter-in-law.

“My son is career Navy,” she said. “In the beginning of his career, he was a navigator on a land-based plane in Maine, then in Maryland. Every year, my husband and I would go up at least once and visit. Every time we came home with a new recipe.”

Martin, 75, is a first-generation American.

“My mother was born in Yugoslavia and my dad in Germany,” she said. “She was a good cook. We always had strudel, goulash.”

Martin is a retired teacher, and her husband is a former deacon at Good Shepherd Church in Hillsboro.

“I taught math and later theology at Cor Jesu (High School in St. Louis County) and coordinated retreats,” she said. “I just retired a few months ago.”

Since her son’s family moved back to the area three years ago, her entire family is local.

“We have four children and 13 grandchildren,” she said. “On Halloween, we found out we’re going to be great-grandparents.”

Martin is the designated pie maker for Thanksgiving.

“Pies are my specialty,” she said. “I made a triple berry pie for my son who is in the Navy. I have a recipe for cherry pie that is the best ever.”

Martin also makes other desserts for family celebrations.

“Every time one of them has a birthday, I ask them what dessert they want,” she said. “I don’t necessarily make it for their birthday, but around the time. I don’t want to step on toes or get in the way of what the parents do.”

Martin enjoys seeking out new recipes and then tweaking them until she achieves perfection – or close to it.

“I get an email every day from allrecipes.com,” she said. “I found a beef vegetable soup that I liked. I tweaked it – I always do – and it’s really good.”

Martin said she experimented for a while before hitting just the right pie crust recipe.

“I don’t think I’ll do anything else to it,” she said. “I’m settled on pie crust.”

Wild Rice Soup

• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 pound or less bacon, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup cooked wild rice
• 8 ounces grated cheddar cheese
• 2 cans cream of potato soup
• 1 quart half-and-half (or 2 cups half-and-half and 2 cups milk)
• 4-8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms (optional)
• 1 cup cubed baked chicken, canned chicken or leftover roasted chicken from the store (optional)

1. Saute onion in butter, then add bacon and saute a little longer. Add cooked wild rice, cheese, soup, half and half (and mushrooms and/or chicken, if desired). Simmer on low heat, stirring frequently, until well heated.

Festus cook seemingly is master of all categories

For the eighth time in the Leader’s Holiday Recipe Contest’s 25-year history, a recipe from Terri Becker of Festus landed in the finalist group. Last year, it was Chicken Enchilada Soup; this year it’s Strawberry Feta Salad, a colorful, customizable dish that combines tangy spinach with sweet fruit and nuts in a vinaigrette-style dressing.

Becker, 62, has been a finalist in each one of the contest’s five categories at some point and was the grand prize winner in 2018.

“Oh yeah, I’ve been entering for years,” the self-taught cook said. “I’m very excited.”

Becker said she got this recipe from a dinner she attended some years ago.

“I thought it was good, and it is easy – and I like easy,” she said. “I like it because it’s different than what you usually see with lettuce. It’s very pretty, the combination of greens and fruits. I think food is always more appetizing when it’s pretty like that.”

Becker said substituting in other ingredients gives a whole range of flexibility to the dish.

“You could do oranges or pears or other berries,” she said. “You could use pecans or maybe pine nuts. You could use blue cheese or goat cheese. Whatever is in season, whatever you like.”

Becker said her husband retired a few years ago and took over most of the meal cooking in their household.

“I do the baking,” she said. “If you can follow basic directions, you can cook. Baking is kind of like chemistry – once you know the basics, then you can add to it.”

Becker said she hopes to get her four grandchildren cooking with her.

“I look after them sometimes; I take them to school a couple of days a week,” she said. “My granddaughters are getting interested, and I’m going to start teaching them how to bake.

“Gotta carry the tradition down, right?”

Some of the dishes Becker likes to create are no longer on the home menu, but that doesn’t stop her.

“We’ve had to cut out some things because of my husband’s blood sugar,” she said. “I still make things; I just make stuff to take places, like church.”

Although baking is her specialty, she has a few other go-to dishes for meals.

“I have a fiesta chicken that was in the contest a few years ago,” she said. “People don’t believe it has Cheez-Its in it. I make a good chicken and dumplings; my mother-in-law helped me with that. And my son likes my lasagna.”

Strawberry Feta Salad

• 4 cups spinach
• 1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups strawberries, sliced
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup feta cheese

1. Combine oil, vinegar and pepper in a small bowl and mix well. Place spinach into a large salad bowl and pour dressing over and toss with tongs to combine. Add strawberries and walnuts, then toss again. Add feta and toss gently before serving.

Eureka cook scores back-to-back finalist wins

Aubrey Bronskill of Eureka snagged first place in the side dish category for her Holiday Potatoes Romanoff recipe. The dish is a creamy comfort food casserole featuring potatoes and cheese.

Bronskill was a finalist in last year’s contest as well, topping the appetizer category with Smoked Salmon Pinwheels.

“I’m so happy!” she said. “I love the Holiday Dinner, and I thought this dish was perfect for the holidays.”

Bronskill, who is “in her 70s,” said she got the recipe from an aunt.

“It’s been in the family for many years, and she passed it down to me,” she said. “I kept it on my back burner as a possible entry for the contest. I made it several times throughout the year, but I think it would be nice to do for a special holiday meal.”

Although the recipe calls for cooked potato to be grated on a box grater, Bronskill said a food processor probably could work just as well.

“I don’t know if it makes a difference,” she said.

Bronskill is always on the lookout for new recipes, new techniques and new cooking gadgets.

“Oh, I am definitely a gadget sort of person,” she said. “I bought a chopper at Williams Sonoma this year. I have a tiny little lemon squeezer, a bigger one for juicing, a strawberry de-seeder, a rosemary stripper. I could definitely do without them, but it does save you time.”

Bronskill said she uses her slow cooker a lot and hopes to delve into Instant Pot and air fryer appliance cooking.

“It’s on my list – maybe in the new year.”

Bronskill said she is an adventurous cook who enjoys baking breads and exploring different culinary cultures.

“I make different dishes all the time,” she said. “I go through magazines to find recipes I like; then I just mess with it, adding this, substituting that. I just tweak it a little.”

She’s been cooking for a new audience lately, since her three young grandsons are spending a lot of time at her house.

“They are here with their dad three or four days a week,” she said. “I make homemade snacks for them. I grill hamburgers, make chicken or fish, a lot of Crock-pot meals and casseroles. They love lasagna, and I make two at a time and freeze one. Then I can just take it out anytime.”

Bronskill said she will pull out all the stops for Thanksgiving.

“I’m making this cheese sausage quiche with a crust that is cream cheese and butter and an asiago filling,” she said. “It’s quite involved. But my little grandson loves it. He asks me, ‘Nonna, can I have some more of that good pizza?’ because I cut it in triangles.”

Bronskill said she uses her mother-in-law’s stuffing recipe, and makes pumpkin crunch cake, pumpkin pie and homemade cranberry sauce.

“I also do a cranberry orange bread that is very moist and delicious. It’s going to be a great meal.”

Holiday Potatoes Romanoff

• 3 large russet potatoes, baked and cooled overnight in the refrigerator
• 3 tablespoons salted butter
• 1/4 cup diced shallots
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 1/2 cups freshly shredded sharp white cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2. In a small pan, melt butter over medium-low heat and saute shallots and bell peppers until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
3. Using a box grater, grate cooled potatoes with skin still on.
4. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sour cream, salt, pepper and 2 cups of cheddar cheese, along with the cooked shallot and pepper mix.
5. Gently fold in the shredded potatoes until evenly combined, trying to keep the shredded texture.
6. Lightly pile potato mixture into prepared casserole dish and evenly top with remaining cheddar and Parmesan. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Cedar Hill baker channels beloved family members

Betty Gottfried of Cedar Hill went to her memory bank for the recipe that won top honors in the dessert category in this year’s Leader Holiday Recipe contest. Her German Apple Cake recipe originally came from a cherished family member, now deceased.

“Lorraine was my older brother’s mother-in-law,” she said. “She was a lovely, joyful person and a great cook, and we’d see her at all the family gatherings.

“You know how sometimes you marry into a family and you don’t know what you’re going to get? I was fortunate.”

Gottfried, 67, said part of what makes the cake special is the emotions and memories it evokes.

“For me, it’s the fact that it brings up her memory and the joy she brought to family gatherings,” she said. “But besides that, it’s delicious! I’ve made it a number of times since she passed away some years ago, and it always brings a smile to my face. What more could you ask?

“I have the paper recipe, handwritten by her. I feel like she’s there with me.”

Gottfried said the recipe is simple and reliable.

“The hardest part of the whole thing is peeling the apples,” she said.

Gottfried also has many happy memories of cooking with her late mother.

“I remember many days wearing an apron, standing on a kitchen chair next to her while she taught me how to make bread and biscuits and cookies,” she reminisced. “I enjoyed cooking with her a lot. She used to like to enter the St. Charles County Fair and win ribbons. One year I made biscuits and they won and I gloated because I won over her. When she grumbled about it, I said, ‘Well, what did you expect? You taught me!’ When she passed away, I got her kitchen bowl and I still have that.”

Gottfried said her husband, a longtime, stay-at-home-dad, did most of the meal cooking when their children were growing up.

“I did more of the baking,” she said. “Now, our kids and grandkids come over, and everyone brings a dish and we have a good time. I like to bake something for them.

“I do a lemon cake (recipe) I got from my mother that’s awesome. And then there are brownies, and I make some really good muffins.”

Gottfried said honoring her family heritage by following their recipes is good for the soul.

“Unfortunately, Lorraine is no longer with us. But we continue to make this cake in her honor. And we fondly think of her when the luscious aroma of apples and warm spices fill the air as it comes out of the oven.”

German Apple Cake

• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 2 cups sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 cups flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 teaspoons baking soda 
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• 4 cups peeled, thinly sliced apples (crisp, tart apples are the best)
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 

1. Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs and beat together. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla and mix well. Add apples and nuts (batter will be stiff). Pour in oblong 9-by-13-by-2 pan. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
2. An icing of powdered sugar and water drizzled over the cake while still warm makes this delicious cake even more irresistible.