My Corny Holiday Tradition by Mary Lee Ashford

 

Because our holiday get-togethers can be a little too big for anyone’s dinner table – there are often 40-45 people – we tend to go for a very non-traditional everyone-bring-something holiday meal. Last year we had around forty family members, plus some foreign exchange students whose host families were traveling out of town. They were slightly confused by the informal atmosphere. We’re guessing it was nothing like they’d seen in American movies. But the nice thing about the only-slightly-planned collection of dishes is that a few more last-minute guests present no problem.

I was thrilled recently, in a discussion about what everyone brings, to find my Corny Corn Casserole is a favorite of several family members. It’s a family recipe from a co-worker who always made it for her own family and so in my recipe box it’s listed as “Mary’s Corny Corn Casserole.” It’s also one of my favorite types of recipes – easy ones! So, here you have it:

Mary Lee’s Corny Corn Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 package Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained.
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 egg

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the butter in a casserole dish and put it in the oven to melt. Keep an eye on it and take the dish out when the butter is melted. Don’t leave it in too long as you don’t want the butter to brown.

My Corny Holiday Tradition by Mary Lee Ashford

Because our holiday get-togethers can be a little too big for anyone’s dinner table – there are often 40-45 people – we tend to go for a very non-traditional everyone-bring-something holiday meal. Last year we had around forty family members, plus some foreign exchange students whose host families were traveling out of town. They were slightly confused by the informal atmosphere. We’re guessing it was nothing like they’d seen in American movies. But the nice thing about the only-slightly-planned collection of dishes is that a few more last-minute guests present no problem.

I was thrilled recently, in a discussion about what everyone brings, to find my Corny Corn Casserole is a favorite of several family members. It’s a family recipe from a co-worker who always made it for her own family and so in my recipe box it’s listed as “Mary’s Corny Corn Casserole.” It’s also one of my favorite types of recipes – easy ones! So, here you have it:

Mary Lee’s Corny Corn Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 package Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained.
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 egg

Instructions:

Special Corn Chowder by Joanne Fluke

A romantic seven-day cruise is the perfect start to bakery owner Hannah Swensen’s marriage. However, with a murder mystery heating up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, it seems the newlywed’s homecoming won’t be as sweet as she anticipated . . .

After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah’s eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother’s neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town . . . and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a deadlier scheme at play? As Hannah peels through countless suspects and some new troubles of her own, solving this crime—and living to tell about it—might prove trickier than mixing up the ultimate banana cream pie . . .

 

SPECIAL CORN CHOWDER

(Made on the stovetop)
1 cup whipping cream
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or enough dry bouillon crystals or beads to make 2 cups of chicken broth)
1⁄2 stick (2 ounces, 1⁄4 cup, 1⁄8 pound) salted butter
10-ounce bag frozen whole kernel corn
2 sixteen-ounce cans cream style corn
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
1⁄2 teaspoon onion salt
1⁄2 teaspoon garlic salt
1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Hot sauce to taste (I used Slap Ya Mama)
1⁄4 cup instant potato flakes (if needed to thicken the chowder)
One jar of jalapeño jelly
1 package microwave buttered popcorn

Lobster & Corn Chowder by Barbara Ross

This hearty soup is derived from one of my treasured family recipes. It was originally Corn and Turkey Chowder, a Depression-era meal popular in our house after Thanksgiving. Bill Carito adapted it for lobster and brought it into the current millennium.

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 onions, chopped
3 Tablespoons flour
6 cups lobster or fish stock, warmed
1 can creamed corn