Christmas at the Stanley, part 2

 I mentioned in my previous post a few favorite Christmas foods, so here are a couple of the recipes!
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Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought it was normal to make your own summer sausage.  Only after Isaac expressed much surprise at the fact that I had actually just made summer sausage did I realize that it must just be something that you do when you live in Brazil and you don’t have summer sausage readily available at the store!  This recipe is what I grew up with and has always been my favorite kind of summer sausage!  I had never made it myself until this year but it is so incredibly easy that anyone can do it!

Summer Sausage
2 lbs. ground hamburger
2 T. Morton’s tender quick (can be found in the grocery store next to regular table salt)
2 t. black pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder or garlic cloves
1 ½ t. liquid smoke
½ t. mustard seeds
¼ c. water
(If the hamburger is exceptionally lean, add 1-2 Tablespoons of lard or shortening.)

Mix together all ingredients until well-mixed.

Form into logs 6 to 8 inches long.  

Wrap each one in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

The next day,  unwrap and place on a broiler pan. If you don’t have a broiler pan, you can place the sausage rolls on a cooling rack placed on top of a cookie sheet—this helps the grease to bake out of the sausage without the sausage sitting in the grease.

Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees.

Pat off grease and refrigerate. 

Makes 4-6 rolls (depending on how large you make them)

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For some reason, my family never got into making sugar cookies.  Instead, the kid-friendly activity was making peppernuts—a small, nut-sized “cookie” with anise flavoring (the same flavoring in black licorice.) Making peppernuts involved rounding up all of the scissors in the house and then cutting the long snakes of peppernut dough onto a cookie sheet.  It was great fun (until we had made 3 or 4 pans full of the bite-sized peppernuts and still had more than half of the dough left to do!)
One gallon of peppernuts (one recipe) usually would last our family from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but occasionally we ended up making another batch before Christmas was over! 

Peppernuts

1 1/2 cups white sugar                        
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening (or any combination of crisco,lard, margarine, or butter)
1 cup cream or half-and-half
1 cup molasses, honey, or Karo syrup
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. black pepper,             
 2 tsp. liquid anise (or more if you want a stronger "black licorice" flavor)
9-11 cups flour 

Mix together all ingredients, except for the flour.  If using a mixer, use a cookie dough attachment.

Add the flour little by little, until the dough is firm like cookie dough.

Refrigerate.

Roll into thin "snakes" about 1/2 inch thick.  Then, with scissors or a small knife, cut into small pieces (also about 1/2 thick.)

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can fill the pan pretty full, as you do not have to allow room for them to spread out.

Bake at 350-375 degrees for 11-13  minutes. They do harden once cooled, so depending on how crunchy you want them, adjust the baking time.

Remove baked peppernuts from the pan and repeat the process!

One recipe makes a gallon of peppernuts.

Cool and store peppernuts in an airtight container—they do not need to be refrigerated or frozen in order to stay fresh and crunchy.

(These are pretty yummy to eat alongside your morning cup of coffee while cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire!)