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Thursday, December 19, 2002

By Mary Miller

We all have our own special memories of Christmas as a child. For me, finding an Italian salami hidden in my new play refrigerator (courtesy of Uncle "T") and riding around our basement on my brand new, shiny red tricycle come to mind.

Trays of goodies -- chocolate gob cookies, homemade hardtack candy and my dad's fruitcake (yes, I do love fruitcake) also hold special places in my holiday memory bank.

Sometimes it's a special recipe, a surprise gift or a family ritual that evokes that warm feeling. What do prominent Pittsburghers remember about Christmas from their childhood? Here's a sampling.

Andrew Stockey

	WTAE sports anchor Andrew Stockey. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette)

Growing up outside Hartford, Conn., WTAE sports anchor Andrew Stockey remembers always having a snowy Christmas. "I was the kind of kid that woke up at 4:30 a.m. to see what Santa left for me. It was way too early for everyone else, but I just couldn't sleep."

His favorite Christmas gift? An electric football game. "When you turned it on, the players went every which way except the way you wanted them to go."

Stockey now celebrates twice -- once on Dec. 25 and again a few weeks later with his wife and her family for Serbian Christmas.

Andrew's holiday food memory is of a sweet, fluffy yeast roll that his mom made just for the holidays. This is his family's recipe, as is the Cranberry-Waldorf Mold.

• Doris Evans' Rolls
  
• 2 cups hot water
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
  
• 2 cakes yeast or two packages dry yeast
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 6 cups flour

Combine water, salt, sugar and butter. Let cool for a minute until it's warm, no longer hot. Dissolve yeast in warm mixture and beat in eggs. Add flour, mixing well. Refrigerate, covered, as long as one week.

When ready to bake, form the dough into small balls the size of walnuts. Place two or three balls in each cup of greased muffin tins. Let rise for 3 hours in warm place and then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from muffin tins and cool on a baking rack.

Makes about two dozen rolls.

• Cranberry-Waldorf Mold
  
• 16-ounce can jellied cranberry sauce
  
• 3-ounce package raspberry-flavored gelatin
  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise, regular or fat free
  
• 3/4 cup cranberry juice cocktail
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  
• 1 cup chopped Granny Smith or Delicious apple

In a one-quart saucepan over medium heat, melt cranberry sauce. Pour over gelatin in mixing bowl and stir until dissolved. With wire whisk, stir in mayonnaise and mix until smooth. Stir in cranberry juice, lemon juice and chopped apple. Spoon into an oiled 4-cup mold. Refrigerate until mold is firm. Unmold. Serves 8. This is best made a day ahead.

Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida

PSO oboist Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette)

Cynthia Koleda DeAlmeida, principal oboist for the Pittsburgh Symphony, grew up near Burlington, Vt., in a family of seven. Christmases were spent at her family's home, a grand old Colonial built in 1788. It sat high on a hill, with the Green Mountains of Vermont as the background. Her holiday memories are just like the White Christmas everyone dreams of -- snow falling, mountains in the background, horses in the pasture.

Cynthia, one of only two female principal oboists in the country, has just produced a CD titled "Class Discoveries for Oboe." It's available through www.buythiscd.com or at the Curtain Call store, Downtown.

This cake is a winter favorite for the DeAlmeida family. Cynthia's son, Danny, even requested it for his Dec. 29 birthday. It's not a typo -- the cake is called chesscake, not cheesecake.

• Chesscake
  
• For crust:
  
• 1 stick butter, melted
  
• 18.25-ounce butter cake mix
  
• 1 egg
  
• For topping:
  
• One 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1 box powdered sugar

Mix together crust ingredients and press into a greased 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix topping ingredients until smooth.

Spread on top of crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool before cutting. Makes 24 pieces.

Jim Roddey

Jim Roddey, chief executive of Allegheny County, says his most endearing memory was back at his grandparents' home in Gaffney, S.C. "Grandfather raised turkeys and fixed a 35-pound bird for Christmas dinner. As the youngest member of a very large family, I got the drumstick. It was so large that I was given the leg to chew on at every meal for the entire four-day stay. I never finished it."

	Jim Roddey, chief executive of Allegheny County. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette)

Since then, he has spent Christmas in more than a dozen places, including California, Texas, Florida, Mexico and Greece. These recipes are two of his holiday favorites.

• Jim's Mother's Black Russian Bundt Cake
  
• Cake
  
• 18.25-ounce yellow cake mix
  
• 5.9-ounce package chocolate instant pudding
  
• 4 eggs
  
• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup oil
  
• 1/4 cup vodka
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• Glaze
  
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  
• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur

Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix for 4 minutes at low speed. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Remove from oven. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Cool on a rack.

For glaze, mix ingredients until smooth. With a sharp knife, punch 8 to 10 slits in the top of the cake. Drizzle glaze over top and down sides of cake. Makes 12 servings.

• Aunt Lilly's Eggnog Cake
  
• 3 cups flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 2 sticks butter
  
• 1/2 cup shortening
  
• 3 cups sugar
  
• 5 eggs
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1 teaspoon of each these flavorings: vanilla extract, lemon extract, sherry, rum extract, almond extract and brandy

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. In a large bowl, sift the flour. Add baking powder. In another bowl, cream butter and shortening. Gradually add the sugar. Beat to the consistency of mayonnaise. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flavorings. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with the milk. Stir just enough after each addition just to mix ingredients. Do not beat. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Do not open door during baking. Cool in pan on a rack. Serves 12.

Marianna Tcherkassky Orr

Marianna Tcherkassky Orr. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Marianna Tcherkassky Orr, ballet mistress for The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, spent her early holidays at her family's home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. On the 24th of December, her family would gather to make Russian meat dumplings called pelmeni. It was a daylong process of rolling and filling the dough.

The children would help -- starting out by making the traditional circle shape, but as the day wore on, they would create their own personal pelmeni shapes so that they could recognize their own creations once they were cooked.

That evening, the family had to wait to see the first star, and then they would light the tree. After that, everyone was allowed to open one gift. Next came the real treat, the pelmeni. The three Tcherkassky children would eagerly wait for their own personal pelmeni to rise to the top of the pot of boiling water. They would claim their own, or, according to Marianna, the kids would tease one another about whose dumplings survived the boiling and whose fell apart.

Then came the competition to see who could eat the most, with her brother always winning -- with close to 50 eaten at one time.

Marianna has been busy with the new production of "The New Nutcracker," which is at The Benedum Center through Dec. 29. For performance times and tickets, call 412-456-6666 or find the information online at www.pbt.org.

With her hectic holiday schedule, Marianna might be purchasing her pelmeni already made from Alex's International, 2020 Smallman St. in the Strip.

The pelmeni are traditionally eaten with melted butter and a little white vinegar. Marianna recommends sour cream, fresh chopped dill and some chopped green onion as toppings for the pelmeni. For a real Tcherkassy treat, try Marianna's father's mustard sauce.

• Pelmeni (Siberian Meat Dumplings)
  
• Filling:
  
• 3/4 pound ground beef
  
• 1/2 pound ground lamb (ground pork may also be used)
  
• 1 medium yellow onion, grated or very finely chopped
  
• About a teaspoon of red wine vinegar
  
• Chopped dill, to taste
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Dough:
  
• 3 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 1 scant teaspoon salt
  
• 1 large egg
  
• 1 cup cold water
  
• 2-inch round cookie cutter (the Tcherkasskys used a vodka shotglass)
  
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes, optional
  
• Melted butter

In a food processor, blend the flour and salt. With the motor running, add the egg through the feed tube, then pour in the water in a slow, steady stream, until the dough forms a ball around the blade. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel (not terrycloth) and let stand for 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients, stirring until they are thoroughly mixed. Divide dough in half and shape into two balls. Keep one ball covered. On a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll out dough to a thin sheet, about 1/16-inch thick, making sure it doesn't tear. With a round cookie cutter, cut out 2-inch circles.

Place a scant teaspoon of filling (like a small meatball) in middle of each circle. Fold circle in half and pinch closed, then fold ends of semicircle together. Lightly flour baking sheets. Arrange dumplings about one inch apart on the baking sheet. When sheet is full, cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and place in freezer until they are completely frozen. Transfer the pelmeni to a plastic freezer bag. Repeat process until all dough and filling are used.

To cook pelmeni, bring 6 quarts salted water and bouillon cubes, if using, to a boil in a large pot (or divide water between two pots). Drop in half of the pelmeni (about 50) and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking, until they rise to the surface and are cooked through, about 8 minutes. With a slotted spoon, carefully remove the pelmeni to a colander and drain well. Transfer to a serving bowl and toss with melted butter. Cook remaining pelmeni the same way. Makes 100 pelmeni. (Serves 6 to 8.)

• My Father's Russian Mustard Sauce
  
• Equal amounts: Coleman's powdered mustard and sugar
  
• A pinch onion salt
  
• A few drops of very hot water
  
• 1/8 teaspoon red wine or balsamic vinegar
  
• A little olive oil
  
• Sour cream

Combine mustard, sugar and onion salt. Add a few drops of hot water mix to dissolve dry ingredients. Add a drop of vinegar and drizzle in olive oil while stirring. Consistency should be slightly thick but still runny. Make a sauce by adding mustard to sour cream. Start with a drop of mustard per tablespoon of sour cream and add more until desired degree of hotness is reached.