CapRadio staff share more family recipes and meals for the 2024 holiday season

On a new holiday edition of Insight, CapRadio staff once again took us for a trip down memory lane, sharing recipes, meals and memories that feel like home.

Below are the recipes shared on the show if you’d like to try them at home. 

• Emmy Gilbert’s Oatmeal Cookies
• Sarah Kamiya’s Arroz Caldo
• Patti Stoltz’s Jam Cake and Chocolate Frosting 
• Sarit Laschinsky’s Vanillekipferl
• Claire Morgan’s Christmas Cookies

If you’d like to listen to the show, you can do that by clicking here. 

Arts and Lifestyle

CapRadio staff share family recipes and meals

If you’d like to try out previous recipes shared by CapRadio staff during the holidays, you can find those here.

Emmy Gilbert’s Oatmeal Cookies

A top secret family recipe.

Ingredients: 

• Top secret (but it does include lard).

Sarah Kamiya’s Arroz Caldo

A comforting Filipino rice and chicken porridge that has become a new year staple.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken or 9 deboned chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces.
• 1/2 large white onion, diced.
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped.
• 2” to 4” or larger fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced.
• 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce.
• 1 cup glutinous sweet rice.
• 5 cups chicken broth.
• Salt and pepper to taste, peppercorns if preferred.
• Optional toppings: 
  • 1 green onion, chopped.
  • 1 lemon, sliced into wedges.
  • Chicharón.
  • Hard boiled eggs.

Directions:

• In a large pot, stir fry onion, garlic and ginger until fragrant (approximately 5 minutes). Add fish sauce and continue stirring for about 1 minute. Remove stir-fried mixture from pot.
• Cook chicken in the heated pot and cook until evenly brown. Do not drain juices from chicken.
• Once browned, add the stir-fried onion, garlic, and ginger and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add about 1 cup of water, enough to cover chicken.
• Add 4 cups of chicken broth to the pot. Add 1 cup of glutinous sweet rice. Bring to boil then reduce heat to low.
• Add salt and pepper as needed.
• When rice is at desired consistency, remove pot from stove.
• Serve with green onions and lemon wedge.

Note: If more chicken broth is needed, boil chicken broth first then add to the mixture. Same goes if water is needed.

Patti Stoltz’s Jam Cake

A rich frosted cake full of bourbon-soaked cherries, jam, walnuts and coconut. Courtesy of grandma and Aunt Virginia.

Patti Stoltz’s jam cake with chocolate frosting.Patti Stoltz/CapRadio

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar.
• 1 cup Wesson oil.
• 4 eggs.
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg.
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
• 1 teaspoon allspice.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda.
• 1 cup buttermilk.
• 2 1/2 cups flour.
• 2 cups seedless blackberry jam.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla.
• 1 cup raisins.
• 1 cup flaked coconut.
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts.

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour three 9-inch cake pans, add a layer of parchment paper to the bottom.
• Plump the raisins by steeping in just enough hot water to cover.
• Mix cream, sugar and oil. Beat eggs and add to sugar and oil mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add spices and mix again.
• Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk, add to the sugar/oil/egg mixture. Add jam and vanilla, mix. Add flour, mix again.
• Drain the raisins and add to the batter with the coconut and walnuts. Mix well, the batter will be very stiff.
• Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through for even baking.
• Let the cakes cool for a few minutes on a rack in the pans before carefully turning out. These cakes are sticky, dense and heavy; do not set them topside down on the rack. They must be set on their parchment bottoms to cool completely.

Variations: Blackberry jam is traditional, but strawberry jam is also very good. Raisins are traditional, but bourbon-plumped dried cherries are better. Use hot bourbon to plump the raisins. Substitute 1 teaspoon of the soaking liquid for the vanilla.

Patti Stoltz’s Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Makes about 3 cups of frosting.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, melted (about 1 1/2 sticks).
• 1 cup cocoa.
• 4 cups powdered sugar.
• 1/2 cup cream.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
• A pinch of salt.

Directions:

• Place melted butter in a large mixing bowl. Add cocoa, stirring until smooth.
• Gradually stir in powdered sugar, cream, vanilla and salt. Mix until smooth. 
• Add additional cream if necessary, ½ teaspoon at a time, beating until spreading consistency.

Sarit Laschinsky’s Vanillekipferl

Crescent-shaped almond cookies from Germany, dusted with powdered and vanilla sugar.

A plate of holiday cookies baked by CapRadio Insight Producer Sarit Laschinsky and his family.Sarit Laschinsky/CapRadio

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour.
• 2 egg yolks (optional).
• 3/4 cup butter, cubed.
• 3/4 cup finely chopped almonds (preferably toasted to give it more flavor).
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
• A pinch of salt.
• More powdered sugar and vanilla sugar (ex: Dr. Oetker brand) for dusting.

Directions: 

• Before baking, toast slivered or sliced almonds in a dry pan until golden brown and fragrant. Finely chop in a food processor. 
• Preheat the oven to 390-400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Sift flour onto the work surface or a baking mat. Add cubed butter, chopped almonds, powdered sugar, vanilla and optional egg yolks. Knead until the dough comes together.
• Shape the dough into cylinders around 2 inches in diameter, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for an hour until chilled.
• Cut ½ inch thick slices from the rolls. Roll each slice into 2-2 ½ inch long logs, and bend them into crescents.
• Place the kipferl on the baking sheet, and bake for around 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
• Place kipferl on a baking rack. While the cookies are still warm, mix powdered sugar and vanilla sugar and dust over the kipferl until well coated.

Claire Morgan’s Christmas Cookies

Shortbread Christmas cookies with a sweet treat at the center. Courtesy of Nana Morgan (Savident).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened.
• 1/2 cup sugar.
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour.
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.
• 1 egg.
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla.
• Currants, raisins, candies, jam or whatever else you'd like as a topping.

Directions: 

• Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with a spoon. Stir in flour, salt, egg, and almond extract.
• Place dough in a cookie press, or shape as you desire. Put shaped cookies on a cookie sheet. Add a currant, raisin or spoonful of jam in the center.
• Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Note: My dad grows blackberries in his backyard and spends a few weeks each summer making giant batches of jam. It’s my favorite thing to add to the center of these cookies. Nothing tops dad’s jam, but Bonne Maman’s blackberry preserve is a pretty good substitute.