Every once in a while, usually just before the holiday season, I take a run through the recipe file my wife and I have collected for the past 17 years.

It’s full of hand-written recipes from our relatives as well as pages out of magazines and numerous photocopied recipes. Sometimes we look for something specific (the snickerdoodle recipe comes to mind), but usually we’re looking for inspiration for our holiday menus.

We did find the snickerdoodle recipe, so the baking part of our holidays was saved. Several of our  holiday baskets included these goodies as well as gingerbread and “Muddy Buddies” — that Chex mix creation with chocolate and peanut butter and covered in powdered sugar that I always eat too much of over the holidays.

During our search, we also ran across some old family recipes we hadn’t seen in years, but thought they might be interesting during the season.

Happy holidays.

Swiss steak and Mozarella

4 pounds round steak, 1⁄2-inch thick

3⁄4 cup unsifted flour divided

5 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 teaspoon savory

2 cups water

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped green pepper

2 cans diced tomatoes

1⁄2 pound of Mozzarella cheese

   

Cut steak into serving-size pieces. Coat steak with half the flour. Heat the shortening in a large skillet. Brown the steak in the hot shortening. Remove from skillet and place in shallow baking pan. Add remaining flour, salt, pepper and savory to meat drippings. Stir until mixture is smooth. Add water, celery, green pepper and tomatoes to skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened. Pour over steak.

Bake uncovered in a 325 degree oven 2 hours and 30 minutes or until steak is tender. Top steak with cheese. Continue to bake until cheese melts. 4 or 5 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Aunt Bell’s Banana Bread

1⁄2 cup Crisco oil

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3⁄4 cup mashed bananas

11⁄4 cup flour

1⁄2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

   

Cream sugar and oil until well mixed — add eggs. Stir in bananas, flour, baking soda and salt. Bake in a 1 large or 2 small loaf pans at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Raspberry wine gelatin salad

2 packages of raspberry Jell-O

11⁄4 cups boiling water

1 cup whole cranberry sauce

1 cup port wine

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup chopped celery

 

Mix gelatin in boiling water. Be sure to stir until Jell-O is completely dissolved since you are using considerably less liquid than normal. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into 81⁄2 x 12 pan or container of equivalent size.

All of the solid ingredients will float to the top since they are added immediately after mixing the gelatin. (have all ingredients chopped and ready prior to mixing the gelatin).

  Cut into squares after it has set. Serve plain or on a lettuce leaf.