savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast
67
ou can blame it on the anticipation of succulent
turkeys and hams, the seasonal decorations
adorning department stores months in advance,
the incessant barrage of Christmas tunes on
the radio or that small twinkle of childhood that
emerges from its dormancy in late November.
Regardless of the cause, the holiday season sneaks up on
you, and before you know it your cheeks are as rosy with holiday
cheer as St. Nick himself.
As a side effect of this effervescent Christmas cheer, parties
can spring up out of thin air so fast that it leaves your
head spinning—a flurry of phone calls, texts and a few hours
later your best friends and their children are on their way over
to your house and you haven’t even thought about what to
feed them.
In dire straits like these it is best to have someone who
knows the ropes of entertaining, someone who can whip
up creative dishes to keep guests happy and full. That’s
when any of the cookbooks from local organizations like the
Cape Fear Garden Club, Harbor Island Garden Club, Junior
League of Wilmington and the Cape Fear Medical Alliance
can come in handy.
Makes a great homemade
holiday gift-in-a-jar
Cranberry Cream Salad
Ingredients
4 cups cranberries, raw
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
16 oz. miniature marshmallows
1½ cups sugar
½ pint whipping cream, whipped
¾ cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Salt to taste
directions
Grind cranberries and combine with
drained pineapple. Mix with sugar, salt,
marshmallows and nuts. Whip cream and
fold into other ingredients. Refrigerating
overnight in covered bowl is recommended
but not necessary. Serves 12-15.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Cape Fear
Medical
Alliance
If it isn’t broken, don’t fix
it…but maybe just tweak it a
little—this could be the motto
for the Cape Fear Medical
Alliance’s regional cookbook, A
Cook’s Tour of the Azalea Coast,
which was first published in
1982 and has remained largely
unchanged for 30 years. When
the cookbook was first published
in 1982 it was packed
full of more than 200 pages of
gastronomic delights specific
to the lower Cape Fear region.
As the explanatory passage on
the inside cover of the book
reveals, however, revisions have
been made to the cookbook
to highlight health conscious
recipes and to support healthier
cooking. Proceeds from the
sales of the cookbook help to
fund the many charitable organizations
the alliance supports
like Habitat for Humanity,
the Open Doors Foundation
and Pinwheels and Promises.
A Cook’s Tour of the Azalea
Coast can be purchased at
various local retailers such
as Temptations, Two Sisters
Bookery, as well as online at
the alliance’s website, www.
capefearmedicalalliance.org.
Jezebel Sauce
Ingredients
1 (18-oz.) jar of pineapple preserves
1 (10-oz.) jar apple jelly
¼ cup vinegar
1 TB black peppercorns,
coarsely ground
1 t dry mustard
1 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t salt
directions
Mix pineapple preserves and apple jelly with
vinegar. Add black peppercorns, coarsely
ground or cracked with a hammer. Add mustard,
cayenne pepper and salt. Serve over
cream cheese with crackers or melba toast.
Jezebel Sauce
Y