Trudy Bosch

The holidays are coming. While they bring with them lots of joy and excitement, for people like me who are kitchen challenged, they also bring in a lot of fear; fear of cooking for company.

This year I found help in my colleagues and their book The Consistently Consistent Cookbook. The cookbook is written by house mothers across the agency and is filled with recipes that are tried and true within our group homes.

The housemothers sell these cook books during the year and the money raised from them goes to the Mary Miller Fund (named after a former employee) which helps former Ranch kids, who require financial support for personal emergencies.

Over the next few weeks I am going to feature some of these festive ideas and recipes for celebrating the holidays including appetizers, sides, desserts, and main courses.

Recipe #1 is an awesome spinach dip that comes from Rayna Jordan:

• 1 pkg. dry Knorr vegetable soup mix


• 1-10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well


• 2 cups sour cream


• 1 cup mayonnaise


• 1 can water chestnuts, drained, and minced


• 1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all ingredients together. Hollow out one large sourdough or pumpernickel unsliced loaf. Fill with the dip and serve with cube bread.

* Buy extra bread for dipping as this makes plenty. Also, you can add green onion and 2 Tbsp. of soya sauce for an Asian flavour.

Print recipe here.