Happy Holidays From Water Heaters Only, Inc
Our Holiday Blog
I know we’re all asking our selves, is it really that time of year already? The answer is yes, it’s Christmas time and we couldn’t be merrier here at Water Heaters Only, Inc!
That merriment has a lot to do with our great staff, but mostly it comes from the great customers we have! Of course, it maybe has a little to do with the company Christmas party that we had at the Delta King in Sacramento.
It was a murder mystery themed dinner and a lot of fun was had by all. Here are a few photos from that night:
But the merriment didn’t end there as we also just had our office holiday potluck and Secret Santa gift exchange. Did I mention that we love the holidays here at W.H.O? We work hard and we play hard and we always make sure we are having at least a little fun along the way no matter what we are doing.
One of the things that makes holidays so special is the wonderful food and that includes favorite recipes that we all look forward to every year. In that spirit, we thought we would share just a couple of our favorites. This first one is for the most amazing sweet potatoes ever!
NORMA’S “KICKED UP” SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
Serves 12-16
INGREDIENTS
5 ½ lbs. sweet potatoes
½ cup dark brown sugar
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup bourbon
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground allspice
½ tsp. ground nutmeg (fresh, if possible)
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 (8oz.) can cubed pineapple
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until tender, about 1 ½ hours. Peel and transfer to a food processor along with the brown sugar, bourbon, butter, ½ tsp. salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, eggs and pineapple. Pulse 4-5 times until all ingredients are mixed. Consistency should be chunky and not completely pureed. Transfer contents to a 9”x13” baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until contents are heated through.
2. While casserole bakes, bring sugar and ¼ cup water to a boil in a 1 qt. sauce pan over high heat; attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and cook, without stirring, until syrup reaches 250 degrees. Place vanilla, remaining salt and egg whites in a large bowl; beat on medium-high speed of a hand mixer until soft peaks form. While beating, slowly drizzle in hot syrup and continue beating until meringue is thickened and cooled.
3. Turn oven to broil. Spread meringue over casserole and broil until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
And, of course, cranberries are a staple, but the hard part is making them a little different just for fun. With that in mind, here is a simple recipe for Cranberry Salad. (Don’t worry, it’s not a “healthy salad”!)
CRANBERRY SALAD
INGREDIENTS
1 lg. pkg. cherry or raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar
3 stalks celery, diced
1 lg. can cranberries
3 lg. red apples
1 lg. can crushed pineapple
Chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans are best, but it’s your choice)
8 oz. cream cheese
½ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Dissolve jello and sugar in boiling water. Finely chop apples and mix with cranberries. Add celery, cranberry-apple mix, pineapple and chopped nuts to jello. Pour into a pan or jello mold. Once it is set, serve with dollop of cream cheese dressing on top. (See recipe below)
2. Cream Cheese Dressing: Mix orange juice into softened cream cheese using mixer or by hand until well blended.
Finally, we want to end this blog post with some helpful water heater information. The holidays are about a lot of things including spending time with friends and family and sometimes that means houseguests. So, to help make sure you (hopefully) don’t run out of hot water while Grandpa showers, we suggest that you take a look at your thermostat on your water heater. It’s usually the red knob located right near the bottom of the water heater where you light the pilot. If you look closely, you will see temperatures listed on the red knob. Typically, there’s a Vacation setting followed by higher temperatures. Unless your thermostat is already set to high, go ahead and turn it up a little. Don’t crank it up to High, just nudge it up a bit. Then, after waiting a bit, check the hot water coming from your faucets to gauge the temperature. Be careful when you do it and never adjust the thermostat without following up with a hot water check. If it’s too high, someone could get scalded including Grandpa and that won’t make for a happy holiday. However, with the right adjustment, your hot water should last at least little longer while you have extra house guests.
Well that’s it for this holiday blog. One final note: The new Department of Energy guidelines will be taking affect starting April 2015 and this will increase the cost of water heaters and may make replacing your water heater a whole lot more trouble than it would be now. So look for our blog post explaining all about these new guidelines in the New Year. This will likely be in our January or February blog post. In the meantime, you can always give us a call at 866-WHO-QUICK and one of our water heater experts will be happy to discuss these new guidelines and your options moving forward. See you next year!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Water Heaters Only! Oh, and Happy New Year, too!