holiday food
I must admit, the details of Ellie's planned Christmas Eve menu sound tantalizing. It got me thinking about how we all may have particular foods connected to the holidays. I got on a kick several years ago where I decided I needed to have my own culinary Christmas specialty. So I started making chocolate almond biscotti -- and my family loves it. Although, I have to say, after you make something over and over, your own taste for it tends to diminish. Still, I love making it every year -- in fact, I'll be making my second batch of the season this afternoon to take back to Kansas.
So what do you all like to eat/make/cook/bake over the holidays? I mean, this can be simple, every day kind of stuff, too. (To be honest, I look forward to Sonic holiday shakes every year. Just had their gingerbread blast the other night on a splurge! Aren't I pathetic?) But perhaps you have very particular memories and traditions connected with certain foods and tastes? It would be nice to hear about them in connection with general traditions we've been talking about.
So what do you all like to eat/make/cook/bake over the holidays? I mean, this can be simple, every day kind of stuff, too. (To be honest, I look forward to Sonic holiday shakes every year. Just had their gingerbread blast the other night on a splurge! Aren't I pathetic?) But perhaps you have very particular memories and traditions connected with certain foods and tastes? It would be nice to hear about them in connection with general traditions we've been talking about.
posted by Lesley at 9:47 AM
5 Comments:
In the past few years, I've been making the same cookies: apricot florentines. The cookies are primarily dried apricots and almonds (made into cookie form with some brown sugar, butter, and a teensy bit of flour). I dip them in dark chocolate. YUM.
A Barta aunt makes grasshopper bars (brownies topped with mint and chocolate icings), and it's just not Christmas without one of those for dessert.
My mom's stuffing also signals the holidays. We haven't done a true Polish meal since lots of my extended relatives really watch their diets these days, but I could cry with happiness to have just one more meal of kielbasa, bread dumplings, sauerkraut, etc.
My holiday specialty (according to my relatives) just might very well be artichoke dip. They request it for EVERY gathering. Oh my gosh, it is SO easy, but delicious, and I guess it IS nice to have a specialty that gets requested over and over!
Speaking of Polish food, Ellie, have you every made/had pierogi for your family gatherings? A friend of mine here is Polish on her mother's side, and they have a very traditional Polish meal featuring pierogi. I had never known what they were -- me, of German stock, can only think, are they dumplings? But I helped my friend fold pierogi this year and she sent me home with some of them. She made her own dough and everything; we rolled it out using her new pasta maker. OH my! After they are boiled and fried, they were so good with just a little sour cream and salt and pepper. Yum.
Your cookies sound really good, Ellie. And artichoke dip! Love it! Yeah, it's funny how easy biscotti really is, and yet everyone thinks it's some amazing gourmet process. Okay, now my mouth is really watering. :)
We never had pierogis at our family dinners--I think they might have been too much work, and bread dumplings were easier and fit the carb category.
I do love them, though. Katie gave me a pierogi maker one Christmas (though I think it's just a stamp of sorts), and I'm terrible at making pasta dough. They ended up fairly leathery, unfortunately, so I never tried again.
Mama Ts (Mrs Ts?) is a good brand for store-bought. A friend introduced me to this delicious dinner: boiled/fried pierogis topped with sauteed onions and peppers, salsa, and cottage cheese. YUM!! (I was skeptical about the cottage cheese, but it's perfect)
Cookies! It isn't christmas without cookies! The ones that always make me think of christmas are Cinnamon Jumbles. Mom used to make them at christmas for santa and spritz cookies. But the soft chewy cinnamon jumbles are always christmas to me!
This year the kids and I baked cookies, like 5 different kinds. They had fun eating, breaking, eating and icing sugar cookies. And yes I did mean to put eating in twice. I swear they broke the cookies on purpose just so they could eat them.
Apricot florentines. Oh, yum. They sound so good...I want some. I´ve been trying to make some of the things I remember, but I haven´t had that much success with anything except pumpkin bread, which was a big hit with the neighbors. Tthey make the most terrible dry cakes here. But the traditional food at christmas are these fried donut things with syrup made from the juice of a cactus. They are pretty good, and tonight is a mass for the pase niño, so we will all get to eat them afterwards. Really, the most important thing for christmas or any holiday is roast guinea pig. It´s not actually that bad, but I wouldn´t order it off a menu. Also; i must share that i recently won a large homemade cheese at a bingo. although I was not that excited about it, everyone else was, and I was easily able to sell it.
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