Reminder family foods: our favorite holiday fareDate: 12/21/2021 The holidays are synonymous with many activities – spending time with family and friends, laughter, enjoying a delicious beverage – perhaps opening gifts. However, there’s one – rather large – aspect that our winter month holidays surround.
Food.
Prepare to unbutton your jeans and don your elastic-waist pants as members of our Reminder Publishing family share with our readers their favorite seasonal holiday foods, treats and the memories surrounding them. From delectable desserts to breakfast dishes, there’s always something to celebrate during the holiday season over a mouthwatering meal.
Molly Arnio, Graphic Designer
I come from a family that loves to bake. My mom has a collection of vintage tin lunchboxes of varying ages (from Roy Rogers to Care Bears) she’s collected from her own childhood through that of mine and my siblings.
Every Christmas we bake enough to fill each lunchbox. We eat, share and store them in the freezer until someone (usually my dad) finally finds the last one sometime between April and May. It’s possible we go a little overboard but in my family there’s no such thing as an unwelcome baked good.
Baking is also my favorite way to connect with the cultures of my family. Each Christmas, along with the mountains of cookies, we make German quark stollen from a recipe passed down by my mother’s grandmother and Finnish Pulla, from a recipe which I’m told was given the seal of approval by my dad’s cousins who once visited from Finland. We snack on them, eat them as dessert and enjoy them with coffee for pre-breakfast breakfast to hold us over through gift opening before real breakfast.
Sue Bartlett, Graphic Designer
This being the first Christmas without our mother, her recipes, scribbled on index cards, half in cursive half in chicken scratch, stained with ingredients from the years of making them and stuffed into a retro 50’s style recipe box, have become a treasure chest of memories. Although we usually make our family favorites every year (cinnamon twists and pecan balls), this year they will be bittersweet.
Matt Conway, Staff Writer
My absolute favorite Christmas staple is the mac and cheese recipe my girlfriend makes. Despite not liking mac and cheese in the first place, she luckily cooks a giant batch for me to devour over the holidays. The key differentiator in this recipe is the use of seasoned, finely sliced bread instead of breadcrumbs, as breadcrumbs often dry the dish out. A hearty blend of cheddar, American and Gruyere cheese makes the dish my seasonal favorite.
Lynn Daris, Staff Writer
My mother introduced our family to chocolate pudding cake during my childhood, and it quickly became one of the many desserts in her Christmas lineup. It ranked as my all-time favorite, and eventually, each Christmas, I started the habit of asking my mother, “Are you going to make chocolate pudding cake?” to make sure it made the cut every year.
The dessert is served warm and is the perfect combination of chocolate cake melded with a pudding-like soft texture that oozes out on all sides. My mother always made her own homemade whipped cream to put on top. It would melt into the gooey layers and become truly heaven. The not-too-sweet whipped cream also helps temper the super sweetness of the cake, making it easier for me to devour a whole serving.
Over the years, the “pudding cake” slowly disappeared as other recipes like the family’s new favorite – Kahlua cake – emerged and took over. I despise that cake – but majority rules.
G. Michael Dobbs, Executive Editor
This dish is so easy that I can share the recipe in this space. My great-grandmother – of German and Dutch heritage – apparently is the source but I’m sure it might go back further. My grandmother taught my mom. Simply whip some cream, adding sugar and vanilla to taste and then add whatever fruit you would like. It’s a fruit salad suspended in whipped cream. We only ate this treat at Christmas and Thanksgiving as a side dish with dinner. It’s lovely and simple and can be customized with the fruit you prefer.
Debbie Gardner, Editor
My grandmother on my dad’s side made the best fruitcake – one you actually wanted to eat! She would bake it in early fall, and then wrap it in brandy-soaked cheesecloth to “age” in the refrigerator (she called it the icebox) for the next few months, refreshing the brandy periodically. It was dense and candied fruit-laden, but also moist, delicious … and a bit potent. We all loved it.
I tried once to recreate that fruitcake using the instructions on her old, stained recipe card, but it wasn’t quite the same. That fruitcake, real plum pudding with homemade hard sauce – whatever that was – and the boxes of delicate, sugar-spun ribbon candy that were always on the table at Christmas dinner are the things I miss from my childhood.
Dennis Hackett, Staff Writer
One of my absolute favorite dishes from Christmas is the breakfast casserole my mom makes on Christmas morning. Loaded with eggs, sausage, cheese and tater tots, the casserole is a wonderful mix of different breakfast foods and is something I always looked forward to. When we were still sticking to our low carb diets, my mom would make a second casserole with just the breakfast meats and cheese without the tater tots while my brothers enjoyed the regular one. Paired with some type of cinnamon pastry each Christmas, breakfast was always something I looked forward to on Christmas.
Sarah Heinonen, Staff Writer
The one recipe that has the most meaning to me is nisu. Nisu, also called pulla, is a braided Finnish coffee bread. It takes seven hours to make and include letting the dough rise two times – prompting my mom to yell to us as kids, “Don’t run in the house, the nisu is rising!” It has the unique taste of cardamom spice and is glazed with melted sugar. Cutting a thick slice of a warm loaf and enjoying it with a little butter spread on it... that’s the food that means the holidays to me.
Donna Holden, Office Manager
My husband’s family is Polish, and they always had Polish food on Christmas Eve – my favorite being the pierogies. His grandmother would spend days ahead of time making homemade ones, and they were awesome! They all had different fillings.
Nancy Holloway, Account Manager
There is one wonderful dish that we serve every year now that makes my mouth water just thinking about it! We decided years ago with grown children who have 20 directions to go in on all the holidays to have Christmas brunch. That way, they can all be with us and then go on their merry ways to their other obligations. But the part of that meal – that rocks in my opinion – is the French toast casserole that my husband makes. It is French toast taken to a whole new level – and the best part? It makes the whole house smell absolutely fantastic when it’s cooking in the oven! Smother it in maple syrup, or even strawberries and whipped cream if you are feeling fancy. It’ll make a junkie out of you – no calories of course.
Lauren LeBel, Staff Writer
Every Christmas Eve, we host my extended family with a feast cooked by my mom. While I enjoy all her dishes, my favorite holiday recipe is “potato deluxe” – encompassing hash browns, onions, sour cream and cheese. Not only is it delicious when it’s taken fresh out of the oven, but to me, it’s even more enjoyable for the days following. As this signature dish has been passed down through generations, I look forward to my continuation of our family tradition.
Lisa Nolan, Account Manager
If you are Italian, you have seen, eaten, given or received a panettone. Panettone is a sweet bread usually with candied fruit in it. It was always on the table Christmas morning and as part – and to be honest I never really considered it a dessert. However, that is the Italian tradition.
So even if you’re not Italian give a panettone a chance. If I may suggest, cut a slice and have it toasted for breakfast and save the cannoli for dessert! Buon Natale!
Payton North, Managing Editor
My favorite holiday food is something that really doesn’t have to be a holiday food but is an item my family only makes around Christmas: Scotch scones. My grandfather on my mother’s side is Scottish, and Nanny Paton – my great grandmother – passed down the recipe for Scotch scones through the family. These aren’t your typical scones, though. They don’t resemble what Americans would think of as a scone, which are often sweetened, harder biscuit-like cakes. Scotch scones resemble a more bread-like texture but are dense. They’re made of buttermilk, flour and a handful of other ingredients. They must be hand-mixed – KitchenAid mixers are not allowed – and instead of being baked in the oven, they’re cooked over the stove on an iron skillet. I have so many memories eating Scotch scones on Christmas Eve … and then for breakfast on Christmas Day … and then for a snack after Christmas Day dinner … and then on the 26th … until they’re all gone.
Lorie Perry, Graphic Designer
At Christmas our family always has the traditional ham for dinner, but we also add a bit of Polish to the meal and have kielbasa and pierogies (cabbage and potato and cheese). Also, I usually bring the green bean casserole, but this year I am mixing it up and attempting to make sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top.
Andy Shaw, Account Manager
We usually do Grammy’s potatoes au gratin recipe – wicked good. Can’t go wrong with the layered russet potatoes, butter, fancy cheeses and heavy cream, right? Well, one year my family was coming out for Christmas dinner and I wanted to impress by making Grammy’s magical dish myself. I finished the prep work, placed it in the oven and looked forward to my golden brown masterpiece. After a few minutes the casserole dish shattered into a zillion pieces. I’m like – oh my god?! Not good. How does this happen to me when it’s my one time to contribute to the meal? (Sidenote – I do all the dishes.) So I clean up all the glass and schlep back to the store to get more heavy cream and cheeses to start over again – but nothing is open! When I got home I told some neighbors and they felt sorry for me and hooked me up. Then, my sister’s family got stuck in traffic on the ‘Pike and my redo was perfect. No shattering. Plenty for leftovers – and I still had to do all the dishes.
|
