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Favorite Holiday Treat, Food, Dish...


LindsayAnn

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Okay gang, the holidays, in my opinion, bring so many tempting treats that I tend to be exposed to/indulge in more often than the "off" season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas...what is your 'special' treat?

Is this something you bake/cook yourself? Or do others (a special someone) make this temptation for you? Or - do you find yourself purchasing this from a restuarant/store?

On the flip side...are there any particular items that you find yourself exposed to around the holidays that you, errr...cannot stand? If so - what is it?

I think I am just getting super excited about the holidays...especially the special food they seem to bring!

personally, I love perpermint bark. I have yet to make this. My childhood friend (who just got married on October 14th, and I was a proud bridesmaid) mother used to make this treat. The first time I even tasted the bark was at Erin's house. I do enjoy it, very much so. Although, only around the holidays!

I also love the little peanut butter cookies with the chocolate hershey kiss in the middle, with the sugar sprinkled on the top of the cookie to give it a neat texture and glistening appearance. I do noy have a recipe for these although I am sure I could find one - I would love to bake some up for myself!

Other than those specialties I tend to indulge in eggnog (store bought, I have to confess), my mothers wonderful homeade stuffing at Thanksgiving and, and candy canes ( I strangely love the little devils....many flavors from the traditional peppermint to blueberry - this has to have something to do with childhood memories and comfort). I have a tendency to love foods that bring me back. Nothing like being a kid again...and again and again and again... ;)

Please, share yours...you might remind some of us of things that we have forgotten about. I, for one, would love to be reminded of old goodies...don't mind if I do! HAHA

Edited by LindsayAnn (log)

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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Forgot to mention my dislikes...

There aren't many (I am NOT picky at all), but I hate fruit cake. ICK. Luckily I do not find myself having to turn this down to often as my family tends to avoid this delicacy as well.

I also hate sweet potatoes when they are all mashed up with the other stuff...I do like them baked though...but I still prefer reg. mashed taters or a regular baked potatoe.

Other than those...put it in front of me and I am likely to eat it....all of it!

Edited by LindsayAnn (log)

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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Im a big fan of hog maw for christmas or new year's dinner. It's a pennsylvania dutch dish that consists of a pig's stomach stuffed with sausage, potatos, onions, cabbage, & various spices. It's then baked in the oven for a while and basted with it's own juices. Oh my god it is so good.

Also for new year's I like eating rice cake soup - Ddeok Gook. I think it's supposed to be eaten on chinese new year's day, but my family and I eat it on January 1st.

thats all I can think of for now

oh wait, my mom does a fabulous fresh cranberry sauce. She takes fresh cranberries (not from a can of course) and puts them into a food processer with: walnuts and a whole orange - peel included. Its almost like a relish, but is eaten as a side dish. It's uncooked and really fresh and tart.

BEARS, BEETS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
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My favourite is Christmas. I love all the tins of chocolates everybody has. Mince pies & mulled wine. Turkey, stuffing & cranberry sauce baps on Christmas night. Stilton carved out with a spoon. Smoked salmon on grannie's wheaton bread on Christmas morning.

What I don't like is Christmas cake (I hate marzipan).

Living in Puerto Rico I love all the morcilla that is around at Christmas and of course, coquitos.

I haven't really experienced a true American style Thanksgiving, more, Thanksgiving Cuban style, which is great. I have to say, and I don't know if this is the American influence or the Cuban but I really dislike the sweet potato thing with marshmallows on top.........shudder.... Also not a fan of pumpkin pie.

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i notice that alot of people don't like sweet potatos.

my dad eats ANYTHING (I am not kidding, he even had monkey and enjoyed it) and he really does not like sweet potatos.

I have never had them with the marshmallows, but if I did...it just seems kind of weird to me. I really enjoy the way my grandmother cooks them. She cuts them into large chunks and simmers then in kink corn syrup, butter, and maple syrup. I'm sure you think thats alot of "sweet things", but the sweet potatos don't come out sickingly sweet.

There was this great recipe in Bon Appetit (thanksgiving issue) from 2002 or 2003 for sweet potatos. The recipe involved roasting large pieces of sweet potato and then tossing them with a coriander and (I think) lemon infused butter. It was heavenly

BEARS, BEETS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
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I'm a big fan of the winter holidays and haven't come across too many holiday treats I don't like.

My very favorite treats, however, have to be these baked goods:

Stollen (homemade and filled with marzipan)

Basel Leckerli (one of these years, I'll get around to making them myself)

and

Bahlsen's chocolate-coated soft gingerbread cookies (which I haven't been able to replicate).

SuzySushi

"She sells shiso by the seashore."

My eGullet Foodblog: A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs

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My favorite thing of all is the cornbread dressing my mother makes at Thanksgiving. It's the same dressing her mother and her mother before her made. It is devine. It has just the perfect ratio of cornbread to biscuit, it is moist, and there are absolutely no extraneous ingredients to distract from the deliciousness of the dressing. It's just cornbread, biscuits, onion, celery, sage, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, butter, and copious amounts of chicken stock. It's my favorite, and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE on the freaking planet does a better dressing.

I also look forward all year to pecan pie, apple cake, my aunt's famous Sweet Potatoes With Pears, and giblet gravy.

-Sounds awfully rich!

-It is! That's why I serve it with ice cream to cut the sweetness!

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I'm a big fan of the winter holidays and haven't come across too many holiday treats I don't like.

My very favorite treats, however, have to be these baked goods:

Stollen (homemade and filled with marzipan)

Basel Leckerli (one of these years, I'll get around to making them myself)

and

Bahlsen's chocolate-coated soft gingerbread cookies (which I haven't been able to replicate).

I've been wanting to try Basel Leckerli after reading about these Swiss cookies--honey and spice but also kirsch and ground almonds! :smile:

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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I also love the little peanut butter cookies with the chocolate hershey kiss in the middle, with the sugar sprinkled on the top of the cookie to give it a neat texture and glistening appearance. I  do noy have a recipe for these although I am sure I could find one - I would love to bake some up for myself!

If you Google the Pillsbury site, I think you will find it. When I baked every year I always included these and they are really easy. Or Google Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms.

As to me, I think Pecan Pie, Pumpkin pie or Pumpkin Cheesecake are the best.

The one thing I don't consume is the nasty, nasty green bean casserole. Fortunately my family doesn't make it. I love sweet potatoes but not candied or marshmallowed. I think they're sweet enough on their own.

My family all agrees that gravy is a beverage. :biggrin: We always make lots of gravy. We're having T-day at my sister's this year but I'll bet I get gravy duty.

Edited by BarbaraY (log)
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Ah, the holidays, aka as the reason some of my winter clothes are a size larger than my summer clothes.

I love dressing made with cornbread and torn up white bread. It is divine, especially the corner pieces that have the crusty bits. I also love the "traditional casseroles: broccoli-rice-and cheese and green bean (yes, the one made with cream of muchroom soup). These casseroles don't show up much through the year, but are expected during the holidays.

I always looked forward to the smoked turkey my aunt would send each year. We would simply unbox it, slide it in the fridge and whack huge hunks off of it daily until it was gone. It never seemed to last long. It was second only to the spiral-cut, glazed ham in my book, and I'm not a huge meat eater.

As far as sweets-give me my pecan pie and leave me alone. No, not cookies, cakes or candies, just slice after slice of pecan pie.

Dislikes-cranberry sauce (although it was always the canned variety), the dreaded English pea that always showed up because my sister loves them and any kind of congealed salad (I like my salads to be of the greens variety). My dislike of congealed salad might cause some to doubt my Southerness.

Oh, I almost forgot, I love the huge batches of very spicy Chex Mix my mother makes every holiday season. It pairs perfectly with an ice cold Coca-Cola.

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. Epicetus

Amanda Newton

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Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday - yes, there's lots of food, but they're generally foods that are only ok to me. I don't hate them, they're just not my favorites. There is simply not enough chocolate involved in Thanksgiving meals.

With the exception of stuffing. I don't like turkey much (because it doesn't like me - let's just say things get odoriferous after several hours, 'nuff said), but I could eat stuffing all day. Real stuffing, baked inside the bird, not that "dressing" stuff that's all dry and crisp like toast. My favorite stuffing is the stuff Mom made - Pepperidge Farms Cubed Herb Seasoned stuffing, directions right off the bag. My roots are showing, I know.

Ok, an exception for turkey skin, too. But only a small exception because it has to be hot and crisp, snitched off the bird right after it comes out of the oven. More than 10 minutes later and it's rubbery goo that's not good for anything.

Thanksgiving is also full of foods I really, truly dislike: cranberry sauce (I love cranberries in many presentations, but jellied or ground sauce isn't one of them) and sweet potatoes (I dislike their texture in any form except tempura) and creamed onions and Mom's gawdawful fruit salad with raspberry sherbet on top.

Christmas....oh, I love Christmas foods. The one time of the year we'll splurge on a rib roast. I love rib roasts and I love cooking them but my budget hates them.

Christmas cookies. My favorites are Toffee Squares (from some previous edition of the Betty Crocker "Cooky Book") and Mrs. Worman's Butter Cookies. They're made with a cookie press and decorated with dragees and colored sugars and they have no nutritional value whatsoever. Mrs. Worman was a friend of my grandmother's, from whom she received a lot of recipes that are now family favorites. Mrs. Worman may be gone, but her cookies live on.

And fudge. I received what is, to me, the world's greatest fudge recipe from a friend I met via Usenet somewhere around 1986. It's part marshmallow, part boiled, and intensely chocolate. Whenever I bring a batch of the fudge somewhere I'm asked for the recipe, and unfortunately I can't give it out - when Rick gave it to me, I promised not to share it. If I ever find out where he is on the net I will ask for permission, but until then, I'm bound by my word.

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

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For Thanksgiving, all the casseroles - broccoli, green bean, cheese grits, my mother-in-law's whole ham that roasts overnight, the pies, oh, yes the pies. I've "catered" a dinner for my 2nd-shift coworkers the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and have discovered after 40 years that I LIKE cranberry sauce and cornbread dressing. Better late than never...

And for Christmas, peppernut cookies, rum balls, my Mom's Cathedral Window cookies, spiced cider...the family Christmas brunch...I'm getting hungry now...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“A favorite dish in Kansas is creamed corn on a stick.”

-Jeff Harms, actor, comedian.

>Enjoying every bite, because I don't know any better...

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I seem to be in the minority here, but my main holiday craving is Bourbon sweet potatoes with orange sauce. Sweet potatoes, orange juice, Bourbon, lots of butter, brown sugar, warm spices, and chopped walnuts. What's not to like? Make a moat of sweet potatoes and a lake of orange sauce, and eat enough to last until next holiday season. No marshmallows. Ever.

Mom made her holiday cranberries from scratch. They were tart, not too sweet, and had plenty of texture - a wholly different food from the gelatinous blob that comes from a can.

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I love fruitcake, adore it, it was my wedding cake -- yeah, I'm second generation Brit. My mother's already baked them, shrouded them with cheesecloth and Amontillado, nestled them into tins. When I go to Ottawa for Christmas it will appear on teatrays, next to the sausage rolls and shortbread. I love mincemeat tarts, with hard sauce melting on their tiny pastry caps. But, oh, the plum pudding, which Mummy prepares, in sickness (sadly, this year) and health on Stir Up Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent.

And sage stuffing, cooking in the Thanksgiving bird, not some Southern dressing in a casserole, although I love that too. My own cranberry chutney. Nonna's Nutty Crescents. Tourtiere. And sausage rolls.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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Hot, crackling strips of turkey skin eaten in my steamy kitchen with an cold glass of gewürztraminer.

Drinking hot chocolate and eating a large candy cane while sitting outside on a freezing day after Christmas.

I wish that my grandmother was still around to play blackjack with, drink bourbon and use the rest of the bottle to make bourbon balls. Those wonderful, boozy balls.

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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Oh, I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb. I will preface this by sayting that I am not a "sweet treat" person. For me, it's all about the brussels sprouts, roasted with bacon, in bacon fat. And, if there are leftovers, as I tuck the kids in, I'll reheat the leftovers, and top them with an over easy egg. And, if there are no leftovers, and it's all about the bacon with an egg or two (easy over, fried in bacon grease, naturally).

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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I don't like Thanksgiving, so I usually hide out at my shop for the day and provide coffee for people with nowhere to go and those looking for a brief respite from familial obligations.

I don't mind leftovers though, and a nice cold turkey sandwich, with MW and lots of fresh ground pepper, hits the spot late that night.

I don't care much for Christmas either, and follow the same procedure. I do enjoy making, giving, and eating cookies and candy though.

On Serbian Christmas, (the Orthodox Church uses the old calendar and Christmas falls on Jan 7th), I usually get together with my cousins from my Mother's side of the family. My Cousin Dr Mike hosts, and we have damn good food, and lots of it! An authentic apple strudel, made by somebody's one-of-the-last-surviving second generation Serbian-American Grandma's, (a patient of Dr Mikes and his Father's before him), is much anticipated and appreciated since one of these years it will be the last one. My Sister and some cousins make pretty fair strudels, and other ethnic dishes, but they lack that 100% authentic touch.

SB (kind of gloomy for a holiday post isn't it?) :unsure:

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I love my mom's homemade cranberry relish, but only in moderation. To be honest, there really aren't any foods that appeal to me much anymore around the holidays. But I think I really enjoy the sense of togetherness that I get when cooking with my parents. My dad is great when it comes to roasting the turkey and he is the only other person I know that appreciates the culinary arts. The day after Thanksgiving is the day that my mom and I go on a 14 hour Christmas cookie baking marathon. It has always been a way for me to bond with her and I missed it dearly when I was away in Germany. I have since developed my own cookie baking skills that have probably moved beyond the basic Nestle and Pillsbury baking books from the supermarket checkout line. However, there is something about baking the Russian Teacakes with Mom that is a lot more special than making sugar cookies by myself.

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oh wait, my mom does a fabulous fresh cranberry sauce.  She takes fresh cranberries (not from a can of course) and puts them into a food processer with: walnuts and a whole orange - peel included.  Its almost like a relish, but is eaten as a side dish.  It's uncooked and really fresh and tart.

SheenaGreena - this cranberry thing sounds fabulous.

Could you share the recipe (how much cranberry and walnuts

for 1 orange? and though the orange peel is included,

does one extract the seeds first? etc.)

Thanks

Milagai

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Bahlsen's chocolate-coated soft gingerbread cookies (which I haven't been able to replicate).

Do you mean Lebenkuchen? Love them. My favourites aren't the chocolate covered ones, though - the hazelnut stars with white icing do it for me. Oh yum.

Our christmas eve dinner is the highlight for me - roast ham, mashed potatoes and red cabbage. With cumberland sauce.

My mother is a god of the kitchen on Christmas eve.

(We do german-style christmas, when christmas eve is the high point... tree with real candles, gift-giving late at night, midnight mass for some...)

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Bahlsen's chocolate-coated soft gingerbread cookies (which I haven't been able to replicate).

Do you mean Lebenkuchen? Love them. My favourites aren't the chocolate covered ones, though - the hazelnut stars with white icing do it for me. Oh yum.

Our christmas eve dinner is the highlight for me - roast ham, mashed potatoes and red cabbage. With cumberland sauce.

My mother is a god of the kitchen on Christmas eve.

(We do german-style christmas, when christmas eve is the high point... tree with real candles, gift-giving late at night, midnight mass for some...)

and edible candies and cookies on the tree?

We celebrate the same way via our Austrian background and have lit candles on the tree as well. Our traditional Christmas Eve meal is platters of excellent coldcuts and cheeses from the German butcher--different salamis and ham including Westphalian, Tiroler Speck, smoked liverwurst, headcheese, Kasslerripchen, Emmentaler cheese. Also pickles, pickled mushrooms, stuffed eggs with anchovies (which are very Austrian), herring in cream sauce and not, potato salads (with and without mayo and with bacon), good rolls and rye bread, etc.

Dessert is coffee, "mit Schlag" and cookies from a platter of 12-14 different cookies, mainly Austrian ones. (These make an appearance starting on Christmas Eve and continuing through Three Kings Day for desserts, breakfast (especially the Nuessenkipferl), guests dropping in to visit and see the tree, etc.

Vanillekipferl ("vanilla crescents", ground walnut butter cookies drenched in vanilla powdered sugar),

Florentiner, (Florentines--slivered almond tile cookies with candied orange peel and iced with dark chocolate)

Nuessenkipferl (small crescent pastries filled with ground walnuts flavored with rum and lemon),

Zimmsterne (iced cinamon-hazelnut stars),

Marizpan cookies,

Witwenkuesse ('Widow's kisses', meringues flavored with grated dark chocolate)

Ischler Toertchen (ground almond cookies sandwiched wth currant jam and glazed in dark chocolate),

Nuess Stangerl ("Nut sticks", ground walnut filling on shortbread iced with a lemon meringue icing)

Aniskrapferl (Anise tiles),

Husarenkrapferl (almond thumbprint cookies filled with apricot or currant jam).

or

Linzeraugen ("Linzer 'eyes"; ground hazelnut dough rounds sandwiched with black currant or raspberry preserves)

Plain sugar cookies decorated with candied fruit, colored sugar or nuts.

Non-Austrian cookies that have been added "into the rotation": hazelnut biscotti and candied ginger-pistachio biscotti.

All the cookies are wonderful, but almost everyone's favorite is the Vanillekipferl.

Christmas Eve is definately my favorite holiday meal. I try to get home several days before Christmas so I can help my Mom with some of the cookies.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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Christmas dinner: steamed brussel sprouts (I love these, the rest of the family is a bit indifferent, so I get lots), parsnips, stuffing, lots of homemade cranberry sauce.

The highlight for me though is really mince pies, christmas cake, and christmas pudding (especially the hard sauce for the pudding - I will eat this straight out of its bowl given a chance). I love chriastmas cake (ie fruitcake) especially. Yum.

Cutting the lemon/the knife/leaves a little cathedral:/alcoves unguessed by the eye/that open acidulous glass/to the light; topazes/riding the droplets,/altars,/aromatic facades. - Ode to a Lemon, Pablo Neruda

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Eggnog... I buy egg nog the first time I see it in the stores, and keep buying it until I can't find it anymore. Not the canned nastiness either.

Yum... we add a glug of brandy and sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg as well. Just picturinig the taste and smell of that instantly invokes Christmas time. We have it the first time when decorating the tree a day or so before Christmas Eve.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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