| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - Dec 04 2006 : 06:47:10 AM
What?
I was thinking about this yesterday when my daughter called asking questions about her gingerbread cookie recipe. She's making a batch for her boys, and for her it just isn't Christmas without them.
Do you still bake Christmas cookies? To eat or give away, or both? Do you have traditional recipes you love to continue to make, year after year? How about pies, or Christmas dinner? |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ponyexpress |
Posted - Dec 14 2006 : 9:36:45 PM
Heard this story about continuing traditions and thought I would pass it along:
A young mom was preparing a ham to be baked for Christmas dinner. She cut off 3 inches of the ham, just has her mom had always done...but began to wonder why this was done. Did it improve the flavor? Did it make it easier to carve?? She called her mom to ask.
Mom replied that she didn't know why, but that was the way HER mother had taught her. So, they called grandma. "Why do we cut 3 inches off the ham before baking?" Grandma, replied that if she didn't, it wouldn't fit into her pan! ;-)
Traditions...you gotta love 'em!
Sandy in Missouri |
| Celticheart |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 9:32:06 PM
Sugar cookies and gingerbread people to decorate with the kids. Sour cream twists and mimosa on Christmas morning and Mildred's divinity....I can't make candy to save my soul.
I just made bourbon balls this weekend. Love those things!
"I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidence of the determination to live." Vita Sackville-West
|
| CutiePatootieFarmgirl |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 1:45:38 PM
If you want the bourbon ball recipe just let me know. |
| ByHzGrace |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 05:14:19 AM
what no fruit cake? Eggnog? sugarplums?
 bourbon balls and rum cake yummy! pass the plate this way!!!
definitely tangerines! Santa always uses the biggest ones to fill the toe of your stocking!
|
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 8:27:38 PM
For me, Spritz cookies, the old ornaments on the tree, the orange and candy canes in the stocking, the creche, cinnamon rolls in the morning, the kid's Christmas program at church, Christmas Eve midnight candlelight church service, and Christmas day dinner with the family.
For my husband it's making pierogies (his family likes sauerkraut ones), green jello, rum balls (called Christmas cookies), and talking about the year they gave my brother-in-law one of those tire planters in a TV box - and he thought it was a TV till they made him open it...
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| Libbie |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 8:14:37 PM
My mom's rum cake - it DOES tend to make one smell like a distillery, but it's SO tasty, and she only makes it at Christmastime. It also just isn't Christmas without a Christmas Eve present of new PJs for everyone and Johnny Mathis on the radio (CD player, now!) - and watching "A Child's Christmas in Wales" on video. I just love reading these from you all - it gives me so many wonderful ideas for traditions to start with my little boys...
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
| JenniferJuniper |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 08:14:50 AM
Warm snowballs with Hershey kisses in side, dusted in powdered sugar = Christmas on a plate.
Also (I can't spell this if my life depended on it) kolachkes, apricot-jam-filled butter cookies dusted with powdered sugar. YUM!
I'm going to try my hand at peppermint bark this week, it looks so pretty. |
| Marybeth |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 07:44:54 AM
We always make different types of cookies at Christmas time. Years ago a neighbor lady who had no children always invited my children in to make Spritz cookies and my daughter has carried on that tradition with her children. I am beginning (a little late, I guess what with floods, snow and power outages) to get that ole Christmas cookie spirit. I always make my favorite cookie. I make a choc. chip dough and instead of chips I add mixed candied fruit. Yummy!! And then I make a mince meat cookie Again I love em and nobody else does and we make Santa Hats. That's what we call them. They are peanut butter cookies rolled in sugar and just as you pull them out of the oven you add a candy kiss which sorta look like santa hats. Kids like them. I also see the pounds rolling on. Hmmmmm. MB
www.strawberryhillsfarm.blogspot.com
"Life may not be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well dance!" |
| Annab |
Posted - Dec 09 2006 : 4:21:07 PM
I agree it hits home especially about the jello caranberry salad that's one of those that's so easy, but I asked Mom for the recipe a few years ago anyway
someday I'll make it myself in her honor...until then, since she is a young and very active 62 I'll continue to enjoy hers
some years ago I did inherit my grnadmother's stand mixer talk about an honor that womant must have made well in excess of 2000 cookies in her time there was always a cookie in the jar when we'd visit and bags to go home w/ us or back to school w/ me when we'd stop by on the way back to college
I do have her knack for cookies and generally stock our freezer to capacity but w/ all these warm pretty days, I'd rather be outside
|
| Horseyrider |
Posted - Dec 09 2006 : 06:54:40 AM
Isn't it interesting how, when we make those traditional things like our mothers or grandmothers did, we feel like we bring them closer to us for awhile.
It's a small but sweet homage to the women who went before us. |
| Annab |
Posted - Dec 09 2006 : 03:31:23 AM
My mom makes the best cranberry jello salad
and of course, she makes bourbon balls and my deceased grandmother's christmas cookies w/ red and green sprinkles
And whenever we are all together (brother and his boys live in Jacksonville) we carry out the tradition of making a candy house Dad cheats and to save time uses cutout cardboard for the sides. It's fun to pick a side and get creative Dad also uses that merange icing mix I think it's just confecturner's sugar and water mixed on high speed but it hardens like glue we can get pretty silly w/ that stuff too
|
| FarmGirl~K |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 10:16:06 PM
thanks Diane for the recipe. I will have to try that. I will also have to try freezing the cabbage as I steam mine as well. Sure would make it easier to just put it in there than try to peel a layer off at a time when it gets soft enough from the steaming. Great idea!
Live! Laugh! Love! |
| vintagechica |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 2:24:17 PM
Clementines, my Grammer's cranberry salad, eating the candy off of the gingerbread house, and egg nog!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A sure way to avoid housework...live outdoors.
www.vintagechica.typepad.com |
| Beemoosie |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 11:11:14 AM
That sounds like a plan! Thank you Diane!
...she is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls.
Prov 31:10
www.beequilting.blogspot.com |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 10:08:28 AM
Bonnie - making mincemeat from scratch is something I have yet to attempt, mostly because we don't eat enough of it. It is quite a process I think, involving grinding suet and combining with apples, raisins, etc. So...I usually purchase a small container at Christmas and just make a few tarts for my Mom and to make it smell really good in here!
Di |
| KitchenWitch |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 10:08:07 AM
Christmas? I have to my mom's rice pudding with cherry sauce. It has chopped almonds in it, but every year we leave one almond whole. The guest that finds the almond in their bowl wins our almond prize, usually a large marzipan pig from Denmark. As a kid, I ate pounds of pudding just to get the almond, even though I didn't like the pudding. When I hit my 20's, I changed my reasoning--now I *LOVE* the rice pudding and could care less about the gift. Either way, I still eat pounds of it. =)
Live deliberately, simply, abundantly. Remind your neighbors how to thrive. |
| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 08:47:16 AM
Linzer stars, ginger crinkles, hot cocoa, gluhwein(sigh), and The Messiah on the stereo, Candlelight service Christmas Eve, and driving around to look at lights.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
|
| Beemoosie |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 06:21:13 AM
Thanks Kathy!
...she is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls.
Prov 31:10
www.beequilting.blogspot.com |
| bramble |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 05:46:36 AM
I posted the recipes separately in the Kitchen forum late last night. They should be easy to find somewhere near the top. Happy Baking girls!
with a happy heart |
| ktknits |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 05:27:47 AM
They sell those little mint melty candies with the white balls on them at Michaels in the wedding section all year round! They're pastel colors, but taste the same. |
| Beemoosie |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 05:12:10 AM
quote:
Originally posted by DaisyFarm
Nobody makes shortbread cookies?? You gotta have shortbread!! And mincemeat...even though I don't care for the taste of it much, the smell of it in the house so reminds me of my Gramma's at Christmas time. So I usually make a half dozen tarts or so as my Mom likes them. And buttertarts are a must. I also make thumbprints. Oh, and homemade cabbage rolls and perogies are a Christmas Eve tradition.
Bramble...I would love your recipe for linzer tarts.
Di
Diane, my grandmother used to make mincemeat pies, it's been 20years...do you have a recipe I could try? I don't know if I ever even tasted it as a kid, but it would be nice to make one and see if we like it now! I do remember the good smell.
...she is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls.
Prov 31:10
www.beequilting.blogspot.com |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 8:29:57 PM
Kelly - perogies around here are pretty basic. Filling is always potato & cottage cheese with a little bit of fried bacon & onion mixed in to flavor it up a bit. The following is the best dough recipe I've found yet for ease of working with it.
5 cups flour
7 tbsp oil
2 cups HOT water
You'll think the dough is just a mess, but let it sit for a bit before attempting to work with it and it's lovely. I just cut off small pieces and pull it into a sort of round shape. Put a small dollop of your filling in the dough, being careful not to let it touch the edges. Fold it over on itself and pinch-seal the perogy. Boil for about 5 minutes or until it floats. I usually put the perogies into a bowl as they're cooked and baste them with fried bacon/onion for flavor and to prevent them from sticking to each other.
Everyone has their own idea of a good cabbage roll, but I will pass on one thing I've learned to do. FREEZE the cabbage! I can't tell you how many cabbages I've steamed over the years to gently peel off the leaves. Somebody told me to freeze it and I will never, ever steam another!
Each summer I take three of my largest cabbages, bag them and pop them into the freezer now.
bramble - both those recipes sound great! Many thanks!
Di
|
| bramble |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 6:23:24 PM
I will dig it up for you tonight and post tomorrow, Diane! I make Almond Shortbread Stars and if you like, I'll give you that one too, they are my all time favorite. It took YEARS to get this recipe from a cousin who considers them her trademark. With good reason, they are GREAT and all the better the longer you have them!
with a happy heart |
| FarmGirl~K |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 6:19:48 PM
Diane.
My MIL always has pierogi's on Christmas Eve as well. I would like to learn how to make them since I can only find frozen ones. Her sister used to make them. They were always so good. Pierogi's, fish, & chicken were always the main part of their dinner. They swapped houses every year so one wouldnt get stuck doing it every time. I always felt bad for her sister because her B-day was the 24th as well. She loved doing it for her family. Do you have a recipe for them?
I love cabbage rolls too. I learned a lot of what I cook from my MIL. She always tries to incorporate things that are from her Polish heritage. Every Easter she get Placek, a Polish coffee cake... have you ever had it? Well we couldn't find get it here... not any bakeries like in NY, so I found a recipe. It is so good & I love to make it.
Live! Laugh! Love! |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 5:58:34 PM
Nobody makes shortbread cookies?? You gotta have shortbread!! And mincemeat...even though I don't care for the taste of it much, the smell of it in the house so reminds me of my Gramma's at Christmas time. So I usually make a half dozen tarts or so as my Mom likes them. And buttertarts are a must. I also make thumbprints. Oh, and homemade cabbage rolls and perogies are a Christmas Eve tradition.
Bramble...I would love your recipe for linzer tarts.
Di |
