Holiday food

Proco, I really like this thread idea. Although, I'm a little hungry now.

Here's my holiday food story:

For the past 10 years or so, my family has been invited to join family friends for their Christmas Eve dinner and the even bigger Christmas night dinner.

On Christmas Eve, the host prepares a punch that he has named "Cecil's Christmas Cheer". After a couple glasses, you are definitely cheerful. If Cecil likes you (as he does me and my father), he adds a shot or two of bourbon, on top of the alcohol already mixed in. It's quite a nice way to spend the night waiting for Santa.
(My father is on call this Christmas Eve, so he won't be able to have any Cheer. I guess I'll be drinking for two! I will not be driving...)

On Christmas night, there is enough food to feed everyone here on PC. The dessert table is about the size of a ping pong table, if that gives you any idea how much food is actually there.

Needless to say, after these two events (plus a large lunch with my family on Christmas day), the added weight in my gut will hurt my milage. I'm looking forward to it!

 

Country ham! Not those store-bought ones that just taste like ham with lots of salt either. You had to find a farmer who killed and smoked their own country hams (probably wouldn't meet USDA regs). This was my father's quest. Then, every Christmas Eve when the ham was servedthe comparisons would begin...
Better than last year, but not quite as good as the one of '66.

REAL country ham (not to be confused with the crap you get at Cracker Barrel) was a true delicacy. Aged three years, it arrived with a layer of green mold. Many a country ham neophyte threw them out because of this. But once they were scrubbed, boiled for hours, and baked to perfection, there was nothing like it!


Peace --

 

Don't laugh - Claxton Fruit Cake

My grandparents lived in Savannah, GA when I was growing up & would send us Claxton fruit cake for Crhistmas. I know evryone thinks they hate fruitcake, but they haven't tried Claxton's!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Proco @ Dec 14 2006, 08:06 AM) [snapback]362158[/snapback]</div>

I understand about the Dutch and food, my maternal grand parents immigrated from Holland. Everyone who came to our house was encouraged to stuff themselves and take some home with them.

Most of our holiday meals were what I would consider traditional American food. Usually turkey, sometimes goose or duck, dressing, potatoes, gravy (made with dripings from the bird), sweet potatoes (not yams) without marsh mellow stuff on them, whole berry cranberry sauce made from fresh cranberries (not canned), and of course vegetables, rolls, etc. For deserts there might be pumpkin pie, or a pie like pumpkin made from winter squash, with whipped cream.

Being rural people a lot of the stuff we grew ourselves. Usually the turkey (or other bird), all of the potatoes and other vegetables, cream for whipped cream and butter, came from home.

How could we eat like that and not get fat? Well we didn't always eat that good. Also we didn't have television sets or computers and when you grow a lot of your own food, chop your own fire wood, plus work at a real job it takes some effort. No exercise program needed.

 

As atheist Jews, we ate nothing out of the ordinary for the Holidays. We ate good food all year long, and didn't need an excuse to have a special meal if we felt like it. Family gatherings were whenever someone in the family felt like calling a gathering, and the meals on those occasions were special, but never linked a particular food to a particular date.

I feel sorry for someone who has to wait for December 25 to roll around to eat their favorite food.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tumbleweed @ Dec 14 2006, 09:08 AM) [snapback]362198[/snapback]</div>

On the Trobriand Islands, yams are the measure of a man's wealth. Important men have a yam hut in front of their house in which they display their yams. Kind of like parking a Rolls Royce in your driveway to show how rich you are. Men have two yam gardens: one they eat from, and one from which they give yams to other people. And it is only the yams you receive as gifts that are elligible to be displayed in your yam hut. The head man has the biggest yam hut and must cultivate the favor of friends and family so that they will give him yams, as his prestige depends on having the most yams in his yam hut. These in turn are given to commoners (who may eat them) in order to garner popular political support, because the head man owes his position to continued popular support. Head men in tribal societies (in contrast with chiefdoms) do not inherit their authority. They must earn it, and can be replaced at any time.

The Trobriand Islanders also have contests, especially between villages, to see who can grow the biggest yams. These are enormous, inedible things many feet long. It adds to a village's prestige to win the yam contest, and it adds to the prestige of the man who grew the winning yam. A head man may pay people to grow a big yam for him for the contest.

I don't like yams. Or sweet potatos. Baked winter squash is good, though.

 

Geez...daniel's cynicism coming out again. If you have "special" food you love every week, then it's nothing special, is it?

For us, it's all about the sweets. I make peanut butter balls covered in almond extract-kissed chocolate. I also make "preacher" cookies (also called "no-bake" cookies by those from outside of Appalachia). We make fudge (with peanut butter, of couse), and luscious creme-de-menthe squares (of course, made with dark chocolate...mmmm).

Now this is for the weeks leading up to Christmas. For New Year's, we have the traditional black-eyed peas and oyster stew.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(livelychick @ Dec 14 2006, 10:13 AM) [snapback]362256[/snapback]</div>

ya, maybe. but just an opinion is all. but that is the beauty of an open forum, i learned something about yams i did not know. that is a good thing. voicing a personal opinion on you feel about the thread topic is a good thing. personal attacks, well... you decide on that. now if you want my opinion, i say fudge... any flavor or variation will do fine.

 

My wife or someone in her family usually makes a gooey butter cake around Christmas time. It's really good, but definitely bad for you, so not something to have all that often. Occasionally, one will be made for another special occasion, so it's not a December exclusive, but still.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Dec 14 2006, 02:42 PM) [snapback]362222[/snapback]</div>

Hey Daniel, you do know that eathing pretty much anything other than varying forms of simple bread and water is wasteful and supports the vast food consumption infrastructure.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised someone of your nature would actually consume anything other, and in very limited quantities at that!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(livelychick @ Dec 14 2006, 10:13 AM) [snapback]362256[/snapback]</div>

Guilty as charged. I am cynical. But I still see no point in waiting for December 25 to eat the food you like... except of course if your prefered foods are so fattening that you need an excuse not to eat them the other 364 days of the year.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Dec 14 2006, 11:10 AM) [snapback]362307[/snapback]</div>

On the contrary, bread is a processed food, so it's much better for the environment to eat spaghetti, which is in the image of the FSM and therefore doesn't matter that it's processed. And water is a scarce and non-renewable resource, so it's much more responsible to drink beer.

For the rest, all veggies and fruits are sustainable food sources. So a socially-responsible meal is pasta primavera with beer; and for dessert, fresh pineapples ripened on the plant and flown in the same day from Hawai'i or Costa Rica.

 

Has to be Butterzueg cookies. We only make them at Christmas. I'm not kidding about the lard. We tried Crisco one year and they were literally so hard even the dog wouldn't eat them.

Butterzueg

Cinnamon-Butter Cookies

Bake: 350 degrees for 12 min.



1 lb. Lard*

1/8 lb. Butter

6 cups Flour

2 tsp. Cinnamon

Rind of one lemon, grated

2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

Sift together dry ingredients. Cream fat and sugar, add eggs, then flour mixture. If dough won't hold together, use a few drops of whiskey. Roll out and cut out shapes. Place cookies on ungreased sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Bake 12 min. at 350 degrees.



*Warning: DO NOT SUBSTITUTE ANYTHING ELSE FOR LARD. You'll end up with hockey pucks. Trust me. I speak from experience.

 

Traditional Christmas food: Going out to Chinese restaurant because they're the only ones that are open. In the restaurant, you definitely have a minyan.

 

My favorite Christmas food--fresh pomegranites. You can only get them in stores around here around Thanksgiving-Christmas. For homemade sweets it's Peanut Butter Bon Bons, my grandmother's recipe. My niece and I take a day and dozens of them, pack them up in pretty Christmas tins and boxes and share them with friends and family.