FOOD Holiday Meals

[ibetiny]

Lots of doom and gloom out there lately (what did I expect here at doom central anyways?) Does anyone have some holiday recepies or traditions they would like to share? Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or any others.
For Thanksgiving we usually make the "good" mashed potatoes. We put butter, garlic powder, and cream cheese then use heavy whipping cream to wet to taste.
Christmas morning we usually do cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. We cook the toast in the oven for about 3 or 4 min then flip, butter then another 3 or 4 min. It's slightly gooey when we put the cinnamon on.
When I was growing up my family made homemade eggnog then used southern comfort to spice it up a little. Ashamed to say the Southern Comfort brand eggnog us a little better than I remember from then. Hahaha, easier on us to.
Nothing much in this post, just a little misdirect looking toward happier times. If anyone has any recepies they would like to share I might try one or two.

 

[mzkitty]

Hmmm, well, my mother used to make pumpkin chiffon pie. Basically your regular recipe, but you whip the egg whites until somewhat stiff and fold in to the rest of the wet ingredients. It really puffs up, so watch it.

 

[Chicory]

Great thread! Need less doom and gloom, for sure... and I love to hear about what other people do for the holidays.
I'm sharing our Cranberry Cake recipe, we love making this at Christmas.
Cranberry Cake
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter or margarine (softened)
1 t. vanilla or almond extract
2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries
2/3 c. chopped pecans
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add butter and extract, beat 2 minutes. Stir in flour until just combined. Stir in cranberries and pecans.
Spread in a greased 13x9x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
*I use almond extract, no nuts and we eat it warm with fresh made whipped cream. I also bake in a pyrex pan, seems to do better than metal.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Thanksgiving is traditional American: Turkey, Ham, every vegetable imaginable, homemade cornbread stuffing, chess pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade gravy from the giblets, and deviled eggs (what we call dressed eggs where I come from).

Christmas Eve is Cuban - pork marinated for a couple of days in Naranja Agria and Mojo, yellow rice, black beans, homemade garbanzo bean soup (aka Spanish Bean Soup) with Cuban crackers, fresh Cuban bread, Scachatta from Alessi bakery, ensalada de media noche or homemade fruit salad done my mother's way, guava paste, and my sister in law usually brings a dessert that is Canadian (from her side of the family).

 

[mzkitty]

Great thread! Need less doom and gloom, for sure... and I love to hear about what other people do for the holidays.
I'm sharing our Cranberry Cake recipe, we love making this at Christmas.
Cranberry Cake
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter or margarine (softened)
1 t. vanilla or almond extract
2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries
2/3 c. chopped pecans
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add butter and extract, beat 2 minutes. Stir in flour until just combined. Stir in cranberries and pecans.
Spread in a greased 13x9x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
*I use almond extract, no nuts and we eat it warm with fresh made whipped cream. I also bake in a pyrex pan, seems to do better than metal.

Wow, thanks, Chicory. I'm making this.

Yum.

 

[Seeker]

Great thread! Need less doom and gloom, for sure... and I love to hear about what other people do for the holidays.
I'm sharing our Cranberry Cake recipe, we love making this at Christmas.
Cranberry Cake
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter or margarine (softened)
1 t. vanilla or almond extract
2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries
2/3 c. chopped pecans
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add butter and extract, beat 2 minutes. Stir in flour until just combined. Stir in cranberries and pecans.
Spread in a greased 13x9x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
*I use almond extract, no nuts and we eat it warm with fresh made whipped cream. I also bake in a pyrex pan, seems to do better than metal.

Qquestion? Do you slice/dice/chop the nuts and cranberries?

 

[Chicory]

Qquestion? Do you slice/dice/chop the nuts and cranberries?

Chop the nuts, leave cranberries whole.

 

[Redcat]

We have the usual fare at Thanksgiving. I always make stuffing with onion, celery and bells seasoning to bring. Kiddo makes a mean chocolate peanut butter pie with a graham cracker crust, pb filling, fudge topping and whip cream.

Christmas Eve is lasagna with beef and sausage in it. A salad and pie, usually pumpkin.

I make Christmas Day dinner, ham (not spiral, I don't like them), cheesy au gratin potatoes, corn or carrots and grands biscuits. Normally I make brownies for dessert.

 

[WiWatcher]

Three out of the last four years we have based Xmas meals on ancestries of the our families (the one skipped year there was too much going on). Have not figured out the upcoming one yet. For Tday we have been doing duck for quite a few years, it was decided turkey was to clique.

 

[Terrwyn]

Don't have time to put up recipe but the only tradition I still make is Poor Man's Fruitcake. I think my Grandma used lard but I boil crisco, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves and sugar let cool and fold in dry ingredients. Makes a really tasty spice cake.

 

[Terrwyn]

Forgot the walnuts or pecans.

 

[SusieSunshine]

Don't have time to put up recipe but the only tradition I still make is Poor Man's Fruitcake. I think my Grandma used lard but I boil crisco, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves and sugar let cool and fold in dry ingredients. Makes a really tasty spice cake.

I'd love to have that recipe when you have time!

 

[Jeff B.]

About 25 years ago, we were living in Columbia, SC and obviously, our kids were truly children. My wife had the flu and was deathly ill… She was not going to be making dinner let alone get out of bed!

The kids asked me what we were having for dinner (Christmas Eve)? I really had no idea. So, said “let’s go the grocery store”! A new Piggly-Wiggly had opened outside of the community we lived in. We got there and started going through the store, by the time we were done, we’d picked up a beef rib roast (prime rib), some baked potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and some cheese and sour cream.

Our dinner that evening was the Prime Rib Roast, twice baked potatoes and broccoli, cauliflower with julienned carrots for color and a bit of taste with a cheese sauce on the side.

This has become our Christmas Eve tradition, due to my wife being ill and the kids and I scrambling for dinner. Funny how traditions start!

Jeff B.

 

[adgal]

My kids LOVE corn pudding as a side during the holidays. It's easy and delicious. And it goes well with either ham or turkey - or both.

Combine:

1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

1 can of cream corn

1 stick of butter (melted)

1 C sour cream

1 box of cornbread mix (Mary used Jiffy Corn Bread Mix)


Pour into a greased pan or casserole dish (a cast iron skillet gives it a wonderful crust) and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes.

It’s so easy – but so delicious. And, if you want to get creative, you can add shredded cheese for richness, chopped jalapeno peppers if you’re serving it with chili, or bacon bits because, well, it’s bacon.

 

[Gold Dust]

For Thanksgiving my son makes the turkey in the crockpot and I handle all the rest. We have Carrot Ring, Bread Stuffing, Stuffed Cranberry Sauce, Corn Pudding and Potatoes and Rutabaga. We get a variety of pies from some Country ladies during a fall festival...I don't know which one I will pull out of the freezer. I make Quiche Lorraine for Christmas Breakfast and my son will be making Beef Burgundy for dinner. I haven't decided on any sides or dessert yet. I think I will make that Cranberry Cake for dessert.

 

[Fenwick Babbitt]

Lots of doom and gloom out there lately (what did I expect here at doom central anyways?) Does anyone have some holiday recepies or traditions they would like to share? Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or any others.
For Thanksgiving we usually make the "good" mashed potatoes. We put butter, garlic powder, and cream cheese then use heavy whipping cream to wet to taste.
Christmas morning we usually do cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. We cook the toast in the oven for about 3 or 4 min then flip, butter then another 3 or 4 min. It's slightly gooey when we put the cinnamon on.
When I was growing up my family made homemade eggnog then used southern comfort to spice it up a little. Ashamed to say the Southern Comfort brand eggnog us a little better than I remember from then. Hahaha, easier on us to.
Nothing much in this post, just a little misdirect looking toward happier times. If anyone has any recepies they would like to share I might try one or two.

Growing up my folks owned some fairly nice restaurants, I got a tip regarding mashed potatoes from one of the cooks and it is the perfect addition.

Horseradish, the kind you buy in a store in the jar, depending on the pot size for the potatoes you can add anywhere from half a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half, doesn't overwhelm but add's a nice unique flavor/bite to the potatoes.

 

[oops]

Our family meals for the holidays is...uhm...different...than most... we have done a huntin encampment every yr for the past 20ish yrs for thxgvg (yep the canvas lodge tents with flies)...everything done on a woodstove...smoker grill...or open pitt... most of the traditional meal items...but add in scalloped taters (100 yr old family recipe)...n tater candy...n whatever else the boys dream up...as for numbers...usually 15 of us minimum... n the max was 52 a few yrs ago...lol...a lot of groanin n whinin about tummy later that night...but most said they would not attempted a holiday meal using the pitt, grill, n woodstove...but it honestly isnt that hard...hardest part is about 10 minutes before the meal...all hands on deck to get everything to the table n everyone seated n ready to eat at the same time...lol

 

[ShadowMan]

Going to try something totally different. Going "old school" with duck breasts and some recipes from the foundation of our country. Late 1700's Colonial period. Haven't sort it all yet.

 

[WiWatcher]

ShadowMan, I see a visit to Townsend's on youtube for historic cooking ideas in your future.

 

[Kathy in FL]

My kids LOVE corn pudding as a side during the holidays. It's easy and delicious. And it goes well with either ham or turkey - or both.

Combine:

1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

1 can of cream corn

1 stick of butter (melted)

1 C sour cream

1 box of cornbread mix (Mary used Jiffy Corn Bread Mix)


Pour into a greased pan or casserole dish (a cast iron skillet gives it a wonderful crust) and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes.

It’s so easy – but so delicious. And, if you want to get creative, you can add shredded cheese for richness, chopped jalapeno peppers if you’re serving it with chili, or bacon bits because, well, it’s bacon.

Yum! Yum!

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

The Barry family’s favorite family Christmas tradition is to pick another family - often times folks we don’t actually know - and then bring them a gift, anonymously, each night for the 12 nights preceeding Christmas.

We (or I, if my wife is too sick nowadays) dress in all black and wear a black ski mask to blend into the night.

The gift is usually simple, except for the last night, and is accompanied by an inspirational story or poem. Like the story about the little boy in a drought who sneaks a mother deer and her baby water (he feels he must sneak the water to them because his mother has lectured him so many times on not wasting water when there is so little of it to begin with). It is a short, beautiful, very inspirational story, and the gift that night (beautifully wrapped, I might add) is a simple bottle of water.

What ever the gift, it matches the story in some way.

Only the last night is the gift something that you would actually think of as a Christmas gift, and it comes with the traditional Christmas story from the Gospel according to Luke.

Sometimes, as it gets closer to Christmas, it gets to be quite a challenge to drop the gift off without getting caught, as some folks will actually wait outside, or in their heated garage or something, to thank us.

But to date, I have only gotten caught one time, and I pretended not to speak English when it happened. I had a black ski mask on, so they still didn’t know who I was.

The last few years, we have found our “victims” sitting in the chemo lounge at my wife’s cancer clinic.

 

[Babs]

So for the holidays, my kids (now grown) always ask me to make biscuits and coco gravy for breakfast. If you're from the south, then you already likely know what this is.

 

[dawgofwar10]

Evan Williams Egg Nog is the best, I started a tradition in 1982 by bringing home a prime rib for my Dad to cook, though my Dad is gone, that tradition keeps going on. Love turkey, but not that close together..

 

[Blacknarwhal]

Thanksgiving is fairly normal. Though these days it's a bit scaled down from what it was. Me being unmarried and childless at 42 has not allowed the family to recover its former ranks of six or more, so some adjustments were called for.

Thanksgiving usually consists of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry relish, a kind of creamed corn casserole sort of affair, rolls, and a slew of desserts. (edit: One of the recent adjustments has seen us go from a complete turkey to a packaged turkey breast. For a family of four, it works reasonably well, and it's pretty tasty.) Thanksgiving means cookie bars as well, made to the original Toll House recipe. My mother, with something of a rueful smile, has consigned herself to making them at both Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July because she knows I'm fond of them and have been since I was a boy of six. Offers to bring any sort of food to supplement mom's menu are generally and somewhat harshly rebuffed.

Christmas is a bit different. Formerly, we had goose every year, but the passing of both my grandpa and grandma has left mom and dad in charge of Christmas. Mom and dad, frankly, are tired of that irascible old yard bird that to me has tasted vaguely like roast beef for years. Therefore we have switched to ham. The other dishes are about the same as Thanksgiving. There are no cookie bars here, however, as for Christmas, mom follows the old methods as practiced by her, my aunt, and grandma every year for decades: a huge cookie baking session. Chocolate chip and peanut butter rosette is the order of the day, complete with a big Hershey's kiss in the middle.

Just after Christmas, there is one last bake to be done: strudel. Every year for Christmas my grandma made strudel--the peasant kind that looks like a loaf of bread, not the fancy kind that looks like a piece of cake--and only just a few years before her passing taught the recipe to my mom and aunt. My aunt is a general failure about it, but my mother is every bit the match for my grandmother (though grandma would never publicly admit to such blasphemy, and may well haunt me for this statement. ). Strudel was originally designed as a dessert, though it's best used as the greatest breakfast food man has ever created.

Imagine a crescent-moon loaf of bread, stuffed with a swirl of a paste that features walnuts, raisins, port wine and assorted spices. A slice of that in the morning with a glass of milk will keep most running well into the afternoon.

For a holiday meal, they're generally simple meals. Some people eat like that through the week, I'm told. But there's always plenty of food--some would say too much as there are generally leftovers for days--and that's good enough for us.

 

[Terrwyn]

Poor Man's Fruitcake

1 Cup of sugar
1 Cup water
1& 1/2 Cup of raisins
1/2 Cup shortening
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1&1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Boil together for 3 minutes. Let stand until cool. I cool it in cold water because I'm impatient. And I put the lid on pan
It stays more moist that way. The old recipes were a little lacking in details.

Add:
2 Cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 scant tsp soda
1/2 Cup walnuts or pecans
Dough is fairly thick so I spread evenly in pan


Use a 9 inch cake pan
Bake at 325 for about 45 mins.

 

[Terrwyn]

Grease the pan. I knew I'd forget something.

 

[Deanne]

I make what I call a drunk cake or friendship cake. It starts off with a starter, then you keep adding fruit to it for 30 days. Its really good, and so it the juice that is left over!

 

[SusieSunshine]

Poor Man's Fruitcake

1 Cup of sugar
1 Cup water
1& 1/2 Cup of raisins
1/2 Cup shortening
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1&1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Boil together for 3 minutes. Let stand until cool. I cool it in cold water because I'm impatient. And I put the lid on pan
It stays more moist that way. The old recipes were a little lacking in details.

Add:
2 Cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 scant tsp soda
1/2 Cup walnuts or pecans
Dough is fairly thick so I spread evenly in pan


Use a 9 inch cake pan
Bake at 325 for about 45 mins.

Thank You!

 

[Lei]

We have traditions but due to age and shortages we are abbreviating Christmas dinner. I'll make pumpkin pie the day before and Christmas Day I'll make The Farming Preachers Wife's "Crockpot Summertime Thanksgiving in a Bowl" YouTube recipe. I may use turkey breasts or if I can't find them chicken breasts. Add on a vegetable side dish and some cranberry relish . Maybe make an old jello recipe. Lime jello , cream cheese, crushed pineapple and a little grated carrot. That's plenty for the 3 of us.

 

[Terrwyn]

We have traditions but due to age and shortages we are abbreviating Christmas dinner. I'll make pumpkin pie the day before and Christmas Day I'll make The Farming Preachers Wife's "Crockpot Summertime Thanksgiving in a Bowl" YouTube recipe. I may use turkey breasts or if I can't find them chicken breasts. Add on a vegetable side dish and some cranberry relish . Maybe make an old jello recipe. Lime jello , cream cheese, crushed pineapple and a little grated carrot. That's plenty for the 3 of us.

I love your jello recipe. I make mine with lemon jello, pineapple and grated carrot.

 

[Signwatcher]

Bought a 20 lb Butterball turkey at Aldis today. It was $1.39/lb. Wished I could have gotten it on sale, but they didn't have very many (less than 10) and I struck while the iron was hot. Hopefully the freezer will have power...if it goes out before Thanksgiving, we'll have to make a spicket over a fire and have an early holiday meal.

 

[John Deere Girl]

For Thanksgiving I make turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs,stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and apple pie.

Christmas is much the same, with an additional assortment of desserts.

Christmas Eve is my absolute favorite though! We have a charcuterie board with so many different cheeses, meats, fruits, and veggies, and of course, lots of desserts.

 

[mom2many]

Thanksgiving and Christmas vary for us from year to year. When the kids lived at home and we homeschooled we would pick 1 country every year to study and would base Christmas on that, Thanksgiving was turkey and fixings.

Now that the girls are married we do Christmas on New Year's Day and it's always pork and beef, black eyed pea based dip and chips, veggie tray with ranch, scalloped potatoes, greens, cornbread, grape salad, broccoli and cauliflower salad, Pink Stuff, and hubby will either make chocolate pie or New York style cheesecake. Plus we have leftover 'junk food' from New Year's Eve which consists of various sliders, Taco Dip and chips, bbq lil smokies, various quick breads and cookies.