Holiday Food Is the Best, Part Deux

So how was your Christmas holiday? Our family's was great. Hectic, but great. I had thought of doing a blog where I would post pictures and recipes of what we were going to have for Christmas dinner, but then I realized that would mean making two Christmas meals. And, quite frankly, my wallet wouldn't be able to afford that nor would my waistline appreciate it. So what was your dinner like? What did you have? Was it pretty traditional or did you cook "outside the box" and make something not normally associated with Christmas dinner?

Growing up my Christmas dinner was usually turkey, wild rice and sausage stuffing (which is pictured below in right corner of plate), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and cranberry sauce. Dessert was usually pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Here's a little bit of what we had for Christmas dinner.

My wife Sharon, who is from Northern Ireland had some of the same foods but also some different ones. Her Christmas dinner usually consisted of turkey, stuffing (hamburger and onion), macedoine (pictured above in left corner of plate) which is a mixture of chopped, boiled and buttered carrots and parsnips, roasties (par-boiled potato quarters that are deep fried), mashed potatoes with Bisto gravy and brussels sprouts. Dessert was usually sherry trifle and either apple tarts or apple crisp with Bird's custard over the top. Although we didn't have Apple Crisp for dessert this year, I made some just in case we decided to have it. I've never made it before but it turned out yummy. Here's what it looks like.

Then as our family began to have our own Christmas dinner, it became a melding (my wife doesn't think that is a word) or a blending (a better word?) of the two traditions. In fact, it was like the United nations coming together for a World Peace dinner (well not quite).

One of the other things I love about Christmas is making all the pre-dinner goodies (generally referred to as snacks). At the request of my daughter I made Chocolate chip cookies (I know they are not considered a "Christmas cookie", but when is there not a good time for them) and Snickerdoodles. I also made Eggnog, Peppermint Chocolate Chip Meringues and my Holiday Honey Crackle. I generally don't make them all for the holidays, but for some reason this year I decided to.

Holiday Honey Crackle is a MUST at Christmas time. My family salivates at the thought of it and get upset if I wait too long to make it. I believe the Holiday Honey Crackle recipe came from an old Los Angeles Times food article my mom clipped out of the newspaper one year. It only called for popcorn and peanuts. It was more of a homemade Cracker Jack than anything. I started adding a few other ingredients I thought would go well together (Cheerios, Rice Chex and Pretzel Sticks). Here is a picture of the finished product.

Here is the recipe.

I hope your Christmas day was filled with joy, love, peace, family and friends. I hope you savored the tastes of the season and realized how blessed we are to enjoy such a wonderful bounty of food.

I know that this was not the most holiday-ish post and that it is not filled with a lot of recipes. What the heck, this is only my third post and I haven't built up my repertoire of photos and recipes I want to post yet. You can (and should) make the Holiday Honey Crackle as it is a great New Years Day treat too.

My next post will be in the new year (can you believe it will be 2012 in just a couple of days?? Time is screaming by). And you know what that means? Super Bowl Sunday and then Baseball!! Woo Hoo!!

Enjoy your New Year's celebration. Be careful, enjoy your day of football saturation (it is my day just to sit in my recliner and gel in front of the TV) and of course have fun with your food. Why don't you share with me what kind of eats you will be having.

So until next year, I'll be in the kitchen!

Holiday Food is the Best!

Hello all...
I just woke up from my trytophan induced Thanksgiving coma. But guess what? The next tryptophan coma is coming in just a couple of week. Whoo Hoo! This is my favorite time of year for food as Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and all the snacks and goodies are the best.

I hope that your Thanksgiving was FFF-ing good. And I mean that with all sincerity...you know... Food, Family and Friends. Ours was spent in Chicago this year as we were honored to be present our son-in-law's graduation from Navy Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center as he prepares to enter the Naval Reserve. You can read about it on my daughter's blog. Here is the link to it (http://www.fiercebeagle.com/2011/11/best-day.html).

So on to my blog...
Nothing speaks to a "not-as-frigid-as-Chicago-and-not-as-warm-as-Miami" winter here in Winston-Salem as a mug of steaming Hot Chocolate and a plate of homemade Peppermint Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies.

As far as Hot Chocolate goes, I'm not a big fan of the off the shelf, store bought stuff (although in a pinch it would do if I double up on the powder and clip my nose so I can't smell it). I prefer something homemade. You know the stuff...melting your favorite chocolate in a saucepan with milk, half & half or heavy whipping cream. My friend Lynette also has a nice recipe. I'll give you both here.

And about meringues though...I love them. Seriously. I love them. I don't know exactly when I first I ate meringue, but it was totally awesome. It might've been on a Lemon Meringue pie or something. And there is nothing like the sweet and tarty lemon with the sweet and fluffy meringue.
But what really did it for me, was when I went to the UK for the first time. Many of the bakeries sell Meringue Cookies. But the best meringue of all is that in the totally awesome Pavlova which was a staple at most bakeries and was on the dessert menu at many restaurants. My wife's Aunt Tina (who lives in Northern Ireland) also makes a great Pavlova (shout out to you Tina) and whenever there was a special occasion or holiday, her Pavlova was always requested. So having eaten all types of meringues, I started making my own. I started with Meringue Cookies (just adding chocolate chips). I don't make them too often as I would end up living on them and as wonderful as that sounds...probably not a good thing nutritionally.

Around the holidays I start making a batch or two of them as well as some of our other family traditional stuff like Honey Crackle (avec and sans peanuts). That recipe will come soon. But back to the meringue cookies, here is the recipe I have always used.

Enjoy, and why don't you share with me your family holiday food traditions? So look for my next post soon and until then, I'll be in the kitchen.