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.