Ok, We’re close to the holidays, but not too close to prevent experimenting with some holiday treats!!! I’m calling it a Holiday Treat Meme…and I’m tagging a bunch of you to share – Gia-Gina, American Girl in Italy, Re-boot, Whatever it Takes, Better than Ice Cream, Writing To Reach You, and Laurie, you can put it in the comments (you need your own blog!) Anyone else, feel free to participate, too, leave your answer in the comments or link to your blog!
But first, I want to spread the word about A Menu For Hope II. I’m not going to repeat everything that is thoroughly explained at Chez Pim, but I thought I’d pick out some highlights and tell you why I think it’s pretty cool.
- It’s helping a good cause…to support the victims of the devastating earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan, which I think has definitely been overlooked. They just had another earthquake recently.
- The list of prizes is really long, and cooking-oriented which is much better than a gift certificate to the dentist or a free dog wash.
- Every $5 gives you a chance to win. And, they will ship the prizes anywhere in the world!
- It’s REALLY EASY! Online Donations are handled by Just Giving, a 3rd-party organization.
Holiday Treat Meme
List 5+ Holiday treats (with significance and/or origin, if applicable), 1 Recent Favorite, and 1 Family recipe (Share with us one of those closely-guarded secrets of your family)
My Top 5 Holiday Treats
- Egg Nog – An egg/milk concoction, sometimes with liquor. It’s so bad for you, but there are some light versions out that reduce some of the guilt.
- Chocolate Fudge – Now I make it with my mom’s recipe…walnuts and marshmallow creme are important!
- Scotch Cake (a mix between pound cake and fruit cake) My grandmother and now my mother makes this dense cake that has candied cherries and walnuts in it. I’m not sure if this is the real name or something my family calls it (we’re part Scotch).
- Pandoro This “golden bread” is free of distracting fruit as in the panettone, and you empty a pouch of powdered sugar in the bag and shake it like crazy, so it’s entertaining, too! It’s good before/after a meal, with coffee in the morning, with milk at night. Sante’s mom also makes her own custard which she inserts in the layers of the pandoro!
- Candy Canes – I like all shapes and sizes! I experimented with cherry and other flavors, but I like the peppermint ones the best, the minis! My favorite used to be the Lifesaver Story Book (who remembers that?).
New Favorite: Chocolate Almond Clusters, as done by my mother-in-law. Last year’s cause at least 5lbs of holiday weight gain. So easy, you wonder why we pay for it…just toast the almonds, melt chocolate in a double boiler, and dip!
Family Recipe: Iced Sugar Cookies
My friends used to beg me to ask my mom to send us some at university. I think the icing is the best part. I don’t think I’ll ever be too old! PS> It’s all about the vanilla…make sure you’re using the good stuff!
Sift together into bowl and set aside:
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Put 3/4 cup soft (not runny or whipped) butter or margarine in large mixing bowl
Add:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or a combination of vanilla and almond extract
Beat with mixer or wooden spoon until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in flour mixture, blending until smooth.
Chill one hour or so until firm. Then, roll a small amount of dough at a time on floured board to 1/8-inch thickness. Keep remaining dough in refrigerator until ready to use. Cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters. Put on greased cookie sheets and bake in preheated (375F) oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until pale brown.
Remove to wire racks to cool. Decorate with tinted confectioners’ sugar icing and sprinkles. Makes about 4 dozen 3-inch cookies.
Icing: 1/4 cup or half stick of softened butter (or margarine), 2-3 cups of confectioner’s (powdered) sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, and a few tablespoons of milk. Mix sugar/milk alternately until smooth. You can add food coloring and scoop into plastic bags with the corner cut if you don’t have an icing bag!
Hi Sara…
My holiday favorites…
1. FUDGE. Any kind will do.
2. Those butter cookies that come in the tin.. they are different shapes and are covered w/ sugar. When I was pregnant with kalen, these contributed to my record setting 12lb (in one month) weight gain!
3. Yummy homemade hot cocoa w/ whipped cream.
4. Pretty much any cookie… especially those w/ chocolate as a major ingredient. I especially enjoy baking cookies… looking forward to having an assistant this year (she’s four!) I like to make biscotti (dipped in chocolate) Black and white cookies. Shortbread (dipped in chocolate). I am going to experiement with a fewe new varieties this year… have a list of possibilities… still narrowing it down!
New Family tradition: Cinnamon/pecan rolls. We have them every Christmas morning. This is a new Tresham family tradition, since Kev and I became 3 (and now 4!) As a kid we always had homemade muffins on Christmas morning. I wanted to stay true to this tradition, but make it our own… thus began the cinnamon roll tradition! I’ll share my recipe w/ anyone who’s interested!
It might take me a while to come up with these as I have to go WAY back…
I will post tomorr0w! :OD
Thanks Sara, for including me in this….I may not have much to contribute…a non observant jew who has always “sort of” celebrated Christmas, but with only minor enthusiasm and minimal festivities, plus unlike so many of my new expat friends, am not a “foody”…..and don’t like sweets at all. Uh oh!!! I did recently post in Expats about one personal Christmas tradition I love — cutting, cooking, and peeling chestnuts (and sneaking a few) for the stuffing, while listening to, or even better watching on TV, Amahl and the Night Visitors. This is my most favorite christmas story, I love each of the kings and the story of how they spent the night at the home of a little crippled (in the opera he’s “crippled”, this was before we were supposed to say “disabled”!) boy and his mother, and how he he wanted to give his crutch to them to take as a gift to baby Jesus, as he had nothing else to give, and then was able to walk. The mother’s aria and ensuing ensemble about the injustice of bringing gold to some unknown baby while her beautiful child is starving is one of the most touching and real moments imho in all opera.
We always had a tree, even though we were jewish. Why? This is WAY too complicated to go into, but involves immigrant internalized anti-semitism and well, sort of self hatred — wanting the new generations to be “better”….a bunch of very screwed up stuff that in any case my family lived as part of their immigrant experience, and thus the tree, and thus my ambiguity about it all. Christmas is also a difficult time for my husband, but last year we bought a presepe together, and I must say I really loved putting it together, and setting up all the little animals, and the three kings. (They were all 3 white, so I used some makeup so that Balthazar would be african), and making a cozy home for Baby Jesus.
One of the only sweets I do like is Panettone…without canditi, and I love vin brul
Ok, I have to make a liar out of myself…I totally forgot PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM. This is at the top my list. I had forgotten about it until my mother taunted me with tales of Christmas dinner this year. :(