December 15, 2004

• Ten Days ’til Christmas

  In a recent comment,
  LuckyStars

  said, “Odd…it’s not the religious aspect of the holiday that made as

  big of an impression on me as I was growing up, but rather the time

  spent with family, and memories of that time, that have stayed with
  me.”

  I, too, have some great memories of Christmases spent in our little

  nuclear family, just my mother, my father, and me, before he

  died.  Later on, there were some Christmases when my mother’s

  brothers and sisters gathered and there were cousins there with whom I

  had good times.   But my mother’s family, the Scotts,
  were a

  contentious lot and some of her brothers were obnoxious
  drunks.  I

  cannot recall a single family gathering that did not include

  hostilities.

  But even at those gatherings, there was always good food. 
  Food

  seemed to be the reason for getting together — unless what motivated

  those holiday gatherings was someone’s forlorn hope that there might
  be

  a happy family reunion.  My mother and aunts would congregate
  in

  the kitchen, and I was always there underfoot, until I was big enough

  to be a real help.  I have always loved to cook and to
  eat.

  I still enjoy cooking and eating.  Sometimes I even prepare
  dishes

  that are not on my diet because I know they please others.  I

  don’t do that often, though, because it is tempting and dangerous for

  me.  Much of the time when I begin to obsess on the foods I
  cannot

  have, I will simply eat something healthful and that takes care of

  that.  I’m looking upon this blog as both a sort of catharsis
  for

  me and a way to share a few of the foods I used to enjoy without

  tormenting myself with the aromas.

  Some goodies are inseparable from Christmas for me…

  such as chocolate covered cherries

  

  and old fashioned hard candies.

  

  The ones I liked best were the little cylindrical ones we called
  “candle

  candies.”  I’d eat the red ones because I knew they had to be

  either cherry or cinnamon, and yellow because it was always lemon.

    But the green ones were tricky.  They might be
  yummy lime

  or nasty mint.  Likewise, white might be pineapple, which was

  okay, or wintergreen, which wasn’t okay.

  

  We used to get chunks of Ghirardelli chocolate that had been broken
  off

  big blocks.  I used to dream of having a whole big block of

  it.  Now that I can’t eat it, I could buy one on
  ebay.

  

  Some other celebratory foods I’ve acquired a taste for (and no longer eat), which we

  never had at home with Mama, include the Pacific Northwest favorites
  

  

  Aplets and Cotlets and

  

  Frango Mint Chocolates.

  I have never tasted traditional plum pudding

  

  and now I suppose I never shall.  Mama always said I wouldn’t
  like

  it

  anyway.  “Since you don’t like gingerbread, you won’t like
  plum

  pudding

  – too spicy.”  I’ve gotten a taste for spicy foods since
  then,

  and

  eventually became fond of gingerbread, too.  I’ve been
  thinking

  about experimenting on a gluten-free, sugar-free gingerbread
  recipe.

  Another traditional Christmas treat that I never liked as a kid was

  fruitcake.  I never did acquire a taste for the traditional

  fruitcake, and I suppose I’m not alone in that.  There is a

  longstanding Christmas legend that says there is really only one

  fruitcake in the entire world, and it keeps getting passed from one

  person who won’t eat it to another, year after year.

  The thing about fruitcake that I never liked was the glace

  “fruit”.  It consists of candied orange, lemon and lime rinds
  and

  the rinds of citron melons.  The way I see that, they’re
  adding

  sugar to stuff that to most people is garbage and around here we call

  “compost”, and expecting people to eat it.  Not me, not
  hardly!

  I do, however, have a recipe for  (drumroll,
  please)

  

  Edible Fruit Cake

  Preheat oven to 275°F.

  Mix in a large bowl in the order given, stirring well after each
  addition:

  2 cups seedless golden raisins

  1 cup Maraschino cherries, drained and stems removed

  1 cup canned pineapple tidbits, drained

  1 cup shredded coconut and/or 2 cups broken pecans and/or slivered
  almonds

  1/4 cup sherry or orange juice

  4 slighly beaten eggs

  1 cup granulated white sugar or firmly packed brown sugar

  3 cups all-purpose flour sifted together with 1 1/4 teaspoons
  double-acting baking powder

  3/4 cup melted butter

  Pour into a greased 10-inch tube pan or two 8 1/2 X 4 1/2-inch loaf

  pans that have been greased or lined with greased brown
  paper.

  Bake about 2 1/2 hours, until a light touch leaves no
  imprint.

  These are my favorite Christmas cookies:

  

  Jelly Tarts

  (thumbprint cookies)

  Blend until creamy:

      1/2 cup butter

      1/3 cup granulated sugar

  Beat in:

      1 whole egg or 2 egg yolks

      1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla
  extract

      1/4 teaspoon grated lemon
  zest

      1 cup all-purpose white flour

      1/8 teaspoon salt

      (optional) 2 tablespoons poppy
  seeds

  Chill dough for several hours or overnight.

  Roll into 1-inch balls, dip in slightly beaten egg white, roll in
  chopped nuts.

  Bake 5 minutes at 375°F.

  Remove from oven, make thumbprints, and fill with jelly:  red
  cherry, golden apple, and green mint jelly for Christmas.

  Return to hot oven and bake for about 8 minutes more.

  In my mother’s house, “pie” meant chocolate cream pie for her and
  lemon

  meringue for my father.  I wasn’t fussy about pie; I’d eat

  both.  Later on, when I was cooking for feasts or making
  baked

  gifts, my specialty was apple pie.  The way I did it, with
  fresh

  apples and lots of cinnamon, and simmering the skins in a sugar syrup

  to get a rosy pink tint to the filling, it was a crowd pleaser.

  I’ve been thinking it over, and I suppose I never met a pie I didn’t

  like, but my favorite has been pecan pie ever since I moved to Texas
  as

  a pre-teen and had my first taste of one.

  

  Pecan Pie

  Preheat oven to 350 F .

  Mix together:

  3 eggs, slightly beaten

  1 cup Karo syrup, light or dark as preferred

  1 cup granulated white sugar or firmly packed brown sugar, as
  preferred

  2 tablespoons melted butter

  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  Then stir in 1 1/2 cups pecan halves or broken pecan pieces.

  Pour into unbaked 9-inch pie shell and bake about 50 to 55

  minutes.  Pie is done when a knife inserted halfway between
  center

  and edge comes out clean.

  For that pie shell, the pastry must be tender and flaky. 
  Since I

  was 12 years old, I have been relying on the recipe in the Joy of Cooking for
  that.  It never fails.

  

  ---

   This has been my
  day for

  finding weird pictures online that are only nominally what I was

  looking for.  I posted the pornish “frango” and “fruitcake”
  pictures in the blog before
  this one.  Later on, as I was searching for a pic

  of broken chunks of chocolate, I found this pic of a strain of
  Cannabis

  Indica called “ChocolateChunk”.

  

  That’s one more food that’s not now on my diet.

  My Twelve Days of Christmas blog inspired Greyfox to write his own updated version of the
  song.  I

  love being that man’s muse, especially on the occasions when I inspire

  something in him besides rage, terror or despair. 

  First, he

  phoned me for a rundown of the last few lines of the traditional song,

  apparently having forgotten the drummers drumming (how could

  he!?!).  Then a bit later, he left a message on my answering

  machine with the entire rundown of his revamped twelfth day. 
  The

  cell signal was breaking up so badly I didn’t catch all of it, but there

  were five yoyo strings, two surgical gloves, and some gimps and tards, I
  think.

  

  • 10:31 pm
  • 10 Comments