What Holiday Foods and Traditions Do You Celebrate?

naomi.kohlmeier
naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

My family tree has roots in both Germany, Czechoslovakia and Scotland. I love any and all of the traditional ethnic foods from those countries that we have made down through the years. Meats and soups, candies and pastries, etc. Christmas Goose with Stuffing, Kolaches, especially Poppy Seed, Stollen...too many things to name.

I would be interested in knowing what your favorite foods and traditions are that you enjoy each year.

Comments

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier One of the traditions we have carried through the years for the kids, grandchildren and even great grandchildren is making sugar cookies and decorating them not only for Christmas but Valentines day. The children have always thought it was great fun!

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin
    edited October 2020

    Usually barbecue - I'll smoke a pork butt, serve it with sauerkraut and from scratch baked beans. Mom will roast a turkey and cook seasonal greens - collards, mustard and turnips. Usually both potato salad and mashed potatoes. Plenty of gravy. Chicken dressing. I'll usually make a liver pate with Christmas spices. Pecan pies made with chocolate and bourbon. Lots of oranges and dried apricots and nuts... so, sometimes a good fruit cake. Definitely sweet potato pudding! That is really more a soufflé I'll usually bake some sourdough bread.... maybe make some perogies. Seafood is always a part of it, since my family was coastal - a bushel of oysters roasted is the minimum. Usually some clam chowder, sometimes fish and crabs. I LOVE duck and goose and wild game... but my only family is my mother and two elderly aunts... who absolutely do not. Sometimes we'll have eggplant parm or chili, too. My aunts bring a ton of sweet, which I tire of very quickly, so I make a lot of savory and spicy things. We also always have a big Greek style salad. Honestly, I need more family members... it is way too much food for 4 people! But, my grandmother set the model back when she cooked for herself and my grandfather, 5 children and their spouses, 4 grandkids (including me.... which was like feeding 3 extras), two great grandkids.... and tons of great aunts and uncles and distant cousins who would show up unexpectedly.... like 15 people may show up without notice, having driven hours in packed cars to get there. That was just life on the farm. She would also cook extra to send home with the farm hands and for anyone in the community who was too old or poor to do for themselves. Holidays are nothing like they used to be for us.... most everyone is gone.

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    @monica197 not sure about the Orlando diet and what you can and can't eat, but there are MANY replacement crust that can and do taste as good as the real old crust you made.

    I make a crust with cream cheese that hubby couldn't tell wasn't wheat. Cauliflower can' also be made into crust. Do some research I bet you will find a way to still have your pizza and enjoy it also!

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    We made Christmas eggs ( anytime they are made through out the year they still get that name) it's just a egg casserole with Hillshire Farm type sausage and cheese. Biscuits, fruit. We had to wait till the grandparents came before opening gifts, so the kids eat first. Christmas cookies, hot cocoa

    My grandma always made the cinnamon rolls in the can (pillsbury). This was a real treat cause no one ever bought stuff you could home make. If you were one of the first grandkids there you got to eat one. We were probably the only kids in the world that rush opening gifts so we could get to grandmas first. We still have them every Christmas in honor of great grandma, My grandkids call them grandma rolls, last year they keep asking when the grandma rolls were going to be done.

  • Wendy
    Wendy Posts: 138 ✭✭✭

    My family has always had pancakes on Christmas morning, between checking the stockings and opening the presents.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Oh my goodness @judsoncarroll4 I love all those foods! I know what you mean about cooking for a crowd and only four people are there to eat. I've never been able to only plan for the number of guests attending. One of the great things about holiday meals is the leftovers, especially stuffing and gravy!!! The pies have to have real whipped cream on them, too.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    DEFINITELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To quote James Gregory, "Where I come from, gravy is considered a beverage."

  • happy-trails
    happy-trails Posts: 170 ✭✭✭

    naomi.kohlmeier WOW! Very interesting foods... and I will have to look up what kolaches are. I could talk about food and cooking all day. I absolutely love working in the kitchen and getting to feed others. It is the universal language - sharing FOOD, and I really enjoy showing my love this way. My mother is from Laos; she escaped with her family of 6 across the Mekong River when she was 11 years old. Many wonderful foods come from this part of the world, which we still enjoy at our traditional cook outs and holidays - rice noodles from scratch stir fried in oyster sauce and garlic, ground chicken egg rolls and spring rolls, Lao meat salad (Larb), Lao beef jerky with sticky rice, spicy papaya salad, Laos Pho, traditional barbecue with lemongrass and savory spices, and the earthy sweet desserts like coconut black rice with mango and creamy pandan ice cream! I love learning here! Thanks for the interesting post! =)

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    After my mom passed away my dad and I tried to keep up the tradition of Thanksgiving but my dad prefers a Game Hen and I do not eat meat so it was not that easy - I would try to cook my own meal then take it to his house reheat it while he cooked his own. Then I came up with an idea ... since we both love to watch football I now make snacks like different kinds of dips for chips or dishes that we can eat while watching football and sometimes I would make him a meat dish usually meatballs and one year I did shredded pork. Then on Saturday if he feels like it he does a Game Hen.

    Christmas eve we go out to dinner then on Christmas morning I go over to his house and we have usually cinnamon rolls (last year I made my own) and watch Christmas movies.

  • Granny Marie
    Granny Marie Posts: 53 ✭✭✭

    Is candy a food? My best friend and I spend Black Friday making fudge. Chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut butter, butter pecan, strawberry, orange, and any new recipes that catch our eyes. We take it to work and package it for family friends and anyone else that might need a gift. Believe it or not, there is plenty left for family, at least until the middle of January.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Sure @Granny Marie ! We used to make fudge, peanut brittle, divinity and cherry mash candy. My mom also made a delicious fruit cake that she aged for a month before we ate it. I loved that fruitcake! I'd sure like to have the recipe, but she died when I was young and didn't have the sense to ask for it :)

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @naomi.kohlmeier in Australia, Xmas is usually a pretty hot time of year, so the good old pavlova makes an appearance. There is some dispute as to who invented “the pav” New Zealand or Australia, either way it’s popular.

    A big base of meringue, depending on how its baked, as to how the texture is, either crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle or just plain crunchy! Topped with whipped cream and then topped again with fresh seasonal fruit, like strawberries, passion fruit, rockmelon, banana, kiwi fruit, blueberries etc. one of my faves is a mixture of all different berries and then a fig and balsamic sauce drizzled over the top.

  • Michelle D
    Michelle D Posts: 1,465 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Our family tradition has evolved a bit over the years, but feeding people what they love to eat has always been a priority to my mom. Therefore, every year we have 12 main dishes. My mom, my brother, and I all cook. The kids usually help a bit. Everyone gets there favorite. We used to have it family style but now that the family is so big we have to do it as a buffet. There is always a Chinese inspired dish, lasagna, a Mexican inspired dish, pizza, a BBQ dish, hamburgers, breaded baked chicken, Ham, prime rib, Turkey and all the fixings that go with each if them. On top of that there is a dessert to fit each person's favorite. The craziest thing about it is that my oldest son and my brother eat the entire meal with chopsticks even the pie! We have enough leftover that we don't have to cook for a week! And tons of fun memories. Sadly we won't be celebrating together this year because of the pandemic.

  • lewis.mary.e
    lewis.mary.e Posts: 225 ✭✭✭

    We always try to have a cut live Christmas tree, even if it's a tiny tree on a side table. This year the tree will be enclosed by a puppy playpen to keep our pup from destroying it.

    We also have fondue on Christmas eve.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Granny Marie when I used to work I would always make goodies for my coworkers. Mostly cookies & candy but sometime savory things as well. My favorite candy was fudge, white chocolate peppermint bark and if it was sunny enough chocolate covered toffee.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    @jodienancarrow that sounds delicious!

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    @Michelle D wow! that is a lot of food! I love that your son and brother eat the entire meal with chopsticks! What a great family time together. We will all be thankful for memories this year. Hopefully we can FaceTime or zoom call our families for a bit. What a crazy crazy year.