The season of family, food and nostalgia is upon us.
As we consider our upcoming menus, we draw on the memories of those who made our most cherished holiday dishes. One look through family recipes for herbed stuffing and brown sugar yams and there you are: visiting with relatives near, far and often across the generations.
For me, a really satisfying “visit” can be had any time I open my little metal recipe index card box. There, filed between fading, brittle cardboard dividers are the formulas for meals that sustained my family for generations, written by those very family members’ own hands.
That handwriting connects me back to their lives and their cookery; in moments I can be with my grandfather as he rides the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to Chicago, writing down the recipe for pumpkin pie from the railroad chef; or listening to my mother tell how her English friend’s mother gave her a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding just after the war when food rations were still tight.
For some of us, technology is racing us past the need to depend on those handwritten cards. But even if we can just ask Google or Alexa to find us a chestnut stuffing recipe, Alexa won’t have the story that your grandmother told you about hunting wild mushrooms for the Christmas feast or the “boycotted” bread pudding of your childhood.
With this in mind, the News invited readers to share a story and a recipe of a dish that to them brings family into focus every time the dish is re-created. From ethnic traditions to good-natured family teasing, each tells a tale of food made extra tasty by a secret ingredient: love.
‘Reluctant’ bread pudding
From Kristin Coshun, Kenosha:
I really wanted to submit my mom, Rozann Rhey, and her Christmas Bread Pudding because there is a cute story that goes along with it.
It is an elaborate recipe (and can get expensive to make) and my mom has made it every year for Christmas dinner for as long as I can remember (I am almost 50.) Nobody would ever eat it! We all thought it sounded gross, so my mom would be the only one to eat this dessert every year. Yet she would still make it every year. Then throw the whole dish away! We would all say, “Gross! Stop making that!” Yet she never would. It became a family joke. We would say, “May as well just make it and throw it!”
One year, about 15 years ago, my brother, I, and both of our spouses and children finally gave in and tried it. Now we cannot have a Christmas without mom’s bread pudding. Now, weeks before Christmas we ask “Mom, you are making bread pudding, aren’t you?” It is the best Christmas dessert!
CHRISTMAS BREAD PUDDING
4 cups half and half
12 cups bread cubes: 1 24-inch French bread loaf, day old, cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch cubes
1 29-ounce can peach halves in heavy syrup: cut peaches into large chunks (reserve syrup)
2/3 cup raisins
3/4 cup melted butter
6 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
2 large Granny Smith apples, chopped (do NOT peel)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Scald half and half. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes. Add to bread. Add peaches, raisins and melted butter; mix well.
In separate bowl, beat eggs; add sugar, spices and salt and mix well. Add to bread mixture and mix well.
Fold in pecans (if using), apples and the reserved peach syrup.
Butter a 4-quart casserole and pour in bread mixture.
Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.
Serve warm or chilled (definitely warm is best!)
RUM SAUCE
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup butter
4 to 8 tablespoons dark rum or 4 teaspoons rum extract
Cook sugar, cream and butter on low for 10 minutes
Add rum (or extract).
Spoon pudding into bowls and spoon rum sauce over top.
Merry cherry
From Carolyn Messersmith, Somers:
The Bing cherry gelatin side is something we ate for Christmas and Thanksgiving. It was such a hit. My mother always made it in a round wreath-shaped mold. The softness of the cream cheese, the crunch of the nuts and the way the cherry and sherry flavors meld together are fantastic. My mother died in 2016 but my love for her recipes lives on.
BING CHERRY JELLO
1 cup pitted Bing cherries (or 14-ounce can of dark cherries)
1 cup boiling water
3 packages of dark cherry gelatin
3/4 cup cream sherry
1 cup chopped pecans
3 ounce package of cream cheese
Drain cherries, keeping the juice. Pour boiling water over the gelatin and still until it dissolves. Stir in the sherry. Refrigerate until the gelatin has the texture of egg white (about 1 hour). Add cherries, nuts, and cubed cream cheese to gelatin. Mix well. Place mixture into an 8-inch pan or a 5-cup gelatin mold. When it is firm and ready to serve, turn out on greens.
Italian memories
From Linda Ceshin, Kenosha:
For years, probably well over 50 or so, my family has always made my grandmother’s (my dad’s mom) Chestnut Stuffing for every thanksgiving and some Christmas dinners as well.
It is a recipe that was handed down to her over generations and she passed it on to her children and grandchildren as we began to host our own holiday dinners. I make it every Thanksgiving and it’s always a very special part of our family dinner. It’s a wonderful memory of our rich Italian heritage and a beautiful celebration of times spent with her around the table laughing and telling stories.
GRANDMA LU’S CHESTNUT AND SAUSAGE STUFFING
2 to 3 cups chicken broth or stock
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons dried parsley, more or less as desired
1 clove garlic, chopped
10 chestnuts, roasted and skins removed, chopped
1 package stuffing mix
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat chicken stock or broth in a sauce pan along with the half stick of butter. Heat on low so butter melts.
Cook sausage in skillet, breaking into small pieces with wooden spoon until browned. Remove sausage from skillet.
To skillet add celery, onion, parsley and garlic. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes or so.
In a very large bowl, combine the cooked sausage, roasted and chopped chestnuts, celery and onion mixture, stuffing mix and salt and pepper to taste.
Add heated broth with butter to the stuffing mixture and gently mix. Mixture should be moist but not soaked and the bread cubes should maintain their shape.
Put into a buttered 13-by-9-inch baking dish and bake at 350 degrees, covered, for about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes more. You can add more stock as needed to keep stuffing moist.
Note: You can roast chestnuts in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Make sure you cut an “X” into the top of the chestnut before roasting to prevent them from exploding in the oven.
Note: I usually make the stuffing the night before, refrigerate and then take out of the fridge about an hour before baking.
Snowball fun
From Marlis Gasper:
This recipe has been in our family for many years. My mother always made this for Thanksgiving and it has been a must on the Thanksgiving dinner menu ever since. My three sisters and I still carry on the tradition. It’s not only delicious, but for us it brings back fond memories of Mom.
SNOWBALL SALAD
Sauce ingredients (sauce must be made 1 day ahead):
4 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup milk
Mix ingredients and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Cool.
Salad ingredients:
1 pint whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar to taste
1 pound standard size marshmallows, halved
1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries, cut in halves (save juice)
1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, cut up
Whip whipping cream and blend in vanilla and sugar. Add whipped cream mixture to marshmallows and fruit. Fold in cooled sauce mixture. Refrigerate overnight. Use reserved cherry juice to freshen up as needed.
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