3 Holiday Recipes for a Heartfelt Holiday Season
No matter what holiday you celebrate, there are many family traditions that happen in the kitchen this time of year.
Whether it’s cookies and eggnog for Christmas, sufganiyot or latkes for Hanukkah, collard greens and black-eyed peas for Kwanza, food is the way to the heart this holiday season.
For Joanie, it was sitting on her aunt’s kitchen counter when she was a little girl of six:
“Aunt Joan, my namesake, would cook bacon. The smell would waft through the house. It’s my first memory in the kitchen. And my aunt told me all about bacon and bacon grease. From that time on, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my mom’s sister. My mom didn’t cook, so it was Aunt Joan and me. I loved spending time with her whenever I could: talking, stirring, baking and eating, together.
Here are two recipes that bring back so many memories for me – both written in my aunt’s handwriting, which makes them even more special.
The fudge recipe is from my grandma, her mom. The other is from my grandma’s best friend, Flossie. The memories are so strong from looking at the paper, thinking about who wrote the recipe on them, and how much they mean to me. I am immediately transported back to wonderful times together.
The other family recipe is one that you can get directly off the Quaker Oats box. A staple in our family is one that isn’t from a friend but a long-time household name. Of course, I enhance it now but here is the original recipe: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe | Quaker Oats
RevelEleven recently partnered with Ellevate on an event we called, “Putting the Heart Back into the Holidays’, centered around holiday traditions and holiday recipes.
Magdalena Garcia told us how we could nurture our sense of magic and wonder and relationships through ritual. Cynthia Nims spoke about the traditions in the kitchen that get passed down from generation to generation.
And James Beard Award-winning chef, Caprial Pence, was supposed to join us with a delicious dessert recipe – but a power outage made it impossible. We wanted to make sure to share her recipe for Orange Shortbread with Caramel Pears:
Here’s to the holidays, to family recipes and the ones that always take you back to that special place in your heart (and stomach!).