Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! May Christmas be filled with good company and most importantly GOOD FOOD! While I don’t have a Christmas recipe for you today, I do have some of my favorite Christmas quotes from traditions I cannot live without.
Christmas is a time for cookies. Lots and lots and LOTS of cookies. I try to avoid cookie eating for most of the holidays because I know when I get up to Pittsburgh to celebrate with my husband’s family, all bets are off. My husband’s aunt makes DOZENS of cookies. All different types, all amazingly delicious. Containers of cookies are there in the kitchen when you wake up in the morning, on the table during the afternoon, right next to the area you need to help prep dinner. You really can’t escape them. It’s not exactly a problem. I want to work up the courage every year to ask how much butter she goes through during her baking marathon, but then I always shy away. I really don’t want to know. I think there is such a thing as too many cookies, especially during the holiday. Though I also firmly believe your cookie tolerance expands during those last few weeks of Christmas, allowing you to eat so much more than you could or should. Though one cookie I could never tire of are Peppermint Pals.
It was around this time last year, that I started getting seriously jealous of some of my bloggie friends. They were getting boxes of cookies sent to them from across the country. From complete strangers! Apparently, they were all in on it together and well aware of the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I signed up immediately last December, and as with most things, completely forgot about the program until the emails started pouring in a few weeks ago.
The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is hosted by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen. I’ve participated in food swaps and penpal programs in the past but this was way different. First, you have no idea who your cookies are coming from until they actually arrive. Each blogger is assigned three recipients to send cookies to. Bake a dozen cookies for each, then send them off. Then one day *BAM!* Cookies on your doorstep. I’m generally a bigger fan of giving than receiving, but those unexpected cookies always happened to show up when most needed.
I’ve noted may times throughout this Twelve Recipes of Christmas series that Christmas is all about sweets and booze. So why not combine the two into a perfect holiday dessert?
Photo from Huffington Post
One of the first things I think of with Christmas (besides cookies and booze) is fruitcake. I never really understood the symbolism of it and am proud to say I’ve never tried the stuff. But I do remember hearing threats of people re-gifting fruitcakes over and over and rumors that the stuff could last for decades, if wrapped properly. It does seem festive, with it’s red and green “fruits” and I couldn’t imagine writing a 12 Days of Christmas series without it. I planned on spending hours researching scouring the internet checking Wikipedia to learn about its origins, until I came across this article on the Huffington Post. While I could research and write for days, I don’t think I could ever come close to their thoughts as to why fruit cake is the most hated feared Christmas dessert cake food. Just go ahead and read it.
Frosty the Snowman
Brooklyn Locavore 