Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Kwanza

Sunday, December 1, 2024

Around the Kitchen Table: OUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY FOODS + 6-Book #Giveaway

PEG COCHRAN: The holiday season is upon us—Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza and the Wiccan holiday of Yule celebrating the winter solstice—and most of those holidays are celebrated with…food! Christmas cookies, the Thanksgiving Day turkey, latkes for Hannukah.

What food puts you in the holiday spirit whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza or Yule? For me, the Christmas season starts with two things—eggnog and peppermint stick ice cream! I would never dream of having egg nog on the fourth of July but as soon as December rolls around, I have to have it.

Peppermint stick ice cream is rarely available year-round—at least not in our grocery store. But it appears like magic at the start of December. That first spoonful tastes like Christmas to me!

What food do you only enjoy during the holiday season? Is there anything you only eat when the holidays roll around?

LUCY BURDETTE: For me it's sugar cookies, especially the ones that are rolled and cut with cookie cutters and decorated to the max! I would love sugar cookies any time of year, but I'd only go to this much trouble for a holiday. My mom was big on making Christmas cookies, even though she wasn't usually a big baker. So I think that recipe brings me home to those holidays of yesteryear!

LIBBY KLEIN: Mine has to be the German Stollen, and the Italian Panettone. Two Christmas breads filled with luscious fruits and rum - and sometimes marzipan. It would seem weird to me to bake a stollen in July. Kind of like eating a popsicle in January. I've made a gluten-free version of both of these holiday treats so stay tuned! I also love my Hanukkah Jelly donuts called sufganiyot, but truth be told, I would eat these babies all year long.

KORINA MOSS: For me, it has to be fudge. In the small neighborhood where I used to live, everyone would leave a Christmas Eve gift or treat on each neighbor's doorstep. When I moved to a small townhome community about eight years ago, I discovered my neighbors do the same thing! So fudge has been my go-to gift for years. By the time I pack up each of them in pretty tins, there are usually only a few pieces left for me, which is just right! In this photo, I have (clockwise from left): chocolate marshmallow pecan, mint chip, peanut butter, cake batter, and dulce de leche fudge. Look for my fudge recipe later this month.

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I popped in to say "fudge," and see that Korina and I share good taste! But really, it's just about any Christmas cookie. My late mother was not a great cook, but she was a terrific baker, and her plates of Christmas cookies were much-anticipated by our neighbors and family friends. There's a bit of a debate about what makes a Christmas cookie -- I attended an office cookie swap one year and a woman brought peanut butter cookies. A classic, of course, but more of an everyday cookie than a holiday treat! The question arose in As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, my 5th Food Lovers' Village mystery, where Erin says it's got to be something you wouldn't make any other time of year. It may include special ingredients like nuts or dried fruit. Often, it's got ethnic roots, like my mother's Berlinkranzer and her Pfefferneuse. Always, it's got a story, a tradition, and evokes the response of "oh, I love those!" (Well, there are always a few Scrooges. We just don't give them the cookies they don't like, which leaves more for the rest of us!) So to celebrate the season, I'm mixing up Russian Teacakes, aka Snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cakes, and Pecan Sandies, using my mother's recipe. It appears in Cookie, where it plays a role in solving the mystery!

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LESLIE KARST: Growing up, in our family all the kids would get together around the dining room table to decorate sugar cookies that my mom had baked, and although we had all the traditional cookie cutter shapes--angels, Santa Claus, reindeer, etc.--we'd try to outdo each other making them into weird, different things. Aliens, horses (I was quite the horsey girl), football players, you name it. Here are some more recent cookies I decorated, using cutters I got in Alaska:

But now that my wife Robin is converting to Judaism--and the first day of Hannukah is on Christmas night this year--we'll be celebrating both holidays. And yes, we'll be eating challah!

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VICKI DELANY: Count me on Team Cookie. In Canada our Thanksgiving is in early October, so we enjoy much the same feast as at Christmas. Turkey and all the trimmings, usually followed by pie. Many people in my family love egg nog (as obviously do some of you!) with a splash of rum to keep out the chill, but I’m not that fond of it.

I can take it or leave it. For me, the one essential Christmas recipe is cookies. And, not just any cookie (I can eat cookies anytime) but my own coconut sugar cookies, my mom’s recipe for stained glass cookies, and usually some shortbread. Those are always to be found in a cookie tin in my kitchen in mid to late December.

Here’s the recipe for coconut sugar cookies I featured at MLK last year.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Coconut Sugar Cookies from A SLAY RIDE TOGETHER WITH YOU by Vicki Delany

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MADDIE DAY: I love holiday sweets, especially the Christmas treats I grew up with, baking five or six kinds of cookies with my mother. One kind, Spritz cookies, are fabulous.

I also always make gingerbread people, two kinds of sugar cookies (recipe here), Mexican bridecakes, and more. One thing we never do in our house is frosting cookies. Decorating is colored sugars and chocolate chips all the way. Peppermint fudge is good, too!

Next year when my Jewish daughter-in-law and grandbaby are here for the December holidays, I vow to master rugelach for Hanukkah. Latkes? I'll leave those to Alison!

MAYA CORRIGAN: It wouldn't be Christmas without cookies at our house. We make our family favorites: my mother-in-law's Mexican wedding cakes, my mother's nutmeg bars, and my daughter's angel slices from a Joy of Cooking recipe. Each year we try a new cookie. If it's a winner, we add it to the cookie repertoire. These easy caramel almond cookies passed the test.

MOLLY MACRAE: We’re into cookies at our house, too, and for the holidays we often make a batch of the traditional cut-out, decorated sugar cookies. But we just as often try fancy cookies we’ve never made before. One year that was Beurre & Sel cookies – beautiful and delicious.

We also pretty much only make gingerbread pancakes around the holidays. (Sometimes we have them off-season and they taste just as good.) This year I poured the pancake batter onto a large, rimmed sheet pan and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Talk about nearly instant gratification. Everyone could sit down to eat at the same time and the pancakes were moist, cakey, and gingery.

CLEO COYLE: For me and my husband, a game of “I Spy” always kicks off our Season’s Eatings. The mystery question is when and where will we spot that first carton of holiday eggnog. Because Christmas Cookies are also a favorite part of our holiday, Marc and I decided to put that festive flavor of eggnog into a special recipe for our Coffeehouse Mystery readers. See our recipe for EGGNOG SHORTBREAD by clicking here or on the photo below…

Cleo's Eggnog Shortbread

Candy canes are another nostalgic food that Marc and I appreciate, especially because of their connection to the reason for the season. 🌟 Learn the story of how candy canes (which evoke a shepherd’s staff) came to be invented by clicking here on our recipe post where we also share our recipe for Candy Cane Frosting. We find this easy frosting is a great way to instantly turn a plain cookie, cupcake, sheet cake, or pan of brownies into a pretty-in-pink Christmas treat. Whatever your favorites for the holiday season, may you eat with joy to the world!

Cleo's Easy Candy Cane Frosting
for instant Christmas cheer.

GIVEAWAY!

Readers: What food do you only enjoy during the holiday season? Is there anything you only eat when the holidays roll around? Whatever you celebrate, we wish you a joyous holiday!

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