Advent Calendar - Christmas Food

Ah, the taste and aroma of Christmas treats in the making!!

Our Christmas holiday foods haven’t been the huge feasts of ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and such for a long time. Those foods have been reserved for Thanksgiving. No, we revel in the appetizer and dessert categories.

When I was a small child in Indiana, we had lots of relatives in the area and Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma’s house with the Uncles, Aunts, and cousins. My two brothers and I were piled in the car with our parents and whatever Mom was bringing, probably pie or cake. I don’t really remember what ended up on Grandma’s table; I guess I was too busy playing with my cousins.

However, when I was 10, we moved to Chicago and our family became very small - just the five of us. Rather than a big meal, Mom treated us to hamburgers and banana splits. That’s how the appetizers and desserts tradition began.

There must be some sort of sandwich, though, because the one item truly required is Dad’s baked beans. Well, really they are Dad’s Mom’s baked beans but she passed them down to him, who passed them on to Mom, who passed them on to my sister and me, who passed them on to my daughters. There is no true recipe, just a list of ingredients and instructions on how to tell the proportions are correct. Those instructions must be given in-person a number of times because it takes the eyes, nose, and taste to get it right!

Another must is Hersey’s fudge. The directions are on the cocoa can and it’s easy to make except often it takes several tries to get the perfect batch – not that the imperfect batches go to waste.

Those are the musts; the rest is up to each cook. Our table is always filled to the brim with tasty treats and munchies!