I make trifle only once a year – over the Christmas holiday, when a big creamy, custardy, boozy bowl of indulgence seems like just what Santa ordered…;-)
This is a very different trifle to my Grandma Ivy’s, which calls for red and green jello, candied fruit and optional coconut macaroons(!).
(If I’m to realise my ambition of cooking every family recipe in Fern’s Food, I’ll have to give it a go some Christmas, but we’re keeping it classic this year.) Continue reading
Every Christmas, my sister-in-law made these salted almonds.
Even as a child, I didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, and I looked forward to salted almonds at least as much as the cherry slice, Nanaimo bars and shortbread. (Though maybe not the butterscotch fudge…) Continue reading
This healthy, Christmas-y (not so often you use those two adjectives to describe a dish) romanesco apple pecan salad makes a refreshing change from turkey soup and turkey sandwiches at this point in the festivities.
And aside from steaming the romanesco, it takes only minutes to put together – another point in its favour.
I serve the dressing on the side – once it is mixed through the salad, the romanesco florets are less delightfully tree-like. If romanesco isn’t available, broccoli works too. Continue reading
Given that eggnog has always tasted like rum-laced melted ice cream to me, I’m surprised it took me so long to hit on the idea of eggnog ice cream.
I made a batch a couple of days before Christmas as an alternative dessert for people who don’t like Christmas pudding.
It turns out I don’t know those kind of people… My guests like their Christmas pudding topped with both brandy butter and a goodly scoop of eggnog ice cream.
The pudding and ice cream combo is such a winner, that I think we’ll forgo the brandy butter altogether next year.
Each December I faithfully reproduce the traditional family Christmas baking, and each year the ghost of Christmas past haunts my efforts.
The shortbread, cherry slice, butterscotch fudge and nanaimo bars are never as good as I remember them tasting in my childhood.
The only exception to this slightly depressing state of affairs are the date squares. Continue reading
Rosolli is a Finnish root vegetable salad traditionally served at Christmas. What I enjoy most about it is the satisfying mixture of textures, from soft potato to the crunch of gherkin.
Crème fraiche and vinegar bring a sharpness to the dressing, balancing out the natural sweetness of the beets and carrots.
Nanaimo bars are a national institution in Canada. I’d always assumed these delicious bars of nutty, creamy, chocolatey goodness were first in Nanaimo (a town on Vancouver Island) – and research bears this out.
Loved across the country, there was even a knockout round in the first season of MasterChef Canada where competitors had to make desserts inspired by Nanaimo bars. Continue reading
My mum always served shrimp cocktail before we tucked into our Christmas dinner. Now I’m wearing the apron, I’ve dispensed with the whole idea of starters. But it wouldn’t be Christmas without mum’s shrimp cocktail appearing on a menu at some point over the holidays.
Baron of beef sandwiches (or beef dip) has become a family tradition on the evening we (finally!) trim the Christmas tree.
I’m not one for getting the tree up on the first of December. Grinchily resisting the girls’ pleas, I wait until the afternoon they break up from school to start our Christmas celebrations. It feels sweeter and more concentrated that way.
For a recipe with so few ingredients, it is surprising how variable shortbread can be. I am completely loyal to my mother’s shortbread recipe, having never tasted anything to equal it.
Rolled thin, decorated with a single silver ball, and baked until the edges were tinged with gold, mum’s shortbread were always light and crumbly-crisp.
When you bit into one, after a second’s resistance it would dissolve deliciously in your mouth, leaving that little silver ball on your tongue like a seashell stranded by a receding wave for you to dispatch with a single, satisfying crunch.
This year, I’m kicking off my Christmas baking by making butterscotch fudge.
I use my precious stash of butterscotch chips for two things – oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies and butterscotch fudge, and I’m always careful to keep a bag in reserve for this moment. Christmas just wouldn’t be as sweet without butterscotch fudge.
These Thai sausage rolls are the pretty much the only ones I make these days. With the fresh herbs and Thai flavourings, they seem lighter and less greasy than the regular kind.
I always make a batch at Christmas, and a couple of other times throughout the year. I’ll often freeze some, to be baked from frozen on another occasion. Continue reading
All things must pass – the holiday season, our friends’ visit, the twelve cocktails of Christmas – and it seems fitting to wrap it all up with a Blue Christmas cocktail. Continue reading
This Christmas, our great friends Margo and Aaron travelled from Canada to spend holidays with us. They are both cocktail lovers, and their visit was a big part of my idea to do the twelve cocktails of Christmas.
One of our gifts to Margo was a copy of Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails With a Literary Twist. She thanked us by mixing up a round of A Cocktail of Two Cities. Continue reading
I’ve enjoyed listening to my Christmas in New Orleans CD throughout the holidays, which is enough of a reason to make the sazerac my tenth cocktail of Christmas.
The ones we make aren’t as authentic as you’d be served in the Big Easy – we coated the glasses with Pernod instead of absinthe and use Canadian rye whisky, although I have recently got my hands on some Peychauds bitters. Continue reading
Sloe gin is delicious, and sipping a little glass of it neat while watching Alastair Sim’s Scrooge discover the spirit of Christmas makes a perfect holiday afternoon.
But a shot of sloe gin isn’t a cocktail. This led to the idea of using sloe gin in a negroni – where it cosied right up with the red vermouth, and stood its ground against the bitterness of the Cinzano.
This delicious, hot buttered rum certainly hit the spot after a cold, wet evening at the football. It’s beyond my photography skills to make this drink beautiful, but I promise it tastes far better than it looks.
Essentially a screwdriver gussied up with an indulgent splash of Galliano, the Harvey Wallbanger is definitely the cocktail of Christmases past for me.
My parents always made Harvey Wallbangers during the holiday season. They probably made them year-round – the Harvey Wallbanger was a happening drink in the 1970s – but in my memory they are associated with our annual Christmas carol singing party. Continue reading
Cola de mono (or “tail of the monkey”) is a Christmas drink from Chile. It’s pretty similar to a white Russian (or Kahlua and milk), but tastes cleaner and less cloying than my memory of that drink. Continue reading
Cranberry juice is the reason the Scarlett O’Hara makes my Christmas cocktail list – plus it’s very tasty. It’s also a good way to use up any Southern Comfort you may have lurking at the back of your drinks cabinet.
Sometimes, a beer-based cocktail hits the spot. Especially, after we’d popped into the pub for a pint after ice skating. And were having sausages and mash for dinner.
Plus the dark colour of the Dandy Shandy goes perfectly with the long, dark nights of December.
Now that you can buy anything year round, it seems strange to recall that when I was growing up in northern Canada, satsumas were available only during the holiday season. Getting our annual 5lb crate of mandarin oranges, as we called them, was an eagerly awaited Christmas treat.
Each orange was individually wrapped in green tissue paper, like a little present. I imagine there would have been about thirty oranges in the box – or six each – and we were allowed one a day to make them last. Sometimes I’d remove the tough skin from each segment and eat it cell by juicy little cell.
So the citrusy sidecar in its festive, sugar-frosted glass is an easy choice for my Christmas cocktail list. Continue reading
The whisky mac is a is a wonderfully warming mix of whisky and green ginger wine. Named after a Colonel Macdonald who invented it while serving in India, the whisky mac is a great antidote to the cold, damp British weather.
I make it with a 1:1 ratio, but some recipes call for up to three times the amount of whisky to wine.
A ruby-bright, festive mix of prosecco, pomegranate juice and fresh pomegranate seeds. I love the way the bubbles cause the seeds to float to the top instead of languishing at the bottom of the glass, the way fruit usually does in a mixed drink. Continue reading
Christmas can feel overwhelming at times. Presents to wrap, cards to write, shopping, cooking, school events, family visiting, tree decorating, tantrums, tinsel… That was just today – and there’s no sign of things letting up in the week ahead.
Forget “bells on bobtail ring” – I plan to keep my spirits bright with a cocktail or two over the holidays. Which gave me the idea for the Twelve Cocktails of Christmas. As I reminded myself this evening, if you don’t have time to enjoy a few cocktails at this time of year, you’re working too hard.
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‘Tis the season to be jolly!
This tray of cherry slice officially opens the Christmas baking season in our house. Each year, I bake a number of the treats my mum and my sister-in-law always made. Cherry slice, butterscotch fudge, date squares, Nanaimo bars, shortbread and fruit cake are the definites – Christmas wouldn’t feel the same without them.
But that pair didn’t stop there… Continue reading
Ten More Bites 