Lists Yule Love: Holiday Recipes to Treasure

By WYDaily Staff Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Special foods during the holidays remind us of family and friends and bind us to days gone by and those ahead. The staff here at Davis Media, parent company of WYDaily, 92.3FM The Tide, 107.9 BACHfm and the Save30 Store share their favorites, along with stories behind them. Share yours in the comments.

A special cookie treat: I remember the first Christmas I went to my dad's house after he got remarried. I was kind of nervous about this first holiday with my new family, even though I was already an adult and lived my own life
pretty far away. My stepmom made these fantastic butterscotch crunchies and I blew my way through the whole cookie tin full of them nearly by myself that year. The next year I came up for Christmas, she had made double the recipe, and labeled one tin "for Desiree". That second year I figured this whole new family thing would work out just fine, and that I hadn't gotten some mean storybook stepmom but one who wanted to make sure that there was something I liked on the holiday table for me every year. That was twelve years ago, and there's still always a tin of butterscotch crunchies just for me every year. Click here for a link to the recipe.
-Desiree Parker, WYDaily reporter

Gluten-free and really good: I have been eating Gluten-Free for 10 years and a few years ago we stumbled on a GF stuffing recipe.  Even though I'm the only one required to eat GF in our family, this recipe is so delicious it has become a staple at Thanksgiving and Christmas! The prized job with this recipe is donning the plastic bags as gloves and mixing the stuffing - always makes for a great holiday photo op!
-Emily Gerdelman, Director of Client Services, Events

GF Corn Bread
Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 teaspoon vinegar
1/3 cup potato starch
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthin gum

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 . In medium bowl, combine milk, egg, oil, and
vinegar. Mix well. Add all other ingredients and mix well, being sure
to remove any lumps. Batter will be thin.

Pour batter into greased 8 x 8 baking pan. Bake 28-32 minutes, until
cornbread tests done with a toothpick and top is lightly browned.

GF Turkey Stuffing
Ingredients
1 onion
4 stalks celery with tops, finely chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 lb. Bulk GF breakfast sausage
10 cups cubed GF cornbread
1 cup unsalted butter, melted with 1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons dried thyme
10 fresh sage leaves, minced (or 2 tablespoons dried)
2 large tart apples, peeled, cored and chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions
Make your own GF cornbread for stuffing a day or two before, cube, and place in the refrigerator in a plastic bag until ready to use.

In a large frying pan, saute the onion and celery in the butter. Add the sausage and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook until sausage is done and vegetables are tender. Place in a very large bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. With gloves, or your hands inside large plastic bags, mix the ingredients well.

Stuff your turkey and roast OR place stuffing into 9 x 12 baking pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Honoring a family's roots: My grandfather's Puerto Rican and when my grandmother was a young bride, she wanted to honor his roots by learning a traditional dish. He hates seafood, capers and isn't a big fan of plantains, so that basically left chicken and rice, or arroz con pollo. She mastered it, and served it every Christmas Eve. My mother picked up the tradition, and even though she has to accommodate even pickier eaters than my Grandpa, she still makes it every year. I always enjoy feeling a little more in touch with my heritage, even if it's just one night a year.
-Amber Kennedy, WYDaily reporter

Whip those spuds good: My favorite thing at any family gathering was always the whipped potatoes. My grandma had a big countertop mixer with fitted bowl that she'd use, and my cousin and I would always fight to get to lick one of the beaters - or better yet, the bowl. But what makes me think of the holidays was what she called "sweet potato souffle." It was a mashed sweet potato concoction that had milk, butter, eggs, vanilla and brown sugar in it, with pecans and more brown sugar as the topping. It was basically sweet potato pie pitifully disguised as a vegetable side, and was immediately known to be my brother's favorite. I'm not certain when, exactly, in my childhood that this came to be part of the holiday repertoire, but it is what I have taken with me to introduce to others when I've lived in other parts of the country and/or shared with new family and friends.
-Karen Peterson, Art Director

A pudding to remember: My favorite dinner item at our family Christmas is the Yorkshire pudding.  When my dad was a kid their family lived in England. They adopted the tradition of cooking a roast for Christmas because my dad is allergic to chicken and turkey. Along with a roast comes the Yorkshire pudding. It is the simplest thing to make: Take some flour and the juices from the meat and bake. It completes the Christmas meal.
-Frannie Shivar, Business Manager

The personal Jell-O pie: My Grandma, known to those who love her as Granky, goes out of her way to make her favorite grandchild something special every time she comes home for the holidays. Yes, out of her 30-plus grandchildren, I am the favorite. As the favorite, I get my own Jell-O pie. It should be a simple combination of jello, crust and cool-whip, but Granky won't tell anyone in the family how she gets it to taste so good. Some might say she has a "secret" ingredient she leaves out when sharing her recipe. I say the answer is simple; the secret is that she lies to others so no one can make it like she does. Does this hurt my feelings? Never! Does it hurt all of the other grandchildren who don't get their own special Jell-O pie? I make a point not to dwell on their feelings too much. It's not easy being the favorite.
-Sam Thrift, WYDaily reporter

Mimi's corn pudding: Each year, my grandma makes this popular southern dish, corn pudding, that's to die for. Surprisingly enough, not many people have heard of corn pudding although it's a fixture at every one of my family reunions, on both my mom and dad's side. Mimi makes it a little different than the traditional dish, though...more like a pie. It's sweet with a pudding texture on the inside but she makes a crust on the outside. Delish. Click here for the recipe.
-Will Armbruster, WYDaily sports reporter

Smoked clams if you've got 'em: When I was growing up, my mom would always buy a tin of smoked clams for us to enjoy as a before-dinner snack. It would be one of the "Christmas treats" and I  assumed that they were rare and expensive or something. I later found that's not the case. I think having grown up in the depression, my parents just thought smoked clams were not of the "Approved List of Necessary Foods (milk, steak, bourbon)" so they only bought them on special occasions. And even though I like them, and can afford them, I still only buy them once a year.
-Tommy Mahnken, Tide Radio/BACHfm Creative Director