Old Christmas

The one thing you may have discovered about me from past postings is I love a good tradition…understatement, maybe?  When Christmas rolls around it’s time to start thinking about Washington Irving once more.  He is certainly beloved for his tale of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but he has a series of stories taken from his Sketchbook that perfectly recount a Christmas spent in the English countryside.

Irving’s description of a truly traditional Christmas is full of details ranging from the excitement of children riding home on a stagecoach to see their families through a very well described Christmas Eve/Day party at a mansion outside of Yorkshire complete with food, parties and the Yule log.  He also focuses on the loss of Christmas traditions and uses these five sequential stories to recall what he finds most important for preservation with regard to this spirited holiday.  Along with A Christmas Carol, Old Christmas has to be my favorite yearly re-read and one I think many people will enjoy…it captures the warmth and happiness of the season.  Besides, who doesn’t love a good English tale of parties, drinking and being merry?

Aside from the reading, there is plenty of baking to be done at this festive time.  Last weekend was full of cookies and pretty sanding sugars, but this week switches gears a bit.  As of the 23rd, the last of the work is done and it’s time to fully move into Christmas mode.  All the shopping needs to be finished, presents wrapped and a dinner planned for Brian’s homecoming.  He has been in Florida for the past week dealing with family/personal issues, but will be coming home on the evening of Christmas day…it’s almost like the song describes.

I spent the afternoon of the 23rd doing some last minute shopping for gifts…aka helping Santa out a bit in case he forgot any important items.  On the 24th, Christmas Eve, (the most important day of the year as far as I’m concerned) I ran a few food related errands in some of the surrounding villages near our home.  The sun was shining and snow covered all of the landscape.  Decorations abound as each town has it’s own set of lights, bows and evergreen draped lampposts; all the shops are open with wares nearly busting out of the doors trying to get into shoppers hands for the Christmas feast.  I purchased some wine for the soup I was making, took a little tour of a used book store full of people buying last minute gifts and made it to the natural foods market for dried fruits, chocolate and cheese.  We like to make a yummy stuffing full of fruit combined with pecans, cornbread and chorizo…a spicy and sweet little number that has become a favorite of ours over the years. Cornbread Chorizo Stuffing  (a tablespoon of minced fresh rosemary makes for a fragrant addition to the cornbread.)

The evening of Christmas Eve I try to clear my schedule as much as possible for relaxation.  After getting the cornbread made for the stuffing and preparing the brioche dough for the following day, I settle myself in to watch some holiday related television.  My all-time favorite has to be the 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS.  I started watching this quite a few years back with my brother, Nathan, one Christmas Eve when I was home.  I remember him enjoying it thoroughly and I really got into it.  Now it’s a “must do” in our household.  In honor of this tradition, I went down the road a bit to Briarcliff (the next town over) and got a delicious Chinese take-out meal of general chicken.  This may not sound very holiday-esque, but anyone who has seen A Christmas Story will be able to appreciate this.  Driving to get my food, I could see down several side streets in town fully decked out in holiday finery.  Lights were glowing on many houses and one little enclave had all the streets and driveways lined with luminaries as far as the eye could see.  It was bright and magical and made me think of being a kid, driving around with my dad to look at Christmas lights with carols playing on the radio.  Christmas Eve is unquestionably one of the most important days of the year for me.  The joy in the air is nearly palpable.  Here is a view of the houses on our street. (we are the one on the far right)

On Christmas day, the cooking and baking went into full swing.  I started by making Mrs. Henson’s Steamed Christmas pudding.  You may remember this recipe I gave in an earlier posting when I was learning how to do a steamed pudding.  I must say that practice makes perfect in this case because it came out splendidly.  The key was not only making sure the mold was thoroughly buttered, floured and sprayed with oil, but also I steamed it for nearly 3 hours instead of the 2 hours I had done previous.  The consistency was beautiful and it popped right out of the mold without any difficulty.  Mrs. Cratchitt would have been so proud…

I made the stuffing, soup and formed my brioche dough into rolls and a loaf, letting them proof for about and hour before baking.  They came out really quite spectacular.  My fears of yeast have now been eased and I am feeling more at home with the wonderful smelling (if not a tad bit temperamental) dough. 

Brian flew into JFK airport late in the afternoon and we came home to have a proper “sit-down” dinner as opposed to our usual eating in front of the television.  Afterwards we opened presents in front of the tree while playing a DVR recording of the burning Yule log.  It was so nice to have him home and be able to share this time together in spite of all that has been going on.  I think it may have been more important than ever to try and have a little Christmas cheer and some distraction from everyday life.

On the 26th, Boxing Day, Randall Sharp had us over for a wonderful dinner of duck.  The birds were stupendous and covered in a yummy glaze and compote.  I was largely responsible for the desserts at this affair, and at her request, I made Mexican Wedding cookies.  Aside from sugar cookies, these apparently are Randy’s favorite.  I had never made them before, but found them to be quite easy and fun.  Turning once more to Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, I quickly made up a batch to take to dinner.  I looked on Martha’s website for this exact recipe but was unable to find it.  I will reprint it for you here in case you take a notion to make these airy, nutty cookies:

1 Cup pecan halves

2 Cups confectioner’s sugar

2 Cups all-purpose flour

1/4-teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1-teaspoon pure almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine nuts and 1/4 cup of the confectioner’s sugar in a food processor.  Finely grind.  Combine this mixture with the flour and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (with paddle attachment) beat together butter and 3/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Make sure to scrape down the bowl periodically; then add in both extracts and finally the flour nut mixture (on low so you don’t get flour everywhere).  Mix until the dough just comes together.  You know how I feel about over-mixing.

Roll the dough into 3/4-inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheets…you can get about 15 cookies per sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  The tops will still be pale, but the underside will be golden.  After they cool, roll them in the remaining cup of confectioner’s sugar.  It’s that easy!

I also made some chocolate truffles to take to the party…another very easy item to make.  The recipe I chose makes an Earl Grey tea infused truffle, which was good, but I found the tea flavor to be a little strong.  I recommend halving the amount of tea called for in this recipe.

It was a busy few days in the kitchen to say the least, but it only comes around once a year and I love it so.  This year felt much more like a holiday about giving time and love as opposed to one full of marketing and purchasing.  I know I was able to appreciate the gifts I was given in a very different way this year…maybe this was because there have been so many trying and difficult situations happening around me or maybe because I’ve grown a little older and can see value in places I formerly could not.  The road you take to get to this place of appreciation really doesn’t matter in the end; just the fact that you are able to get there at all is what’s important.  For me, I know this was one of the best Christmases I have ever had because of the wonderful friends and family I have in my life.  For that, I am thankful.  It’s just who I am.