Our Christmas Food Traditions

The Christmas traditions of many include the special foods they make only at Christmas time. Our family is no different. Every year we look forward to one savory dinner and one sweet breakfast that are always part of Christmas.

Our traditional savory dinner is Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti, made from a old family recipe from my dad’s aunt Francis; an Italian woman who knew how to cook. I can’t remember a Christmas in my whole life where these meatballs where not a part. They are truly delicious and intensely flavored (you should see the amount of onions and garlic the recipe calls for) and always taste better the day after they are made.

With my parents on their mission this Christmas I felt obliged and honored to make sure our Christmas tradition was observed. I rounded up Mary Kate, popped in It’s a Wonderful Life, grabbed some peppermints to suck on and set to work…

Making these meatballs is not difficult, just incredibly time consuming. I thoroughly enjoyed losing myself in production though, especially with the story of George Bailey playing in the background. I felt very festive…and grateful too. My parent slave away in the kitchen every year to make these meet balls for a large crowd. It’s a ton of work. Thanks mom and dad for making it happen every year!

The secret to these delicious meatballs is mountains of onions and garlic (you should have seen my tears from the onion chopping), and mixing grated sharp cheddar cheese into the meat. It has to be sharp cheddar; it’s the essential secret ingredient.

I decided it was time Mary Kate got involved in this family tradition, since I’m hoping she’ll grow up and pass it on to her family some day. I kept her busy browning the meatballs. She did an amazing job.

After the meatballs are browned you throw them all into a slow cooker (or two), cover them with this savory sauce made from scratch and simmer them all day. The longer you simmer, the better they taste. Oh, my house smelled so delicious! It smelled like Christmas.

While the meatballs were simmering I made some Christmas fudge. I’ve never liked fudge really, but a friend brought some by this year that was so delicious! I’ve now decided I’m a fan and I’ll be making this fudge every year from now on as my own Christmas food tradition.

Had to make half with nuts and half without since I have some nut haters in my house

 

The meatballs were simmered and aged to perfection when my family showed up Christmas evening to partake. We usually serve the meatballs over spaghetti noodles, but this year we decided to make meatball subs. Good decision. They were delicious! We toasted the bread with some garlic spread, stuffed each loaf with meatballs and a little sauce, topped them with Provolone and more sharp cheddar and then melted the cheese under the broiler. WOWZA!

With a Caesar salad, some shrimp and cocktail sauce and raspberry pretzel dessert as accompaniments; we had a perfect Christmas meal.

And then…

…our last, but certainly not least, Christmas food tradition is Able skivers on Christmas morning. If you’re not familiar with Able skivers, they are little Danish puff pancakes, made with eggs, flour, milk, sugar, and folded in egg whites that have been beaten stiff. You cook these little fluffy delights in a special Abel skiver pan that my grandma Stauffer gives to each of her grandkids when they get married….

When Mike and I were opening our wedding gifts (many, many years ago), we unwrapped our Abel skiver pan from Grandma. Mike was delighted when he saw it. He knew exactly what it was, having served his mission in Denmark, and having eaten Abel skiver often there. The fact that we make these every year on Christmas morning is a tradition that makes Mike feel nostalgic.

You serve these warm, steaming babies dusted with powdered sugar, with creamy butter and jam or syrup. I prefer mine with homemade Strawberry jam and a tall glass of cold milk. Oh boy!

My kids especially like this tradition. They think Abel skivers are like little doughnuts, and they kind-of are.

Of course the best part of food traditions is sharing the deliciousness with loved ones around the table….

Notice my fancy table settings and the gigantic mess in the background

Notice Jonathan’s face and lack of shirt while he tackles a plate of spaghetti and meatballs

The only part of all this I don’t like….

 

Not fun!

If anyone is interested in any of these recipes, let me know and I would be happy to share.

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas eating adventures as much as we did. In fact, what Christmas food traditions does your family have? I’d love to hear about them.