Coming Out of the Christmas Haze: Favorite Recipes from the Season

Hey, Friends!
My apologies for being out of touch for so long. Cooking, dinners, parties, family, friends, more food, more cooking, and a few church services here and there, all filled my past month to overflowing in the best of ways. I have several essays in the works  but, for now, want to share with you our favorite recipes from the Christmas season. Below are links to the ones we loved with my notes.
I hope you're either enjoying your kitchen or spending plenty of time with someone who does. The winter months have me craving comfort food and wishing I could hibernate with the bears. This fall I made two large batches of Brunswick stew with leftover barbequed pork and roasted chicken. The containers in the freezer will soon call my name, demanding to be warmed in the crock pot and eaten with fresh cornbread.
Speaking of cornbread, at one of our holiday dinner parties, a guest brought cornbread Madeleines. She used a recipe for slightly sweet cornbread and baked it in a Madeleine pan instead of a round cast iron pan. They were wonderful! It reminded me of cornbread baked in pans with hollows shaped like little corn cobs. But the Madeleines had the perfect depth and light crunch to them, unlike the little corn shaped pieces. I haven't tried this trick yet myself, but you better believe it's on my list.
Now to the recipes!

Alton Brown's City Ham: We have made this one several times over the years and seem to come back to it again and again. The mustard and ginger snaps give it the most wonderful flavor and the pan drippings are delicious! Even though I'm a fan of whiskey and bourbon, I don't find that it adds much to this recipe, so leave it off if you like or don't have any around.  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/city-ham-recipe-2013153
A note about kitchen hardware: A couple of Christmases ago, I asked Derek for a counter top roaster. It was when we were living in a smaller house and I still was working in my "two butt" kitchen (see the old post on my blog). I have used the heck out of the thing! It cooks this ham perfectly and roasted chickens and turkeys come out beautifully. It's more efficient than my regular oven and keeps my oven free for side dishes and bread. Sometimes new hardware gets used once and then is forgotten, but this one has been a great addition to our kitchen. Here's the one we own: https://www.amazon.com/Oster-CKSTRS23-SB-Roaster-22-Qt-Stainless/dp/B00CQLJESK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547604425&sr=8-1&keywords=oster+roaster+oven+22+quart
Spritz Cookies: There are two recipes that I have to make or it doesn't feel like Christmas: Spritz cookies and crock pot candy (recipe below). You have to have a cookie press to make these. I have the one my lovely mother-in-law handed down to me as well as a newer one that uses a trigger rather than the traditional screw mechanism to press the dough through the plates and onto the cookie sheet. The great thing is that these cookies last for weeks in the cookie jar. The kids can sprinkle the colored sugar or Christmas jimmies on top. https://www.a-kitchen-addiction.com/classic-spritz-cookies/?cn-reloaded=1
Crock Pot Candy: My family would revolt if I didn't make at least two batches of this candy over the holidays. I received the recipe from our former neighbor after she gave us some and I then begged her for it. It is very easy and very tasty.
1 jar salted dry roasted peanuts (I buy the store brand. No need to be too fancy)
1 bag chocolate chips (I do get the Nestle's here because they melt well)
1 block white almond bark
1 block German chocolate in the green wrapper
Dump all ingredients in your crock pot in the above order. Turn crock pot on low and let cook for about two hours, until the chocolate is melted but not burned. Remove the lid from the crock pot, turn it off, and stir everything very well. Cover your counters with wax paper (you may want to put kitchen towels under the wax paper to make a barrier between the paper and your counter; the chocolate will be hot). Drop the mix by the spoonful on the paper and allow to cool and harden before peeling  from the paper and storing. Some people like to drop clumps into little papers. It looks nice this way but we tend to like the dropped pieces better. You'll end up with some larger and some smaller pieces. I tend to go for the thinner pieces with fewer peanuts. Somehow the salt from the peanuts collects in the chocolate of this small shards

Mashed Turnips with Crispy Shallots: I wasn't sure about this recipe when I chose it but I was looking for a comforting yet different side for a dinner. The hardest part of this recipe was getting the shallots crispy. The rest of it was a piece of cake and I was surprised how much people loved it! Another bonus was that it kept well. I made it several hours ahead of time and then warmed it before dinner. I like an easy side that is tasty and convenient. I'm keeping this one for future meals. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mashed-yellow-turnips-with-crispy-shallots-recipe-1944741
Chocolate Pavlova: If you have stayed with me to this point, you will not be disappointed! I made this for Christmas Eve and it was out of this world, a nice counter part to the walnut cake I had bought from my cake lady (And if you don't have a cake lady, get you one! Tory at Victoria's Sweet Treats in Toccoa GA is my go-to.). I traded out the raspberries for fresh pomegranate seeds because I like pomegranate better and it felt more festive. Another slight change I made was using dark chocolate balsamic vinegar from Leaning Ladder in Woodstock GA. They have fantastic infused oils and vinegars and you can order from them online (https://www.leaningladderoliveoil.com/). My friend Nicole introduce the store to me and I don't know whether to love or hate her for it. I'm hooked on their flavors and the quality of their products.
And can we pause for a moment to wonder at Nigella Lawson's writing? The recipe is worth reading simply for the pleasure of her words, like, "you should feel the promise of squidginess beneath your fingers," which she uses to describe the feel when you know the pavlova is done.
When you bite into this dish, first you feel the fluffy creaminess of the whipped cream, then your teeth sink into the crispy crunch followed by the chewy center of the pavlova, before you finally bite down on an exploding pomegranate seed. This dessert is about as festive as you can get.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-raspberry-pavlova-recipe-1973184
Feel free to send me your favorite holiday recipes! I'd love to add to my "play list," as it were.

I hope you're all having a marvelous start to your new year.

Love,
Mary+

The Steadfastness and Faithfulness of Joseph

While my husband is at work and the kids are at school, I find some time to pull out the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations. Preparing the house for the season is a Herculean task, but one I adore and anticipate with joy every year. I love see each room transform as shades of red and green begin to litter the shelves, walls, and counters. I love some decorations simply for their beauty but many I love more for their memories.

I leave a few things for the family to do together. The tree is a two-person job and decorating it becomes a family affair, though, truthfully, my husband and I still end up doing the bulk of it as our children’s attention tends to wax and wane. They kids will find “their” ornaments, the ones with their names on them, and my husband and I will reflect on friends and family that gifted some ornament or another to us or on the time we purchased it together to mark a special occasion.

Special attention is reserved, however, for all of our nativity sets. We have the Snoopy set, the wooden set made especially for children to play with, one made of clay, and another of porcelain. We make an inventory of each one: Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the shepherds, the wise men, the angel, maybe a star, and certainly some animals. Usually there is a debate about which one is Joseph and which are the shepherds, they all look so much alike.

Poor Joseph.

It’s interesting how we say, “Mary and Joseph;” Joseph always being Mary’s “plus one” to the party.

I walk over and pick up Joseph from one of our sets and turn him over in my hands. Too often he is treated as an accessory, even in scripture. He disappears entirely after the story of the boy Jesus in the temple in Luke’s gospel. Mark never mentions him; neither does Paul in any of his letters.

I look at the small Joseph in my hands and wonder, anew, at his faithfulness. To marry a tainted woman, especially in Joseph’s time, was scandalous and Mary was tainted, carrying another man’s child. At least, that is how the world would see it. In a dream, an angel commands him to accept Mary, despite her condition, and trust that the child to be born is holy.

Against all odds, Joseph does as the angel commands. He could have written off the angel’s appearing as a dream. He could have bowed to social pressure and cast Mary out, as would have been expected. He could have walked away or cast out the son he knew wasn’t his own. But, instead, he stayed. He raised the child and loved the mother. He chose to bear down, deep into his faith, and remain steadfast and true to God and to Mary.

What would you do if every instinct, every societal norm, even every religious expectation told you to take one path but you knew God had called you to another? Would you be strong enough not to bow to pressure? What if it meant being abandoned by your friends and family? What if everyone called you a “fool” and shook their heads at your poor judgement?

This Christmas season, may we commit ourselves anew, not to the beautiful baby who smiles beatifically from his manger, but to the radical man who defies the world by dying on a cross, an ultimate sign of foolishness. May we find in our hearts the steadfastness and faithfulness of Joseph who dared to stay, dared to hope, dared to say “yes” to God.

I leave you with a poem I wrote many years ago during one of the first Christmases when I stopped seeing Joseph, the accessory, and started appreciating Joseph, the man.

A very blessed Advent and Christmas to you all.

Against the Screams

A young woman lies,

resting between the screams of pain.

A loyal husband waits.

Does he feel angry against the screams?

Does he question his decision?

Does he trust the angel in this moment?

Against her screams, can he believe?

Is he scared that the angel wasn’t real?

That it is all a lie?

Do those screams bring forth a savior

or a bastard son?

In this moment, does he have faith?

Can he?

Does he stay beside her?

Hold her hand?

Or does he go outside to wonder, wait?

He screams cut through the quiet dark of night.

And against the screams, he waits.