Hi everyone and welcome to Healthy Happy Holidays!
December is right around the corner, and you can feel the beginnings of Christmas in the air. I have Dean Frederick here with me today to discuss some holiday food traditions as a sneak preview to some recipes I’ll be sharing with you all this month!
Dean, when you think of popular Christmas food traditions in the US what comes to mind?
Christmas ham, drinking egg nog, making christmas cookies
Did you have any favorite cookies growing up?
Well I never enjoyed too many sweets but I always liked decorating gingerbread men.
Did you know – Queen Elizabeth I is credited with the idea of decorating gingerbread cookies – she was said to have cookies decorated to take after her guests
I remember decorating gingerbread men but I was never a fan of eating the actual cookie!
Chewy gingersnap cookies are my go to for the holidays – and I happened to be in the process of creating a gluten free recipe!
That’s great, I actually have a friend with celiacs disease. Do you plan on posting this recipe?
Absolutely! Within the next week
What about unpopular Christmas food traditions?
Not a whole lot comes to mind, but I guess one thing I never had any interest in was fruit cake. There was always some kind of stigma around it about not being very good.
Well, I actually stumbled across a statistic claiming 38% of americans give away fruit cakes instead of eating them. – Not sure how accurate that number is, but I wouldn’t be surprised!
In the past fruit cakes were intended to last all year due to the preservative properties of sugar and alcohol. – that’s why they are so dense!
I actually learned that I love fruit cake when I made a recipe for one from cooking light– the first time I made it I was hooked! I intended to give it as a gift but ended up keeping it for myself! I’ve made changes to the recipe over the years but it remains a tradition.
Although I still have my hesitations I trust your assessment on desserts, I certainly hope you’ll be updating your blog with a recipe that could change my mind on fruit cake
Absolutely!
Do you have any holiday traditions at home you find unique?
Clementine and walnut in the stockings, I have no idea where this tradition started or why my family has always done it, but after so many years I’d be pretty disappointed if they weren’t there this Christmas
This is a lot more popular than I had realized. In the UK children get tangerines in their stocking that is thought to originate from France. Some believe they bring good fortune!
Sounds like a bonus! Thanks for having me, I’ve enjoyed our chat and I look forward to trying out some holiday recipes this season with my family.
Thanks for being here! I’ll be posting those recipes soon as an inspiration to start new holiday traditions!
This is Jennifer Frechette wishing you all a Healthy Happy Holidays!
Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-gingerbread/
https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/the-secret-history-of-fruitcake
https://www.delish.com/food/news/a38889/statistics-about-holiday-food/
Healthy Happy Holidays 