Orts & Reports: Holiday Traditions
Hallmark Christmas Movies, the Feliz Navidad Miracle & Meals Across the Miles
Small Bite #1: Newstalgia | The Hallmarks of a Christmas Movie
I refuse to apologize for my new addiction: Hallmark Christmas movies. Okay, they’re cheesy, but they’re my Xanax; a video dopamine hit; an escape to get through the ridiculousness of this year. They’ve even inspired the long-form essay I’ve been writing for a good two months now about an unexpected Christmastime reunion with my parents nearly a decade ago. It’s an unwieldy piece and may never be finished…so, overlaying the basic Hallmark plot with my own story, the CliffsNotes/TLDR version of my Christmas movie goes something like this:
High powered career woman living in a major metropolitan area (insurance exec in Phoenix) returns to her small hometown at Christmastime (an island in Maine) to save the family business (her mom’s Cook & Tell newsletter), abandoning the successful life she’s built for herself (quits a 25 year career), participates in hometown and family holiday traditions (island tree lighting, annual Opera House gingerbread contest, Christmas Eve lobster dinner with parents) and makes her life about the family and family business.
If this sounds familiar, it should.
Encouraged by a seemingly endless queue of Christmas movies, I managed to check off a few festive traditions from the Hallmark Playbook this holiday season:
✅Visit A Christmas Market
At Scottsdale’s Annual Swedish Christmas Market last weekend: Folk costumes! Cardamom bread! Rugged Scandinavian coffee I have so missed since the year I spent in Norway! Julenissen! Glögg! Lingonberry jam! And the crown jewel, prinsesstårta (princess cake), so named for three Swedish princesses who were particularly fond of this sponge cake layered with raspberry jam, custard, whipped cream frosting and topped with a layer of marzipan.
✅Mail Christmas Cards
Spent a weekend handwriting Christmas cards—which seems like such a daunting task in the digital age, but worth it in the end. Note: they were not Hallmark cards.
✅Bake Holiday Treats
Like the ubiquitous red stand mixer in every Hallmark Christmas kitchen, my vintage Kitchen Aid mixer got a hellacious workout making holiday sweets for neighbors and friends: biscotti from a recent bake-along with
; orange coconut snowballs; crockpot candies (a recipe shared by subscriber Mel L); sweet & spicy pecans; 1-2-3 jam drop cookies; and the nutty vegan fruitcake in ’s newsletter.Pop by the official Cook & Tell Instagram feed for my 12 Days of Christmas Sweets series!
For obvious reasons (hello…Phoenix), the perfectly sculpted snowman, mandatory sleigh ride and snowball fight did not occur, although I considered the gym’s annual Sleigh Ride cycling class. And even after watching a dozen or so gingerbread house decorating contests in the movies, I wasn’t quite ambitious enough to make my own. Here are a few tips if you’re so inclined.
Small Bite #2: Southwest Traditions | Feliz Navidad Fiesta
I’ve never been one for turkey on Christmas—isn’t this the whole point of Thanksgiving?? And yet, I don’t have a go-to Christmas meal. Some years, I make my mom’s favorite corn and crabmeat chowder. Or lasagna. I even cooked a roast beef back when I was a meat-eater oh so many Christmases ago. Last Christmas, I gave the desert my heart with a fiesta-worthy menu: Tamale Casserole, Avocado Caesar Salad and Tres Leches Cake.
Tasting Notes: Tamale Casserole was an easy alternative to handcrafted tamales, a traditional Christmas staple in Mexican and Southwest culture. In this Mexican version of Shepherd’s Pie, I substituted Impossible Ground “Beef,” snuck in a teaspoon of cumin as it simmered, and chuckled at the Worcestershire sauce, an ingredient as ubiquitous as Jello and Velveeta in this recipe’s heyday.
The Tres Leches Cake came out picture perfect, its texture exactly as described. Spongy and sweet, with a whipped topping as fluffy as a cloud.
Small Bite #3: Meals Across the Miles | Other Peoples’ Traditions
Subscriber Sharon Howard, a former foods teacher and retired attorney with a cookbook collection as impressive as the multi-course Christmas dinner she’s been serving to friends for more than 40 years, shares her holiday tradition with the Cook & Tell community:
“It starts with champagne and either foie gras or American caviar and a homemade terrine of pork and veal from a Gourmet Magazine recipe I saved from the 1970s served with a sauce made from Edmond Fallot Burgundy Pinot Noir Dijon Mustard, baguette slices, and cornichons,” Sharon writes.
“Then a soup course—usually cream of mushroom or wild rice; a full size standing rib roast from local meat shop, with a reduction sauce and a mushroom ragout and usually shaved Brussels sprouts with bacon in cheese sauce, and either wild rice or a savory starch like bread pudding; a poached pear/butter lettuce/blue cheese/candied pecans with vinaigrette salad; sometimes a cheese course; dessert of molded English steamed pudding that I make early in the day and serve with brandy hard sauce.
We have lovely wines throughout the meal and finish with a great French Sauterne or Barsac —one of our guests almost always brings a Chateau d’Yquem. Even trying to recall it for you now seems like lots of work!”
What’s on your holiday menu? Share your holiday traditions with the Cook & Tell community!
Whisking you and yours a Merry Holiday,
Amie
The Cook & Tell Library | Recipe Index | Owner’s Manual | the micromashup |
What's on my holiday table? After reading the recipe for Tamale Casserole, I'm making that for the family Christmas Eve Supper and I might leave any leftovers out for St Nick, too! Happy Holidaze, Amy!
Love the picture with your parents.❤️ Also, Hallmark movies are the greatest!