I have lots of memories and mainstays from my childhood Christmases. One of which is my Mama's tins full of pralines, divinity, chocolate covered peanut butter filled ritz, fruitcake, ranch oyster crackers and fudge. The fudge has always been my favorite.
I love to cook in my kitchen, but I do not love to bake. Exact measurements take too much time, there's always so much to clean up and it never turns out like the pretty pictures. We have lots of Christmas traditions around here, but baking hasn't been one of them. I've always felt like it should be though. I've always thought it needed to be. You know, for the kids. They should have those memories of being in the kitchen with their mom at Christmas time. So a few years ago my mom gifted me with some fancy tins of my own, and that sealed the deal. I was going to have to fill them up come December.
And I did. Except for last year. I skipped out on it with the excuse that we were going to be in Georgia for Christmas, and we'd have all the goodies in Mama's tins to enjoy. We didn't need all of that here because it wouldn't get eaten. I could've easily skipped out on it again this year, but I decided not to. So I marked a date on the calendar and made my shopping list. Besides, with a couple of girls who love to bake, that honestly makes it a bit easier. They can do all the measuring and mixing, and I can just clean up after them as they go along. It's a win win!
I'm not a big fan of pecans, but I always loved the turtles my Aunt Gail made at Christmas time, mainly for the chocolate and caramel. A few years ago I found a recipe for turtles that called for the pecans to be roughly chopped instead of whole. It's really a fun recipe and an impressive presentation (or at least I think it is) so that's what we use.Another fairly recent treat is Asian Snack Mix. Ellie can eat the wasabi peas by the can!
I don't even attempt divinity. The weather has to be just right with low humidity (which it never is here). Besides my people don't eat them, and neither do I. Pralines aren't my thing either. Because pecans. But they are Seth's favorite so I always make Mama's recipe for him. The ones we made this day didn't turn out, and I had to scrap them all into the garbage. Somebody likes to use my candy thermometer for other things so I didn't realize at the time that it no longer registers an accurate temperature. It's about 7 degrees off, and that made a big difference. I actually tried again a couple of days later making allowance for those 7 degrees, and the pralines were nearly perfect.
I'm also pretty particular about my fudge. I don't want nuts in it. Just chocolate. And I don't want it grainy. Just creamy and rich. I'd been eying a fudge recipe with hazelnuts in it for the past few years and decided to give it a go this year. I actually like it more than I thought I would. It's a keeper and will likely show up again next Christmas.
And, of course, look who shows up just in time to lick the bowl!And, at the end of the day, there's just something about wax paper lined countertops dotted with homemade goodies.
