Holiday nostalgia - foods we had around the house at this time of year when I was young...

[NRaleighLiberal]

We're talking 45-50 years ago....



Why? I just sat there and cracked them. Far as I could tell, no one ate them. But there they were every year.



bowls of this as well - pretty to look at...awful to eat (at least I thought so!). An annual adventure - I guess my mom or dad or grandma or someone like it!



They weren't exactly like this, but my mom bought boxes of anise flavored sugar cookies - trees, wreaths - with green or red sprinkled sugar. Not great, but not bad - but though I've not had them in decades, I can still taste that licorice flavor in my mind!



Now we're talking! My mom liked to buy a box of petit fours - little squares of layer cake, white or chocolate frosted, some sort of jam.


Best candy I got in my stocking back then -

[MrYikes]

1. Yeah but,,,

you didn't mention Spanish peanuts and red hots. or popcorn balls, or homemade saltwater taffy, Those are my holiday memories.

[pipi_k]

2. Nuts!

and ribbon candy! We had them all the time at my house too!

And the candy I liked best to find in my stocking...

[hibbing]

15. I'm too nuts!

My grandfather would always bring a giganto burlap sack of pecans for us kids to crack and eat over the holidays. Good times, and I still make sure I buy some during this time of the year.

Peace

[archiemo]

32. Received one of these every year from my grandparents!

[RobinA]

37. I Always

really, really, really wanted one of those. A few girls would always get them at the Girl Scout gift exchange, but me? Never. I got a pin, a craft, a headband... I wanted a Life Saver fold-out book!!!! Unfortunately, when I got old enough to buy my own damn Life Saver fold-out book they were way smaller and just didn't seem as fun as they did when I was 10.

When I got a lot older and was buying gifts for some kids I just wanted to get a little something for, I got them Life Saver fold-out books. I figured, who doesn't like Life Savers, even if they don't WANT them the way I did. The reaction? "What I really wanted was a (fill in latest hot electronic here)."

Today, I am very conflicted about Life Saver fold-out books.

[Callmecrazy]

3. I miss salt water taffy...

From the boardwalk in Atlantic City.

[mrmpa]

4. Just yesterday............

a neighbor stopped in to see me and my 83 ear old mother. We started talking about holiday foods. I talked about the shelled walnuts my folks always had around from Thanksgiving through Christmas. We would take the nutcracker to them and them there was a pick that we would use to take out all the meat from the shell.

Mom talked about when she worked in the produce yards when she got out of high school in 1948. She worked for this company until she got married in 1952. Every Christmas the owner would give each employee about a 20 lb. bag of nuts, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, etc. Mom's parents loved that bag of nuts, Grandma would use quite a bit of it for baking, my Grandpap would shell every nut in the bag. He would sit in the kitchen to do this while Grandma baked and they talked.

On top of the bag of nuts he gave to each employee, he also gave them a $50 cash present. Those were the days.

[LNM]

24. What a nice memory! n/t

[KamaAina]

5. For me, no stocking would be complete without

No, seriously, Hanukkah gelt! (the more secular variety, nothing with Hebrew or menorahs or stuff)

I have no idea how this started. Mom always said Grandpa gave it to her. Grandpa was hardly a known Semitophile.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I remember those bowls of assorted nuts - we had a nutcracker just like that one.

We also had ribbon candy, which I didn't like very much, but that photo was deja vu all over again. We also got these: http://www.libertyorchards.com/product/Aplets_and_Cotlets/Aplets_and_Cotlets
I liked them but haven't had them in years. Maybe I'll order a box.

[In_The_Wind]

7. I miss Christmas Pecan Logs.

Yeah. I'm looking back 55-60 years ago. We always had oranges and tangerines that were sweet as sugar. I loved those more than ribbon candy.

[trof]

8. STUCKEY'S Pecan Logs! Yeah!

I remember those.

[In_The_Wind]

11. They still exist but I don't live in the South any more.

Last time I drove home from Florida I brought home a bunch of logs and divinity.

[trof]

13. Divinity! Granny used to make that.

Melt in your mouth.

[In_The_Wind]

18. It's only good when it's fresh.

It becomes hard as a rock very quickly. Crunchy.

[surrealAmerican]

9. chestnuts?

This was the only time of year you could get them. We used to steam/roast them on the stove in a foil pie pan. It destroyed the pan, and smelled funny, and I usually hurt my fingers trying to peel them when they were still too hot, but the chestnuts tasted great.

[hedgehog]

10. How does one eat ribbon candy?

[rurallib]

20. break it into smaller pieces

then try about two pieces and that will end any craving for it for ever.
Every year 9/10s of the pound would go to the trash

[trof]

12. 60 years ago...Bourbon Balls.

These were only made before Christmas.
I was 12 or 13 before I was allowed to have one.


Recipe:
This easy recipe is a Southern favorite, made with bourbon, vanilla wafer crumbs, and cocoa, along with pecans and confectioners' sugar.
Ingredients:

1 cup fine vanilla wafer crumbs
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
confectioners' sugar, sifted

Preparation:
Thoroughly combine 1 crushed vanilla wafer crumbs, chopped pecans, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, and the cocoa. In a separate bowl, blend the bourbon and corn syrup. Stir this bourbon mixture into the dry mixture; blend well. Cover and chill for at least a few hours.

Sift about 1/2 to 1 cup of confectioners' sugar on a cookie sheet. Shape small bits of the dough into balls and roll them in the confectioners'. Store in refrigerator in tightly covered containers. Make these a few days in advance for best flavor, and roll in confectioners' sugar again before serving, if desired.

These can also be frozen for longer storage.
Makes about 3 dozen bourbon balls.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Oh, yeah, I remember those!

My mom made them every year (for my dad, I think), but I didn't like them. They tasted like bourbon, which to this day I don't like. Tastes like varnish remover. Bourbon balls tasted like chocolate brownies soaked in varnish remover.

[trof]

16. As a southerner, I 'grew up' on bourbon.

It's the first whiskey I drank.
Bourbon and Coke and later 'Bourbon and Branch' (water).

Later I developed a taste for Scotch.
My preference today.

[No Vested Interest]

25. I'm still a bourbon drinker

I have used very little alcohol for many years, but just in the last month, with the premature cold weather and a little sniffle, I've had a hot toddy most evenings. Bourbon, lemon juice, sweetener, hot water. MMMM nice.

I'm just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, and my brother went to school in Bardstown, home of distilleries.

[HarveyDarkey]

27. I do those

the sweetener I use is honey. It's really a throat soother.

[No Vested Interest]

29. That's a good idea I'll use.

I knew honey was good for that purpose, but didn't think about it this year.

Incidentally, have you heard anything about a lot of honey now available in the US coming from China? Which means, I guess, that it may be adulterated or not as pure as we would like?
I know that honey local to one's home area is always considered the best for what ails you; that type is often more costly.

[lost-in-nj]

17. we had nuts and ribbon candy also

Plus stolen and pfferneuse another powdered suger licorice / anice flavored cookie. Brother O'Brian spiced wine was also a staple fror a midnight toast on christmas morning.


Sorry for the spelling , on my phone

Lost

[Kingofalldems]

19. Fruitcake!!

The dessert of champions.

[femmocrat]

21. We always had this candy:

No one ate it. It would get all stuck together and thrown out in a big lump.

[NRaleighLiberal]

22. Yes! We had those too...they were filled either with jam (yuck) or chocolate (passable)

But less than 20% got eaten!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. My Grandmother's homemade caramels, peanut butter fudge...

and chocolate almond toffee crunch. Pure Pennsylvania. Mmm mmm.

[Paulie]

26. Summer Sausage and cheese from Swiss Colony

Shelled nuts were common too. Brass cracker and matching nut meat picks. And lots of candy canes including ones that were a foot long, inch and a half wide and not crooked; our own light sabers.

Never saw ribbon candy.

[Art_from_Ark]

28. This was always a holiday staple

[4_TN_TITANS]

30. Nuts!

Thanks for the reminder to fill up the nut bowl, a tradition brought over from my wife's family.

[B Calm]

31. Belgium Waffle Cookies

[benld74]

34. We called them Gauffrettes in our house

as my father was French. The 'iron' was passed down to my sister, hand held over the stove flame 1 minute on each side, 2 cookies at a time. I found a modern variety of the iron, which is electric, also 2 cookies at a time. BUT I can crank 2 out every 40 seconds. Much quicker.

[sharp_stick]

33. Mennonite Baking

Every year at Oma & Opa's in addition to the boxes of chocolate and mixed nuts she'd have gone crazy baking up all kinds of stuff.

Now my wife, not a Mennonite and I have taken up the tradition of a few of these.

German Hazelnut Cookies: I could eat these by the bucket

?t=1386775395

Brown Jam Cookies: I only liked the ones with the white icing

?t=1386775380

pfeffernusse: I hated these until I started drinking coffee, then I dunked one like Opa did and got hooked.

?t=1386775376

[Sentath]

38. Googled Recipe Links

German Hazelnut Cookies (a.k.a. Haselnussplätzchen*) were easy to find.

Pfeffernüsse are awesome. I don't know why it took coffee for you to enjoy them, but I'm glad you've joined us ( ;

But I can't figure out the 'Brown Jam Cookies'. They don't quite look like http://mookiesbaker.blogspot.gr/2013/06/crescent.html#.Uqiw1_RDswB and I know they aren't thumbprint cookies. Any help?

*I am not going to sprain my tongue trying that one.

[sharp_stick]

39. Sure

I got the picture from the site below. The recipe she uses for the regular ones is exactly the same as the recipe I have from Oma. The ingredient under the lard that I found hard to read is star aniseed and I have no idea how that Asian spice made it into a Mennonite recipe. Also the syrup is a Golden Syrup, you can see that down in the comments, not sure how easy it is to find in the US. I had mine smuggled in last year when Mom came for a visit from Canada. You might be able to substitute corn syrup but I'd hunt for the Golden if possible.

http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2008/11/christmas-brown-jam-cookies-regular-and.html

Oma's pfeffernusse were pretty hard and I never enjoyed the work it took to eat them. Especially with all the other stuff available. The pfeffernusse always seemed like one of the adult treats.

I never tried dunking them until I started drinking coffee and had them sitting with Opa one day in the kitchen.

on edit: I just noticed you can get Golden Syrup from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=golden+syrup&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Agolden+syrup

[benld74]

35. Bagna Caulda

Bagna càuda, is a warm dip typical of Piedmont, Italy, but with numerous local variations. The dish, which is served and consumed in a manner similar to fondue, is made with garlic, anchovies,butter.

I hated the smell of it cooking when I was a kid, but now? MMmmmmmmmmmm!

One can dip varieties of bread, vegetables etc into the dip before eating,,,,

[progressivejazzredux]

36. Torrone.

Almond nougat flavored with honey. I guess this is an Italian thing. I think it goes back to the middle ages. They came in small boxes that we kids always made trains out of.