‘Tis the season for giving, cheer, gifts, and cookies with a resemblance to snowballs. Today I present you with a double helping of Holiday cheer, from our home to yours. Both of these cookies are guaranteed to warm your heart, and one will warm your tummy as well! Don’t let the resemblance fool you. These cookies may look alike on the outside, but the differences between them are like night and day. (Or chocolate and vanilla, as the case may be.)

Though I’ve posted My Aunt Thelma’s Tea Cookie recipe before, I really can’t do Christmas without them. They are a Holiday staple in my household, as they have been for the past 25 years and I doubt they will be going anywhere soon. These little treats are the ultimate in decadence, and should be eaten without remorse for what they will do to your waistline. It is Christmas, after all!

Be warned, the Brandy Balls are intended for mature audiences. These are a no bake cookie, therefore they hold about 90% of the alcohol content they were originally given. The flavor is intense and eating too many before driving is discouraged by both the management of this blog as well as state troopers anywhere in the country, not to mention M.A.D.D.

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There’s nothing that takes me back to my childhood faster than a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Just the smell is enough to bring back the sounds of my mother’s laughter, wrapping paper tearing and my sister squealing in happiness at the latest treasure to find its way out from under the tree. There are also memories of frigid January afternoons when the mist in the air carried ice. I’d get to the door from the bus, shivering and sniffling and walk through into the heat of the gas heater and the smell of hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.

Good memories all.

My mother made her hot chocolate with unsweetened powdered chocolate, sugar and milk, at least until we were older and our grandmother introduced us to packaged coca with marshmallows. At the time it didn’t really matter to me, and the marshmallow kind was sweeter. for my mother it was faster, but I think she missed making it from scratch. There just isn’t as much love in a packet.

Today my tastes are more refined. I prefer dark chocolate to the silkier milk chocolates, and any thought of using a packet has long ago been left at the wayside. It really isn’t any more trouble to make your own hot chocolate, and the taste is like nothing you will ever get from a store shelf. It is truly the perfect beverage for a cold winter’s day.

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I know that most people probably don’t think of collard greens as a part of their holiday table, but for my family they will be made every thanksgiving from now on. This dish was served last night to our dear friends Mike and Naomia, under threat of bodily injury from N. herself. (Seriously, she threatened me!) The last time I made these greens, M. was out of town, and I was told that he, and all of my readers, needed to try the “best greens she’d ever had”. (High praise for a girl from Mississippi, especially when talking to an Irish boy from California.)

I’m all for special request meals, especially for family and friends. They give me a chance to make something that’s guaranteed to make someone smile, and smile we did, but they were bittersweet at best.

N. was one of the first people my then girlfriend introduced me to when I moved to Texas in 2005. She made me feel welcome in a new place, has always been there with a bright smile and a hug when needed. she was the first person in Texas we told about our engagement and stood at our wedding with as many tears on her ebony face as we had on ours. We were the first to know of her engagement, and were at her wedding as well. We’ve been through a lot together in a short time, but it has been good, all of it.

By the time Naomia reads this entry, she will be with her family for Thanksgiving. From there she will be moving to her new duty station in Japan. When we said goodbye last night, it was for real.

In my life I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. In the military it’s just a fact of life, but it’s rare that someone manages to become such a part of your family’s life that it’s hard to imagine life without them in it.

This is one of those times.

So, Miss Naomia, I wish you well. Remember that no matter where your travels take you, there will always be a plate of greens waiting for you on our holiday table. I’ll even make sure Mike has some rice to go with it. You’re family, and family always has a place in our home.

Oh, and tell your mother we said hello.

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Like most families, we saw each other mostly on holidays, and the order of the day was, of course, the food. Turkey, in particular, with homemade cornbread stuffing, though there would be literally tons of other dishes and desserts. My mother and grandmother would usually handle the dressing personally, bickering good naturedly over amounts and cooking times up until the point that one of them went to sleep (as the stuffing is usually made the night before, and the bird is started in the morning.)

Nan: Doris, there’s not enough onions in this.

Mom: Niki won’t eat them if she can see them, Mom.

Nan: *Chuckling* Oh… I seem to remember someone else who used to say the same thing, we’ll just cut them smaller. I think this needs more sage, or maybe some poultry seasoning.

Mom: It seems right to me, but we’ll add a bit more if you think it needs it.

Nan: Oh… It’s fine if this is the way your kids like it…

…

All right, maybe just a tad.

Mom: O.K. Mom, but just a bit.

Nan: Didn’t we have more cornbread?

Mom: We did… I think Jerry got to it.

Nan: Does that boy ever stop eating?

Mom: No.

I’ve generally shied away from the traditional version, both for the time it takes to make it properly and because I tend to be extremely messy when making it, but I took the plunge with dinner last night, just to have the taste of many, many happy days with me, and the memory of a very special lady at my table.

I hope Y’All enjoy, and whatever your holiday tradition is, be sure to share it with family. Read more…

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Isn’t it funny how the littlest things can get you reminiscing about the “good old days”? Some recent upheavals in our lives have had me waxing reminiscent about home. No, not the home I share with my wife, the home I left when my last relationship fell apart, or the state that I was raised in. I’m talking about the town I was raised in.

There seems to be no lack of expatriates (or “expats”) in the food blogging community. Most list expatriatism (is that a word?) as being from one country and living in another, but some have narrowed the definition to include moving from one region within a country to another. Lisa, The Homesick Texan and Matt of Matt Bites are both expatriate Texans, Lisa in New York and Matt in California. There are sites dedicated to expatriate bloggers as well, it’s a phenomenon!

I’m going to narrow the definition a bit further. I don’t consider myself an expatriate Californian. As a matter of fact, I can take the state or leave it. Don’t get me wrong, the vistas are grand and the scenery is breathtaking, but Texas has its share of breathtaking scenery, and so does every other state in the union. It’s not the State that I miss when I’m feeling down, it’s one very particular area in the state.

I’m talking about the City of Sonoma.

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White gravy is a staple of Southern cooking. In the South and Southwest we use it to top everything from biscuits to French-Fries. Every family has its own unique method of making Gravy, and most families will tell you theirs is the best gravy ever made. (They’re all right, by the way. It’s a family thing.)

Then of course, there’s the stuff you get in restaurants across the country. In the South and Southwest it’s pretty close to what’s made in homes all across the area but once you start moving North, the story changes. The gravy starts turning into a floury-tasting ooze with all the culinary soul of preschool paste. This affront to gravy is usually made from a pouch or bag by someone who has never had real Southern gravy and has probably never cooked anything for themselves at home.

Some companies have obviously noted that this foul mix needs more attention. I’ve seen it labeled as “Southern style with ham” in which tiny bits of processed ham are added in an attempt to mask the utter blandness of it all, and I’ve seen the same done with bacon and sausage.

It doesn’t help, it’s still awful and there’s no getting away from that. It’s usually too thin. It sets up like mortar if not eaten promptly, and is usually used to hide even worse attempts at biscuits or other southern staples.

So restaurant owners, listen up and let me tell you how to do it right! I was raised on white gravy, and I just can’t take it any more!

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Texas has its own rules when it comes to cuisine. I’ve seen foods here that I’d never heard of prior to meeting and marrying a Texan, then moving to her state as well. (O.K. She’s an Expat, we’re just stationed here, her license plates are Alaskan.)

This little gem is a tribute to football games, warm Texan nights and the fact that foods, especially snack foods, change by region.

Ladies and gentle-people, I give you the venerable Frito Pie!

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Ever since I made my version of Kielbasa Stew from the recipe at La Mia Cucina, I’ve been dying to try out a version that used different types of sausage. Knowing that, I suppose it was somewhat advantageous that a tummy bug caught hold of me earlier this week, and that a good soup was the only thing on my mind. It was also fortunate that even though it was the day before payday, I had everything I needed in the larder to whip up a soup.

You keep calling it a soup. I thought the recipe was for sausage stew?

OK, you got me. It is a stew, but only in light of the absolutely outrageous amount of meat and chunky veggies it contains, and the fact that they were stewed. Usually I would have made a roux before adding the stock, but as I said, I was having tummy trouble, so I avoided thickening the broth at all.

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It’s been said for a very long time that chicken soup is good for a cold. It’s been proven that the vapors help with congestion, but I still think it’s the comfort factor that makes us feel so much better when we’re under the weather.

Mrs. seat of her Pants was down with a bug over the weekend and the only thing she could tolerate was soups and broths. In true style, she fussed at me that I didn’t need to go out of my way to make her anything “special” and that she would be quite happy with the soup in the little red box.

Powdered soup… For my sick wife… I don’t think so. Read more…

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Beef and tomatoes go together just as perfectly as pork and apples. One of my favorite methods of preparing a Round Roast is braising, since the meat has little fat and tends to be tough without the proper love and attention paid to it.

To top it off, it just doesn’t get a lot easier than this. It’s almost a “Set it and forget it” kind of main dish, which is always great in my opinion. Read more…

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