Every culture, country, and family celebrates the holidays in unique ways. Holiday foods vary widely around the world and among people who follow varied religions, community traditions, and dietary choices. We thought we’d offer some links to recipes that are both classic and unusual, in case you’d like to learn about some new traditions, are looking for a new twist on an old favorite, or would simply like to try something new.
Classic Eggnog
Allrecipes.com goes further than listing the basic ingredients of eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla for this classic Christmas treat. The site features a video that offers tips on how to whisk and cook the eggs and milk until they are smooth and creamy. The bourbon and rum are optional!
Holiday Cookies
No holiday is complete without cookies. MomsWhoThink.com lists their top 20 holiday cookie recipes, including classic sugar cookies, chocolate toffee bars, snickerdoodles, and something a little more unusual: kolachky, a Polish bakery treat.
Christmas Candies
If you’re looking for some new Christmas candy ideas, TasteofHome.com has posted their Top 10 Christmas Candy Recipes. Included are chocolate caramel candy, cranberry orange truffles, hint-of-berry bon-bons, and white chocolate peppermint crunch. (We’re getting hungry just writing this blog!)
Chanukah Treats
If you celebrate Chanukah, you might want to go Israeli style and cook traditional sufganiot (doughnuts) this year. And although every family has their own preferences when it comes to latke (potato pancake) recipes, Epicurious.com offers a recipe that features 1 pound of potatoes, 1/2 of cup finely chopped onion, 1 large egg, lightly beaten, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of olive oil.
Corn Muffins with a Kwanzaa Twist
The Food Network offers up its top Kwanzaa recipes, including sweet potato treats, Moroccan chicken stew, and fried Okra. Their recipe for Chile Corn Muffins rounds out the favorites.
Milad –un-Nabi Delicacies
The Muslim Celebration of Milad-un-Nabi takes place early next year, and ifood.tv has posted a list of traditional foods for this holiday. Included are Tharida, “a dish consisting of bread crumbled with the aid of fingers into a light and savory broth;” Asida, a porridge made from semolina; and Rafis, sweetmeats prepared with wheat, honey and butter. Recipes vary depending on the local food habits of different regions.
Christmas Russian Style
In Russia, it is traditional to serve teacakes on Christmas. One traditional family recipe posted on AllRecipes.com makes use of 1 cup of butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 6 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar, 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of chopped walnuts, and ¼ cup of confectioners’ sugar for decoration. Additional favorite Russian and Ukrainian holiday recipes, posted on HubPages, include salat (potato-vegetable salad), meat pancakes, and kolachi with raisin nut or prune/apricot filling.
Chinese New Year Recipes
The Chinese New Year doesn’t arrive until January 23, 2012, but the Food Network lists a wide variety of Chinese recipes that can help you ring in the Year of the Dragon. Seafood recipes include whole crispy brook trout with spicy mango-pineapple sauce, and Chinese whole fish with black bean sauce. Noodles recipes include Pops’ Singapore noodles; vegetable recipes include braised bok choy and shitakes; and dumpling recipes include steamed ginger dumplings in ginger broth.
Go Vegetarian!
Looking for some great vegetarian holiday recipes? Eatingwell.com offers suggestions and recipes for a variety of healthy vegetarian main dishes. Browse through recipes for such delights as acorn squash stuffed with chard & white beans, crispy phyllo spinach tartlets, mushroom & leek galette, and red wine braised roots.
Go Vegan!
Is a vegan diet more to your liking? AllRecipes.com goes there with you, featuring such holiday recipes as veggie quinoa, pumpkin butter, light fruit & nut granola, and vegan cupcakes.
Top It All Off With Some Mexican Desserts
We can’t forget our Mexican friends to the south – and we wouldn’t want to. This list of recipes for traditional Mexican desserts at FactsAboutMexico.com will make you hungry for Buñuelos, Calabaza dulce, and Mexican wedding cookies.
The above links are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg; there are so many food traditions around the world (and even within the United States) that there’s no way we could cover them all here. But we hope you’ve enjoyed this “taste” of what’s out there, and that you’ll have fun preparing your holiday favorites this year.
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