‘Tis the Season…For a Number of Holidays!

It’s the holiday time of year, isn’t it? We get a little break after Thanksgiving here in the U.S., but Hanukkah has begun. Christmas and Kwanzaa are a little over a week away. So, this week, we’re looking at a few recipes from all of those traditions. (We’ll even get into New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day!)

We’re starting with a more recent publication: Southern Holidays (2014) from the Savor the South series. It’s a more modern book and while many of the recipes are modernized, as you’ll see, they have roots that are far deeper. In addition, one of the things about this book is its perspective. Earlier holiday-themed cookbooks in our collection tend to have a specific focus, usually around Christmas (though not always). As we know, there are many other holidays this time of year, and it’s exciting to see them represented here. (I believe we have more titles, but I have to save some for next year!)

Southern Holidays: A Savor the South Cookbook, Debbie Moose, 2014.

Moose offers a twist on traditional latkes–her version is made with sweet potatoes, a Southern staple.

In the Christmas section, Moose shares another potato-based dish: Moravian Sugar Cake.

The history of some ingredients in ambrosia might surprise you–many have connections to aspects of African American food traditions, including many of the fruits in this classic.

The second book with our feature recipes for today is The Holiday Cookbook from 1957. It’s arranged chronologically, so it starts with New Year’s, but we’re going the other way around and starting with the closer holiday. 🙂

This page includes Christmas recipes, several of which rely on persimmons and pomegranates.

Wassail is one of those recipes with a LOT of variation. This one includes a lot of steps to make it from scratch, but there are simplified variations out there, too, if you’d like to do a little less work.

If your New Year’s celebrations need canapes, The Holiday Cookbook can help! (I left out the anchovy options…)

This publication puts eggnog under New Year’s, but plenty of people enjoy it all fall/winter long. Here are a three varieties, including one that has another holiday classic: cranberry!

No matter what you may be celebrating, chances are you have a holiday food tradition of some sort and we hope you have the opportunity to indulge in it this year! There will a short post going up next week (after your archivist/blogger has headed off to visit family and friends) featuring some military holiday menus, but we want to take this opportunity to say, from Special Collections to you:

Happy Holidays!