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Grandma's Christmas Cookies (Zoe Bradley-Hart

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Grandma's Christmas Cookies (Zoe Bradley-Hart

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One food that is very important to me and my family is my grandma’s sugar cookies. The cookies are basic sugar cookies, but they include a special ingredient: orange zest. The cookies are crumbly and soft, buttery and sweet with just a hint of orange flavor. The frosting that we make for them is milk and powdered sugar mixed together, with food dye to make the different colors. This adds another layer of sweetness to the cookies. There’s a story from before I was born of one year when my grandma decided not to make her cookies. My parents were living in a different part of the country at the time, and so my grandma mailed them cookies, but had used store bought dough thinking no one would notice. My parents noticed. Grandma’s orange zest cookies are so, so much better than store bought ones it would be impossible not to know the difference. We always  eat these cookies together on Christmas eve as desert, often with a side of ice cream. In my family, we celebrate all our holidays together with both sides of my family, and I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like the cookies. The reason the cookies are special to me personally is because of the decorating I have done with my grandparents. I have so many good memories of decorating the cookies with my grandma and grandpa. Every year, I would go to their house and help Grandma roll out the cookie dough and choose the cookie cutters we were going to use that year while Grandpa made the frosting. We’d put them in the oven, then once they cooled a little Grandpa and I would start decorating. We always got frosting and sprinkles all over the table and floor, but it was so much fun. We always made sure to get extra red hots - they’re the favorite of both me and my dad. Since I was really little, there hasn’t been a year I can remember where I haven’t helped them cut and decorate the cookies. After Grandpa died last year, Grandma and I continued our cookie making tradition. This will be the first year I will not be able to help her decorate the cookies due to the pandemic and social distancing. In the future, I’m sure I will continue to help Grandma decorate cookies, and I’m sure she will continue to bake her delicious orange zest cookies each year.
The picture is of me and my grandparents with a container of our freshly decorated cookies.

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When I was a kid, my Grandma (at whose house I spent every Christmas of my life until she passed away in 2014) would always make Monkey Bread on Christmas morning. Only none of us knew it was called ‘Monkey Bread’. I’d never even heard of anyone else eating it! We just called it ‘That Cinnamon Roll Thing,’ and we only ever had it on Christmas morning. The version she made was made with frozen bread dough, brown sugar, melted butter, walnuts, and powdered pudding mix, but now I understand that this is kind of the shortcut way to make it (since she wasn't making the bread dough from scratch). It’s basically a huge pastry covered in melted butter and sugary syrup and everyone just pulls big chunks of it off. Everyone in my family loved it, and I started helping Grandma make it on Christmas Eve when I was a teenager. We would assemble in at night before going to bed (with the bread dough balls still frozen), and then it would sit out (covered with a towel) on the washer and dryer so it could thaw + slowly rise overnight before baking. We would get up SO EARLY on Christmas morning (literally at 5am every year) that it sometimes wouldn’t even rise enough overnight… until the year they got a new heating system in their house + it was *really* warm where we put it. It WAY over-proofed and was spilling out of the bundt pan when we got up the next morning. We cooked it anyway, since everyone was looking forward to it… the butter and sugar spilled out and melted all over the bottom of the oven. Well... the next night, my BFF Liina came and spent the night. We were trying to quietly make frozen pizza at like 2am (you know, as you do when you’re 16)... and all the melted butter and sugar on the bottom of the oven caught fire and set off the fire alarm, waking up everyone in the house!! As for the monkey bread (why is it even called that?), everyone loved it so much that we started having to make two entire pans of it. After my Grandma passed away, my Mom started making it. Somehow it's never cooked enough in the middle, though, and it's just not the same as when Grandma made it! Maybe I should start making it?

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Deviled eggs have somehow become an important dish within my family. Deviled eggs are made up of eggs (obviously), mayonnaise, and mustard. They are hard-boiled eggs that are cut in half and filled with a mixture of egg yolk, mayo, and mustard.  My family fights over the deviled eggs every Christmas and Thanksgiving, and I'm usually on the sides just watching. To me they are way overrated. I've tried them a few times and they have way too much of a mustard taste for my liking. Deviled eggs have a very creamy and tangy flavor. My mother makes them every year for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, and occasionally for my papa's birthday. My whole family loves them but specifically my grandpa. My mom has to make a whole plate of them just for him because he's willing to fight my family for them. They're usually gone within minutes on family occasions. I'm honestly not sure why they are so popular amongst them. My moms made them ever since I can remember and the recipe has always stayed the exact same. My mom makes them with her signature ham that she also makes every holiday. And my papa always brings his iconic mashed potatoes.

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A traditional German pancake is very similar to a crepe; like a thin pancake. It is a very simple recipe using only 5 ingredients, flour, milk, eggs, sugar, and a dash of vanilla. What makes this different is that there is more milk than there is flour.  Overall it is not a very sweet “pancake”, what makes this tasty is the topping that you add.

My Great grandmother lived in Germany and when she moved to America she brought this recipe with her. She would make these for my grandpa which then got passed down to my dad. We love to make this recipe when we have people visiting. Anyone that tries these German Pancakes loves them. This recipe hasn't changed since my great-grandmother made it, however one time I accidentally put salt instead of sugar (whoops).

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Mummy calzone

Something my family used to make around halloween was a mummy calzone! It was like a regular calzone except it looked like a wrapped up mummy with black olives as the eyes. My mom is the one who always makes this dish, but sometimes I like to help! The mummy calzone would either be served as a main dish or as an appetizer. Sometimes I would dip it in warm  marinara sauce.

The ingredients for the mummy calzone were refrigerated pizza dough,c1 large egg, black olives, shredded mozzarella cheese, cooked ground sausage, pepperoni, bacon, and pineapple.

Whenever I ate this I always really liked it! It tasted like Hawaiian pizza with bacon and more marinara sauce than normal. I remember my brother loving it too and always asking my mom for more! With this dish we would usually have ceasar salad and a big glass of milk. We don’t make this dish anymore, but maybe next year around Halloween I will make it for my family. I would like to try adding some sweet peppers to it and maybe putting some black olives inside the mummy.

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I have always loved mac and cheese, but this recipe beats every other mac and cheese recipe by far. It’s a recipe by Martha Stewart in a Everyday Foods cookbook. The main ingredients are obviously elbow pasta, lots of sharp white cheddar cheese, and grated parmesan. I think another important ingredient is the little bit of cayenne pepper that you put into the cheese sauce. The plain breadcrumbs that are put on top and baked to become really crispy are the best part. We usually make this mac and cheese for Thanksgiving. My mom usually makes it, but I made it this year and it turned out just as good. It’s creamy and has a nice rich taste to it, but without being too dense. The little bit of cayenne pepper and sharp white cheddar really bring the other flavors through.  The recipe has always stayed the same and has never turned out badly. This is definitely my favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving and my parents and grandma also really like it. My older brother doesn’t like mac and cheese, so he is the only one that doesn’t eat it at the Thanksgiving table.

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My family always makes dumplings during special occasions: birthdays, holidays, Chinese New Year, and to celebrate accomplishments and milestones. We always use ground pork, shrimp, and garlic chives in the filling and our garlic chives are grown in our very own garden. Biting into a homemade dumpling is a heavenly experience. The rich juices of the pork burst in your mouth, and the unique notes of the garlic chives dance around on your tongue. The shrimp is also a key part in our dumplings. Sometimes we use baby shrimp in our filling, and other times we use dried shrimp. In our filling we also usually add sesame oil, rice vinegar, and salt. Occasionally, we’ll add eggs. We boil our dumplings and usually eat them with Chinese vinegar.

Everyone in my family adores dumplings, and not only do our dumpling nights provide a delicious meal, but we also get to have meaningful family time as we sit at the dining table together intricately folding dumplings in little crescent shapes and sealing them by pinching ruffles along the edge. Dumplings are a traditional Chinese food and making them during special occasions has been something passed down for generations on both sides of my parents' families. They are an extremely significant part of my family’s culture.

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Detailed Description

Full ingredient list (the way my mom makes it): ham, ground pork, a seasoning called sazon goya, garlic, onion, bell peppers, chopped celery, mixed vegetables, spanish olives, and cilantro.

To me, it tastes very spice-y (not hot, just full of spice). It’s hard to identify the flavor of the dish because it’s just a mix of flavor and seasonings, but it’s savory and delicious. It tastes kind of like a latin american version of chilli, to be honest, but it is drier.

The history of it/why it’s important

My Grandma used to make it (I think she still might, but I don’t live near her so I haven’t had it in a while). My mom makes it now. When we make our own food for Thanksgiving or Christmas (as opposed to going out for dinner like we did a couple times in the past), this dish is always included. Everyone loves it. There’s never any complaints about it, not even from me (I hate olives). I don’t recall a time where my mom ever failed with this dish. What’s marvelous about it is that the olives, for me, add something amazing to the palette of flavor. It’s a side dish, eaten with the array of other holiday foods, but it could also be a main dish with white rice. My mother made rice to eat it with for Thanksgiving leftovers, but only she ate the rice with it. My sister and I preferred to eat it with the other Thanksgiving foods because the flavors combined perfectly.

As opposed to the image, we don't add lime to this dish. Also, my mom uses green bell peppers, not red. Other than that, this looks exactly like how she cooks it.

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On my mom’s side of the family, cooking is a huge way we express our love. My grandma has always admired the importance of Sunday family dinners. My cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and family all sit down with a home cooked meal every Sunday night. That tradition has changed over the years as my grandparents have moved and kids have gone off to college. However, a meal I still vividly remember always being made for these dinners is Barbecue chicken salad.

This salad consists of romaine lettuce, orange or red peppers, chicken mixed with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, green onion, corn (cooked optional), black beans, tomatoes, avocado, and topped with ranch or dressing of your choice. This main dish salad is always refreshing to eat. The peppers and romaine add a nice crunch balanced with the rest of the ingredients. If you want an extra crunch you can also top it off with crushed tortilla chips or tortilla strips.There are different ways you can cook the chicken as well. One of the most popular ways we cook the chicken is on the grill. After seasoning the chicken breasts and spreading some BBQ sauce over it my grandpa would put it on the grill. After cooking, we cut the chicken into slices and add more BBQ sauce. Another option is to get a rotisserie chicken and pick that apart, getting all the white meat out. Then you can shred it and cover it in BBQ sauce. This salad has a burst of flavor in every bite and keeps your taste buds happy and active!

One of my favorite things about this salad is that you can personalize it to fit everyone's needs. In my family we have people who are vegetarians, vegans, and people who will eat anything! This gives everyone the chance to add meat, put no meat on, leave the cheese off, add extra cheese, and do whatever fits their dietary needs! It is also very simple and straightforward so the whole family can make it. My family often has this at big family reunions at my grandparents lakehouse. We put each topping in their own separate bowl and serve up buffet style. It is the perfect way to fuel your body after swimming all day.

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This healthy, flavorful salad comes together so quickly and easily, and it is guaranteed to be a hit with your entire family!
After spending 10 days in Los Angeles with Jason's family, it's an understatement to say that we were both very well-fed with homemade Korean food and lots and lots of donuts. But now that the holidays are over and we're back home, it's time to shed that holiday weight!

MY OTHER RECIPES

And what better way to shed some of that excess weight than with some glorious homemade salads, right?

Now this BBQ chicken salad has been on my bucket list for years. It's one of my favorite salads to order when eating out but it also gets to be so expensive! After all, who wants to spend $15 on a salad for lunch?

That's where this homemade version comes in. It's so much more inexpensive to make right at home, and you don't have to skimp on your favorite ingredients!

Plus, you can use your favorite Ranch and BBQ dressings and pile on those crisp tortilla strips because, well, let's be honest. That's the best part about the salad anyway, right?

BBQ Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

Directions:

Calories 401.4 Calories from Fat 178.2

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

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This healthy, flavorful salad comes together so quickly and easily, and it is guaranteed to be a hit with your entire family! After spending 10 days in Los Angeles with Jason's family, it's an understatement to say that we were both very well-fed with homemade Korean food and lots and lots of donuts.

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When I was younger, my grandparents, brother, and I would make egg rolls for the rest of my family during the holiday season or for big events. I usually helped my grandmother stuff,  fold, and roll the egg rolls since there are usually so many to make since my family is quite large. My brother would usually help my grandpa with the oil to fry since I am quite afraid of hot oil. We would make about two trays full of egg rolls before calling it a day and then wait for my mom to pick us up (since she would usually drop us off to our grandparents when she was busy). But since covid hit, we aren’t able to help my grandparents as much with making egg rolls. Which is a shame because my brother loves egg rolls a lot! Especially with a sweet chili dipping sauce. Me on the other hand, I prefer spring rolls more (Which we also made with our grandparents).

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My grandma makes this cauliflower soup that she got from Quick Cooking Magazine from 2003. Basically, you boil cauliflower, carrot, celery, water, and bouillon in one saucepan and mix butter, milk, flour, and milk then boil and add cheese. After that, you combine the two mixtures. It tastes a lot more creamy and cheesy than vegetable-y, but getting a few chunks of cauliflower in your mouth feels really tender  and is a good contrast from the cheesiness. Grandma usually makes this for my birthday since I'm the biggest fan of it in our family, although everyone else enjoys it too. My brother has made it on a few occasions and it tastes a little different than how Grandma makes it, but still pretty good. I put saltine crackers in it sometimes and crush them up. I can't remember when I started doing that, I just do that. Anyway, the soup is pretty easy to make and I found the recipe on the interwebs here: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cauliflower-soup/

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Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets

1 medium carrot, shredded

1/4 cup chopped celery

2-1/2 cups water

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon or 1 vegetable bouillon cube

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 cups 2% milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, optional

Directions

1. In a Dutch oven, combine the cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender (do not drain).

2. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat. Stir in the cheese until melted, adding hot pepper sauce if desired. Stir into the cauliflower mixture.

Cauliflower Soup Tips

How do you thicken up cauliflower soup?

This recipe calls for flour and butter to be stirred together to make a roux, which will thicken the soup nicely. If you are looking for an even thicker texture, remove 2 cups of soup, puree it in the blender and then add the puree back into the pot. You can also make this soup gluten-free by using cornstarch as a thickener. Omit the flour and butter, and make a slurry by whisking 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into the milk before adding it to the saucepan.

How do you fix bland cauliflower soup?

Kick up the flavor in this cauliflower soup with a few dashes of hot sauce or a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes. Increasing the black pepper by ¼ teaspoon and using an aged, sharp cheddar will also bring it up a notch. Try topping the soup with these Homemade Croutons for even more flavor and texture.

Does cauliflower soup freeze well?

Cream- and dairy-based soups like this cauliflower soup don't freeze particularly well-they can take on a grainy texture after they've been frozen. (Here are soups that do freeze well.) For best results, serve this cauliflower soup immediately to showcase its velvety texture and rich flavor. If you're looking for a way to use up any leftovers, add a little diced, cooked chicken or ham and serve it over a baked potato for a rich, delicious one-dish meal. -Catherine Ward, Taste of Home Prep Kitchen Manager.

Nutrition Facts

1 cup: 159 calories, 11g fat (7g saturated fat), 35mg cholesterol, 617mg sodium, 10g carbohydrate (5g sugars, 2g fiber), 7g protein.

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1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets 1 medium carrot, shredded 1/4 cup chopped celery 2-1/2 cups water 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon or 1 vegetable bouillon cube 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 2 cups 2% milk 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, optional In a Dutch oven, combine the cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon.

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this dish is made primarily out of a sweetened sauerkraut mixed with pork of your choice, then mixed in with potato dumplings. my family only has this in my birthday, and my grandpas. the recipe was brought over with my great great grandparents from Germany when they came here. We don't have it very often because it is very time consuming. If this dish is in your sights, you better be prepared to spend the day in the kitchen. But the payoff is immaculate. Between the sweet and sour firmented cabbage, the firm and starchy potato dumpling, and the meaty and salty pork, you are in for a flavor explosion in your MOUTH!!!!! MMMMMHMMM, THE FLAVORS ARE MELTING ON MY TONGUE!!!!

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We have a dish in my family we call “Tuitele bread”. The origin of the name actually comes from my Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim is married into the family. Every get together or holiday he would make a bread recipe he’d developed. Everyone was fans of the dish, no one more then my father. My father would take boxes of it home and save them to consume later. It quickly grew into my family as when I hear thanksgiving dinner, I hear Uncle Jim’s bread. Our family loved it so much that years after not having a name for it he decided to call it tuitele bread. The ingredients consist of mayo, parmesan cheese, green peppers, chiles, red onion, red pepper flakes and garlic powder. You cut a loaf of french bread in half and spread the mayo with the extra ingredients on top. We like to cook it in the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for around 12mins. My whole family loves it along with our friends. We bring it to parties all the time and it’s often made for cookouts and holidays. The recipe hasn’t been changed at all in the last 20 years, however when I make it, I sometimes leave out green peppers. When I eat it, it reminds me of a mix between garlic bread and alfredo sauce. It’s delicious and will run in my family tree forever.

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The first time this tradition was brought into my family was when I was about to get my first knee surgery. This was a terrible time for me and put me under a lot of stress. My Mom told me that it was going to be one of my last times eating until the next day and asked what I wanted in particular. Me being obsessed with orange chicken at the time from Panda express I said I would love orange chicken and rice (turns out this was a very good option because it was very filling). I have had a few surgerys and family events where I have chosen this meal again. Something about it makes me feel good when I eat it and especially when it is home made. I love the sweet tangy taste you get from the sauce. The crispy breaded chicken balls are great as well and never don't have a lot of meat in the middle. This meal paired with white rice and broccoli are great and add to the nutritional value greatly.

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Every year on Christmas morning my dad makes this big pancake thing called Pannu Kakku. It’s a Finnish dish made from regular pancake ingredients, but extra heavy on the eggs and butter, and cooked in a big glass pan. When I was little I would sit in front of the oven and watch it puff up. We usually top it with blueberries. Nobody in my family is Finnish so I don’t know where the recipe came from or why my dad makes it, but it’s a fun tradition. Over the years it has had to adapt a bit because my sister discovered that she’s gluten intolerant. Now my dad makes it with almond flour, and it’s still really good.

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Ever sense I was little my mom has been making this stir fry. It was passed down from my grandma to my aunt, then to my mother. When my brother lived at my house it was always his favorite dish, but ever sense he moved away we don't eat it as often. Now whenever he comes over we always make it, and its something I look forward to. The main ingredients are the vegetables that go into it, including broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn, peas, red peppers, carrots, and sometimes mushrooms and unions. It also has the special stir fry sauce, and chicken or stake. All of these combined gives it a salty taste, with lots of crunch from the vegetables, with a slight umami taste from the meat. Its one of my favorites because of how interchangeable it is. My mom never makes it the same and its always exciting to eat.

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Yellow Thai Chicken Curry is a special Indian dish that my mom makes often for my family. It is made up of carrots, potatoes, cilantro, chicken, yellow curry paste from Trader’s Joes, just to name a few of the ingredients. The dish is a little bit spicy, but anyone could handle it. Making the curry takes my mom quite a long time, sometimes in the span of 4-5 hours. There isn’t a specific time she makes it, but occasionally on a day like my Dad’s birthday, celebrating a success that happened in the family, or just when she has time and is in the mood to cook for a long time. Sometimes we pair it with naan bread, sometimes with brown or white rice. Brown rice is definitely better with it. My mom sometimes makes small alterations to the recipe, just tweaks to make it the best it can be. Everyone in my immediate family loves us, we don’t share it with my other family members that live in Washington. They aren’t the type to eat any sort of Indian food at any point in their lives. Overall, one of my favorite foods because of how flavorful and healthy it is. 

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Yellow Thai Chicken Curry is a special Indian dish that my mom makes often for my family. It is made up of carrots, potatoes, cilantro, chicken, yellow curry paste from Trader’s Joes, just to name a few of the ingredients. The dish is a little bit spicy, but anyone could handle it. Making the curry takes my mom quite a long time, sometimes in the span of 4-5 hours. There isn’t a specific time she makes it, but occasionally on a day like my Dad’s birthday, celebrating a success that happened in the family, or just when she has time and is in the mood to cook for a long time. Sometimes we pair it with naan bread, sometimes with brown or white rice. Brown rice is definitely better with it. My mom sometimes makes small alterations to the recipe, just tweaks to make it the best it can be. Everyone in my immediate family loves us, we don’t share it with my other family members that live in Washington. They aren’t the type to eat any sort of Indian food at any point in their lives. Overall, one of my favorite foods because of how flavorful and healthy it is. 

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Christmas stollen is a German dessert that my mom makes during the holidays. It’s a type of bread with dried fruits baked into it, consisting of various spices like mace and cardamom. Almonds can also be put in the bread and it is characteristically topped with powdered sugar. It’s kind of a cold, hard, dry and tough bread, and doesn’t have a ton of flavor to it, but when it’s dipped in hot chocolate, it tastes a lot better and moistens and softens the bread. My mom continued the tradition from her parents who continued from her grandparents, since my great grandparents were from Germany. We don’t make it every year, but whenever we’re home for the holidays it’s a fun Christmas tradition to celebrate.

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When I was little, I used to help my grandma make Helados back when I lived in Miami. Helados are basically ice cream in a bag. My favorite flavor is either the coconut or cacao one (chocolate with cacao beans) but my grandma and I only ever made the coconut kind so I’m not exactly sure what goes in the other flavors. For the coconut Helado, the ingredients were coconut milk, sugar, and half-in-half. We then would put it into a plastic bag and freeze it overnight. The way that you would eat this dessert is by cutting a hole in the corner and squeezing out the ice cream. You could also go downtown and buy some of these at the store but it was more fun making it with my grandma. Since I only get to visit her in Miami once a year in the summer, I only get to have it once a year. But now that I know a little more about cooking I'm going to try and make it myself.

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In my family, a long cultural tradition is Old New Year, a holiday which we celebrate every year at midnight between the 13th and 14th of January. What is very special about this holiday is that we celebrate the change of the Christian calendar, as Catholics celebrate Christmas making New Year be on the 31st of December for them and Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January which made them create a holiday called Old New Years on the 14th of January. On this day my grandmother makes a pastry like a dish which we call Maznik (Мазник) and adds a penny wrapped in aluminum in it somewhere between its layers. Then when the whole family eats it we spin it 3 times and the person which gets the slice with the penny is granted to have "the luck" for the year and many graduate them by giving them money and presents.
The pastry is made out of very thin pastry rinds and each is filled with Macedonian white cheese. The rinds are rolled and they are assembled to make a round circle. The pastry is then baked.
This dish is usually served only on Old New Year and is served as the main food.

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On my dad’s side of the family the one thing they make is pho. My grandma used to make it whenever we would visit her when she lived in Redmond and now my dad will make it every once in a while and it would be a big pot that would last at least a week for every meal. This year it was what we ate on thanksgiving. There isn’t really a specific reason why it’s made, it is just usually made when someone wants it. This is why pho is so important to me and my family, it is an iconic meal that everyone in my family loves and cherishes. What is in the pho is broth, noodles, onions, green onions, beef and whatever else you want to put in which I usually put some sriracha in my pho. The broth itself has a variety of ingredients in it like bones and meat and then water and then a ton of spices that I couldn’t even name off. The broth itself for the pho takes at least 2 days to make which isn’t terrible but it is worth the wait. What the pho tastes like is beefy since that is what the broth and the meat taste like but besides that it doesn’t have that much of a taste but somehow it is still delicious. Some foods that are sometimes made with it are mainly egg rolls but not always. One time my grandma made a batch of egg rolls that lasted 2 weeks she spent the whole day making them and they were very good. They were a good companion to the pho but now they aren’t made as much, it’s mainly the pho now.

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Perogies are filled dumplings made by wrapping dough around savory or sweet filling and cooking in boiling water. They are then pan fried after boiling to give a crispier texture on the outside. Typically, perogies are filled with potatoes, cheeses, onions, and spices but you can put countless combinations and flavors into a pierogi. While the filling of perogies is very diverse, perogies taste like dumplings and are relatively similar to ravioli.  Perogies are very important to my family as they are one of the few Polish dishes that my family still makes/eats. My mom, who isn’t Polish, attempts to make Perogies occasionally for special occasions or holidays but relatives on my dad's side of the family in Chicago make really good high-quality perogies. My entire family enjoys eating perogies especially considering their wide variety of fillings. Perogies are more so a side dish than main so they are typically paired with typically Polish dishes. My family however will make more common American favorites for special occasions such as Christmas or new years and have perogies as a side dish. Perogies are definitely a fan favorite within the Wodka family both in Olympia and in Chicago.

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This Oreo pie crust is super easy and I much prefer homemade Oreo pie crusts to store-bought Oreo cookie crusts. It only takes a matter of minutes to make and is so delicious. You only need two ingredients for this crust – Oreo's and butter. There’s no need to remove the filling from the Oreo's. It adds flavor and helps hold the crust together. I would recommend using standard Oreo's, here, and not the double or mega stuff version.

this my dad he makes for us every year on thanksgiving he makes one year i hop i can make it for him

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The Wellner Family Summer Noodles have slowly become a family tradition over the years. My Grandpa is from Japan and Summer Noodles are his take on a cold noodle recipe. He had always made them when my mom was growing up, but they became a popular family recipe after they were made as the main dish at my parents wedding. At the wedding, my Grandpa made a “noodle train” by halving a gutter and gluing the ends together. He would drop clumps of noodles in the gutter, with cold water constantly running through and someone at the other end would catch the noodles after they sailed down. We make them throughout the summer, but it’s become a family tradition to have them during Labor Day weekend. Everyone enjoys my Grandpa’s noodles, and my dad has added more ingredients to develop the taste. The noodles are made with soy sauce, sugar, diced green onion, tomato, cucumber, and somen main noodles. My dad adds cilantro and garlic. The noodles are cold, making them very refreshing to eat in hot weather. The noodles have a sweet and salty taste, and the green onions, tomatoes and cucumber add crunch to the thin sauce.

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Empanadas are like a Latin cal zone with a different sauce, the stuffing is made with steak, olives, hard boiled eggs, and raisins. Empanadas have a pleasantly salty taste with a hint of sweetness when you bite into the raisin.
My dad and my family make large amounts of empanadas once or twice every couple of months to make a little extra cash, we sell them to my dad’s clients and family friends. But I have introduced empanadas to some of my friends and teachers so now I bring over left overs. Everyone in my family loves these empanadas except for my little brother who refuses to even try them. You can have empanadas with pretty much anything but when we have enough I’ll eat them by themselves for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

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Kimbap is a seaweed rice roll with vegetables and sometimes with eggs, spam, meat, yellow daikon,or kimchi that my Grandma makes when she comes to visit me and my mom at work. Depending on which types of ingredients in it they can be spicy, savory, or kinda sweet. This dish is occasionally made like an energy shot at work. My mom, dad,and I love it. If my Grandma forgets to make one, she usually brings food from her community meeting which is a random assortment of American food and Korean food. My Grandma also made these when guests came over, sort of like a welcome in food.

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My mom loves to make monster cookies and many people love them. She makes them about 4 times a year. Mainly from the request of my oldest brother. I remember when I was about 5 years old I was home sick from school and my mom said that she was gonna make monster cookies. As a kid I just thought she’d cut cookies in the shape of a monster. I was kinda disappointed when I realized it was just a normal cookie, but I started to appreciate them as I got older. The cookie has chocolate chips and chocolate M&M’s. Also it has peanut butter in it too! There is granola in it as well. It tastes rough in your mouth but right out of the oven they are gooey and really good. I like them but they are not my favorite because I like a softer cookie.

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Beef stroganoff has become a household favorite for comfort food.  In the down times and low times this is the food we will more than likely always choose.  It is super simple and easy to make. It is rich in flavor and creamy.  It is something we all ask for when it gets close to fall and winter. Personally I think it's better than soup.
Ingredients for this are steak(any cut work), cream of mushroom soup, mushrooms (optional), onions (optional), sour cream, and  egg noodles(or similar pasta).
This is a dish that always makes me feel warm and happy. It is a childhood favorite that has just carried on through the years. It's not a common dish in our house any more but more like something special to me when it is made.

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Every year for Christmas my entire family goes to West Virginia to see my grandma. She has never really been a good cook but the one thing she always makes is peanut butter fudge. She would make it with me and my cousins when we were younger and since then it has just become a tradition. It's made from marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, condensed milk, sugar and butter. It is really heavy and you can only eat like one piece before you have to take a break. But it does taste amazing. We make it every year when we get to her house and we eat the pan throughout the trip. We never make it any other time of year so I always associate it with the holidays. It's a relatively easy recipe but it means a lot to my family. First you melt the butter, sugar and condensed milk in a pot, after it's fully melted and smooth you add in the marshmallow fluff and peanut butter. Stir to combine and then pour it into a greased pan to cool and set.

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This is the backstrap of a deer, you make it into small medallion steaks to be cut up just like the picture shows. There aren’t any special ingredients other than butter, salt, and pepper to be applied to the steak. I absolutely love eating the backstrap because it is like your beef steak just way better in a way that I can’t describe. If you butcher it correctly you won’t worry about any kind of gamey flavor to it. We eat our venison steaks primarily during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays because we are deer hunting all of October and November and usually harvest at least one deer. One deer doesn’t give the most steaks in the world but it gives you enough to do anywhere from 5-7 meals a year. My Dad primarily makes it just because he’s grown up eating and cooking deer while my mom hasn’t. Everyone in my family seems to enjoy it. I can't remember anyone in the family not enjoying it as we are a pretty meat loving family. Sometimes things can go badly like the deer not being processed the best and therefore making the meat taste a little gamey but it isn’t the end of the world cause it’s usually a very subtle taste.

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Hunting means a lot of things to different people, whether it's tradition or the love for the chase, the results of a successful hunt always boils down to one important aspect - meat on the table. Venison is one of the most delectable red meats on the planet, yet not everyone knows how to cook it. This makes me sad, let me help.

Wild game is often very lean, so much so, that even wild hogs struggle to produce a decent slice of bacon. Lean means one cardinal thing to anyone who knows anything about cooking meat - it dries out fast and easily. Dried out meat is chewy and the flavor quickly develops into an unfriendly presence on your taste buds. This is why I prefer to cook backstraps whole or in thirds vs. medallion or butterfly style steaks. By grilling loin steaks whole, rather than individual butterflied fillets, the likelihood of overcooking the meat lessens dramatically. To go a step further, by starting out the grilling process over high direct heat, a bark will sear around the exterior of the steak and help retain the natural moisture of the meat, naturally tenderizing the tissues as it cooks.

The grilled venison backstrap recipe I'm sharing with you in this article reveals how I prepare and grill one of the best plates of steak you will ever have. It may even have you ranking venison at the top of your all-time favorite red meats.

Follow these instructions to find out how I've changed the minds of sworn venison haters from all over the country!
Dry Rub Seasoning Ingredients:
" 1/3 venison loin ( aka, Backstrap)

" (2) cloves of garlic - crushed

" 2 tsp. Fresh cracked black pepper

" 2 tsp. Hickory smoked salt (kosher salt will work)

" 2 tsp. Sweet smoked Spanish paprika
Marinade Ingredients:
" 1 tbsp. soy sauce

" 2 tbsp. teriyaki sauce

" 1 cup vegetable oil

" 1 sweet onion sliced into rings - thickness can vary

" 1 tbsp. garlic powder
Meat Preparation:
I prefer to season and marinate the backstrap one day in advance. Season the meat first with a dry rub of all ingredients listed above, making sure to spread the seasoning evenly across the entire 1/3 venison loin.

Use a dinner fork to penetrate holes into the steak using the full length of the fork prongs. The more you poke the steak, the more doors you are opening for the marinade and seasoning to get inside the meat. Penetrating with a fork also tends to break some of the muscle fibers down and ultimately aid to the tenderizing process.

Using a glass baking dish with walls slightly higher than the thickness of the meat, add the seasoned cut of meat, then pour in the marinade ingredients by drizzling over the top of the backstrap. Add the sliced sweet onion rings by laying them over the top of the cut of meat.

Cover and leave overnight.
Cooking Instructions:
Use hardwood lump in a charcoal grill for best flavor and a hotter flame. Ignite a bed of hardwood lump coal on one side of the grill, while leaving the other side void of coals to create an indirect heat cooking surface. Light the hardwood lump with a system other than charcoal lighting fluid; lighter fluid will alter the taste of the meat and you'll end up tasting it - using a charcoal chimney or torch works best.

Once the hardwood lump is hot and the coals appear to be salt and pepper in color with a flame, the grill grate should be plenty hot and ready to sear. Without patting the meat dry, use CAUTION when directly placing the meat over the direct flame as the oil may drip into the coals and create large flames - stand back and don't lean over the grill. Using the direct heat, sear the exterior of the steak for at least two minutes before turning the steak - you'll know when it's ready to flip if the meat no longer sticks to the grill grate. Since loins are round, you'll want to sear it as though it were a square - all four sides. Doing so will help trap the moisture in.

Once you've got the outside of the meat seared with a bark, slide it off to the side of the coals - not all the way - and let it continue to sear as the meat cooks through.

You're not on a cooking show and no one will judge you for checking the doneness of the meat with a knife by cutting into it on the grill. Or, if you've been grilling long enough and know the trick of comparing the density of the meat with the density of the flesh below the base of your thumb when you ball your fist, just be sure not to cook the steak past Medium Rare in the middle.

Once you've achieved Medium Rare in the middle, remove from the grill and place in a glass cooking dish, or aluminum tray, and spread butter over the top of the steak and allow it to melt and drip down the sides. Cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

Your venison backstrap is ready to serve to any veni-hating non-believer!

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How to Grill Venison Backstraps to Perfection - Legendary Whitetails

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Hunting means a lot of things to different people, whether it's tradition or the love for the chase, the results of a successful hunt always boils down to one important aspect - meat on the table. Venison is one of the most delectable red meats on the planet, yet not everyone knows how to cook it.

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An important meal in our family is Shepard's Pie. Inside it is layered with cooked ground beef on the bottom with green beans, then on top of that its gravy. For the topping you layer mashed potatoes on top so it gets a golden brown tint to it while it's in the oven. Everything is made separate and then put together. We also add a lot of spices to the ground beef when we are cooking it like garlic, onions, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and more that I can't think of right now. I don't really know what to compare it to. It just tastes like meat, mash potatoes and gravy. When I was younger our family was split up for a while with work and helping our family. So when it was just my mom and I we used to make my dad's “famous” Shepherds Pie to feel closer to home. It would always smell like his cooking and it would remind me that he is part of my home. The recipe doesn't change itself; it's just whoever is making it puts their own twist on it with what's in the filling and the spices. My dad and I typically like it more spicy but my mom not so much so we make it accordingly.

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Chanterelles and steak have been one of mine and my dad's favorite meals for a long time. It consists of steak of any kind, (we prefer venison) and chanterelle mushrooms. We cook the chanterelles in olive oil and a little bit of seasoning. They tend to have a bit of a slimy taste and texture to them so we like to take them longer than suggested until they are pretty black. This dish is special to me because my dad and I would always harvest the chanterelles ourselves while hunting for deer. Chanterelles are a seasonal mushroom so we usually only have this meal during fall and winter. Me and my dad are really the only ones that will eat chanterelles. My brother and my mom will just eat the steak. The most we have picked in a single season has been 8lbs, which was way more than we could eat in a few months. We decided to put the extra in freezer bags and put them in the freezer until we wanted them again, but they sadly got freezer burn after only a month and we had to throw a bunch out.

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All throughout my life I've eaten this pie. Its kind of a staple in our family now that we have to have this pie every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that my brother and I are older we are usually recruited to help make it by peeling the apples or making the crust while our mom usually peers over our shoulders making sure we don't screw it up. Its labeled as a "family bonding activity" by mom to make us feel like were not all stressed about prepping everything else for thanksgiving dinner. It has sugar, flour, oil and milk in the crust and some extra salt to contrast the sugary filling. The filling is just green apples and cinnamon with sugar. To me, the pie taste like Thanksgiving when ever we have it. The image above doesn't accurately depict the actual pie but essentially there are dough circles layer on top of one another until everything is covered. The pie is beloved by everyone in our family, some a little too much, and has been called delicious by many which is something my mom takes very much pride in. Overall, it's the families favorite desert and is definitely one of the strongest memories I have about the food in our family.

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Ensalanda De Fruta Con Nuez ( Fruit Salad with Nuts ) 

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Ensalanda De Fruta Con Nuez ( Fruit Salad with Nuts ) 

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My mom makes the best fruit salad every holiday season specifically for Christmas, it’s just a dessert that’s always on the dinner table and sometimes I help my mom make it. In it there’s apples, peaches, cherries, grapes,and pineapple.

It tastes sweet and soft, and the amazing thing about it is that all the fruit together in your mouth combines so well. You get a little bit of everything.

I believe my grandma used to make this fruit salad and then passed down the recipe to my mom. It's been around on the dinner table for a good 13 years.
We don’t usually make it with pineapple, we usually just stick with apples, peaches, cherries, and pears.

We make it around Christmas, and it’s special because we are always excited to eat it and we eat it out of cups instead of a bowl because we love eating it together while we’re talking.

My mom has made this fruit salad countless times and every time it tastes the same. She never does it in a way that tastes bad.

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In my family for large holidays, we always make a giant pot of seafood gumbo. It is a cajun dish usually containing Celery onions and bell peppers aka ¨the holy trinity¨ the meat usually consist of Shrimp, Crab, Andouille sausages, Mussels, and really any other shellfish that you want to add. it's basically a seafood stew served with a sie of rice. It came from my dad's side of the family but my mom is way better at making it than him. In recent years I've been the one making the dish. the first couple of times I can admit it wasn't the best but this year I think i finally got the recipe down.

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On special occasions like birthdays, family reunions, and holidays, my dad will make a dish called O’Brazels. This meal is usually made for breakfast following one of these special occasions. The dish has very similar characteristics to a casserole but instead of being baked in the oven, it is fried in the pan. It usually consists of potatoes/o’Briens, Sausage or steak, scrambled egg, onion, garlic, sage, and sharp cheddar cheese on top or mixed in. Sometimes we replace the potatoes with tater tots which gives it a fattier taste but typically it's a very savory dish. I typically prefer tater tots because it enhances the flavor. The breading from the tater tots gives the dish a satisfying texture which you don't get with the O’Briens. The O’Briens also give a dryer texture than the tater tots probably due to the oil. In general, I would give the dish an 8/10 with O’Briens and a 10/10 with tater tots. In this recipe/picture, it has a similar look to my dad's homemade dish but it actually has apple,and turkey in it and is missing the sausage, egg, garlic, and the sage. This dish has changed a lot over the years as my dad has experimented with the recipe. It used to only contain sausage and the potatoes but my dad has added different ingredients to give it a more diverse taste and texture. He will occasionally use steak or some sort of different meat in it which can end up making it a lot different. The only issue with this dish is the dairy and meat, my brother's fiancé is vegan so she can’t really eat it. Almost every Christmas morning we make this dish but my dad also likes to make it for other holidays and sometimes birthdays.

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Gyoza is a Japanese take on a traditionally Chinese dumpling dish. My family makes gyoza with ground pork and onions, cabbage, scallions, and a variety of flavorings like soy sauce and and chili oil. This filling is placed in wonton wrappers that my mom usually buys at the store but will occasionally make by hand (and they taste a lot better this way). We like to make gyoza in bulk and freeze portions that we don't eat in the first meal.

Many Chinese style dumplings are steamed or boiled. However, Japaneze gyoza are pan fried. When frying gyoza, many little dumplings are crowded into a single pan and cooked, with small quantities of water added to the pan in intervals. This process creates the crust along the surface of the pan, making the entire pan of gyozas turn into one giant pancake like form. Then you can put the entire gyoza entity onto a plate in one fell swoop and eat all of the crispy parts.  We like to take the extra gyoza that was frozen and put them into wonton soups.

We don't really have designated times of year to make gyoza, my mom just decides to make it when it's been a while since the last time we ate dumplings. Then, if I am not busy, I like to help her fold each of the dumplings. My mom and I have distinct folding styles, hers go in one direction and mine face the center of the dumpling like most Chinese folding styles. Overall gyoza taste great and are an easy meal.

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Thịt kho trứng or thịt kho tàu or caramelized/braised pork with eggs is a side dish that is accompanied with rice and is a tradition to eat it on Tết (Lunars New Year) with a variety of pickled vegetables (carrot, radish, mustard green, and leek). This dish consists of large cubes of pork belly, boiled eggs simmered in a coconut soda, fish sauce, soy sauce, and water mixture. Every year on the Tết Eve, I’m always woken up by the smell of thịt kho and when I walk downstairs, I’m always terrified of the 2 feet tall pot sitting on the stove. Vietnamese people eat this on Lunar New Year because it is a symbol of family affection and brings happiness for the year ahead. For me, when I see this pot, I see the long year ahead of me since it seems like this 2 feet tall pot will last for that long. We ALWAYS had leftovers of this for at least a month stored in the freezer until we realized no one else was going to finish and throw the rest away. In years that we do finish it as a week, that’s how I know it’s going to be a year since my mom is going to make me eat it anymore. I don’t hate the taste of it since the mild but rich flavors pair really well with rice. I love eating the egg since it soaks up the sauce and eating with rice and pickled vegetables. The pork belly is really tender since it simmers in the sauce for a couple of our before serving. Having the fat in the pork belly is what makes the dish really rich but I just give that part to my dad and only eat the meat part. However, because the portion is so large, I get traumatized seeing it every time I open the fridge (ok, it’s not that dramatic). Thịt kho trứng can also be eaten on any regular day, but in my family, eating it once during Lunar New Year is more than enough.

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On nearly every special occasion in the morning my parents will make. Its a bread kind of bun made with mostly flour, eggs, and butter.  We have special tins for them that help them pop upward and grow in height. We often eat them with a fruit salad and bacon and like to add butter or jam inside. I love to put butter in them but most of family likes them with jam. They test super fluffy on the inside with a crunchy outside and taste like croissant but with a more soft moist inside. I just learned how to make them and I think I will try to pass this recipe on to everyone I know in the future. We have them on Birthdays, holidays and when people come to stay and visit. I've never met someone who has had them before. I have also never experienced someone not like them when they tried ours. Sometimes they don't get as tall as others but I've never not enjoyed them. Sometime we even eat them on their own. We always fight over the last ones and my brother and I always complain that my parents don't make enough. Whenever we have them they bring back memories. These pastries hold a special place in my heart.

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There are three secrets to great popovers: Make sure the pan is hot before you pour in the batter, fill each section not more than half full and no peeking while they're in the oven! Ina Garten's popover recipe is sure to be a hit at your holiday table.

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Spring rolls aren't exactly an important dish for my family, but they made a big impression on me. You can fill spring rolls with almost anything, it can be changed depending on the taste or preference of each family. But in my spring rolls or what I usually see in Vietnamese, it basically has a plate of vegetables including lectures, herbs, cucumber, carrot, sometimes they also put pineapple in it. A plate of rice paper is what you absolutely need. You also need stir-fry beef, cooked shrimp, and peanut sauce. To make the Vietnamese peanut sauce, you basically need creamy peanut butter, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. About the taste of Spring rolls, you can feel the freshness of vegetables mixed with the sauce of stir-fry beef, shrimp, and when you dip your roll into the peanut sauce, it will increase your taste. The biggest impression and the funny step of spring rolls to me is that you need to roll by yourself and eat it right away. It’s funny because you can see how the other people focus on their rolls and rolls it and and look how you work on your rolls.

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Aebleskivers are a food from Denmark that is made using Wheat flour, buttermilk, milk or cream, eggs, sugar. My mom has been making this every year around Christmas for as long as I can remember. They would be made in a dish very similar to the image except it is cast iron. My sister and I always fight over them whenever they come off the stove. They taste very similar to pancakes, so I usually eat them with jam or butter. I believe there was one time we made them with chocolate chips, similar to chocolate chip pancakes. It tasted very good. What I like about them is that they are basically just bite-sized pancakes that you can eat one after the other. I think there were a few times that I tried cooking them and I burnt them, but other than that they look exactly like the picture above and taste similar to pancakes. I usually eat them as a breakfast food, so I have bacon and eggs. For my family, they are important because it usually means the start of the Christmas season and decorating for the holidays.

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My dad loves making deep dish pizza. It has become a tradition to make homemade pizza on Friday nights. My dad makes the dough from scratch. We use store-bought toppings and sauce. My older brother tried to make homemade sauce but it did not come out very well. Pepperoni, spicy sausage, and peppers are some of the family’s favorite toppings. I like my pizza spicy so I add a large portion of hot peppers to my part of the pizza. My younger brothers keep it simple and they just put a bunch of cheese on their half. We rarely end up with leftovers even if we make more than one pizza.

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Ever since my first 4th of July camping on the beach in Taholah we've always had smoked salmon. I'm Native American, Quinault to be exact, and my people have been cooking and preparing Salmon, and its other fishy friends for centuries. We’d have family from all over the Reservation and beyond chipping in. The “men” will dig a 2 to 3 ft hole for the firepit, sounds a bit weird I’d assume but normally the women are a lot older so our brothers, fathers, cousins, and sons do the more manual labor along with anyone else who wants to help. My Auntie, who's kind of everyone's Auntie, is given the Salmon to season and prepare. She kneads the spices and makes sure the Salmon is clean and safe to eat, like we’d doubt our cousins who brought it but always better safe than sorry. While everyones either busy with the Firepit or Salmon everyone else will be gathering wood and starting up a perfect fire. The perfect fire being one that is scorching hot all the way to the coals, it then needs to be cooled that way it smokes but still radiates heat. Now for the most important item, other than the salmon of course, Cedar Branches. Per one Salmon we’d need one decently thick branch that is split down the middle to about the middle of the branch. After that the other side, the side that was not split, needs to be carved into a point on the end, kind of like a stake. Now that the main part is done we’d have multiple smaller stick-like pieces to hold the fish open. Normally when we get them they’re about the right size, although sometimes we do have to carve them so the Salmon fits between them. The reason we use Cedar wood specifically is because it is known for its flavor and malleability, it adds to the flavor of the salmon as it cooks on them, plus that's how our ancestors did it. After everythings ready we place the salmon onto and into our Cedar branches. We use the stake part to stab it into the ground so it doesn’t fall. I can’t remember exactly but the cooking takes quite a while, hours at least. Once it's done it's taken back to my Auntie who then puts it on these trays for all. Then we share the Salmon and other foods amongst each other.

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These interesting looking Easter cookies have been a tradition for years in my family originating from my mom's Italian side of the family. The cookies don’t have many ingredients, the main ingredients are eggs, butter, flour, and sugar. The icing consists of powdered sugar and milk. They are slightly sweetened with anise extract which gives them a unique taste. Easter in Sicily is celebrated by gifting cuddura. Cuddura means crown which refers to the shape of the cookies. The cookies have a lot of symbolism, the hard boiled egg is representing the resurrection of Christ. These cookies are a common tradition and can be gifted to family and friends. My mom makes these cookies every year for Easter along with other traditional cookies. The tradition of these cookies began with my great great grandma on my mom’s side. They are special to us because they are easy to personalize. My siblings and I all create cookies in the shape of the letter of our first names. We all like them because they are not too sweet, but are sweet enough for everyone to enjoy.

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Neither of my parents are huge cooks, but my mom's simple taco soup is my family's forever staple. This simple soup consists of a few simple ingredients. First a variety of beans (black, pinto, and kidney), but recently my sister and I stopped allowing the kidney beans, we are not a fan. In addition to the beans is onion, green chilies, canned diced tomatoes, corn, vegetable stock, spices (cumin, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, chili powder) and a ro-tel can (just chili and tomatoes). The toppings consist of avocado, cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. To me this tastes like a warm, and a little bit spicy hug. The creaminess from the avocado perfectly balances with the spice from the chili, and the crunch from the chips adds perfect texture. I love the flavor that the chili's add and the lovely burst of flavor when you get everything in one bite. Even just sipping the broth is delicious. My mom usually makes this in the fall/winter time, and in the past it has been tradition to have it on Halloween. My whole family really likes it, but my sister, though 13 years old, picks through it. We used to put ground beef in it but we stopped doing that when I decided to quit eating red meat a few years ago. Even though this soup is really simple, I will never get tired of it. And it makes great leftovers.

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A great tradition that my family has been doing for many many years is fruit salad. We make this side dish every Thanksgiving and every Christmas. The ingredients used in this dish are peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple, banana, grapes, and cool whip. As you could probably guess by its name and ingredients it tastes sweet and creamy.
This is something that is made currently by my grandma, but has been something that has been made for many years. My mothers grandmother began the tradition of making this for holidays when my mom was in elementary school. We have had this dish for so long that I do not believe anyone really likes it anymore except for me. In fact my grandma began making another fruit dish to try and replace it but it will never be replaced because my grandma loves me too much and makes it just for me.
My great grandma used to make this recipe using a canned fruit cocktail, but my grandma has changed it to add the fruit listed above to improve it.

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My great grandfather migrated from Germany and this was a popular dish that his family would make all the time in Germany and it became a family tradition we would make at least once a year not on any specific holiday or date.

It is made primarily from boiled potatoes, eggs, and flour. People will eat them with all different types of things but we never added much to it. It is very bland and doesn't have much flavor; it kind of had a gummy texture. I never really enjoyed them myself but they were my great grandpa's favorite thing to make with the family.

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My family has salmon and lox for breakfast on basically every special occasion (birthdays, anniversaries, Easter, Christmas, ect.).  My dad's side of the family is jewish, and although he and his siblings practiced his mothers religion (Christianity) they grew up eating his fathers traditional jewish cuisine. Salmon and lox was one of his favorites, and has become one of mine.  Salmon and lox consists of cold smoked salmon on any kind of bagel and cream cheese. Cappers, chives and chopped onions are commonly added. Most of the flavor comes from the smoking of the salmon, it is generally described as salty with a smooth creamy texture. Everyone in my family loves salmon and lox although my sister can no longer eat it as she is a vegetarian. I anticipate that it will remain a tradition even when I am an adult!

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A food that my family has a special tradition related to are tamales. They're made of seasoned slow-cooked pork covered in masa dough, which is wrapped in a corn husk and steamed (you take the corn husk off before eating one). They taste savory, the spices are really nice, and the flavors of the meat and masa work really well together. I used to make them with my mom and my sister, but for a while it’s just been my mom and whoever’s available. Last year, my mom made them with friend and her friend’s mom, and I think I made a couple, too, if I’m remembering correctly. I’m not sure exactly how long we’ve had this tradition, but we’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. We make tamales every year on Christmas eve. Everyone in the family likes them. The recipe has stayed the same over the years to the best of my knowledge, although sometimes my mom changes the meat she uses. Also, I used to not like the meat for some reason, so I would just eat cooked masa (which honestly was really delicious). We eat them for breakfast on Christmas morning every year, and they usually last us until late December or early January.

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Alan Hernandez

Pozole . Pork broth, pork shoulder, hominy, cilantro, garlic, radish, lime.

This dish is a family favorite. We eat this around the time of winter because it is a nice warm stew and it is a family tradition.  My grandmother cooks it better, but I don’t tell my mom. When the stew is made with pork it is called Pozole Rojo, which means red pozole. The word “pozole” comes from the Nahuatl language and may mean hominy or frothy. My grandmother speaks Nahuatl. This dish is the most wonderful meal or dish you could ever have in your system because it lightens somebody's day or night and keeps us warm while eating it. Its traditional and a nicer tongue burner.

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My family makes apple crisp for special occasions like when family and friends come over. Apple crisp ingredients for filling consist of 5 pounds of mcintosh apples, grated zest of 1 orange, grated zest of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, ½ cup of sugar, 2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. For the topping use 1 ½ cups of flour, ¾ cups of granulated sugar, ¾ cups of brown sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of oatmeal, and 4 sticks (64 Tbs) of unsalted butter chilled. The flavor is very sweet but also has a small hint of sour form the grated zest of 1 orange, grated zest of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice, and 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. I like the crust topping because it really mixes well with the the apple mixture and brings it all together.

The picture I found online was similar but not completely the same. Our apple crisp has the the crust spread all over the top of the apple mixture and there is almost no apple showing. The chucks of the toppings are much finer on our apple crisp than the photo.The apple crisp is always made by mom and she got this recipe when she was working at bed and breakfast. A lady who stayed at the B&B some of my moms scones that she makes some time for breakfast. The lady asked for the recipe for the scones and them my mom asked for a recipe for a she could make desert and she gave her this recipe. Now she uses this recipe for all the special occasions and all the holidays. My whole family family loves it except for my older brother because he hate both pies and crisps. We eat the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. I cant think of a time that the recipe has gone wrong it always comes out just right and its never burnt.

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Lefse is a traditional Norwegian desert that my family makes every thanksgiving. Typically we go over to my Grandparents house where me make it all together. The flatbread is made from scratch with potatoes which are then rolled out to about 10 inches wide and very thin on a pastry rolling board. Since we roll it so thin, we have to use Lefse sticks which are made specifically for Lefse to slide under the dough to put onto a Lefse griddle which are also made specifically for Lefse. I tend to cook it for about 60 seconds on each side so it is a perfect golden color. After it cools, we add a spread of butter, cinnamon and sugar mixed together then fold it over itself. The taste is pretty difficult to describe but it basically tastes like cinnamon with a creamy texture. It's been made in my family for years all the way back to my family that lived in Norway before they immigrated to the United States. It is a tradition that will definitely continue on for generations to come.

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My family’s staple dish is our dumplings. It’s pork, dough, and veggies like chinese leek or napa cabbage, all boiled together into a savory little package of salty flavor. It’s a very simple dish that we kind of have turned into a family event, as it's a very assembly heavy food. The recipe has been passed down through my mother’s family, going back as far as my mom can remember, the tradition of making them going back the same distance.

My family makes and eats it all the time, there’s no real occasions we do it for. We usually set up an assembly line. My dad cuts the dough into pieces, I squish and roll them out, and my mom fills and forms them. The custom is to make at least half as many more than you need. There’s a little easy trick to boiling them. You plop in maybe 10 into a pot of boiling water, stirring every so often to prevent stickage. Once the water starts to boil again, you pour maybe a half a cup of cold water (we just fill one of the cups around the house my parents are very lax with measurements) so it stops boiling. Then when it boils again, repeat. THen when its starts boiling for the third time, they’re ready. Because it’s a family tradition in its own right, we all love to eat them. It’s really simple, it’s actually pretty hard to dislike it, with one exception. My parents, and by extension any native Chinese person likes the ginger to be in pieces, which if you’re sane, is like having pungent landmines in your dumpling. So if it's ground ginger, then they’re perfect. My parents have since started using powdered ginger, which I very much appreciate.

Where it gets fancy is the variations. Because the dish is so simple, you can put in a lot of add ons, like celery for the vegetables, or bits of shrimp or scallops. You can even use different meats like ground beef.

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Every Christmas Eve my mom will make Pierogis, these are essentially dumplings and the fillings include jam, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and prunes and we eat them with sour creme. They remind me of potstickers but are often more dense and filling, I like them with cheese and potato but my younger brother enjoys the sweeter flavors like strawberry. Living in England, because of the large Polish population, there was a Polish grocery store down the road where we were introduced to other varieties like strawberry. My great grandparents are from Czechoslovakia and Poland and they brought the tradition of eating Pierogis to the US and we use my maternal great grandmother's recipe.

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Springerles are a German holiday cookie that has been a major tradition on my mom’s side of the family for a few generations. In my mom’s recipe book there is a copy of an old springerle recipe that my mom and grandmother work off every Christmas to make a huge batch of cookies. Springerles are made with ingredients you find in most cookies (flour, egg, sugar, etc.), but the ingredients that give them their signature taste are anise seeds and lemon zest. These give springerles a citrus flavor that you don’t often get in a cookie. For me, the taste of this cookie gives me immediate nostalgia for Christmas as a kid. It’s sort of hard to bite into at first, but softens up after you do so, kind of like a biscuit. There’s an immediate citrus explosion that would maybe be off-putting to other people but to me it’s incredible. The anise seed also provides a lot of flavors. People usually think of licorice when they think of anise but it doesn’t really give off that flavor to me. It goes really well with tea and coffee and throughout winter break they're all we really eat in my family. These are the cookies that we would leave out for Santa when I was younger.

Everyone in my family likes springerles as far as I know. My mom and grandma make enough for everyone we see at Christmas to get some and there usually aren’t too many leftovers. I think the only time they ever turned out poorly is once my mom used some sort of flour substitute and people weren’t as fond of those. That was probably the only time the recipe has ever changed. They usually have some sort of fun holiday design on the front or are cut in some cool way. This varies every year depending on who is doing most of the work. If I were doing them, they'd probably just be regular circles, but if it's my mom or grandma they'll get super creative with it and have certain presses that will make cool imprints or shapes. Without them, Christmas just wouldn’t be the same.

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Chicken and dumplings is a dish I no longer eat, but whenever I did eat it, it meant my grandmother was in town. We would always ask her to make it for dinner at some point while she visited us and she never disappointed. My sister and I liked to help by rolling and cutting out the dumplings, which were just thin strips of dough. The main ingredients are flour, chicken broth, milk, shredded chicken, and butter. It’s served on mashed potatoes and it tastes like some kind of gravy. It’s thick and salty and the best part about it is the soft pieces of dough that melt in your mouth. As far as I know, my entire family loves this dish, and I think it’s partially because it reminds us of home. I know it’s more of a southern-style dish; once we had it with okra on the side. I can only remember my family making it one time without my grandma, but it wasn’t the same as when she made it. As far as I’m concerned, my grandma makes the best chicken and dumplings in the family.

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Cream peas and tuna on toast is basically butter, flour, milk, tuna, peas, and bread (has to be toasted). You mainly taste the peas and tuna (and green tabasco sauce if you add some, like I always do) with the crunchy texture of toast. The cream is only there to hold everything together, make it more of a spread, and to add texture. My grandma is the only person in my family who cooks this meal and it is usually made to celebrate a birthday, more specifically, my dad’s birthday. Everyone in my family likes it and it is only served by itself. Cream peas and tuna on toast may both sound and look kind of gross, it’s also a little flavorless without green tabasco, but it has been a staple in my family for a while, therefore it’s very difficult not to enjoy it.

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Enchiladas have been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. It wasn't very often that we ate it, I would say probably around once a month, but when we did, boy was I happy. I always looked forward to Enchiladas. Looking back, this was a strange occurrence. My mother would always put zucchini and tomatoes in it, and I hated both of these with a passion. However, she cooked it so well that I didn't even notice, and if I did, I didn't care because it still tasted great. Nowadays my palate has expanded quite a bit so I don't mind zucchini or tomatoes anymore, and I think this dish might have something to do with that. Enchiladas are flour or corn tortillas rolled around a filling and covered with enchilada sauce and cheese. Originally from Mexico, enchiladas can be filled with various ingredients, including meats, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, or combinations.

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Back in New Jersey, there was this bakery/restaurant called "Main Street" where my parents used to go to a lot before I was born. We were super close with the staff there, and it was always the place to eat when my parents felt like doing something special. Main street sold lemon squares (of which are made with melted, unsalted butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt), and they were my mom's favorite. Unfortunately, during my freshman year of high school, the bakery shut down, and they gave my mom their secret cookbook. Ever since, she has made them for every holiday! Personally, I find lemon squares to be very sugary and sweet - often overpowering. In moderation, lemon squares are delicious and have a sweet and sour flavor from the lemon mixture, with saltiness from the crust. They taste great with tea (my personal favorite being Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea), and are a really nice desert to offset a saltier dinner.

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Every year, sometime around December 1st, my aunt sends my family a container of about 20 to 30 chocolate peanutbutter balls. These are, of course, meant to last to Christmas, but they are always gone by the second week of the month.
What you'll find in one of these things is fairly self explanatory, its a ball of chocolate and peanutbutter, frozen. From what Ive been told, they are made by 🤬 and freezing some smooth peanutbutter, presumably in some kind of dry container, then pouring melted chocolate over them and freezing them again.
The flavor is immaculate. I can remember sneaking out to my kitchen as an 8 year old to open the freezer and steal one because I loved them so much. If you've ever eaten a peanutbutter cup, you probably have a good idea of how these taste, that chocolate, peanut blend of sweet and salty. I think my aunt has perfected the recipe, using much better ingredients and using a better balance of chocolate and peanutbutter.
These have been a classic since I was a child, and hopefully, will remain so into the future. I couldn't recommend a simpler, more delicious sweet snack for anyone to make in the winter.

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Something my dad's side of my family in czech makes is fried cauliflower also called Smažený květák a placek. This is basically just cauliflower, a type of batter, and breadcrumbs making a crisp exterior and a soft inside. This meal mostly tastes of what's expected from the ingredients but overall it tastes like a cooked cauliflower with a crispy bread like coating. My grandma, my dad's girlfriend, and my uncle on my dad's side make this all the time, mostly with mayonnaise on the side. I love this food, it's such a comfort food and i could eat it probably any time of the day even though it probably wouldn't be too good for me. sides to this is mostly different types of cooked potato's I've had mash, and fries, ive also had even cooked vegetables.

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This is a recipe from a friend, and my family makes it in batches of four anytime we can; any excuse, literally, but it’s typically a Thanksgiving/Christmas dessert (and breakfast) for us. This recipe isn’t super “important” to us, it’s just really good. It’s made with canned pumpkin, a lot of eggs, flour, cinnamon, and for the cream cheese frosting, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla. It does taste like pumpkin, but having always been a picky eater this still tastes good to me. So anytime my friends are grossed out by the sound of it, I personally assure them it doesn’t taste like pumpkin (and most of them end up liking it anyway). When it’s out of the oven, flip it right away onto a kitchen towel covered in powdered sugar. Dust some more over the top and roll up the towel, and you need to wait until it’s been cool for a few hours to unroll it, put on the frosting, and roll it back up (without the towel). It’s never turned out bad, but we have to make it with two to three times the amount of frosting it calls for the amount to be sufficient.

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When I was a kid my parents started me on seafood and I fell in love. I love everything that involves seafood. But there was always talk about the seafood back in Boston because that is where my dad is from and where my grandparents and uncles and aunts live. The thing was I never visited but soon later we went back for Christmas and we went a restaurant called the Oyster House and there food was amazing but out of everything the lobster roll was the best thing there and I ended up eating 3 of them. From there on That was always my favorite seafood but the problem was we didn't really get them out here in Washington, But my dad about a week ago went back for some important family things and brought back some and we ain't them three days in a row so it wouldn't get bad ofc but it was so good because they where straight from Boston and reminded me like I was there. That's why I love Lobster Rolls and why my family does too.

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Green Papaya Salad

What is Papaya salad? Papaya salad is a traditional food passed from generation to generation across Thailand and other Asian countries.

How the Papaya salad tasted and how it was made? Fresh, crunchy, a little tart with an air of sweetness.Thailand's famous green papaya salad teases your taste buds with a Exciting combination of spicy, sweet, salty, and sour elements. It connects to me because it makes me happy. Me, my mom,brother, and my mom friend and a lot of Thai people love it. They will get excited when they hear the word Papaya Salad. My mom also makes it for the festival at the Buddhangkura Buddhist Temple. Papaya Salad was invented in the 1800s.

If you don’t have coconut sugar you can also use sugarcane.

Also my mother forbade me from making them because I put random stuff in it.

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carne asada is one of my family's culture food. My grandparents are from mexico and passed down family recipes. one of them are carne asade tacos, its very popular at taco trucks but i prefer my moms carne asada tacos!

my family and i make carne asads tacos by making the corn tortillas first, ( i make homemade corn tortillas) stake (carne asada) cilantro, onions, avocado and lime juice. its very easy and basic to make but its still our family tradition to have every family gathering. when i help cook the carne asade i usually make the corn tortilla because I'm the only one who knows how to flip the tortilla perfectly without messing up, while my mom makes the carne asada and my sister cuts up the cilantro, onions and avocado . on the side we make salsa verde and my mom usually makes it, I'm not sure how to make it yet but when i watch her make it she puts onions, tomatillo, garlic, cilantro, chili peppers, and lime juice and she blinds it all in a blender and it comes out spicy but SO good especially on top of the carne asada!!

carne asada has a very juicy and flavor taste, when you add the salsa verde it gives it more of a spice and makes it taste more sweet and adds more flavor to it which is so much better. the homemade corn tortillas makes it a lot better because its freshly done and warm.

I know carne asada tacos are basic but its one of my favorite family food traditions

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The food that my family always has around is Lemon Bars! My mom makes them regularly in my family. They are composed of granulated sugar, butter, flour, eggs, lemon rind, lemon juice, baking powder, salt, and powdered sugar. It tastes like a fluffy lemony starburst! It's finalized by adding powdered sugar on the top. My mom is the one that makes this delicious dish! It’s actually an older recipe from the 1800’s I believe. All of my family loves it, and we eat it maybe once every month, or if we are lucky 2-3 times every month! They usually don’t last that long because everyone gets to them so quickly! I eat them with some tea or some almond milk. I’m very excited they are in our family, and they are absolutely amazing!

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Pozole is a dish that my family occasionally prepares on special occasions. Pozole is a popular soup or stew in Mexican cuisine. It has meat in it and can be seasoned and topped with shredded lettuce or cabbage, chile peppers, onion, garlic, radishes, avocado, salsa, or limes. With the salsas in the soup, the soup has a deep and juicy taste. This dish is typically the main dish in my family. This is a meal that my family enjoys making around Christmas and New Year's. Everyone in my family, including myself, always looks forward to eating this meal.

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The main ingredients of the dish are cheese and noodles. It tastes like the best Mac n cheese ever. It has a good cheese flavor as well as a good crisp texture. My grandma makes it for major holidays or gatherings like birthdays or Christmas. Almost everyone loves it in the entire family accept one of my cousins that think it is to cheesy. Over the years the general flavor of the dish has stayed the same with maybe a few changes in the size of noodles or kind of cheese. One year they attempted to cook it in the wood stove. It did not go well and was burnt to a crisp. Besides that i cant think of anytime were the mac n cheese was bad.

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German Goulash, a dish commonly made within my family. It has been around since I can remember, but I have never lost a craving for it.
What's in it? Main ingredients include a beef stew, onion, your choice of noodle, tomato, and is great with slices of french bread.
To me, it is very rich and dynamic. The assortment of different foods and flavors that go into it makes it a savory bite. The chewiness of the beef matched with soft noodles and an array of vegetables makes a delicious meal.
Seen here is a photo of the stew, although in my family the stew is added on top of rotini noodle.
My Grandma/Omi (who is 100% German) brought this dish into the family. She would always make it either at her house or at mine during holidays, my mom has since picked it up and started making it monthly. It has stayed the same for us throughout the years, but nobody is complaining! Everyone in the family loves when it is made, and there is never any left by the time we're done with dinner.

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Butter Chicken is probably my favorite Indian dish that we make for almost any special occasion. Butter Chicken is basically a type of chicken curry made up of a creamy tomato and buttery sauce. It has a mildly sweet flavor and we usually either eat it with rice or naan. Butter Chicken contains a lot of different whole and ground species and can take around an hour to make. It is one of the most popular Indian staple dishes. I am from South India but Butter chicken is a north Indian recipe. My mom loves making it for family events as it’s not a normal staple for south Indians. It’s not a specific dish for a holiday or a certain special occasion dish but in our family, we love cooking it for any special occasion!