Category Archives: Holidays

December 16, 2009 · 12:48 PM

Latkes for Hanukkah

The delicious holiday of Hanukkah is underway, and of course this means latkes! Being the starch lover – I am all about latkes, and am always on the hunt for a new spin on a classic dish.  The New York Times presents a recipe for red latkes (thanks to the addition of beets). Flickr user TimTom.ch presents a matzo and cottage cheese recipe which sounds (and looks) great.  Also at the NYT, Joan Nathan answers readers’ most pressing Hanukkah food questions – Q: What type of oil should you fry up latkes in? A: Olive oil is probably the historically correct way to cook latkes.

Latkes by TimTom.ch

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December 13, 2009 · 4:39 PM

Sweden: Sweet treats for St. Lucia’s Day

It’s that time of year again – St. Lucia’s Day. Up here in Madison the weather has been particularly chilly and snowy – no wonder Scandinavian immigrants were able to thrive here! Reading Sweden’s official website – it was quite entertaining to hear Sweden described as “a culture of food storage.” I guess that makes sense, given the generally inclement weather. If you’re house-bound like us, baking some sweet treats for a traditional St. Lucia’s day feast is a fun way to get into the holiday spirit. The Thrifty Fun site has some recipes for Braided St. Lucia’s Day Bread, Pepparkakor and Julglogg. Perhaps the most iconic treat for St. Lucia’s day is Lussekatter, saffron-scented rolls.

Pepparkakor by ProBonoBaker

Pepparkakor by ProBonoBaker

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October 17, 2009 · 2:11 PM

Happy Diwali!

Diwali Sweets for sale in Toronto by Xanada

India FlagToday marks the start of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. And like any good festival – it brings with it lots of delicious FOOD! Diwali in particular is marked by elaborate feasts, so large quantities of food, in particular sweets and snacks are called for (Chow has a recipe for the sweet sesame snack, Til Ladoo). The BBC has a list of dishes typically served, though of course feasts will vary widely according to region. So just make something tasty! The food blog Aayi’s recipes has some excellent ideas.

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September 20, 2009 · 8:11 PM

Eid Mubarak! Eid Recipes from around the world

An Eid feast in Malaysia by Phalinn Ooi

An Eid feast in Malaysia by Phalinn Ooi

Today is Eid Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, which means the daily fasting is over. So naturally, it is a day of copious feasting. Naturally, recipes and traditions vary widely from area to area, so here’s a range of recipes and stories from around the world to honor Eid. The Smithsonian delves into Eid food traditions from Lebanon to Indonesia. NPR has a story and a collection of recipes, including fruit chaat. Finally, here’s a recipe from Faith at Thought 4 Food for date bar cookies.

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September 18, 2009 · 4:22 PM

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

Happy Rosh Hashanah! Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish new year is also a holiday with rich food traditions. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, an apple is dipped in honey, in order to symbolically usher in a sweet new year. As a result, recipes that combine the two ingredients are traditional for the holiday. Tori Avey shares a recipe for Honey Apple Cake which sounds delicious.

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July 4, 2009 · 7:37 AM

Happy 4th of July!

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May 5, 2009 · 12:36 PM

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Mexico FlagCinco de Mayo is actually more widely celebrated in the US than in Mexico, where it is primarily a holiday in the state of Puebla. The Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates the defeat of the French army by the Mexican army in the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. So while most Cinco de Mayo restaurant specials in the area involve Margaritas, we decided to put up some tasty Poblano foods.

The New York Times called Puebla the “Lyon of Mexico” – known internationally for its fine cuisine. We certainly can’t argue with that, since Puebla has given us some of our favorite dishes like mole poblano. Mole Poblano is usually what people think of when they hear ‘mole’ in the US – the complex spicy sauce made from dried peppers with a hint of chocolate. Chiles en nogada is another archetypal Poblano dish. It’s particularly festive  – especially since it is red (pomegranate), green (poblano pepper) and white (walnut sauce), the colors of the Mexican Flag. Elise at Simply recipes has a recipe for this photogenic dish. Epicurious has a few more delicious recipes including a tasty-sounding chicken and potato stew.

If you’ve got a hankering for Poblano cuisine and you don’t feel like staying in, you could also head out to Cemitas Puebla (3619 W. North Avenue) for some of the best cemitas (Poblano sandwiches on eggy bread) in Chicago!

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March 19, 2009 · 8:53 PM

Zeppole for St. Joseph’s Day

HeyZeppoleHappy St. Joseph’s Day! Why not celebrate with a delicious Zeppole? I got this one from Bennison’s Bakery (1000 Davis in Evanston).

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March 14, 2009 · 1:48 PM

Happy Pi Day

PiDay If you’re in the mood to celebrate with some actual pie, check out Serious Eats’ list of the best pies in America. Though I’m a tad disappointed they don’t have many Midwest listings, only including Hoosier Mama from Chicago. The Sun Times made a compilation a few years back including gems from all across Chicagoland.

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March 9, 2009 · 7:51 PM

Hamantaschen recipes for Purim

[Hamantaschen by Ulterior Epicure]

Happy Purim! Purim is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the thwarting of Haman’s plot to kill the Jews in ancient Persia. Purim begins at sunset today the 9th, and ends at sundown tomorrow. It’s a happy, carnivalesque holiday with lots of noisemaking and tasty treats. The most recognizable food eaten on Purim is the distinctive Hamantaschen (seen above), which is a triangle-shaped pastry filled with jam. Mindy Segal of Hot Chocolate shares her Hamantaschen recipe on Epicurious.

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February 24, 2009 · 11:14 AM

Fat Tuesday Around the World!

It’s not called Fat Tuesday for no reason. Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent begins, is a traditional day of feasting. Naturally, in the US the focus is on Creole and Cajun Mardi Gras foods due to the big way that New Orleans celebrates the holiday. For an awesome intro, Epicurious has a new guide on Cajun and Creole food, because as we learned, there is a difference. If you’re feeling especially festive (or hungry) Chow has a recipe for King Cake (Galette des Rois – seen below) and Gumbo Pages has a history and recipe of the ubiquitous Muffaletta.

king-cake

However, in addition to the Nawlins Mardi Gras we know and love, there are some other pretty great food traditions, such as Paczki Day in Chicago. Paczkis (pronounced poonch-key) are filled doughnuts and are traditionally consumed in areas with high Polish populations. On the other side of the pond, the tradition in England is to have Shrove Tuesday Pancakes (is it a coincidence that IHOP has free pancakes today?). In Sweden, the day is called Fettisdagen, and a traditional pastry of semolina wheat called Semla is consumed. Basically every country or community that celebrates Easter has their own Mardi Gras food traditions, and they all sound pretty delicious to us!

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February 14, 2009 · 4:38 PM

Happy Valentine’s Day

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January 27, 2009 · 11:07 PM

Happy Lunar New Year

OxZodiacJanuary 26th marked the ushering in of the year of the Ox. As with any holiday worth celebrating, there is some awesome food involved in Chinese New Year celebrations. In honor of the new year here are some fun and delicious links.

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January 5, 2009 · 2:16 AM

Finer Things Club: The Last of the Julmust

norwaysweden_flagJulmust is a Scandinavian soda that is sold only around the holiday time. So – like many other Christmas items, now that the holidays are over – Julmust goes on sale.  We visited World Market on New Years Eve, where we found that  Guttsta Kalla Julmust was on sale for the bargain-basement price of $0.49!  Having never tried Julmust, we decided it was a must-buy. Two of the main ingredients in Julmust are barley and hops, similar to beer. However, Julmust is not fermented, so it is non-alcoholic. Upon tasting, we ascertained that Julmust is pretty much beer with juice. On top of the hoppy flavor, Julmust did have some holiday spiciness, but it was not necessarily our cup of tea. Though we concede that Julmust is a fine holiday tradition, it’s definitely an aquired taste.julmusttree

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January 1, 2009 · 1:38 PM

Happy New Year!

NewYearVintage
Happy New Year, Everyone! In honor of 2009 – here are some global food traditions. According to Epicurious, some particularly auspicious foodgroups from around the world include: grapes, greens, fish, pork, legumes, and cakes. Sustainable table has even more good luck food traditions, including eating twelve grapes at midnight in Latin America and Spain, lentils in Brazil and Vasilopita, a cake with a coin inside of it, in Greece.

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December 30, 2008 · 5:05 PM

Finer Things Club: Torrone for the holidays

Italy spain
As the holiday season draws to a close, we are finishing up the last of the Christmas goodies – including one of our favorites torrone. It’s a pretty simple confection made of egg whites, honey, almonds and sugar. Popular across Southern Europe, this almond nougat is known as Turrón (Spanish), torró (Catalan), or torrone (Italian).The origin of Turron is Arabic, and was created by moors in the town of Jijona, in Valencia, Spain. Spanish turron comes in 2 basic varieties – soft Jijona or turrón blando, and hard Alicante or turrón duro, similar to peanut brittle.

torrone

Torrone is most commonly consumed around the holidays – La Florentine is one of the most popular varieties in the US, and has individually-warpped portions of soft torrone in Vanilla, Lemon and Orange flavors. You can even get La Florentine torrone online, though it is pretty commonly available in larger grocery stores. Delicious Days even has a recipe to try on your own, even though it seems pretty tricky.

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December 24, 2008 · 10:02 AM

Merry Christmas, Everybody

SantaPizza
This is a picture I personally took a few weeks ago. Santa and Mrs. Claus apparently like Rosati’s Pizza after a long day on the job.  Happy Holidays everyone – happy eating!

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December 22, 2008 · 9:53 AM

Holiday Food Around the World

panettoneSo we know about German Stollen and Italian Panettone – but there are so many other holiday foods from around the world that we never knew about. As ausual, Wikipedia provides a treaure trove of information about international and American holiday foods. It’s fun to explore. We have definitely not heard of some of these – like Chilean Cola de mono (literally, monkey tail) is a festive vanilla-flavored alcoholic coffee drink.

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December 13, 2008 · 1:46 PM

Sweden: Happy St. Lucia’s Day!

sweden_flagHappy St. Lucia’s Day! St. Lucia’s day is the day dedicated to the Sicilian martyr St. Lucy, and is traditionally celebrated in Sweden on December 13th, and represents the start of the holiday season. Like most other winter holidays, St. Lucia’s Day boasts some unique treats, especially in Sweden: saffron buns (lussekatt) and gingersnap cookies (pepparkakor). On St. Lucia Day in Sweden, a long-running tradition is that girls dress in white with crowns of candles (electric nowadays for kids) and serve their parents lussekatt, as seen in the painting below.Here are recipes to make your own pepparkakor and lussekatt, if you’d like to try.lucialarssonSt. Lucia by Carl Larsson [1908]

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December 1, 2008 · 8:32 PM

Germany and Austria: Adventskalender und Weihnachtsmärkte (Holiday markets)

Austria It’s December 1st! And that means a new year of Advent calendars. Advent calendars (Adventskalender) date back to Lutherans in 19th Century Germany, where they were (and are) used to count down the days until Christmas. In our case, December 1st means chocolate advent calendars. There are some enticing looking varieties out there. But I’m going to opt for something a bit more low-key. Cost Plus World Market sells some good varieties from Deutschland for less than 5 bucks.

Kindl

December 1st is also the traditional start date for Weihnachtsmärkte, Austrian and German outdoor holiday markets. According to Wikipedia, Vienna’s market is the oldest and dates back to 1294. This past weekend we had the fortune to go to Chicago’s very own Weihnachtsmärkte, the Christkindlmarket. The long-running market takes place at Daley Plaza in the heart of Chicago’s Loop and contains a giant Christmas Tree and tons of booths chock full of German handicrafts and food (like the Bavarian steins above). The Market runs through the 24th so there is still plenty of time to get festive.

Christmas tree

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