Top Five/Bottom Five: Christmas Food Edition

If you thought music and movies tested our friendship, let’s see how we fare after today’s version of the Top Five/Bottom Five game. I’ll warn you, there is a lot of sugar – which is odd, because I tend to choose salty over sweet (I am chips over chocolate most days). At Christmas though, for me at least, it is all about sweet comfort foods.

MY TOP FIVE CHRISTMAS FOODS

• Unbaked Cherry Cheesecake. While I’m not technically ranking things 1-5, Unbaked Cherry Cheesecake is – without a doubt! – my #1. Maybe this has stayed so high on my list because it’s a rare treat. I only have this recipe a handful of times each year – on my birthday and at Christmas. This is the Christmas dessert of my childhood, my adolescence, my teenage years, my young-married-life years, my mothering years. You get the picture: this is my Christmas dessert. To make sure there is no Christmas catastrophe (read: no Unbaked Cherry Cheesecake), I’ve already purchased cherry preserves and stocked up on butter and graham cracker crumbs for my 2023 version.
• Peanut Butter Balls. This is a Christmas-only treat and oh how I love them. Pure melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness and there is PEANUT BUTTER involved (doesn’t PB form the bottom of the Canada Food Guide pyramid these days?). They freeze well, so I make a batch in early December and bring out a few at a time as needed (and they are “needed” frequently). I only ever make these at Christmas so they are extra special.
• Cinnamon Coffee Cake. Yes, more sugar. While I make this recipe every few months throughout the year, when I was growing up it was typically only prepared at Christmas. My Mom would make up the dough on Christmas Eve and bake it in the morning while we opened our gifts. So the background scent to Christmas morning will forever be Cinnamon Coffee Cake (which in our family is just monkey bread; balls of biscuit dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar and topped with a butter/brown sugar sauce – so basically sugar on sugar on sugar).
• Turkey + most* of the fixings. I love turkey dinner, though it is a lot of work (I “cheat” at Thanksgiving and buy rotisserie chickens; so easy and almost as delicious). I always make baked potatoes, turkey, gravy, and stuffing (StoveTop; I grew up with homemade and my Mom still offers to make it but, shhhhh, don’t tell: I prefer the boxed variety). I also want my plate to include Mom’s homemade pickled beets, bread-and-butter pickles, and corn. Sometimes a bean salad, squash, and carrots also make it on the menu. *See Cranberry Sauce below
• Seafood Casserole + curried Rice with Shrimp. Ever since I met John he has been raving about his all-time favourite meal, made with love and care by his mother on special occasions as he was growing up. It’s a creamy, cheesy rich seafood casserole (shrimp, lobster, and scallops), served over curried rice with more shrimp. It is delicious and it is now our traditional “Christmas Adam” supper. The leftovers are incredible and it really and truly is far more important to John than receiving a single gift on Christmas morning. He has a countdown to when we have Seafood Casserole, not to Christmas Day.
  

Bonus Pick: Twizzlers. Not only am I circling back to sugar, why don’t we go ahead and throw in copious amounts of red dye for good measure? Every year for Christmas my Dad used to get licorice. Usually the black kind, which he loves. I tolerated a piece or two, but red licorice won my confectionary affection. Like Unbaked Cherry Cheesecake, I only consume Twizzlers twice a year – my birthday and Christmas. It has to be Twizzlers brand and it has to be Strawberry. It cannot be Nibs. It cannot be rope. It must be regular, red, Strawberry Twizzlers. No, it cannot be cherry. And help us all if you try to give me the cream-filled variety (the ultimate insult to Twizzler lovers everywhere). I eat an entire bag over the course of 24 hours with limited sharing. Even before I made the switch to intuitive eating, I felt zero guilt over this. Once it’s gone…it’s 6 months until I have it again and that’s fine. I don’t crave it or stop to stare at store displays. I’m perfectly content to wait until Christmas morning. Though now that everyone knows I love Twizzlers I get them a bit more frequently (THANK YOU NICOLE. I shared with my Dad and it took us 2 days…).

MY BOTTOM FIVE CHRISTMAS FOODS

• Eggnog. I can enjoy Oat Nog in my tea/coffee, but regular eggnog? It’s a hard pass from me. Also a pass on warm apple cider. Cold apple cider is fine, but once you heat it up (and, worse yet, add things like whole cloves or citrus zest) – you lose me completely. I have distinct memories of going to an “old fashioned” Christmas event at a historical museum as a kid where they served warm, spiced apple cider; I was in a terrible mood that night, so maybe that’s where my dislike of this drink was formed – guilt by association with tween angst? Regardless, I am not a fan.
• Fruitcake/Plum pudding. Sorry, all my European friends. Anything dense, filled with preserved fruit/candied citrus, or strong spicing gets a “No thanks!” from me. I used to get a small homemade fruitcake from friends each year and would immediately turn around and give it to my Dad. One year they didn’t make them, and my Dad was so conditioned to getting a fruitcake he was devastated when I showed up empty-handed.
• Cranberry sauce. To be fair, I don’t enjoy cranberries in any context. A few people in my family want cranberry sauce, but one can lasts approximately forever. I wish Ocean Spray produced mini cans! Every few years I try a nibble but then I remember that I do not enjoy cranberry sauce.
• Anything with maraschino cherries. When I was a kid my mother used to make cherry balls. An icing sugar paste was formed around a maraschino cherry center, and there was a coating that involved graham crackers and coconut. Shudder. I always disliked this recipe and she never makes it now – but they were always a hit at holiday potlucks. Why? How? Chocolate-covered cherries? A HARD pass. Yet I love fresh cherries and Unbaked CHERRY Cheesecake is my favourite holiday food. Go figure.
• Chocolate oranges/Ferrero Rocher. These are two classic Christmas chocolate treats that I loathe. Something about chocolate and orange combined is an Ick from me and I do NOT like the texture or flavour of Ferrero Rocher.

Bonus Pick: Stale Christmas treats. I love when people share holiday baking – it really is a sweet gesture on so many levels. But when they all come mixed in a box I feel like the soft ones go stiff and the stiff ones go chewy and everything seems to go stale/get broken into little crumbs SO FAST. I feel bad throwing things away, but this is the main reason I gifted local friends chocolate this year instead of homemade baking.

Okay. Your turn. Tell me everything – likes/dislikes, undying love/deep disgust for various holiday foods. I have a strong suspicion Strawberry Twizzlers won’t be topping anyone else’s list? Eggnog and fruitcake might be the most divisive love/hate items here? Surprise me! Or, try to convince me to change my stance on maraschino cherries…

Header photo by Casey Chae on Unsplash

Here is the Peanut Butter Ball recipe we’ve been making for decades in our family. Nothing crunchy. Just lots of butter and sugar! While I list a specific ratio of butter, PB, and icing sugar in the recipe below, I always ad-lib the final quantities. I like mine extra peanut-buttery, and this requires adding an extra heaping spoonful (or two) of PB. I taste the dough frequently – a hard job but someone’s gotta do it – and make micro-adjustments until I’m satisfied.

Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup peanut butter (I use Kraft Smooth Light, because that’s what my mother always used)
2-2.5 cups of icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla*
1/4 teaspoon salt*

*I always measure vanilla (and salt) with “my heart” so use more vanilla and less salt than the recipe calls for. I use salted butter, so only add a sprinkle of salt; if you used unsalted butter, you’d likely want to add more salt.

Directions:
Cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth with electric beaters. Add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments. Add vanilla and salt to taste.

• In terms of the final texture, I like it to be quite smooth and soft; adding more icing sugar will make the dough sweeter AND will result in a denser/drier consistency.
• I use the smallest Pampered Chef cookie scoop to measure out the balls and place them on a Silpat-covered baking sheet. Once all the dough has been rolled into balls, place in the freezer to chill.
• My mother never did any chocolate coating, so I ad-lib that part as well. I melt 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (not milk chocolate as they tend to seize and I am on Team Semisweet forever) + 2 tsp coconut oil (I use organic refined so there is no coconut flavour; you can also use vegetable oil). The oil helps keep the chocolate smooth and thins it down for the coating process. I spoon a little dollop over the top, and put the pan back in the freezer until the chocolate is set.