Susan Says | Food is a big part of the holidays

‘Tis the season with a focus on food. The cover story on this month’s Relish magazine was “Sugar and Spice Make the Holidays Nice,” and other publications all have food feature stories. Everywhere we turn someone is hosting another event where they regale you with food.

I attended the open house at Susan Edgmon’s art gallery Dec. 5, where one of the highlights was the Mississippi mud brownies, and another at the Edward Jones office last Friday which offered a table full of scrumptious goodies. Others are scheduled in the coming weeks. A fellow on a diet is just completely out of luck this time of year.

Creating holiday cookies and candies is a Christmas tradition in many families. Sisters, cousins or neighbors get together and spend a whole day baking sweets or fruit breads, then divide up their efforts to give to family members and friends. My former sister-in-law and her aunts made homemade candies, and I recall visiting once during this ritual and being impressed by the rows of fresh-dipped chocolate lined up on waxed paper on the counter. I also have fond memories of making cookie dough as a youngster, tinting some of it red and intertwining red and white strips to make candy cane cookies.

I was searching through Mama’s recipe box lastweek, hunting a fudge recipe for a coworker, and I came across recipes for Christmas plum pudding, Mae Wilkerson’s refrigerator date loaf and Aunt Gertrude’s apple pudding. Certain holiday dishes were always a highlight at family, company and church gatherings. With Christmas comes entertaining, and there’s no main dish prettier than a holiday quiche with its red and green peppers adding seasonal color.

Gladys Taber, in her Book of Stillmeadow, recalled how, as she got ready for Christmas, she would go over the jars in the fruit cellar for she thought homemade jams and jellies were fine gifts. “I always make a little damson plum conserve,” she wrote, “and some extra chili sauce and garden special for friends who cannot put things up.Gifts of good food are welcome anywhere now.”

We always know the Christmas season has arrived when our Gravette editor at the paper makes his famous peanut brittle.

A lady in Mama’s Bible study group brought gifts of tasty sugar-coated pecans. I made a couple of batches of Chex party mix this weekend and packaged some for gifts. It’s always handy for snacking during the football games. And don’t forget apples and oranges were the original stocking stuffers.

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly,” the oldcarol rings out. As we adorn our homes with branches of greenery, we find that food items can become striking decorations too. A bowl of colorful apples, oranges and nuts makes a lovely centerpiece, and the fragrance of the fruits scents the air. Many folks string garlands of cranberries and popcorn for the tree. Uncooked pieces of pasta (wagon wheels or other unusual shapes) can be painted bright red or metallic gold and strung to make other garlands.

A bounty of food gifts is available here in town. The produce department at the local grocery makes a variety of fruit baskets, and the deli offers all sorts of specialty breads and cakes, cheese balls and treats.Both pharmacies sell boxed chocolates, tins of cookies and fruitcakes, and the dollar store features all sorts of bargain food gifts perfect for the paper carrier or your child’s teacher.

We held a bake sale Saturday to benefit the library and I visited late in the day and bought Jim some cookies and muffins to eat with his coffee. I purchased canisters of hot spiced tea mix, sweet and salty nuts and chocolate covered peanuts to add to gift baskets and a bag of tasty toffee brittle as a treat for myself.

Mama’s sister from Tulsa and brother from Kansas City visited on Saturday and both brought boxes of candy. There are enough sweets around to make even the most determined Scrooge among us emit a hearty “Ho, ho, ho!”

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 12/15/2010