Budget-Friendly Holiday Hosting Tips + My Grandma's 5-Ingredient No-Bake Peanut Clusters
And discover the best seasonal ingredients to cook with this month. (Yes, fresh fruits and vegetables are available in December!)
Happy Monday, all!
Are there any traditions or moments each year that make you feel like the winter holiday season has officially arrived? For the past 20 years or so, my Mom and I have spent an evening or a weekend in November crafting homemade holiday cards for her to send our loved ones along with a newsletter recap with highlights from the past 365 days.
From there, no festive season felt whole until the musical ceramic Christmas tree adorned the family room end table and Mom’s hand-stitched stockings adorned the fireplace mantel. Things really kicked into gear on baking day, when Mom and I would cover every flat surface in the kitchen with Gingersnaps, Decorated Sugar Cookies, Peanut Brittle (Grandpa Duane’s special request) and at least one or two no-bake homemade holiday “candy” recipes that were family heirlooms. (I’m dishing more about that latter detail below.)
Now that I live on my own, it’s fun to keep these traditions alive together with Mom, Dad and my sisters—and start some new holiday traditions on my own. This week, I joined a friend for a wreath-making class at Rose Farm in Norwalk, and think this might become an annual tradition for me as well! While I’m certainly an amateur crafter, it was a joy to be able to customize and construct a one-of-a-kind decoration, featuring a mix of real greenery, to perk up my front door.
What to Read…
Another sign that the season is here? Much of the content I’m creating relates to just that! Admittedly, in the service media world, we often start planning and writing about the fall and winter holidays in summer. But it really feels like December when almost every new piece relates to the end of the year (or the start of the next) in some way.
As much as we talk about it being a cheerful, blissful time, it can also be a stressful, overwhelming and expensive one. According to a 2021 survey from the American Psychiatry Association, adults are five times more likely to say that their anxiety levels increase rather than decrease during the holidays.
Hopefully these new stories can offer some stress-relieving guidance about how to save money, jazz up your menu from morning to night, land on the perfect gift for your book-loving pals. And you have my full permission to outsource some of the prep for a top-notch dessert or food gift; check out that final piece for details about how to do just that.
Culinary Hill: Budget-Friendly Holiday Party Recipes (Plus Hosting Tips!)
Culinary Hill: What’s in Season in December
Better Homes & Gardens: Cozy Christmas Breakfast Casserole Ideas to Kick Off the Holiday
Better Homes & Gardens: Our Best Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Ideas For a Meat-Free Menu
dsm Magazine: Top Books of 2022
dsm Magazine: 3 Places to Outsource Your Holiday Cookies
What’s Inspiring Me…
Radio Cherry Bombe: How “Mamacita’s” Andrea Pons Self-Published a Cookbook To Fight Being Deported
While meal prepping a big pot of soup yesterday, I caught up on a couple podcast episodes in my queue—including this powerful conversation between Radio Cherry Bombe host and Cherry Bombe founder, Kerry Diamond, and Andrea Pons.
Pons started collecting beloved family recipes for very personal reasons at first. Her grandma, an incredible cook who produced some of the family’s favorite recipes, was experiencing more signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Before the dishes were lost to time, Pons wanted to follow her grandma around in the kitchen to try to chronicle the ingredients and instructions in hopes that she and her sister could carry on the family’s rich legacy through their Mexican cuisine.
But when Pons, who had been living in the U.S. for 16 years as a DACA recipient, and her family were faced with deportation, she was faced with a scary decision: risk getting deported or somehow find a way to round up enough money to hire an immigration lawyer and cover the daunting legal fees ($10,000+). This is when the cookbook concept transformed from personal to public. It’s also when she says it “became both a symbol of our journey and a rallying cry” for all immigrants. “The path towards safety and status is so confusing, and it's so dependent on where you're from and honestly, your financial status. It is a privilege to even become a citizen after all the struggle, because it costs so much money,” she explains.
Despite having no previous experience in the world of food or publishing, Pons decided to try to self-publish a cookbook of her grandma’s treasured recipes. A large publisher caught wind of the project, and "Mamacita: Celebrating Life as a Mexican Immigrant in America" was officially released worldwide in October. While the food styling, photography and printing details came together, Pons finally received news that she could take their citizenship test. Soon after she passed, she was able to apply to ensure her family could be eligible for the same status. “We started applying for immigration for them on November of 2020, and this spring, so April of 2022, my parents received their green cards,” Pons says.
Creating the 78-recipe collection was a victory for Pons, for her family and for the collective conversation around the remarkably difficult immigration process. It’s also a poignant reminder that no matter where we decide to call home, recipes and traditions can connect us to something much larger than ourselves (and definitely much bigger than any differences we might share).
With that in mind, here’s a recipe that I was lucky enough to snag from my Mom when I was home for Thanksgiving. Translated from a recipe card written in cursive by my Dad’s mom, Arlene…
Grandma Arlene’s Peanut Clusters
Add 2 pounds almond bark to a heat-safe bowl. Microwave at 50 percent power for 3 minutes. Using a spatula, stir in 1 cup peanut butter until evenly combined and smooth. Fold in 2 cups dry-roasted peanuts, 2 cups mini marshmallows and 2 cups toasted rice cereal (such as Rice Krispies). On a strip of parchment paper or foil, scoop bite-sized portions of the mixture into mounds. Allow the bark to firm up, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
