It's Beginning to Taste a Lot Like Christmas

I know each and every family has their own specific traditions to celebrate the holidays and many of them are all about food. For some families it is all about the big Christmas Day meal, for some it is about cookies and decorating them. Some families bake glorious breads during the holidays and some make jams and jellies for sharing. There are even some who do no actual cooking but purchase foods from various places or have favorite places the frequent for meals. No matter how your family defines traditions, it seems food occupies a big space in the "traditions"category.

We have several foods we make only at Christmastime and we make them year after year after year. They range from cookies, to candies (Can you say praline fudge?) to dips, to items for our Christmas brunch. Each holds it's own memory of when it first began as one of our traditions.

In 1980 (yes, way back in the dark ages) TheHub and I were invited to an Iron Bowl pre-game party at the home of my childhood best friend/freshman year college roommate's parents. They had this party every year for literally as long as I could remember. When Kathy and I were preteens - teenagers our job was to help with the food prep, and we would chop and, dice and do whatever was asked after school in the days leading up to the party. (Understand that our yards abutted  in one small corner and we were back and forth at each others house all the time. We both loved to cook from the time we were young kids and we would create recipes from whatever was in whatever kitchen we were in. We had free rein to make whatever we wanted at either house as long as we shared the food and cleaned up our mess, so by the time we were 12 we were both pretty good in the kitchen,) Kathy's mom would try new and different foods each year, so it was pretty normal for her to give us a recipe and we would make it, sight unseen. If it worked it became part of the party food and if not, well we lived in a neighborhood full of kids so nothing was wasted.


By 1980 I was a very young married woman living in a different part of town so I was no longer doing the prep and went just as a guest. This particular year they had these wonderful treats with a cream filling and cookie bottom. When I asked Kathy about them she told me to run out after the game and buy the Christmas issue of The Lady's Home Journal. The recipes for everything sweet they served that year could be found there.


I have no memory if Alabama beat Auburn that year or not, but I clearly remember stopping at Western (grocery store ) on the way home to buy the magazine. I still use the same magazine every single year as my cookie and bars bible for all my Christmas baking. In my opinion is the best collection of Christmas goodies ever printed in a single publication. (I should know, I have bought hundreds of Christmas magazines in the years since and have tossed all but this one.) The coverless well worn magazine lives in a sealed plastic binder and is only touched in December of each year when I bring it out and pour over the cookie recipes. I try a new one occasionally, but mainly stick to the same dozen or so I have made every year since.

To pay proper homage to LHJ and their wonderful 1980 issue I took a picture of the recipe with the instructions. I am pretty sure you can tell from the splattered page how well loved and used this single edition has been. If you are in the mood for something insanely rich and indulgent give theses a try. I will make 3 recipes of this and freeze them. (They freeze very well ) When I need a hostess gift this season, this will be my go-to gift.