Celebrating the Holiday Tradition

Every family has their own special holiday tradition. Most of those traditions are spent gathered around the table with friends and family, enjoying the abundance of food and drink with recipes passed down from generation to generation.

To kick off the holiday season, we asked the Club Auto Sport staff to share their family's favorite holiday recipes. Some were, well, traditional (Turkeys! Trees!); Others not so much (Pickles! Wrapping!) Some date back to childhood; others are beginning for the first time this year. Despite the differences in these rituals, a tradition has been and always will be a bread-crumb trail to our past. So pull the hand-stitched cardigan out of the closet, and cozy up to these holly, jolly recipes.

Sherry’s Family Coconut Rum Balls “Better believe Santa won’t leave any of these behind!”

1 pkg Vanilla wafers, crushed very fine (12 ounce pkg) 1 1/3 c Flaked coconut 1 c Walnuts, finely chopped 1 can Sweetened condensed milk (14 ounce can) 1/2 c Dark Rum 1 c Flaked Coconut

Directions: 1. In a large bowl, toss together the crushed vanilla wafers, coconut and walnuts. 2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and rum; mix well. 3. Refrigerate for 4 hours. 4. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. 5. Roll the balls in the remaining coconut. 6. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator

Darla’s Family Norwegian Lefse "I was raised on Lefse as a special treat for the holidays. We still make it every holiday season. We eat ours with butter and sugar.” Note: you will need a potato ricer to prepare this recipe." Original recipe makes 60 Lefse cakes 10 lbs Potatoes, peeled 1/2 c Butter 1/3 c Heavy Cream 1 tbsp Salt 1 tbsp White Sugar 2 1/2 c All-purpose Flour

1. Cover potatoes with water and cook until tender. Run hot potatoes through a potato ricer. Place into a large bowl. Beat butter, cream, salt, and sugar into the hot riced potatoes. Let Cool to room temperature. 2. Stir flour into the potato mixture. Pull off pieces of the dough and form into walnut size balls. Chill in refrigerator for 4 hours 3. Lightly flour a pastry cloth and roll out lefse balls to 1/8 inch thickness. 4. Cook on a hot (400 degree F/200 C) griddle until bubbles form and each side has browned. Place on a damp towel to cool slightly and then cover with damp towel until ready to serve.

Photos of Darla’s mom and children making Lefse in 1999

Photos of Darla’s Mom and children making Lefse in 1999 Debbie’s Grandma Rossi Giant Stuffed Meatballs “As a child of a close knit Italian family, we had at least twenty family members ranging in age from toddlers to the grandparents at every holiday celebration. All of them talking and laughing, sharing stories of days gone by and singing to songs playing on the record player. There was no doubt that much of the food so lovingly prepared was passed down from some recipes closely guarded by each family recipient. Pasta was always a precursor to every holiday meal but the stuffed meatballs were always my favorite. Hearing the echo of my grandma’s voice as I stood at the kitchen counter on a stool to boost me, showing me with pride the technique she taught me to make them even and smooth. “First bella, oil your hands; then drip water from the faucet onto the ball and roll gently….yes, just like that….” 1 lb Ground Beef 1 lbs Ground Pork 2 Eggs ½ c Milk 1 c Bread pieces 2 handfuls Grated Parmesan cheese 2-3 Garlic cloves, minced 2 tbsp Olive oil 3 tbsp Chopped fresh Parsley 2 tbsp Chopped fresh Basil 8 oz Smoked Mozzarella cheese, cut into chunks A sprinkle of Allspice Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F and grease a cake pan or baking sheet with sides. 2. Put bread in a bowl and cover with milk. Let it sit. 3. Mix the meat, garlic, eggs, cheese, allspice, parsley, basil, salt, and pepper together. Squeeze the bread to remove the milk and then mix the bread into the meat. 4. Take a small handful of meat and pat it flat. Place two or three chunks of cheese in the center, then cover it with more meat and pat it into a ball. Place on baking sheet. Repeat until all meat/cheese is gone. 5. Drizzle olive oil over the meatballs and make sure each is coated nicely. 6. Put baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. 7. Serve over spaghetti with sauce or alone.

Stephanie’s Family Christmas Eve Tacos “Every Christmas Eve our family and extended family would get together and have our family famous Corned Beef Tacos. This recipe goes back 5 generations. The young boys would challenge the older men – Who could eat the most?! It was nothing for them to eat 10-13 tacos in one sitting! We would make 10-12 dozen for the family feast – depending upon how many would be there.”

Corned Beef Tacos Recipe for 1 dozen tacos – just multiply the ingredients for more.

1 dozen Corn Tortillas 1 can Libby’s canned Corned beef – use 1 can per dozen 1 Fresh onion diced – yellow or white ½ head Iceberg lettuce chopped 2-3 Fresh Tomatoes diced 1 bottle La Victoria Green Chile Taco Sauce American Cheese -Individual wrapped– folded to 3 pieces per slice Vegetable oil Flat toothpicks

Instructions: Fold the American Cheese slices in thirds. Open corned beef and crumble entire can on a plate. Chop and dice the onion and lettuce and put on its own plate.

Pour oil in small fry pan to ½”. With cooking tongs, par fry all tortillas until limp, stacking them on a plate. After cooling for a few minutes, line up the tortillas on paper towels on the counter. Place each ingredient on the hot tortilla in this order: 1/3 slice of cheese, one hand full of corned beef squeezed to form in your hand (keep in mind one can will make 12 tacos), diced onion and lettuce. Fold the tortilla into thirds and close with a toothpick. Do this for all 12 tortillas.

In electric skillet – set on medium-high, pour oil ¼”- ½” deep. Place as many tacos as you can in the hot oil and fry until crisp, flipping them only once or twice. Note: the lettuce, meat and onion will often fall out of the taco as you fry them. This will make the oil pop. Use a fork in the oil to put back into the tortilla as it cooks. Remove from skillet with tongs and place on a paper towel lined platter.

Place diced tomatoes into individual bowls with taco sauce and put tomato in the taco with every bite.

Granny Gene’s Microwave Peanut Brittle This recipe was passed down by Christine Davis’ mother, (better known as Granny). She would makes mounds of it to give to her favorites each holiday, and to this day is a wonderful sweet remembrance of Granny’s great cooking.

1 ½ c Sugar ¾ c White Karo Syrup Stir together and microwave on high for 4 minutes

Add 1 ½ cups Dry Roasted Peanuts Microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes – until light brown

Add: 1 ½ tsp Butter 1 ½ tsp Vanilla Blend well, then microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in 1 1 /2 tsp. Baking Soda, stir well. Pour onto well-greased cookie sheet and spread a little. Cool ½ hour to 1 hour, then break into pieces. Important: When you start cooking the candy, it goes very fast. So you need to have all your ingredients and measuring tools out and ready. I use a large 2 quart Pyrex micro proof bowls. The syrup is very sticky and hardens very quickly. After cooking one batch, that bowl can soak in hot water while cooking another batch.

The kitchen is the heart of your home. Merry Christmas!

Dan’s Family Mama Mia Cucidati Sicilian Christmas Cookies “This is my all-time favorite Italian cookie. It only makes one appearance during the year, and that is at Christmas time. The fig based filling with other dried fruits and nuts, make this a holiday standout. My mother and my aunt would make these during the holiday season as long as I can remember. It is a Sicilian Christmas cookie, my family is not Sicilian but, my mom learn to make these on her own and uses her own recipe.” Dough Ingredients: 3 Egg yolks 3 c All-purpose Flour 1/2 c Milk 3 tsp Baking Powder 1 cube Butter softened 1/2 tsp Salt 2 tsp Pure Vanilla extract 1/2 c Sugar

Filling Ingredients: 1 string Dried figs (14 oz. fig package) 1/2 lb Raisins 1/2 lb Dates- pitted 4 tbsp Apricot jam 1/2 lb Medium crushed Walnuts 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 4 oz. Brandy or honey

Icing Ingredients: 3 c Confectioner's sugar 1 tbsp Lemon juice 3 tbsp Water

Preparation Dough: Mix flour, baking powder and sugar in a separate bowl and set aside. Mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients alternately with milk until well blended. Dough should be soft--not dry. Chill one hour. Filling: Remove figs from the string and cut away the hard stem. Soak in hot water for 20 minutes. Process the figs in a food processor with raisins, dates and walnuts, cinnamon. Add jam and brandy/honey until the mixture is firm and not dry or running.