Much Maligned Christmas Accoutrements

[midwest chick]

I like sugarplums, but a little goes a long way!

[Cin]

Originally Posted by midwest chick

I like sugarplums, but a little goes a long way!

What are sugar plums? I always thought they were linked to fairies in some way. Popular misconception I guess.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

What are sugar plums? I always thought they were linked to fairies in some way. Popular misconception I guess.

Candied dried fruits made famous at Christmas time from the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

I love dried fruits, but, not when they are sugared (candied)....Chocolate is as sweet as I'll go, add fiery ginger to it and I'm one VERY happy Kiwi, lol!

[Cin]

Originally Posted by 1QuirkyKiwi

Candied dried fruits made famous at Christmas time from the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

That's why they are dancing in the heads of the kids in "The Night Before Christmas".

And there are actually sugar plums. But they're not plums at all. I'm sure I would like them. I like anything sweet. It is very hard to have something be too sweet for my liking. As a matter of fact, I don't recall that ever happening. I might not like the taste of something, but it's never because it's too sweet.

[ButchEire]

Every year growing up, we'd receive a homemade fruitcake from cousins in Ireland. These were, and are, like no fruitcake you will ever buy in the states, because they soaked it in pure Irish whiskey for weeks (perhaps months) before packaging it off to us. I'd regularly get loopy as a child, from eating said fruitcake, which was more like pieces of fruit and nuts barely pasted together with bits of dough. Dense is an understatement.

[LeftWriteFemme]

I don't care what anyone says or thinks about Peeps these are my new holiday tradition.
If you haven't yet, please try these peppermint peeps!!!

[Cin]

Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme

I don't care what anyone says or thinks about Peeps these are my new holiday tradition.
If you haven't yet, please try these peppermint peeps!!!

Peppermint peeps. Yay!

I haven't seen these around yet. Awesome. I love peeps. Sometimes I put them in the microwave.

[Kobi]

I love homemade dark fruitcake - is more cake-like than regular fruit cake. Pop in the toaster or oven to warm it, spread a healthy dose of cream cheese, top with another warmed slice and devour.

I also like jellied cranberry sauce. Good on Kobi sandwiches - whole grain toasted bread with little cream cheese on it, some fresh sliced turkey breast, and top with thinly sliced room temperature cranberry sauce. Flavors blend well.

The whole berry cranberry sauce, to me, looks like something that belongs in an emesis basin.

[willow]

I love fruit cake. My fruit is soaked in brandy not whiskey. Cake baked weeks in advance and 'fed' a teaspoon of brandy every week to keep it moist. Iced with a layer each of apricot jam, marzipan and royal icing (icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice) and decorated with a penguin scene because I wuvs penguns.



Really not the worlds no.1 cranberry fan but I do like a tiny bit of the jellied kind on my turkey and am especially partial to a little spread on the bread when having the obligatory boxing day 'turkey dinner' sandwich.

The other Christmasy sweet stuff I can take or leave. My Christmas night chill time snack/supper will be a small mixed cheese board, crackers and fruit.

[Greyson]

I love mincemeat pie. My father loved this pie and every year at our big Christmas Eve dinner at his house, we had mincemeat pie. I did have to learn to acquire a taste for this pie when I was a child but once I did.

I have been unable to find a mincemeat pie for most of my adult life. Then this year, I befriended my personal trainer who is an only child and his parents had him late in life. His father was a professional baker and my friend/trainer bakes home made pies for the holidays. My twin sister and I enjoyed mincemeat pie with our Thanksgiving dinner. Again for Christmas dinner I will savour mincemeat pie.

I do have a question, why is this pie called mincemeat? There is no meat in this pie. It is all fruit.

[Cin]

I gotta agree with you there JD. What is the point of jellied cranberry in the shape of a can? Although I have seen people eat the stuff. And maybe like me and fruitcake there are people who really enjoy an occasional slice of what looks like cranberry flavored jello to me.

And I suppose why not, people seem to have a strange attachment to jello. People i know have even thrown it (jello I mean, not cranberry sauce, though that might work for all I know) together with fruit placed it in a mold and then put cool whip on top of it and tried to serve it to me as dessert.

Maybe jellied canned cranberry sauce should be placed in the dessert category as it's so sweet.

Personally I like my cranberries mixed with caramel and dipped in chocolate. They're called cranberry bogs. hmm good.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

I gotta agree with you there JD. What is the point of jellied cranberry in the shape of a can? Although I have seen people eat the stuff. And maybe like me and fruitcake there are people who really enjoy an occasional slice of what looks like cranberry flavored jello to me.

And I suppose why not, people seem to have a strange attachment to jello. People i know have even thrown it together with fruit placed it in a mold and then put cool whip on top of it and tried to serve it to me as dessert.

Maybe jellied canned cranberry sauce should be placed in the dessert category as it's so sweet.

Personally I like my cranberries mixed with caramel and dipped in chocolate. They're called cranberry bogs. hmm good.

My mother always has a can of the cranberry stuff sliced on the Thanksgiving table. I never really cared for it until the last couple of years. I take a small slice, eating only about half of it, small bites eaten throughout the meal. Somehow it fits in inbetween bites of turkey, stuffing, etc. It just fits somehow. Can't explain it. My mom has always been the only other one that has eaten it. It is the one and only time of year I have ever seen it on our table.

The quality cranberry stuff (the one with real berries), I don't care for. Go figure.