01 November 2010

Hole-y Traditions

Most of the traditions I recall from my childhood revolve around food.  My dad would always take our request for cakes on our birthday [and we were creative in our requests!], our traditional Christmas dinner celebrating our heritage from both sides of the family would be served, and, when we were older, ringing in the new year rolling corn husks and steaming homemade tamales always brought friends and family together to stand around the stove.  We would try to decipher who make which one as they were unwrapped and devoured with the buffet of sauces my mom had prepared.  People would come and go as there were always other obligatory "parties" to attend, but we all knew the Knudsen Kitchen was where the real fun was.
 I've kneaded some of those traditions into my own family, but always feel the desire to have more traditions in our family.  Donald Hallstrom said, "Uplifting traditions play a significant role in leading us toward the things of the Spirit.  Those that promote love for Deity and unity in families and among people are especially important."  On Halloween we have a tradition of making pumpkin donuts.  Ryan loves most anything pumpkin, and really we have it year-round, but these are saved for one day only.  Saturday night, two broken thermometers and a trip to buy two more later, we were bubbling and boiling our little donut holes.

 Of course the kids love the nutmeg-cinnamon-sugar topping the most, but the adults agreed that the crunchy shell of a freshly fried fritter was far more fulfilling.  I have a new [non-culinary] tradition I'm planning on slipping in our usual holiday routines this year [more about that later], but am always on the look-out for some fresh inspiration.
What traditions do you savor as a family?

20 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh - yumm yumm extra yumm!!! Our tradition was always making a big ole batch of homemade Chex Mix on Thanksgiving day, and we all munch on that all day in anticipation of Thanksgiving dinner. Don't know why or how this started, but it stuck. It's just about the only time of year we eat the stuff too! Lol

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  2. Its funny...we had not a lot of traditions growing up, but some...and the most of the ones I have hung onto have to do with food. Something about the smells of holidays that make them feel right. Plus smell is so associated with memory so maybe that has something to do with it. At any rate...we actually own a fryer but I haven't had much luck with donuts. Maybe we'll bust it out tonight!

    PS. Bummer about your car! But really darling skirt. I love the unexpected fabric/color combo.

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  3. Our halloween always involved hot dogs and mac'n'cheese... clearly we were a bit deprived.
    Your new header totally threw me off this morning, clicking 'Next' in my little reader thinger and suddenly it's like, "OOF"? When did I subscribe to a blog named OOF ????? I honestly sat there for a minute trying to puzzle that one out until I saw the little 'no big dill' up the side. Time for more coffee.
    Uh, when I finish the one I'm working on.

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  4. If you guys like pumpkiny treats - you must make these muffins! They are my favorite - so delicious and it makes a ton of them!

    http://whatthehartlikes.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-y.html

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  5. Those look yummy! We have monkey bread on Christmas morning. That's one of my favorite traditions!

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  6. Looks yummie! I have made donuts but never pumpkin ones.

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  7. Mmm, being on a diet makes those donut holes look even BETTER!

    Since I'm from a very eclectic background, (1/2 Finnish, and 1/2 Northwest Alaska Eskimo) we have some VERY serious traditions. My mom bakes over 12,000 (yes, twelve thousand) cookies every year, in addition to fruit cake (mm, moist, Finnish recipe adapted to add dried fruit, but none of those weird candied fruits), etc. I'm always in charge of the Decorated cookies. She hands them out to our more than 71 first cousins and HER more than 85 first cousins.

    We always have a fresh rabbit for Easter, we always have a fresh homegrown turkey from my sisters coop-in-the-arctic for Thanksgiving, (and when we don't have fresh turkey, we just buy a butterball!) We always have a fresh (from our freezer) Canadian Goose for Christmas. We take the kids hunting the day after Thanksgiving every single year, and we always, always, ALWAYS have Eskimo Ice Cream for dessert at Thanksgiving and Christmas. :) (Made with Caribou Tallow, and tundra blueberries)

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  8. lorchick-I've been trying on new headers all morning. It's as much fun as shoes. Sorry for confusing your morning ;)

    Chane'-thanks for the recipe link!

    Finnskimo-wow. Those are some fascinating traditions. Your kids will have killer memories.

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  9. My husband grew up in Seattle, so they always had fresh seafood (which they caught) for Christmas. It's a little bit harder for us (being in the landlocked midwest), but we always have a big dinner on Christmas Eve with crab, shrimp and fried oysters. Since we're so far away from our family, we always have friends over. It's expensive, but we've offered our kids the choice of our Christmas "Feast," or more presents: They choose to feast!

    p.s. We used to live in England, and so we ALWAYS have Christmas crackers (poppers) where there's a ridiculous hat (which you always have to wear during dinner), a joke (with a british slant to it)and a prize. Can't go without them.

    p.s.2. Afterwards we act out the nativity. There are fights over who gets to be "The Donkey Named Jack." I can't remember when he showed up!!

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  10. Not a tradition, but my mom used to make donut holes sometimes. What a great memory! And good grief; that is a lot of sewing machines! Very, very cool.

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  11. My family, all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins, gathered for a Spring meal at my Grandparents farm. Morel mushrooms, watercress salad, rhubarb crisp, aspargus, and blue gill fished from the Wisconsin River. Everything came right from my Grandparents land. The table was decorated with a huge bunch oflilacs. It was the best meal of the year, better than Christmas and Thanksgiving. And one I recreate once a year.

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  12. Many of my favorite family memories revolve around food too. Some of my favorites growing up that we have continued: an orange in our Christmas stocking that is then used as part of breakfast; sausage, biscuits, and gravy for Christmas breakfast; and crockpot nachos for New Year's Eve (velveeta, sausage, and salsa).

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  13. ... 15 mins before the stroke of 12 midnight New year I awake my bleary eyed babies & we run to our chilly English front garden to watch the fireworks, donning the wooliest of hats & new pjs, shivering like crazy people. We each make a secret wish on a chosen star (can take some time!)& return indoors to cuddle up in bed with the years best & biggest mug of hot choccie, donned with moustache cream & marshmallows!!! We sit for an hour all giggling preparing the most beautiful individual handscribed 'wish lists' for the forthcoming year ... We pin all the familes lists to the fridge & tick them off throughout the next year ... I have some wonderful memories, it is just the best rewarding mummy time ever, my boys have produced some gorgeous wishes that have made me melt ... I love them dearly ... Tyou katy for your wonderful blog xxxx

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  14. Goodness - where did that pic of all the old sewing machines come from? That's practically my idea of heaven :-)

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  15. Yum! Those look amazing. I have never cooked donuts and am afraid if I learn how, I will make them WAY more often than I should! I love a good donut...

    My favorite family traditions that we have continued and started with our little family are:
    -giving the girls jammies on December 1st. They open up some holiday pj's and then we read some books about the Christmas season. Helps remind them what the season is all about that's starting, and I like that they have their holiday jammies to wear all month long, as opposed to giving them on Christmas Eve.
    -Taking Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning to a nursing home and the fire station. Reminding us all how thankful and lucky we are.
    -Adopting a family to gift (we get to "pick" a family and it's nice to get one with children similar in age to ours so they can relate better)
    -Cinnamon rolls from scratch on Christmas morning. Still not as good as my mom's, but I'm trying!

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  16. If you like donuts like this...try Oliebolen. It's a Dutch donut that is traditional for New Years' Eve. We do it at our home (but they are so good I will occasionally make them on Sunday nights when it's really cold too). :)

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  17. I have LOVED reading about everyones' traditions! I would like to use some of these in our family.

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  18. Thanks for the recipe - guess it's time to sstart some traditions of our own

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  19. these look DELISH. will you make me some? the last time i knew someone making donut holes for halloween, she burned her arms HARD.

    i just told ben of my fond halloween tradition from our elementary school days: mom made pancakes for breakfast and gave us a slew of toppings to decorate them as jack-o-lanterns! (always candy corns for the eyes...)

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