Festive family fave foods

Homemade trifle - a family favourite

I know the Christmas holidays are finished and all, but I’m still thinking about the food and the family favourite foods we have eaten again and again each year.

At the Christmas dinner Great Aunt Terri held this year, there were tons of really yummy things, because Aunt Terri used to be a chef. There were four vegetarians at dinner, so she made several dishes for them, and the non-vegetarian people had turkey, gravy and the rest of the typical Christmas stuff.

My job was to spread the cream cheese mixture Aunt Terri made onto tortillas, roll them up and cut into pinwheels. There were 12 adults and one baby at dinner and it was so much fun, especially because your baby cousin is so entertaining now. There were also three dogs, including Cheddar and his dog cousins GG and Zho. They got dog food and treats, though I am sure they would have enjoyed some turkey.

Our food festivities started days before that family dinner. On Christmas Eve, we had tourtiere, a traditional French Canadian meat pie kinda thing, made by great Uncle Al’s partner Lynne. Then we had turkey dinner at Great Grandma’s house on Christmas Day, and I made ricotta and blueberry tarts for dessert.

A couple of days later, we went to great Uncle Bob’s in Port Perry. Some day I’ll tell you all about Uncle Bob’s place, because it’s super awesome. He has a big log house, plus a huge garage that’s like a ginormous mancave with a virtual reality studio, fancy sports cars, a free vending machine and pinball machines.

Then we headed to Flinton, for the big family dinner hosted by Aunt Terri and Uncle Dave. One of your mom’s cousins reminded me that when they were kids, I used to make mushroom casserole and bring to all the family occasions. It was super easy, with two cans of mushroom soup, a bunch of mushrooms fried in butter and some breadcrumbs stirred together. All the kids used to love it, and I think the adults did too.

I used to make trifle at Christmas, one of your mom’s favourites. It was ripped up pieces of sponge cake, with Devon cream or custard, some berries like raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, and whipped cream on top.

Well, because canned mushroom soup and dessert with whipped cream and white cake aren’t all that healthy, there is a family healthy favourite and that’s roasted brussel sprouts. I used to hate brussel sprouts until I found out that roasting them in olive oil and maple syrup made them really delicious! Even more so, if you add bacon.

The last thing I’ll mention is not a Christmas food family fave, but your mom’s favourite birthday dessert. You’d think she’d want a cake on her birthday, and some years we got ice cream birthday cakes from Dairy Queen. But her most favourite was fruit flan! So, in our house, birthday flan became a thing and I think it was a brilliant idea.

Some people like birthday cake - some like birthday flan!