Happy Friday! I’m enjoying my morning coffee and having fun reading through all of your blog comments yesterday. So many of you are carrying on family legacies in your knitting/quilting/sewing/crocheting. I know future generations will be the lucky recipients of some of your beautiful work. The winner of yesterday’s blog contest is Melanie in Utah who wins this mega bundle of Wonderland Yarns Messenger Hat Kit! (The pattern is on the inside of the label, and this bundles makes two hats. It’s a sport weight yarn and there are 516 yards in the bundle.) Melanie, we’ll get this shipped out to you today, and I hope you enjoy it! Remember, we’re celebrating our Eighth Anniversary with eight blog contests over the next week and a half. See the end of today’s post for the details on Contest #3 and get entered.
Today’s recipe is one that our Office Manager Lynn shared with us. Her family makes this every year at Thanksgiving. We tried it this summer and it was delicious. It has a great caramel/maple taste, and we used maple syrup from the Arnold Family Farm (cousins!). I’ll bet it would be awesome on pecan pie, or with a few pecans sprinkled on top.
Lynn’s Maple Ice Cream
6 large egg yolks
1 cup pure maple syrup (the darker the syrup, the stronger the taste)
2 tsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup half and half
1 1/2 cups light cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup, flour and salt. Set aside.
Bring the half and half to a simmer in a heavy saucepan. Then slowly beat the hot half and half into the eggs and maple syrup. Pour the entire mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until the custard begins to thicken slightly. (Be careful not to let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble.)
Remove from heat and pour the hot maple custard through a strainer into a large, clean bowl. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in the cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until cold or overnight.
Stir the chilled custard, then pour it into your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. When finished, the ice cream will be soft serve, or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2 hours or more for firmer ice cream.
Today’s Contest Question: Do you have a favorite family recipe that you make at just certain times of the year? (And if so, why not make it more often? Or would it be less special that way?) Leave a comment below and we’ll randomly draw a winner to receive our next great prize. Watch for the prize and winner on Monday’s blog post, along with Contest #4. Thanks for helping us celebrate eight years of fun!
Sheri whoneedstomotorthroughCampLoopyProjectThreethisweekend
Mostly my mom made pecan pie and candied apples for the holidays. My sister still makes them.
Later in our family a recipe came along for making zucchini relish. We make this on a regular basis, as my husband insists it is the only relish he likes.
I have two favorite family recipes that I only use at certain times during the year. The first is potato salad, I don’t think that the recipe has ever been written down since my mother learned it from her mother and I learned it from her. I only make it in the summer starting with Memorial Day, then again for the 4th of July, maybe once in August and then for Labor Day. If it were up to my husband we would have it at least once a week (maybe more). I think that having it too often lessens the specialness. Its sort of like eating anything out of season–you have nothing to look forward to.
My favorite family recipes are Chinese chocolate drops and Forgotten cookies. Thanks!
I make what is known around here as Moon Pie (aka Eclair Cake) only at Christmas. It’s too big for the two of us so
I make it when there is someone here to help us eat it.
I make several kinds of biscotti, but only at Christmas. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a treat. Thanks for the contest.
My father’s mother used to make ‘New Year’s Cakes’. They were raised doughnuts with 3 apple slices pushed into them. After deep fat frying they were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I still like to make them for New Year’s Day and think of her kneading her dough in her Wisconsin kitchen.
Swedish meatballs is a family favorite. I usually make them for my husband’s birthday. Happy Anniversary!
My dad’s holiday cut-out cookies. He only ever makes them for Christmas, and I’ve carried that on, only making them for the winter holidays (albeit not Christmas themed, unless one counts voodoo dolls and already-been-chewed gingerbread men as “Christmas themed”).
I can’t think of any recipes that only get made at a certain time of year. Certainly there are things I make seasonally, berry treats in the summer, pumpkin cookies in the fall, cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, sugar cookies at Christmas. But none of them are really restricted to those times, it’s just that’s when I think of them and/or the fresh ingredients are readily available.
The one recipe I can think of that might count as some sort of “family” recipe is my Chinese mother’s take on eggplant parmigiana, affectionately known to my father and I as “blood n’ guts” because she sliced the eggplants the long way, such that they resembled a pair of lungs bubbling away in the red-sauced casserole dish 😀 Being a vegetarian family only ever makes this more amusing to us 😛
I make some special family cookie recipes at Christmas, particularly Pfefferneuse. They’re labor intensive and just say ‘Christmas’ so we don’t make them the rest of the year.
I make a lovely pavlova for the family at Christmas only, should make it more often though.
Anise cookies are a big favorite for Christmas and special occasions only!
We make ‘Aunt Martha’s Salad’ for Thanksgiving – a confection involving maraschino cherries, lime jello, cream cheese… I don’t think we could stomach it more than that one time a year. But it’s tradition, so we make it and we eat it.
One of my favorite family recipes is my grandma’s Bavarian Cream Cake. I only make it at Easter because that was the only time that she made it. It is incredibly delicious, beautiful to look at and fairly labor intensive ( 2 day process) which was probably why she only made it once a year,
Peasnut butter crunch candy, we make it before Christmas. It is like the inside of a clark candy bar. Family and friends gather at our house and we makes batches all day. Last year I think we made about 40 lbs.
Peanut butter crunch candy, we make it before Christmas. It is like the inside of a clark candy bar. Family and friends gather at our house and we makes batches all day. Last year I think we made about 40 lbs.
At Easter and Christmas we make a traditional beet and bean salad. I love it, but for some reason only ever make it during those holidays.
My husband and I have begun our own traditions With recipes we enjoy..we make Swedish Ginger cookies every December. Sometimes we use the recipe at Halloween..we cut them out in holiday shapes and decorate with colored royal icing…very fun and yummy! I think the fact we do them only a couple times a year makes them special.
I’m the only one left in the family who makes our Whiskey Raisen Nut cake. It’s very much like a fruit cake but oh so good with just raisens and currants. The whiskey doesn’t hurt either! I believe my great grandmother clipped the original recipe from a newspaper.
Forgot to add, Melanie your prize is awesome!
I don’t have a family recipe. ): My husband makes amazing garlic mashed potatoes that are a twist on his dad’s potatoes. I have been thinking about cream puffs my mom and I would make when I was a girl and want to try them with my daughter…..
I make monkey bread every Christmas morning. My 22 year old daughter says it’s not Christmas without it.
My recipe is my grandmother’s peanut butter fudge. I try to make it for the holiday meals throughout the year, and in May on her birthday. Other times throughout the year as needed to make me or someone else feel special and loved.
I have an extensive collection of old family recipes, especially Christmas cookies with pounds of butter and sugar. Some are written in hand by relatives who died 50 years ago. But I live alone and would be obese if I baked all of them, so I just go through the recipes and relive the memories.
Your ice cream looks delicious! We make a family cookie recipe called Molasses Crinkles for holiday gifts. No chocolate, nuts or lactose happen to be in the recipe – so they are great for giving to everyone!
Grasshopper pie is always on the menu at Christmas. I make it occasionally at other times of the year but the calorie count alone means we need help eating it up.
Or family has a special recipe for Christmas bread. I make it once a year, in quantity, and it is a recipe that I share with no-one. My brother in law is the only other person who makes it. It is what we eat toasted on Christmas morning, with ham and scrambled eggs. Or family wouldn’t think it was Christmas without it. My mother-in-law would never share the recipe, and I found Herr copy after she died and it was two months in the perfecting…she j had written it in code. I could make it at other times, but I think that would take away from it.
I learned how to make tamales from my grandmother, which I still love doing.
We don’t have any special family recipes, but I wish we did.
We only seem to make my baked caramel corn at Christmas time…. but maybe that’s a good thing?!?
At Christmas, and maybe New Year, we make strawberry Jello mixed with sour cream and add in pecans, bananas, and crushed pineapple (without any of the carbonation many of the recipes call for). It’s absolutely delicious, but it never gets made outside of that time. I guess my brain just associates it so strongly with the holidays that it never crosses my mind otherwise.
But now it has! Maybe I need to make that soon. It would be a great summer treat.
Sadly most of our family recipes died with my maternal grandmother. She was an amazing cook but I did get her to share a couple of her recipes. Lots of “add til it looks right” instructions. But I do make her cornbread through the year but the cornbread dressing is only an occasional treat.
We have a tradition of Dutch babies that we made every time our kids had sleep overs. They’re easy to make and they puff up really big until the kids stick their forks in them. Now that you bring up this question we need to do this when the grandkids come to spend the night. Last night was our first grandkid sleep over and we had boring oatmeal by request. Last time for that, Dutch babies from here on! Thanks,
We always make Gulliver’s creamed corn at Thanksgiving or Christmas. It’s delicious and soooper rich, almost too rich. if I ate that regularly, I’d have bigger problems than my stash.
It’s not really a family recipe but I make a really good sweet potato dish with pecans/coconut topping every year for Thanksgiving. I love it so much, I don’t know why I don’t make it all year long.
Eileen
WiscKnitter
My family recipe is raspberry thumbprint cookies, they are very delicate made with only butter,sugar, flour and almond extract. They taste like a shortbread and they are only cooked long enough for the bottom to be just a little brown. The white cookie and raspberry filling look so festive. I make them every year at Christmas and my family loves them. It was one of the first recipes my girls learned to make on their own, I learned this recipe from my mom and my aunts. A true Christmas tradition in my family.
My mom would make blackberry cobbler when the blackberries were in season. Fortunately for us, we had blackberry bushes growing right on the edge of our property, so it was almost always easy to pick enough for a cobbler or two. Not without danger, though, but the cobbler made up for the scratches I endured to get the blackberries.
My grandpa always made sauerkraut, sausage and “porcupine” meatballs for good luck on New Years Day! It is an acquired taste and everyone eventually comes to love it as they get older. I turned my nose up at it as a little kid, but now I could eat the whole pot LOL! We continue his tradition and keeping it to New Years Day keeps it special.
Rommegrot, a Norwegian cream pudding made with butter(!), flour, milk and sugar, topped with cinnamon. Traditonally we make it at Christmas, but I’m sure it would be good any time of year. That and oyster stew for Christmas Eve dinner.
Key Lime Pie every year for Christmas and Thanksgiving. My mom’s Mud Pie recipe is a fave for birthdays! Yummo!
My family makes Angel Salad on Thanksgiving, and not otherwise. Well, if we have a turkey dinner, say Thanksgiving in July, we would make it, but it just goes with turkey, that’s all there is to it. (No, I don’t know why.)
In the summer, I make an old family recipe for blueberry cake. It has come down through my Dad’s family. It has to be made with fresh blueberries, so I only make it when they are in season in the summertime.
I do homemade Turtles in December. It is a gift I make my bestie. I don’t make it more often because it is very time consuming and hot.
My family and my favorite recipe would have to be Christmas Pudding. Ever since we lived over seas it has been one dish my family looks forward every Christmas. I don’t think my family would look forward to the treat if I made it all the time. Steamed pudding takes two days to make two weeks to age and 3 hours on Christmas to steam one last time. I don’t think I would like to make it more than once a year.
Every Christmas my mother and I make German Spice Cookies. They’re a pain to make and take all day, but they’re delicious!
We always have latkes on Christmas Eve! We savor the fried goodness, sour cream and applesauce sides once a year. That is what keeps this dish special and one we enjoy every. Year.
We make Pineapple Souffle at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. We make it at other times on rare occasions, but it’s pretty sweet and rich and just seems more suited to holidays!
Yes, we have a favorite recipe that we bring out only at Thanksgiving. My husband makes his grandmother’s kielbasi for our family meal. It’s wonderful! The only problem? He won’t share the recipe with me.
I make apple cider beef stew one time every fall! It ushers in fall and I don’t believe it would taste as good at any other time of the year. 🙂