HAPPY HOLIDAYS🎄🕎

Celebrate with Christmas Sweets & Hanukkah Dinner Classics

Dec 20, 2024

It’s finally time to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah!

So in honor of both, we’re featuring some traditional family Christmas sweets and Hanukkah dinner classics. Cheers!

‘FAMILY TREE-EATS': CHRISTMAS EDITION

Growing up with Italian, Ukrainian, and Dutch heritage made for quite the holiday spread. We are celebrating our family background in the first half of this digest with three of our family’s Christmas specialties.

Starting strong with cannolis. Our Grandma always made Sicilian-style cannolis around this time of year. She used to make the shell using a broomstick eek 🤦‍♀️. But we recommend you hit up an Italian bakery or specialty store and buy their shells (most places that sell cannolis will also sell their shells). Once the shells are secured, you’re tasked with making the filling.

GO TO RECIPE

Our family recipe does not contain ricotta or mascarpone cheese, instead, the filling is a thickened milk custard with chocolate chunks and bits of pistachio. Last year, we picked up mini shells from the Italian bakery down the street, for little sweet bites among an assortment of other desserts.

Our Dad’s side of the family is Dutch so every year at Christmas we would get a tin of ‘Grandma Vandenbos' Pfeffernusse Cookies’. Pfeffernusse cookies are small spiced chewy cookies (similar to gingerbread) covered in powdered sugar that are popular during the holidays. Pfeffernusse is really a love-it or hate-it kinda cookie. If you are partial to gingerbread and licorice flavors then they’re a treat. If not, then I’d probably pass lol. We mostly love them for the nostalgia. Our cousins used to suck the powdered sugar off and throw away the rest 😂.

GO TO RECIPE

And because we’re Ukrainian, we always have Kutia at Christmastime. Kutia is boiled wheat berries, poppy seeds, and honey. Our family traditionally eats Kutia on Christmas morning for good luck and we serve it with milk (kind of like cereal). In addition to luck, eating wheat berries the day after a filling Christmas dinner really gets things going if you know what I’m saying….

GO TO RECIPE

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Last year, I hosted my first Hanukkah dinner for a few friends.

I prepared some light apps, made fresh challah, matzo ball soup, and latkes, and served pierogis and cabbage rolls (from our local Polish deli) for the main course.

Good matzo ball soup is a labor of love. It is not difficult, but it does take time so I recommend making it over a weekend. It is best to make the stock at least a day before (or even earlier and freeze it) so you can use the schmaltz —rendered chicken fat that floats to the top of the stock—for your matzo balls. If you do not have the time to make your own stock you can buy high-quality stock from the store instead.

GO TO RECIPE

Growing up I loved going over to my friends' houses to eat latkes during Hanukkah. Over the years, I have tried many recipes and this version combines a few of my favorites.

GO TO RECIPE

I love how crispy these turn out and how few ingredients they need. There’s nothing like the sizzle of latkes cooking in a pan and then eating them for breakfast the next day with sour cream and caviar 🤤

I made my first challah in culinary school and fell in love with the process. It takes a bit of patience and practice, but once you get the hang of it it becomes such a treat to make. My go-to challah recipe is from Joan Nathan. She is the queen of Jewish cuisine and her cookbooks are great. I recently shared her recipe (and a few pointers) with my friend Jess, and it turned out great for her first challah! You can watch me make it below.

And if you have any leftover challah it makes the best french toast for breakfast!