N&O readers share their favorite holiday food memories and recipes: jam cake, latkes & more

Holiday memories often start with breakfast and end with dinner, or a nightcap of something sweet.

Each Christmas, my parents would have grapefruit for breakfast — the only morning all year in which they’d eat the sweet and bitter, softball-sized fruit, purchased by the box annually from a high school student in the neighborhood who sold them door-to-door weeks earlier.

I didn’t like grapefruit then, so this wasn’t my tradition. But I remember that grapefruit now instead of whatever it was I had for breakfast — that my parents would depart their routines and with a spoon dig into the fruit as if it was a bowl. It made the morning different, a sweet note set in motion years ago that helped mark Christmas morning.

Two weeks back I asked readers to share some of their most meaningful holiday food memories and traditions. We were moved by the responses — some sweet, some savory, each twinkling and very much alive.

Gravlax tradition from Finland

My wife, Asta, is from Finland. She introduced me to gravlax at our first married Christmas. It has been part of our Christmases every since.

Lowell Roberts, Chapel Hill

Blackberry jam cake, hold the pecan shells

My family wasn’t big on tradition but I remember from my earliest years my mother baking this blackberry jam cake, half of this recipe, baked in a loaf pan. She got the recipe from her sister-in-law in their native Arkansas. One year whoever shelled the pecans left too much of the shell in, but we managed not to break any teeth. A fruity cake for stereotypical-fruitcake haters.

Elena Elms, Chapel Hill

The Elms/Mitchell Family Cookbook Jam Cake

• 1 cup butter (softened)

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 cups flour, sifted

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
  

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup pecans

• 1 cup raisins

• 1 cup coconut

• 1 cup jam (any flavor)

1. Cream butter and sugar.

2. Sift dry ingredients and alternate with buttermilk, adding to creamed mixture.

3. Add eggs, pecans, raisins, coconut and jam.

4. Bake in tube pan or 2 loaf pans.

5. Cook about an hour at 350°, or until inserted toothpick comes out dry.

More corn pudding, please

My mother’s corn pudding; it has to be made with fresh corn cut off the cob. My wife doesn’t like cutting corn off the cob so I’m lucky to have it once or twice a year.

Ivan G., Shotwell

Fish and noodles — an Italian favorite

Growing up, Christmas Eve dinner with my two maiden aunts, my dad’s sisters, was a highlight. My paternal grandparents (who died before I was born) were Italian immigrants to the U.S. in the early 20th century. So although my dad and his siblings were first-generation Americans, they grew up eating Italian foods. Therefore our Christmas Eve dinner centered on an Italian dish of fish and egg noodles with tomato sauce and bread crumbs, both of which (the sauce and crumbs) were flavored with paprika, i.e. it wasn’t spaghetti sauce. I still make fish and noodles every Christmas Eve and fondly remember those special Christmas Eves many years ago at the home of my two dear aunts. My mother’s German side of the family was all about making all kinds of delicious Christmas cookies, which my sisters still do. I love to cook, but I am not a cookie baker! LOL

Sandy Vartorella, Durham

Latkes for Chanukah

Every Chanukah my mom would grate many potatoes and fry many latkes for our party. Sour cream and apple sauce on the side. This is her recipe on our family website.

Adapted from a family recipe. Traditional during the Jewish holiday, Chanukah because of the symbolic meaning of the oil. Don’t use a food processor instead of a box grater or the latke will be too dense.Recorded January 21, 2006. Makes 15 latkes.

• 2 eggs

• 4 cups (1 liter) russet potatoes, peeled, coarsely grated on a box grater

• 1 medium onion, grated and well drained

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

• matzoh meal, as needed

• vegetable oil

Drain the grated potatoes in a strainer, catching the potato juice in a bowl. Let it stand to permit the starch to settle, pour off the water, and add the drained potatoes and grated onion to the bowl.Beat eggs and add to potatoes. Add seasonings. Add matzoh meal as needed to absorb any liquid. Heat oil over medium heat and add large spoonfuls of batter. Fry about 3 minutes until golden brown, turn and complete cooking. Drain on paper towels before serving. Serve at once with warm apple sauce, cinnamon and sugar, or sour cream on the side. Latkes can be used as the starch portion of a meat-based meal.

Alan Magid, Durham

Animal-shaped Christmas cookies with Grandma

The holidays make me crave my Mom’s cut-out cookies. She has a collection of cut-out animals and shapes that has grown over the years to include a penguin, hippopotamus, Christmas tree, stocking and many more.

The cookies are delicious. The bigger tradition is the process: Rolling out the home-made dough with a little flour so they don’t stick. Cutting out the shapes. Baking the cookies and waiting for them to cool. Finally, decorating them with sugary frosting and way too many sprinkles.

I made them with her when I was young, and we recruited my kids so it became their tradition with Grandma. They’re both in college now. Every December they look forward to returning home and going to Grandma’s to make cookies. As they’ve gotten older, their decorating skills have become more elaborate.

It’s a heartwarming tradition that I treasure every year — Grandma does, too. The cookies taste especially good after my wife’s favorite holiday food tradition: Prime rib and shrimp cocktail on Christmas Eve.

I also freeze a tin of cookies so they last well into the winter.

SUGAR COOKIES

• 3/4 cup shortening, part butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 1/2 cups flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

Mix well shortening, sugar, eggs, vanilla. Measure flour, sift with baking powder and salt. Stir flour into shortening and eggs. Chill at least one hour.

Preheat even to 400 degrees.

Roll 1/8 inch thick on floured board. Cut with cookie cutters and put on cookie sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool on cookie rack.

FROSTING

• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 3 tablespoons of milk

• food coloring – just a couple of drops

For one batch of cookies, you might need 3 cups sugar.

While frosting is still “wet” on the cookies, add sprinkles

Alan Wolf, Clayton