Recipe Memories - SS Blog Challenge

Stacy presented the first blog challenge for 2008:
We all dig out special recipes during the holidays - some that we ONLY use at holiday time. Why do we make those dishes every year? Where did the recipe originate? Does someone request it? Would it just NOT be the holidays without it? What memories of this recipe do you have from your childhood?

Then there are the stock recipes that we ALWAYS keep ingredients on hand for. What's one of yours? What's your family's favorite dish? What do you ALWAYS make when you have company for dinner? Are you known for a certain recipe that people always request? This week, tell us about the recipe(s) that invoke special memories for you.

There are 3 recipes that come to mind that signal "the holidays" to me. First is what I call "Special Sweet Potatoes" - a delicious concoction of mashed sweet potatoes with melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. The potatoes are then scooped onto pineapple rings, topped with a maraschino cherry and baked in the oven. My mother got the recipe off the Taylor's Sweet Potatoes can back in the 1950's or 1960's. It was always my favorite way of having sweet potatoes and I always requested them each holiday dinner. I always serve them at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

The second holiday food is "crunch" aka celery stuffed with cream cheese. I don't know who started serving celery this way. It was just something we always had. One of my first holiday helping jobs was to peel the celery, rinse & dry it and fill it with cream cheese, then lightly sprinkle with paprika. The side dish got its current name of "crunch" when my niece Karen started talking. She called it "crunch" for the sound it makes when you bite it. From that time on, that's what the whole family called it.

Finally, nothing says the holidays more to me than mixing up a pitcher of my mother's favorite Brandy Alexanders. Nothing lowfat or healthy about these - just yummy & delicious. Eggnog, half & half mixed with brandy and creme de cacao; mix in some powdered sugar. Pour into a glass & sprinkle some nutmeg on top and enjoy. When we were kids, we always got to have a little glass. Each year I mix up a pitcher on Thanksgiving Day and enjoy a glass (or 2!) in my mother's memory.

Now, for part 2, I can honestly say that there are no recipes that I always keep ingredients on hand for. But we definitely have family favorites. I make my own spaghetti sauce using my mother's recipe so Italian dishes are always served when the kids are going to be home - angel hair pasta with sauce & meatballs or manicotti or lasagna. Meatloaf, again using my mom's recipe, is another family favorite. Tacos and my chili recipe are also popular. One of my favorite "for company" recipes is a baked bacon-wrapped chicken breast that has been spread with chive cream cheese on the inside.

One other family favorite that I can't forget is Chocolate Jumbo cookies. I don't know where Mom got the recipe from but they are my favorite! The cookies are very cake-like and not overly sweet but then the bottoms of the cookies get frosted with the best fudge frosting. Yum!

Okay, now I'm hungry...