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Christmas in the USA

9/12/2012

12 Comments

 
Click HERE for the recipes
Christmas Food in the USA
Today, let me tell you about the fourth Christmas as part of the Six Christmases project (explained here). This time, it is Christmas in the USA seen from the point of view of my American friend Jenn.
Jenn is from Philadelphia but has been living in Ireland for the past ten years. She also has a food blog called Diary Of A Cookbook Addict. You might see her around on my photography website along with her husband and cute little boy as I had the chance to do a lovely family portrait session for them a little while ago.
Even though Jenn is mostly spending Christmas in Ireland nowadays, she still has beautiful stories about what her and her family would do back home in the USA.

USA - On cremedecitron.com
A lot of the food traditions and childhood Christmas memories that Jenn has are about what happens before Christmas day. It involves a lot of baking and flavours such as chocolate, butter and sugar.
Making cookies is a tradition in her family (as it is for many American families). They make a huge variety of cookies every year. One recipe is for beautiful soft sugar cookies but is only handed down through the generations and you would have to marry into the family to get the secret recipe!
Jenn told me that some groups of people organise a 'cookie exchanges' party at which they drink hot chocolate and swap cookies. You can then leave with a fantastic assortment of cookies. It sounds like a brilliant idea!


Jenn also likes to have an Open House on the Sunday before Christmas. She makes a lot of mulled wine and non-alcoholic spiced cider for the occasion, and buys a lot of cheese and sweet things. Then she opens the doors from 3pm to 6pm and friends and family are welcome to drop in. She sees it as a nice chance to catch up and relax.

When it comes to Christmas Eve, Jenn and her family would always end up going to her godfather's house. He and his wife have a lovely array of food and cocktails for the dinner. They eat ham, lots of salads and beautiful dips. His wife would make a lovely taco dip that has seven layers, and there would also be a delicious spinach and artichoke dip.
Everyone goes to Midnight Mass on their way back and then, they open their family presents at home.


On Christmas morning, for breakfast, Jenn and her family eat a cinnamon and walnut coffee cake. It has a yellow sponge and the filling is swirled through it. Jenn has German ancestors and a lot of her family recipes come from this ancestry.
In the morning they also open their Christmas stockings which usually have some amazing presents in it (including concert tickets!). Jenn's father always has delicious cashew nuts in his stocking and they all end up stealing it from him and eating them all.

Then they snack all day, mostly on delicious assortments of cookies.
What they eat for Christmas dinner is beef (the tradition of cooking turkey is reserved for Thanksgiving and ham for Easter). Sometimes it can be steak. But most of the time, it would be a beautiful pot roast. The beef is cooked in a slow cooker for six hours with red wine, mushroom cream soup and beef stock in the dish. It makes the house smell really nice all day. The meat ends up having the same texture as pulled pork and they serve it with mash.

I decided to use the idea of beef for a Christmas dinner. I do not own a slow cooker so I made roast beef with a delicious creamy mushroom and Port wine sauce.
As I am not married into Jenn's family, hence could not get the secret cookie recipe, I created a cookie recipe of my own. They are delicious and quite indulgent. I can assure you they did not last long enough to be shared with a lot of people. So, I will most certainly be making another few batches before Christmas.
Keep scrolling down to find some delicious recipes inspired by Jenn's Christmas in the USA.

Roast Beef With a Creamy Mushroom and Port Sauce Recipe
Click HERE for the recipes
Indulgent Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Caramel Filling Recipe
12 Comments
Cuisine Genie link
9/12/2012 11:27:57

Ohhhh Yolène! I love peanut butter, really want these cookies. Mr.Moustache is allergic to peanuts so I never get to cook with them...I might need to make these for myself ;-)

Reply
Yolène link
10/12/2012 01:14:49

Oh no! An allergy to peanuts! You can replace the peanut butter by unsalted butter and add a pinch of sea salt in the caramel sauce, it will be as delicious! And then Mr Moustache can have the cookies!

Reply
Emily
9/12/2012 12:25:01

The cookies look delicious! Love your food blog! <3 miss you

Reply
Yolène link
10/12/2012 01:16:24

Thank you Emily :) ! Miss you too lovely girl, many bisous to you and the family!

Reply
Sanna link
10/12/2012 03:12:56

Love the idea of cookie exchanges!! Very yummy looking recipe .. where can I buy liquid glucose?

Reply
Yolène link
10/12/2012 03:20:41

Thanks Sanna! You can find liquid glucose (or just glucose as you see it on the bottle or tube) in the supermarket with the products for baking usually (found it in Coles and Woolworth when I lived in Melbourne, so you should be able to find it there).

Reply
French Foodie in Dublin link
10/12/2012 04:42:50

Your pics are gorgeous and I want to try these cookies *drools* :-) Looking forward to the next Christmas!

Reply
Yolène link
10/12/2012 08:14:53

Thank you! I'll have to make the cookies for you :)
I found the ethnic shop for the food of the next Christmas article ;)

Reply
Yolande
10/12/2012 15:53:48

Je voudrais bien que le père Noël m'envoie des cookies?
Tu crois que ça serait possible

Reply
Yolène link
11/12/2012 02:49:45

Ca devrait être possible... Dès que le père Noël a empaqueté ses cadeaux et fini les traductions :)

Reply
The Dublin Diary link
11/12/2012 02:37:31

Mmmmmmh! That mushroom and port sauce just sounds yummy, I'm drooling! I have to make that!

Reply
Yolène link
11/12/2012 02:51:06

It is indeed very good, I had to stop myself from eating it by the spoonful and leave some for the meat :)

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    Hello! I’m Yolene, a French blogger based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
    Welcome to my blog Crème de Citron. This is where I share lifestyle, travel and food stories.

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