Tuesday 4: Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is fast approaching for millions of people...

1. Do you have a favorite Christmas carol and if so, is there a particular version you especially like? I've always liked Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and I'm sort of partial to the version from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

2. Do you have a special dinner for the holidays? What foods are included? Yes, we always have a family meal. Sometimes there has been more than one. There is usually always a ham, slow roasted overnight. Sometimes there is also a turkey or lasagna. One year when we celebrated with our son's family on Christmas Eve I made big pots of soup and loaves of crusty bread. We had the ham the next day for the smaller gathering. Once, and only once, I got it in my head to have an old-fashioned, Dickens type Christmas. I searched high and low until I found a goose and we even had a traditional plum pudding. It turns out that none of us were especially big fans of either goose or plum pudding.

3. Holiday movies...which do you like to watch? The Hallmark (and some of the Lifetime) movies are a seasonal must, of course. I also make it a point to see at some point during December: A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Home for the Holidays, Elf, The Homecoming, Rudolph and the rest of the Rankin/Bass collection, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I watch lots more, but those are the ones for me that are non-negotiable.

4. What traditions do you continue to keep year after year for the holidays? Wow...I really have to think. So many of the them have had to become flexible due to everyone being spread out and having their own busy lives. Decorating the house and tree over Thanksgiving weekend and taking it all down on New Year's Day are pretty much always a given. Gathering with my parents, our children and grandchildren for a meal and gift exchange...a day of baking cookies with my mom and daughter...making chocolate candies and pretzels...going to church on Christmas Eve...watching A Christmas Story together on Christmas Day...having Christmas dinner at the home of whomever in the family has the youngest children (provided they are willing to host) as my dad always said kids should be allowed to be at home with their gifts on Christmas...not putting gifts under the tree until after everyone has gone to bed on Christmas Eve or filling the stockings (yep, I still do it that way even though it's only Tim and I at home now).

Now, I promised someone last week that I would share our family recipe for the small, bite-sized, pastry-like filled (nut, poppy seed, apricot...) rolls we make every Christmas.

NUT ROLLS

(makes roughly 6 doz.)

6 cups flour

1 cake yeast (must be cake)

1 lb. oleo, softened (the family member who taught my mom insisted it must be Blue Bonnet)

1/2 pint sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

6 egg yolks (do not use extra large eggs as they will make the dough too gooey)

Sugar, as needed, for rolling

Mix flour and yeast thoroughly with hands until no lumps of yeast remain.

Add oleo and salt. Mix in with hands.

Add sour cream and egg yolks. Mix with hands until a smooth dough forms. 

Cover and store in refrigerator overnight (no longer than two days).

On the day you are going to roll dough, set dough out to warm to room temperature.

Lightly spread rolling area with sugar and rub sugar on rolling pin. (DO NOT USE FLOUR!)

Break off a piece of dough and roll VERY thin. (The woman who taught my mom had one of those old formica tables with a design on it and she said the dough was right when you could see the design through the dough...we very rarely get it quite that thin. It's hard to do. But you get the idea.)

Trim the dough to a neat shape.

Spread dough lightly with your choice of filling. Spreading it too thick will cause it to ooze out during baking and make a huge mess.

Roll over 2-3 times and cut into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces.

Place on parchment covered baking sheet making sure seamed side is down.

Bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Check bottoms...bottoms will brown faster than tops. 

Cool on baking sheet for a minute then cool completely on racks. 

Store in covered containers with waxed paper between layers.

Freezes well.

**Nut filling.

2 lbs. English walnuts FINELY ground (seriously, ground to dust)

2/3 cup sugar

enough milk to make mixture spreadable.