Christmas Baskets

As usual, the holidays have put me in a nostalgic frame of mind. Pulling out the tree ornaments and decorations, some of which are a half-century old, (see my post "Ghosts of Christmas Past") and remembering past Christmases with family members who are no longer here always makes me sentimental at this time of year. After having a conversation with my sister-in-law about practical presents, I decided to make food baskets for my family, based on gift items my grandmother used to make and recipes I remember making with her. I called them Grandma Fannie's Christmas Baskets.

Ham Salad

I remember when my grandmother started making food baskets for her sisters for Christmas. I remember her saying that she couldn't think of anything they needed or wanted, but everybody could always use food. Now that I'm older, I know exactly what she meant. The conversation with my sister-in-law about practical presents put me in mind of this observation of my grandmother's.

She always started her sisters' baskets off with a ham. She would pick a fairly small one--they didn't need a lot--but fancy it up with cloves and a glaze. I decided to go the ham salad route with my family baskets. I hadn't made or had ham salad in a long time, but it was something my grandmother made a lot. I checked out a lot of recipes and finally came up with my own. It used to drive me crazy when I would ask my grandmother for a recipe, and she would say "a pinch of this" or "a dab of that," but that's exactly how this ham salad was made. She used to grind the ham in her meat grinder, but I used the food processor, then added finely chopped red onion and celery, mayonnaise, a little Dijon mustard, and a "dab" of dill pickle relish. It was a big hit.

Bread and Butter Pickles

My grandmother canned her pickles, but I made the easy refrigerator kind. Bread and butter pickles are sweet and sour. Honestly, I can't stand sweet pickles, so I had to ask my relatives if these turned out well, because I didn't even try them. The ones who like sweet pickles said they were good!

I have wondered for a long time about the name of these pickles. Google mentions several variations on the theme of the Depression--taking cucumber sandwiches for lunch, etc.--but the name actually became trademarked in 1923 by a couple of cucumber farmers from Illinois as "Fanning's Bread and Butter Pickles." Omar and Cora Fanning said they called them bread and butter pickles because before they were famous, they used to use them to barter with their neighbors for bread and butter.

Cinnamon Apples

I remember watching my grandmother make cinnamon applesauce. It was one of the items that almost always went in her baskets. I had a recipe from an old cookbook that my grandmother used, but I had recently watched the Pioneer Woman make cinnamon apple slices on TV, so I used her recipe. They were delicious! The hardest part of this recipe was finding the Red Hots. I thought maybe it was because they are old-school, but my friend reminded me that a lot of people use them for gingerbread houses. In any case, they weren't available at our local grocery stores, but I finally found them at Dollar General.

Cloverleaf Rolls

I am a good cook, and sometimes a good baker, but I cannot make bread. I was going to use my grandmother's roll recipe from her old cookbook (copyright 1953), but I decided maybe I needed a more modern version. It didn't matter. They still didn't rise. Don't tell my family, but I ended up making them out of Rhodes frozen bread dough. The whole point is that they are cloverleaf rolls, which is what my grandmother always made. 

Late in life--she was in her 70's or 80's--my grandmother decided to start baking bread from scratch. Now I imagine she had made bread before, but she decided she needed to perfect the process of making cloverleaf rolls. Now that I am retired myself, I think I know what she was trying to do. She wanted to stay busy and keep her mind and hands active, and that was what she did. She used a recipe from my mother's cookbook, which is the only one I ever saw her use. The only reason I know it was my mother's is because my grandmother wrote on the flyleaf, "Ida Belle's cookbook." It was called The Modern Family Cookbook by Meta Given, and you can see that my mother and grandmother made good use of it.

Hermit Cookies

My recipe for hermits also came from The Modern Family Cookbook. I remember making hermit cookies with my grandmother and by myself, when I was a teenager. Compared to the cookie varieties we have now, they weren't very special, made with ingredients that most cooks would have in their pantries. I guess the best way to describe them would be as spice cookies--they have both cinnamon and nutmeg in them--with raisins and nuts. I laughed out loud when I saw the directions--the cook was supposed to sift the flour five times--once for the flour itself and once each after the addition of salt, soda, the cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Can you imagine any busy woman now sifting the flour for cookies five times?

My grandmother had no problem with modern conveniences. By the time she started raising my brother and me at the age of 60, she had been cooking for a long time, and she didn't mind at all using store-bought foods or being taken out to eat. And my dad, after a long day at work, didn't mind at all taking us out to eat. I was luckier than most kids in that respect, I guess, and those dinners out at our favorite places are some of my best memories. To be honest, there were some things that my grandmother could cook really well--her roast and potatoes in the pressure cooker were something I have never been able to reproduce--but she was a better baker than a cook. She made cakes a lot, but I don't remember her ever using a recipe. Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines cake mixes with homemade frosting--buttercream or marshmallow--were often requested and enjoyed.

By the way, many have wondered how "hermit" cookies got their name, and there is no definite answer. One website suggested that the Moravians, sometimes called by the Dutch name "hernhutters," also baked a kind of spice cookie, and their name might have sounded like "hermits" to an English speaker. Hermit cookies have been known by that name in the U.S. since the 1870's. Apparently, they last forever (maybe hermits could keep them a long time in their caves) and were a popular choice for mothers sending packages to their sons overseas during WWII.

Divinity

I have no recollection of my grandmother making divinity, but I'm sure she did. Her sister Georgia was the divinity queen in our family. This was one of those "keeping your mind and hands active" things for me. I just wanted to see if I could do it. If I have ever made divinity before, it was so long ago that I have forgotten. Unlike the rolls, the divinity turned out wonderful! The first ones wanted to spread a little, so I googled that and found a suggestion to add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar. That did the trick. Scrumptious, if I do say so myself.

On a note in each family's basket, I wrote:

Grandma Fannie's Christmas Basket
Ham Salad
Bread and Butter Pickles
Cinnamon Apples
Cloverleaf Rolls
Hermit Cookies
Divinity

And on the other side:
Making food for us was how she showed her love
Making her food for you is how I show you mine

Grandma Fannie's Christmas Baskets