Not everyone who knows me knows how much I love Christmas Ribbon Candy, but a lot do. My friend, Shane always alerted me to the first of the season, as soon as it appeared in the Seattle stores. (I hope I can find a place to buy it in Tulsa.) I know not everyone thinks of Ribbon Candy as specifically Christmas candy, but I do, and I wouldn't even consider of eating one single blade at any other time of the year. Just look at this beautiful confection - it makes me all cheery just seeing it.
Does everyone have food items that define the Christmas season to them? Others than the iconic Candy Cane, of course. Didn't the girls in
Little House on the Prairie have fruit in their stockings? Some of mine are Orange Jelly Sticks, Panettone, Peppermint Bark, Fruitcake, Divinity (tinted red and green with the juice from Maraschino Cherries, Marzipan Fruits (and Pigs and Potatoes), Springerle and Spritz Cookies. It shows how well advertising works, that I feel like adding those solid Chocolate Oranges that break into segments when you tap them,
That ribbon candy really is pretty, but I can't imagine eating it. I not only don't have a sweet tooth, I have a tummy that doesn't tolerate very much sugar. Strangely, the food we have done for Christmas dinner for the last decade or more has been a v. large ham, something we almost never eat any other time of the year. Since turkey is what we've done at Thanksgiving and is what Bill's children will have had at their mothers, we go for ham. I suppose I could have said Christmas pudding, but if I had to choose a sweet, I'd say custard! I do love custard!
ReplyDeleteSo pretty! Looks delicious, too. As for special holiday foods: my mother makes a Christmas bread -- flavored with cardamom -- that is absolutely to die for. I've never made bread in my life (other than quick bread), but I plan on learning to make this one.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard about that ribbon candy before but those Cadbury oranges certainly talk to me ; as well as Panettone of course but that's because I used to be married to an Italian !xx
ReplyDeleteHi Shelley - We used to have our Jewish friends over for Christmas, because, really - where else were they going to go? And we would do Ham and Turkey. One year their children weren't going to be around, so to reduce the amount of food, we just did Turkey, to be respectful. They were so disappointed and made up promise that it would always be Ham in the future.
ReplyDeleteI love custard, too. Especially warm from the oven. And it has the advantage that you can make it fat free, or sugar free, or both if you like and still be delicious. Just not as delicious.
Hi Anne - I love the flavor of Cardamom. I finally found where they sell it in Tulsa - not in my local grocery stores. You could buy it anywhere in Seattle. Which makes me think that it might be a Scandinavian thing. Good luck with your mother's recipe - and continued good health, too!
ReplyDeleteHi Silver Bunny - That's right, you did live in Canada for a while. So the Cadbury Orange would be a very familiar Christmas treat.
ReplyDeleteI laugh when I saw that you used to be married to an Italian. I always assumed that my first boy child would be named Nick, a fabulous and versatile name. He could be Nicco the child, Nick the athlete, Nicky the playboy. But with an Irish father, he was not going to be Dominick like I thought. So my first child's name is Nicholas. And he has the best father in the world, so I can't complain that I never married an Italian. (I also always assumed that I would live in San Francisco, and that never happened either - but two of my children, Nick and Amanda, did.)
The Christmas candy is very decorative - I would not want to eat it, just put it out for show! Our Christmas foods are rather traditional: turkey, ham, Christmas fruit cake and plum pudding. There is an old Australian favourite called White Christmas, and often rum balls, both of these little sweet items.
ReplyDeleteHi Patricia -In the damp of Seattle, this candy would be a mushy mess the very day you put it out for show - so it never did get eaten. But I loved having it around. When I was a child in Southern California, we would eat it at my Grandparents'. It came in lots of flavors - mint, fruit, clove. Now that I live in Tulsa, I get it at the Walmart for $1.99 a box (unbelievable price - it would be almost $10 in Seattle) and it's still good next year.
ReplyDeleteHi Beryl,
ReplyDeleteI don't recall that I've ever eaten Ribbon Candy, although I have seen it.
The Christmas treats traditional in my childhood included the hard candies, each piece individual decorated and flavored; chocolate drops; coconut bonbons (pink, yellow, white and brown); chocolate-covered cherries; orange slice candy; and of course, the peppermint sticks.
Our stockings got filled with oranges, apples and nuts. But I suppose we were greedy because we also left our shoes beside the chimney, and Santa filled those as well!
Enjoy your ribbon candy and let the good memories enfold you!!
Hi Sanda - Santa filled your shoes too? How cool! Your stocking sounds just like ours. Did your Daddy get the hammer our to crack the nuts for you? I love your list of candies - I think I saw the Coconut Bonbons in The Vermont Country Store catalog. I'm going to check the Cracker Barrel store for some of those old time treats to send to my family on the West Coast. Lots of candies, like my much loved Cherry Mash bar, are not readily available there. Good Times!
ReplyDeleteYes, our shoes! Somewhere I have read that's a tradition in some other country, maybe The Netherlands? I'll have to look it up. No idea how that got started with us. My mother had one of those manual nutcrackers (metal) that you pressed together to crack the nuts Santa left, which were Brazil nuts, English walnuts and pecans. We would save and dry our orange peels, to be chewed on for the flavor -- long after the oranges were consumed! You're right: Good Times!
ReplyDeleteBrazil nuts were the hard ones to crack, but when you did, they were wonderful.
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