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Christmas Recipes from the House of Shaw
Festive recipes from our family gatherings
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Mulled Wine – Glühwein
Glühwein translates as ‘glowing wine,’ and I agree that it adds a glow to the season. In my time at the Toronto Christmas Market, the smell of mulled wine was one of the most evocative scents of the season, and a glass of it at the end of a long, cold day sent me home with a warmth in my heart. People have been drinking spiced wines since the Roman period at least, and the earliest recipe that we have is from 1390, which is older than any of the other recipes I’ve been able to find for my other festive drinks. This is another drink that was given to…
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Eggnog
I have never been an eggnog fan, at least not of the stuff I usually see at festive events – the eggnog that comes in a carton from the store. But I always thought I might like it a lot more if I tried making it from scratch, and this weekend my sisters and I decided to try it out – and I was right. In the older sources I can find, Eggnog is characterized as ‘an American drink,’ though it’s thought to be related to the old English possets. It’s often considered a good drink for people who are ill. I’ve read several times in modern recipes, without any…
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Lamb’s Wool
Lamb’s Wool is an old recipe, a drink that was made in celebration during the dark, festive season, often as part of the tradition of wassailing – in this case, a kind-of ritual toasting the apple orchards (and often other crops, fields, and livestock) to ask for a good harvest in the coming year. In the photo below, I’ve included some real rovings of natural wool from a sheep, so you can see that the colour is actually quite close to real wool. it also has a thick texture, that’s comforting, warm, and hearty. When I decided to try making it, I had a lot of research to do. Years…
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Lentil Cottage Pie
Hearty, comforting, and vegetarian, this Lentil Cottage Pie is my sister Cassie’s recipe, and it’s a perfect vegetarian main dish for Autumn dinners like Thanksgiving. A few years ago, we were on a family trip in the Scottish Highlands, and we stopped at a small cafe in Helmsdale. Their vegetarian Cottage Pie was delicious and filling on a cold, windy Scottish day, and it inspired Cassie to create her own. This recipe could be made vegan with a few small alterations – mostly by omitting the butter and using oil or coconut oil instead. Lentil Cottage Pie Ingredients 3 lbs potatoes, cubed + salt 3 tbsp butter and olive oil…
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Turkey Stuffing
In my hands, Turkey Stuffing isn’t a very precise thing – I think it’s one of those subjective foods that every family – or every person – likes done differently. It’s a recipe that I’ve been helping out with since I was a kid, as small hands are good for tearing loaves of bread into small chunks, and it’s sometimes a whole family effort, as you consult everyone to make sure it looks/smells right before going in to the oven. As a kid, I was a huge fan of my Grandma Shaw’s extremely peppery stuffings, though I think I was the only one who liked it like that. Because my sisters…
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Bûche de Noël
Bûche de Noël is a recent Christmas dessert for us, so not really a tradition yet, and only time will tell if it becomes one. I definitely intend on making it this year for our family dinner; we tried it last year for the first time, and my sister Cassie and I were surprised at how relatively easy and quick it was. And of course, everyone liked it, which is the most important part! The year before, I’d tried making a Black Forest Cake (I’ll probably post the recipe eventually, but I’m not like, enthusiastic about it), which was a lot of faff and not that great, in the end,…
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Penuche (Brown Sugar Fudge)
In looking around online to see what other versions of Penuche call for, I’ve found that it or something very similar to it has a million names – Tablet in Scotland, Sucre à la Crème in Quebec, Russian Fudge in New Zealand and Australia, Panoche in Hawaii and the Southern USA – but the recipe that was shown to me, scribbled on a piece of paper, called it Penuche. Every year on Christmas Eve, for as long as I can remember, we’ve gone to my Aunt Wendy’s house for dinner. When I was a kid, it was a madhouse – a million kids and adults, overhead, underfoot, out on the lake playing…
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Cranberry Sauce
Is there an easier thing in the world than home made cranberry sauce? I mean, yes, opening a can is easier, but this recipe takes 20 minutes tops and tastes a million times better than whatever you get out of a can. Gorgeous, ruby-red cranberry sauce is perfect as is – you can certainly add all kinds of other things, but I think it’s best kept basic – sugar, water, cranberries. Cranberry sauce is one of my favourite things about any turkey dinner – I really just use turkey as a cranberry sauce delivery system – and I always make my own. I love the beautiful reds of the berries,…
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Croissants
2019 Update: I’ve cleaned up the recipe to make it easier to understand, and added new photos. 2017 Update: I first published this recipe in 2009, at which time we’d been making croissants for three years, so it looks like it’s been a family tradition for more than a decade now. It’s nice to see things you’ve come to know and love have longevity; I remember when we began creating the traditions that we wouldn’t do without, after years of sad, stressed, miserable Christmases. Now it’s a time of year we all look forward to, which is the best thing. Original post 2009: Croissants have started to become a Christmas…
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Ginger Cookies
2017 Update: This is probably one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever posted; they’re easy to make, and people love them. I’m not generally home in Peterborough in the months before Christmas any more, because I work on the Toronto Christmas Market, so I don’t get a chance to bake them with the fam, but we all love these Ginger Cookies. I know I say that each of my recipes is fabulous, but this one is really the jewel in my baking collection. Based on (or perhaps ripped off of) the famous ginger cookies at The Planet Bakery here in my hometown of Peterborough, this cookie is moist and…
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Snickerdoodles
2017 Update: I associate Snickerdoodles with Christmas, not because my family necessarily loves them but because I do, and anything sugary and cinnamony is bound to seem Christmassy to me. I’ve rarely seen this recipe posted anywhere, which surprises me because these cookies are delicious. I got the recipe when I worked at Lang Pioneer Village as a costumed interpreter, baking on the old wood-fired cast iron stoves in the Keene Hotel or the Milburn House, learning to gauge temperature based on how quickly your arm-hair felt singed when you stuck your arm in the oven. Unfortunately, an electric or gas oven can’t replicate the particularly delicious flavour that a…
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Christmas Morning Berry Strata
Another of our Christmas traditions is this Christmas Morning Berry Strata, which we make in part in homage to my sisters’ favourite Christmas movie, The Family Stone. Spending time in the kitchen with my sisters, with my mom coming through occasionally and grumbling about why we bother making all of this food, is one of my favourite things about Christmas at home; all of the different things we make give a rhythm to the days that feels good. The watercolour above was painted by my sister Cassandra as a part of her 2022 watercolour journal; once she has prints for sale, I’ll link to them here. It’s easy to prepare…
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Mini Doughnuts
A co-worker ((Shout-out to Georgia! Thanks for the recipe!)) brought these baked mini doughnuts to a potluck back in the Spring, and I ate about a dozen of them because they were so good, and I pestered her for the recipe until she surrendered it. But it’s been a busy year, and my dreams of mini doughnuts were put on hold. Last week I finally got myself over to good ol’ Tap Phong to buy some mini doughnut tins, and yesterday I found an unexpected gap in my schedule (I’m part of the team running the Toronto Christmas Market this year, and it’s been a fun, busy time), so I whipped up a…
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Nana-Approved Turkey Pot Pie
2017 Update: I posted this Turkey Pot Pie recipe in 2010, and two years later my lovely Nana died. This recipe still reminds me of her; her approval meant a lot to me. 2010 Original post: This is essentially a basic turkey pot pie recipe, but I like to think that I’ve particularly made it mine by emphasizing the thyme, salt, and pepper. This savoury pie could probably handle a little sage, too, but have a light hand – the thyme really makes it irresistible. And don’t be stingy with the salt and pepper. I find too that no matter how badly I think I’ve screwed up the homemade pastry,…
