Christmas Recipes Guide
Christmas Recipes Article
Easy Christmas Recipes
from: ChristmasReverie.comAcross the world people have gathered together at Christmas time for centuries. Families often prepare the holiday food together rather than just leaving mum to get on with it-as used to be the case. Across the world there is a wide variety of traditional Christmas dishes, and a lot of easy Christmas recipes. While nowadays the favorite tends to be turkey in England it used to be goose, in Germany they like suckling pig-but in most American homes Christmas has traditionally meant turkey for dinner.
There are some really easy Christmas recipes that have been around a long time and that have a special meaning. One of these easy Christmas recipes is mince pies-these are made with short-crust or puff pastry filled with mincemeat-a mixture of chopped dried fruits and spices in a rich thick sauce. Mince pies were not always this way; they used to made from actual meat and spices and were meant to symbolize the gifts that the wise men brought Jesus. These were not the same as the easy Christmas recipes of today, they were a main course-the pastry was shaped to like a manger with the image of Jesus on top. In England the Puritans saw them as sacrilegious but the New England Puritans liked them and continued eating them as a pie.
There are easy Christmas recipes for cakes and puddings across the world. English Christmas puddings are more like American Christmas cakes, they’re just more moist and have more brandy in them. The Christmas song about figgy pudding is actually a rich fruit cake. In Italy there are easy Christmas recipes for bread-one of these is made with lemon and raisins and is called Panettone. Easy Christmas recipes for gingerbread originated in Germany but this now very popular all over North America. Gingerbread is made into gingerbread men and at Christmas time it can be seen in all sorts of guises and constructions. Americans love cookies and have some easy Christmas recipes for them. The cookies are shaped into Christmas symbols like angels and stars and then baked-families then decorate them with icing and sprinkles and pieces of candy; a very popular tradition in American homes.
Americans love a good gravy with their Christmas turkey-the gravy uses the juices from the turkey along with a mixture of herbs such as marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary and paprika. These are put in a pan along with a diced onion and brought to a low boil-the gravy is then thickened with cornstarch and served as a side dish to the turkey.