Steven Sanchez, Jr.

**I have a disclaimer: I am currently interning for James Collier of Paprika Studios. I published this post at 4:30pm earlier today. This post was actually a blog being written for the website TasteFresno.com (co-owned by James), however I enjoyed it and published it to my own personal blog. **

So I don’t know about you, but now that Halloween has just passed, the winter holidays are on my mind. And what does that mean? Food. Tons and tons of delicious, mouthwatering food.

Growing up, the holidays always meant a house full of sweets and a house stocked with food ready for guests at any moment. My grandmother always made sure to have dozens upon dozens of homemade cookies stocked in the freezer as well as even more dozens of her homemade rolls and Portuguese sweetbread rolls (my favorite).

Also, the holidays were a time of huge family gatherings. I fondly remember grandma’s house packed with people. It was grandma, mom and dad, my brother and sister, my aunts and uncles, their children, and their children’s children. Come dinnertime, my grandma would put several tables together to fit all the adults and older cousins. I’m talking, like, two full sized kitchen tables put end to end, and then on top of that laid a huge piece of plywood board, to make the two tables seamless. Then atop of the plywood board was my grandmother’s appropriately themed tablecloths.

We would all feast on my grandma’s cooking – the adults and my older cousins at the big table, and then my brother and similar-aged cousins at the kids table. Which was in the living room.  I also remember that we would all rush to eat our food so that we could get back to playing. Now that I’m older I can appreciate the deliciousness of my grandma’s food and taking my time to enjoy the meal.

After we all ate, the men would make their way to the living room to return to the newspaper, take a nap, watch football. Us kids would go back to playing. The ladies would clean up the kitchen. Then, a little while after the kitchen was all cleaned and everybody has had time to let their stomachs rest, my grandma would bust out with the dessert array. There were pies and cookies and desserts galore.

*sits back to take a moment to relive in these moments for a bit*

Yeah. The holidays are good times in my family. Great food. Great people. After perusing the [new] TasteFresno website (nothing wrong with a shameless plug), I found a few recipes that were similar ones that show up in my family’s holiday recipe repertoire.

After checking these out, what are some of your cherished family/holiday/food memories?

Bourbon Pecan Pie

• At the holidays, my grandma’s pecan pie is the biggest hit. She will easily make five, six, even more of these because they are so well liked.

Caramel Shortbread Squares

• I found these on my own, and have introduced these to my family’s holiday goodie list in the recent years past. I have made countless batches of these Chocolatey-Caramely-Heaven bars.

Breakfast Sausage Casserole

• This recipe is a good one when you know that you’re going to have guests spending the night. You prepare it ahead of time, let it sit in the fridge, then the night after you and your guests wake up – pop it in the oven and enjoy! It’s got your whole breakfast in the pan. My aunt’s version of this also has cream cheese in it – so good!

Creamy Pecan Pralines

• Pralines and peanut brittle. My grandma always has a tray out of her homemade snacks that we will all snack on before dinner. On her tray is her fudge, peanut brittle, (my mom’s) homemade hard candy, trail mix (my grandma makes batches upon batches of this stuff, too!) and cookies.

Grandma’s Fudge

• This isn’t my grandma’s recipe, but it is fudge. Another holiday staple.

Mom’s Turkey Stuffing

• Since we have grown older, our holiday dinners have become smaller. My mom has now been making our Thanksgiving dinner. Every year my mom continues to perfect her dinner. And yes, she does have her own recipe for the stuffing. Again, this particular recipe isn’t my mom’s, but it is another holiday must-have.

Toffee-topped bars

• Now, this recipe doesn’t really relate to any of my family usuals. However, to me it sounds really tasty. I am a sucker for toffee.