I love December. My family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas, and my birthday happens to fall in this month as well. Throw in Kwanzaa and we have one full month of celebration. We also have one full month of gift giving.
I enjoy being a writer, but mine is not the most remunerative of careers. I therefore have to become creative in my gift giving.
Luckily, most of the people I give holiday presents to happily accept edible gifts. Food makes the perfect offering, as far as I’m concerned.
I buy some of my edible gifts. Franklin County is a food mecca. Maple syrup from a local sugarhouse, apples and pears from a local orchard, hard cider or craft beer from a local purveyor: these all make terrific gifts.
Throw in pickles from Real Pickles, a horseradish product or two from Saw Mill Site Farm, Pioneer Valley popcorn from Hager’s Farm Market, milk or yogurt from Sidehill Farm, cheese from Upinngil or Chase Hill Farm, or any of our other wonderful regional edibles — and you’ve got yourself a local-food basket.
I enjoy making my own gifts as well. I regularly present friends and loved ones with homemade mustards and vinegars, tiny loaves of pound cake or pumpkin bread, hot-fudge sauce in a festive jar, and my own jams and jellies.
I even make fruitcake every year. I know fruitcake is the target of many jokes. People laughingly say that it works best as a doorstop. Or that the world contains only one lone, sad fruitcake, which is doomed to be gifted and re-gifted by people seeking to avoid it.
I love baking fruitcake each fall — and I know many people who welcome its dense sweetness into their homes.
The two recipes I feature below are holiday standbys for me. As far as my brother is concerned, curried cashews are a necessity each Christmas. He doesn’t have a strong sweet tooth, but he does enjoy a savory snack. The cashews aren’t hot, they are flavorful.
The penuche fudge recipe comes from my neighbors the Parkers at Singing Brook Farm in Hawley.
This brown-sugar fudge is very, very sweet. Adding the optional nuts cuts the sweetness, but it also puts you in danger of eating too much penuche!
Please contact me (Tinky@TinkyCooks.com) to tell me about your own favorite food gifts. I’d love to feature some of them here next December. Meanwhile, happy holidays to all!
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon cumin seeds (if you have a mortar and pestle, use them to crush the cashews a little and release their oils)
1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala
2 tablespoons sweet butter
1 pound raw cashews
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. In a bowl, combine the salt, cumin seeds, and curry powder. Mix well.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter. (A cast-iron skillet works best as it can go straight into the oven.) Add the cashews and stir to coat them. Sprinkle on the spices and toss well.
If your frying pan is oven proof, place it in the oven, making sure that the cashews are spread out in an even layer. If not, transfer the cashews and their flavorings to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
Remove the cashews from the oven and transfer them to paper towels to drain and cool completely. When they are cool, place them in an airtight container. (A festive tin works well at this time of year.) Makes about 1 pound.
1 cup sour cream
1 pound light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
A generous splash of vanilla
Combine the sour cream and the sugars in a heavy, medium-size saucepan, and place the pan over low to medium heat.
Stir the mixture constantly until it comes to a boil; then cover it for a minute or two to wash down the sides of the pan. Uncover the mixture, and cook it, without stirring much, until it reaches the soft-ball stage (234 degrees). Remove from heat.
Add the nuts (if you want them) and vanilla, and let the mixture cool for a few minutes without stirring it. Don’t let it get cooler than lukewarm; optimally, it should be a bit warmer than that.
Beat the warm fudge until it becomes creamy and thickens slightly — in other words, until it begins to seem “fudgy.” Quickly pour it into a buttered 8-by-8-inch pan, and let it cool before cutting it into squares. Store the fudge in an airtight container. Makes about 36 squares, more or less, depending on your cutting.
Penuche is best when eaten within 24 hours. Happily, it rarely lasts that long.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and the forthcoming “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com.