Top Blitz Recipes

Last week the TAGT Team held it's annual holiday recipe treasury blitz on Etsy.  The recipes are posted in the 11-23 blog post.  The team leaders have chosen their favorite recipes and I have the great honor and responsibility of selecting the best of the best.  Truth to be told it was tough because they are all wonderful.  This is the count down from 1st to 3rd place with a little extra information about recipes.

Being one for family traditions I chose for the 1ST Place recipe the PLUM PUDDING pictured here. 

This reminded me of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.  It was submitted by Laurie Ann who is the owner of  Artful Bits And Bytes.  The recipe originated in England with her mothers family and is served at Christmas.  Different members of her family prepare it each year and the leftovers are shared as they last well in the freezer.  Through the years some of the ingredients have changed such as a substitute for the suet.  Laurie Ann tells a story of the year it fell "One year it fell while boiling (outside in the yard) but no matter, it was picked back up and finished its cooking, there was just lots of extra hard sauce poured over and a full crown instead of sprig of holly on top (to hide the cracks).  Mostly, it is just full of warm memories.  Christmas was the only holiday when the youngsters were allowed a bit of alcohol (with the rum sauce and the spiked eggnog) so as kids, we felt a little naughty and special."

2nd place goes to the Mushroom Soup which was submitted by Osnat Ganor owner of OdPaAm.  Osnat's family makes this soup during the season between autumn and winter. The family likes to pick the mushrooms themselves in the forest near their village of Eshtaol, Israel.  The Eshtaol Forest is one of the largest in Israel and is a popular recreation area.  So this not exactly a holiday recipe but a seasonal one. 

3rd place is a wonderful sweet recipe with, to me, the strange name  Kaju Barfi.  It is a cashew nut fudge.  This was submitted by Alankar of SpectraKraft.  She has been making this sweet for about 4 years for her husband (and her own) sweet tooth, but it is a long time family favorite.  The recipe posted is a standard most people can follow.  She didn't use her mothers because as with many moms it is all a pinch of this and a bit of that a guestimate.  She tells me that in India fall is festival time and the largest festival is Diwali, the festival of lights which celebrates the triumph of good over evil.  During the festival they light oil lamps and make many deliciacies and Kaju Barfi was always one her mom made.  Alankar said "I love that time of the year - because it's festive and everyone's in very high spirits.  It's akin to Christmas.  Everyone's happy, you are constantly eating good food, meeting relatives after eons".  

Article by Gail of Digital Expressions and Artful Papers