Christmas is so close. The closer it gets, the more excited I get. The meal is planned and the baking has begun. This is my favorite part of the holiday. This is where our heritages come into play. DH's background is the United Nations. He is 1/2 Polish and the other half includes Welsh, German and many more. Mine is Italian and English. The English part has never come into play when it comes to food.

The Polish contribution is homemade pirogi, homemade applesauce, and Polish sausage. (Boil the sausage to remove most of the fat.) The pirogi recipe was handed down to me from DH's grandmother.



For the Italian contribution I will make my grandmother's cookies. The lemon an anise Italian cookies that sell for $9.00 a pound. I promise they do not cost that much to make. They can be labor intensive, but will be made with love, so to me the cost is low.



I have already made chocolate orange creams and chocolate covered pretzels. Again DH's grandmother taught me how to make the orange creams. I bought the chocolate discs and added chocolate chips before I melted the candy in the microwave. If you want to make the pretzels it is best to buy a national brand as they are a bit softer and add a nice balance to the chocolate.



What are you making for Christmas dinner? Have you thought about adding a heritage food to your menu? It is a comfort to eat heritage food and in most cases brings back some good memories.

I consider making these heritage dishes as an invitation to our grandmothers to join us in the celebration - in spirit.



Merry Christmas to you. I hope your day is blessed with all that is good.