Pot luck recipes plus one new offering

By Eliot, on December 22nd, 2024

Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays! I’m posting up a bit early for Movies & Munchies this month. (I usually wait until the last minute.)

I’m hosting for December and decided to offer up a pot luck theme to our group. Pick any holiday movie of your choosing. Watch it with festive foodie goggles and post up an inspired-by holiday recipe. You can read the announcement post here.

Since this is a pot luck, I decided to revisit some of my holiday movie posts from Christmases past. (Some of these are from the old Food ‘n Flix days.) Here we go down memory lane.

2013 Elf
This was the first December post for Food ‘n Flix: Salted Caramel White Chocolate Cookie

2014 A Christmas Story
I had to make the family FUDGE! recipe.

2016 Krampus
This was not my favorite holiday movie. At. All. But I did make some Green Chile Mac ‘N Cheese with Andouille Sausage.

2018 Love Actually
One of the classics and one I watch (albeit by myself) every year. Here’s a chocolate fruit cake (à la Nigella Lawson).

2019 Christmas Vacation
For this classic, I did a Jelly of the Month Club riff with flavors including Mead Jelly, Zombie Marmalade, Spiced Merlot Jelly, Bloody Mary Jam, Cardamon-Orange Sparkling Riesling Jelly, Aleppo-White Zinfandel Jelly, Cinnamon Coca-Cola Jelly, Limoncello Jelly, Spiced Apple Beer Jelly, Tequila-Pepper Jelly, Whiskey Sour Cocktail Jelly and Mulled White Wine Jelly.

2020 The Holiday
For this film, I made Christmas Pasta.

2021 Family Stone
Another of my faves, I made a Pizza Family Strata.

2022 Klaus
I forgot to list Klaus as another holiday favorite and new classic. I made bacon-maple popcorn for our viewing.

(You might notice a few omitted years here. Those were the years we did a non-holiday film.)

While I would have gladly re-watched most of these films this year (besides Krampus), I wanted to do something different. I’ve been on a Truman Capote reading kick lately, so I wondered about A Christmas Memory (1966). You can find it on YouTube. (Don’t waste your time on the 1997 version with Patty Duke and Piper Laurie. I couldn’t finish that one.)

The 1966 version is narrated by Capote himself. It’s an homage to Truman’s early days growing up with an eccentric cousin and marks the last Christmas that Buddy and Sook spent together. The memory retold consists of traditional fruit cake making during the Depression. Buddy and Sook scavenge pecans while trespassing in an orchard and take their lives into their own hands to secure the most special of ingredients, whiskey. Using all their savings they procure the rest of the ingredients from the local general store. During the cooking session, they partake of a bit of the fire water, much to the rest of the family’s distress. These cakes are made for their “special” friends, most of whom are strangers or barely acquaintances: FDR, missionaries in Borneo, and a young couple in California whose car broke down at their farm.

Sook and Buddy love Christmas and anxiously (and loudly) awake the rest of the family on Christmas morn. Before they are able to tear into their practical gifts (socks, dress shirt, a subscription to a young people’s Christian magazine), they and the family sing a somber Christmas carol. Inside the kitchen (festively decorated by Sook), they exchange their own homemade gifts, made with much love.

As Capote narrates, it’s their last holiday together because it’s deemed Buddy would be better off at a military school. Although Sook continues to write him and send him the “best of the batch” of the fruitcakes, she begins to fail.

This is a bittersweet tale but the sorrow is balanced with the love and true meaning of the holidays. It shows how those with seemingly nothing still strive to find the beauty, fellowship, and joy in everyday.

Fruitcake Cookies

Adapted from Ina Garten

I added some of Sook and Buddy’s ingredients, deleted some of Ina’s, and added a few more from my own inspiration.

Ingredients

1/4 lb. dried pineapple, diced

4 oz. dried ginger, diced

1/4 lb. golden raisins, chopped (if jumbo)

2 oz. dried cherries, chopped

2 oz. dried apricots, chopped

1 T. honey

4 T. whiskey

2 T. lemon juice

1 pinch of sea salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 t. ground cloves

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 large egg

2 2/3 c. flour

1/4 t. Kosher salt

1/2 c. chopped pecans

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine the pineapple, ginger, raisins, cherries, apricots, honey, whiskey, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight at room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, cloves, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg and mix until incorporated. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt just until combined. Don’t over mix! Add the fruits, including any liquid in the bowl, and the pecans. Just mix in.

Divide the dough in half and place each half on the long edge of a 12 by 18-inch piece of parchment or waxed paper. Roll each half into a log, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4-inch thick, making an 18-inch-long roll. Refrigerate the dough for several hours, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

With a small, sharp knife, cut the logs into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place the slices 1/2-inch apart on ungreased sheet pans and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden.

Yield: 5 dozen (depending on size)

I baked these two ways. I did roll about half the dough (as directed above) into a log and chilled it. The other half I just used a cookie scoop, dropped them on the pan and flattened them a little. These baked fine but of course the sliced ones were prettier.

I’m not a huge traditional fruitcake fan (although my grandmother’s recipe is near and dear to my heart) so I did not use any of that fake colored fruit or citron. Instead I added the dried ginger for a bit of bite. I also added vanilla, some cinnamon and decreased the amount of cloves. Of course, Ina used sherry and I used whiskey. These cookies will be added to our holiday table every year. These are quite delicious!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I almost used my Liquid Fruit Cake infusion for this post. Let me report that that recipe is delicious! We’ve sipped it straight, over some cranberry-spice Sprite, and in some Wassail. Totally delicious. (And these made great gifts!)

You still have time to participate. Check out our FB (or META, whatever) group. Ask for an invite if you’re not a member. Watch a favorite holiday movie or special and post up a recipe.