It feels surreal that the holiday season is almost here and that means it's time to start planning a holiday menu, among other things.
For those of us who have stuck close to home consistently since March, time has moved strangely this year. It feels like the year has been centuries long on one hand, and like it's gone by in a flash on the other.
Yet, here we are. It's getting colder, the meals are getting carbier, and the changing colors cannot be ignored. We've committed to a low-key holiday this year for a number of reasons, but I've still been prioritizing the feeling of family.
I've also been thinking a lot about the different cultures that make up our family. In our household, we have bits of Colombian, Puerto Rican, Italian, Cuban, and German culture.
Oh, and that's the shortlist.
It's quite a lot, but we do feel connected in different ways to all of it. I've been thinking about how that could be represented, and here's what I've come up with for our holiday menu.
Here's the thing: I have not been a holiday person in a long time. It's a time of year that's more stressful than I feel it needs to be. It feels more arduous than joyful a lot of the time. However, this year's promise of a low-key holiday season has introvert me feeling like I should try to get a bit festive.
When I know who and what to expect, I feel like I can get enough of a handle on the situation to relax and enjoy. This year, as I look ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm thinking of how to make it as much of a big family holiday as possible when there's only three of us this year.
There are two things that make me feel like something exciting is happening. Those two things are decorations and food. The decorations department is going to need some work. I own exactly two strings of Christmas lights and somewhere around eight ornaments.
Instead, I chose to focus on food. Food is a part of every holiday. In my case, they are elaborate foods that I probably won't make time to cook at any other point of the year. This year, I wanted to combine traditional family holiday foods and some new recipes that tie together the cultures our household represents.
That gives us a pretty wide variety to work with. In our house, we represent Colombia, Puerto Rico, Italy, Cuba, Germany, and more. Neither I nor my boyfriend grew up with a lot of emphasis on culture, and it's something we both came to prioritize on our own before we'd even met.
So with this idea in mind, I hit the internet in search of all the holiday dishes from our various cultures that we'd never had before. I love the idea of making a lot of new dishes on the holiday to balance out the staples. If you don't like it, there are a lot of other options. If you do, it's something to add to your rotation.
Here are some of the recipes that have piqued my interest in the holiday season. Whether you want to try these out with your own family or they inspire you to look into your cultural equivalent, they're sure to add something special to your table this year.
I had a hunch about what kind of Colombian offering I wanted to add to the holiday menu. I've been wanting to try my hand at making Colombian hot chocolate for a while. It's not any old hot chocolate. It's hot chocolate … with cheese. Most people also enjoy it with bread, and it sounds totally amazing. It's a bit of work, and I can never justify indulging on my own. A holiday is a perfect time to get everyone else in on it.
Because we all have at least one Italian family member, we're used to holidays full of Italian food. That meant two things for me. One, we had to have some kind of Italian food. Two, I didn't want to have too much Italian food.
I decided to go for a family favorite and one of my most used recipes: breaded chicken cutlets. The chicken cutlets are perfect because they're super versatile. You can add them to a pasta dish, eat them with rice and beans (as I usually do), or add them to a sandwich.
My personal recipe will go with me to the grave but this one by Slender Kitchen is a pretty solid alternative.
In all that holiday Italian food, there's often a lasagna. I came up with the masterful idea to substitute that with pastelón.
It's similar conceptually, with plantains instead of pasta, Hispanic spices instead of Italian ones, and a cheese and egg sauce instead of red sauce. This recipe is amazing. Even if you're not Puerto Rican, you'll really enjoy this one.
Now, for something I'll be trying my hand at for the first time. We've been stumped for Cuban recipes since my boyfriend doesn't have any strong ties to anyone connected with the culture.
Cuban croquetas seemed like a great pick for several reasons. For one, it looks enough like something the 8-year-old has eaten before for him to take a bite with no complaint. This also looks like it could be good to make the night before you spend the day cooking and graze on as you work.
I'm eager to see how my culturally reimagined holiday might turn out. I'm still searching for other recipes and ideas to incorporate, but this feels like a good start. It also feels nice to take the time every so often to connect with a culture, especially one you're teaching yourself. Whether or not your family could use this at their holiday this year, it's something we should try to incorporate more of in our day-to-day lives as well.
