RECIPES:

Cranberry Glazed Ribs

Light as Air Mashed Potatoes

Parker House Rolls

Pear-y Cherry Crumble

My dad hated setting up the Christmas tree. I can still see him, red-faced, holding his breath and grumbling. Because that tree . . . had . . . to . . . be . . . straight. I’m surprised he never had a heart attack.

He always did get the Christmas tree to stand perfectly straight, though. One year he sawed off all extraneous branches and relocated them into carefully spaced holes he drilled into the trunk. Another year, after the tree was perfectly positioned and decorated, he wanted to move it onto a platform with a train track that ran around the perimeter. When it was where he wanted it, the tree came crashing down, along with most of the glass ornaments. That was a low point.

The first time I had to put up the tree by myself felt like an out-of-body experience. Every time I shouted to the kids, with my hand on a sappy trunk and my face full of branches, “Is it straight? Is it straight?!” I knew I looked very much like my dad. Soon the grumbling started, and my face turned red as I tried to tighten the little screws into the trunk.

As much as I’d love for my children to have great fodder for personal essays when they’re older, it would be nice for them to have a mom who isn’t completely out of her mind the night we put up the Christmas tree. So I’ve tried to make things a little easier on all of us. Now, we buy the tree one day, put the lights on it another, and decorate it the day after that. On that day we have our party.

music to set the scene:

Cambridge Singers Christmas Album, by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers

Sing We Christmas or A Chanticleer Christmas, by Chanticleer

When My Heart Finds Christmas, by Harry Connick Jr.

variations on a theme:

Change the celebration to a holiday that your family celebrates, and adjust the menu accordingly.

Our Tree Trimming Party is special. It’s the first celebration we have for the Christmas season—before school parties, office parties, and Christmas concerts. With just the four of us, it’s the perfect time to put the holiday in perspective and focus on what’s most important before anyone from the outside can pull us from home.

Listening to carols is essential. We love anything Christmassy by Chanticleer, the choral group from San Francisco. We also love the Cambridge Singers, directed by John Rutter. After our dinner of Cranberry Glazed Ribs and Pear-y Cherry Crumble, and once the last ornament is placed, we turn off all the lights but those on the tree and start reading A Christmas Carol. We continue to read as much as we can each night so it’s finished by Christmas Eve.

To kick off the holiday season with your own family—whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or any other holiday—decide what you wish your family to focus on for the upcoming weeks, whether it is giving, selflessness, family, or peace. As you eat dinner and decorate for the holidays, discuss what the holiday means to you, and encourage the children to do the same.

get creative:

Have children write about their favorite holiday traditions in their journals, or save what they write in a family album.

Cranberry Glazed Ribs

Pretty much any dish made with cranberries makes me happy. They are synonymous with the holidays and my childhood on the South Shore in Massachusetts. I couldn’t think of a better way to eat them than blended into a sauce and simmered with a pot of short ribs. Serves 8

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, chopped

21⁄2 cups cranberries

3⁄4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Zest of 1 orange

Pinch of red pepper flakes

2–3 pounds beef short ribs

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat. Add onions and salt, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add cranberries, brown sugar, vinegar, orange zest, and red pepper flakes. Cook until the cranberries pop and the sauce starts to thicken, about 10 minutes more.
2. Place the cranberry mixture in a blender while still warm. Cover the blender lid with a kitchen towel to manage splattering and protect your hands from the hot mixture. Blend until smooth.
3. Place remaining olive oil in a large skillet. Working in batches, brown the ribs on all sides. Transfer to the bottom of a slow cooker. Deglaze the skillet with a cup of water, and pour over the ribs. Cover with cranberry glaze. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with Light as Air Mashed Potatoes.

Light as Air Mashed Potatoes

Everyone has their own favorite way to make mashed potatoes. Nearly every time I make them, I do something differently, whether it’s adding a new ingredient—like cream cheese or caramelized onions—or trying a new technique.

Along the way, I have discovered that a food mill with a hand crank is the best tool for mashing potatoes. If you have one, you can skip the step of peeling the potatoes. Just leave the skins on, chop them, and add them to the pot. After the potatoes cook, add them to the food mill, and it will do the work of peeling and mashing for you. Serves 8

7 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch slices

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1⁄4–1⁄2 cup milk

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place potatoes in a medium saucepan, and add enough water to cover them. Set over high heat, and bring to a boil. Add salt, and reduce heat to a bubbling simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender to the point of a knife. Drain potatoes.
2. Use a ricer, a food mill, or a potato masher (but not a blender or a food processor) to mash the potatoes. Stir in butter and a little bit of milk at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and whisk potatoes until light and fluffy.

Parker House Rolls

There are at least a hundred versions of Parker House Rolls. This is mine. Makes 3 dozen rolls

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 package (1 scant tablespoon) rapid yeast

3 tablespoons honey or brown rice syrup

1 teaspoon kosher salt

11⁄2 cups warm milk (110ºF)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl

1 whole egg

3 egg yolks

1 stick (8 tablespoons) salted butter, melted

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix flour and yeast. Add honey, salt, milk, unsalted butter, egg, and egg yolks. Knead on low speed for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough will be very sticky.
2. Turn dough out onto a well-floured board, and knead quickly a few times to pull into a soft, cohesive ball. Pour a little melted butter into the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Roll the dough around in the butter, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 40 minutes. Punch down dough to redistribute bubbles. Let rest for 3 minutes.
3. Roll dough with a rolling pin on a well-floured board into an 18 x 24-inch rectangle. Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the dough into 36 rectangles (6 rows of 6).
4. Dip the bottom half of a rectangle in the melted salted butter. Lay the buttered half down in the pan, and fold the other half up and over, so the unbuttered half faces up. Use your finger to press the top half into bottom half. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough, lining them up in rows, and slightly overlapping each row over the preceding one. Cover with a buttered piece of plastic wrap and let rise for 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
5. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Remove plastic and bake rolls for 12–18 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush tops of rolls with any remaining melted butter. Serve warm.

books to inspire:

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry

Elijah’s Angel, by Michael J. Rosen

Pear-y Cherry Crumble

My favorite desserts in the world are fruit crumbles and crisps. This one uses pears, but they could easily be replaced with Granny Smith apples. Serves 8

For the filling:

8 ripe Bartlett pears, peeled and cut into 11⁄2-inch chunks

1 cup dried tart cherries

1⁄2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the topping:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1⁄2 cup almond flour, or 1⁄2 cup slivered almonds chopped up in a food processor

1⁄4 cup brown sugar

3⁄4 cup granulated sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt

1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger

1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves

11⁄2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, combine pear chunks, cherries, sugar, and lemon juice. Place in a medium casserole dish.
2. In a separate large bowl, whisk all the topping ingredients except the butter. Add butter and use your fingers to break it up until mixture is well combined and clumps together. Form into a ball and crumble over the fruit.
3. Place the casserole dish on a cookie sheet to catch drips, and bake for 1 hour, or until pears are soft to the point of a knife and juices are bubbling.