Thyme In The Mountains -- Holiday Traditions

What inspires your traditions? Now that it is approaching the time of year when families live out their most time-honored customs and traditions, it causes me to wonder if we celebrate holidays without taking the time to know how our traditions came about.

I once heard a story about a young married couple celebrating their first Christmas together. When it came time to cook the Christmas ham, the young bride cut the end off of the ham before placing it in the roasting pan. When her husband saw this he questioned why. Her response was that her mother always cut off the end of the ham before cooking it. Being intriqued, he asked his mother-in-law why she always cut off the end of the ham before cooking it, and her response was that she saw her mother cut off the end of the ham before cooking it! So the mystery continued. When the grandmother was asked why she cut off the end of the ham before cooking it, her response was an emphatic, "Because my pan was too small!"

As I recall this cute although silly story, it causes me to wonder if we are aware of what our traditions mean to us, whether big or small. And most importantly, do our children really know the meaning behind the traditions. Some traditions are cultural, but some have deeper meaning than that. They are the heartfelt influences that are meant to show our affection and gratitude for our heritage and our faiths, our loved ones and the experiences we have endured.With this season of traditions coming upon us, I challenge myself to stop and remember and share my insights of what culture and tradition mean to me. I hope you do the same and wish you all the beauty and warmth of this approaching season.

Here is a recipe that comes from my culture. In my culture, we pass these out to friends and family on Christmas.

Kahk (Egyptian Shortbread)

Ingredients:

2 cups unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups powdered sugar

2 cups your choice of, thickened honey, date spread, caramel filling

or sugared nuts, chopped

Directions:

1.Heat the butter until almost boiling.

2.In seperate bowl, add the baking powder and the spices to the flour.

3.Slowly add the flour mixture to the hot butter and stir thoroughly.

4.When the mixture cools (warm to touch), add the instant yeast to

the milk with a teaspoon of sugar, then stir gently into the dough.

5.Knead it for a short while, cover and let it rest for an hour.

6.Shape dough into balls, then flatten them.

7.Inserts nuts, honey, sugar, date spread, or other filling when you

are making it into balls, flatten slightly..

8.Put them on a cookie tray and let them rest.

9.Bake in preheated oven (345 F) until golden.

10.Cool and heavily coat with powdered sugar just before eating.

Enjoy!