Feature
Happy Holidays
We are know as The Lindas, as we are both Linda. I go by Linn and Linda is Linda, to eliminate confusion. We have been a couple for 13 years, and we have lots to be thankful for. We have spent the last 12 years spending our Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays by having many people to our home: the first 10 years in Massachusetts, and now in Vermont.
“Linda loves to cook, and she can serve a meal with no stress. The number of people is never an issue for her. I am the Hostess with the Mostess (not too conceited am I). I love to entertain and lend a listening ear, and give wonderful hugs. Having company in our home is not a burden to us, it is a gift that we fully enjoy.
“We open our home to people that have been put in our ‘path of life’. Most of our guests have just lost a loved one and/or have no family, or they are just people that live alone, and many that our in our ‘life path’ are trying to live one day at a time and stay clean and sober. We always start our meals with each and every one of us sharing and giving thanks for our lives. Also, in past years, we have purchased a fully cooked turkey dinner and had it delivered to a needy family.
“We serve lots of different meals, and when it is a traditional turkey, my stuffing is always a hit. I use a bag stuffing base and add celery, onions, apples, raisins and walnuts. We top off our creamed onions with fresh ground nutmeg to add a little zest.
“There’s often a wonderful almond ring for one of the desserts. It is a cream puff ring and the filling is almond flavored and topped off with a drizzle of chocolate on the top of the ring. Always a hit.”
—The Lindas
Linn’s Almond Ring
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Put a glass or metal bowl in the freezer for later use.
Grease and flour a 7 or 8 inch circle in the middle of a cookie sheet.
In a 2 qt. pan BOIL 1 cup water and 1 stick butter/margarine. Take off burner and ADD 1 cup flour. Mix Well. ADD 4 eggs, one at a time, and mix well in between each egg.
Drop batter onto the cookie sheet into the circle with a spoon with the sides touching (that is the batter touching to make a complete circle).
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Shut off the oven and leave for an additional 15 mins, and DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. Then remove and cool
Filling: In large bowl, put 1 pkg. Instant Vanilla Pudding. ADD 1 1/4 Cups milk. Mix well and set aside for later use.
Get cold metal bowl out of freezer and ADD 1 cup Heavy Cream and 1 tsp Almond Extract. Whip till stiff. Fold into pudding mixture.
Cut ring in half in through the middle so you have a top and bottom to the ring. Remove top and place the cream by spoonfuls into the ring and place the top back on. (It sometimes breaks in half, just place on anyway.)
Topping: In microwaveable bowl, place 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1 tbsp butter/margarine, 1.5 tsp milk, 1.5 tsp light corn syrup. Microwave 40 seconds. Stir and drizzle on top of ring in an up and down motion.
1 bag stuffing (the size of the turkey determines how much you use)
Melt butter/margarine according to bag in large fry pan. Add onions and celery to soften. Add liquid (this can be water/broth or boil turkey parts for broth). Cut up apples (we like 3 apples in our stuffing for an 18-20lb bird). Peel them, add 2/3 tbsp of raisins and chopped walnuts to taste.
Stuff the bird, then place in oven and enjoy. Leftover stuffing that does not fit into bird can be placed in baking pan; cover and cook in oven for 20 to 30 mins.
For the past 10 years Yves and I have been going to a very special friends house in South Albany, Vermont, for a midnight dinner. Over the past five years, we have been invited to sing on Christmas Eve at the Church in Westmore (Willoughby Lake) with the Church choir, and then the Minister and the Choir get into our vehicles and drive to Brownington, VT, (home of the Stonehouse Museum) to sing at their Church. The Sunday School Children put on a small play for us.
“Then some of the choir comes with us to our midnight dinner and we continue to sing carols around the piano. We stay at the host’s house and share a simple gift together in the morning.”
—Rob Larabee and Yves Morrissette
For the first few years of our relationship, my partner and I found that the holidays were a time that necessitated separation. Both families eagerly clambered to have their respective offspring at home for a week of standard holiday fare. While neither family was particularly unwelcoming of “the gay partner,” the idea of being dragged around in front of elderly relatives who just didn’t understand who we were or why we were there, and regularly asked if we were college room-mates or had boyfriends, was enough to send us off as singles to holiday fests in different states. With Jenn spending most of her time at various churches around Atlanta and I forever smoking cigarettes on my parents’ deck in arctic Pennsylvania, arguing with my father about whether or not Christmas was pagan, we found our holidays just lacked a certain something.
“After a couple of seasons of this, we decided it just wasn’t for us. We wanted to be together during the holidays. And regular family holiday trappings, anything that emphasized the holidays were best celebrated as mom, dad, brother and sister around the fire, were just not for us.
“So the first year we stayed home, we had about $5 for Christmas presents, so we wrapped everything to make it more festive—used book and bookmark received their own festive holiday wrappings. We had a lovely fake tree we bought at Target with about five ornaments on it. We were in Dallas, so a fake tree was definitely the norm; buying a real one would have required a second job. But ornaments were hard to come by, and costly. So we decorated just the portion we could see from the sofa.
“But in years since, things have improved tremendously. I think the Christmas we ran off to Germany finally broke the ties and incessant requests for us to “come home” for the holidays. In our minds, we are home.’”
—Carrie Rampp and Jenn Ponder
Kasespatzen
One tradition that has stayed with us is feasting on a German dish as part of our Christmas Eve celebration. My father, a Bavarian who was the only member of his family to leave Germany, came to the U.S. at the age of 18. If you are looking for a stick-to-your ribs German dish with lots of cheese, this is for you.
2 lb shredded
Swiss
1 pk or jar Limburger
1 lb shredded muenster
salt
6 onions
1 lb butter
3 lb flour (approx)
2 eggs
Spaetzle maker needed to make noodles.
This recipe makes a gigantic platter full. The amounts really hinge on how much flour you start with, so if you want less, start with much less flour.
Grate Muenster and Swiss, and mix together. Chop onions add 1/2 lb butter and cook on low heat until thoroughly caramelized.
Take 3lbs of flour, add a few pinches of salt and 2 eggs. Mix with wooden spoon, adding water. You want to form a very stiff dough. You’ll know its stiff when you see no more dry flour as you turn it. Don’t over wet it, meaning you actually see water in the bowl. If you get it too wet, add a few pinches of flour.
Using a large pot, fill 1/3 with water and bring to boil. Place spaetzle maker on top. Fill hopper with spoonfuls of dough, and run through spaetzle maker. After 3 hoppers full, allow to come to full boil, then ladle out with strainer and place on large dish preferably with sides. If dough seems too stiff to run through spaetzle maker, add a little more water. After a number of batches, the water may get too starchy. Just pour it out and start with a fresh pot.
After each batch is added to pan, cover with cheese. Chop a few small squares of the limburger and drop that around on top as well. Keep pan in oven on low heat and just add to it as you go. This will keep all parts warm.
Once finished, top with onions and pepper, let it get good and warm in oven and then serve. Green salad, crusty bread, dill pickles make great sides, along with some dark beer.