Much Maligned Christmas Accoutrements
 

Such as fruitcake.

Everybody has a fruitcake joke.

It makes a good doorstop, paperweight, boat anchor, shot-put, anvil...
You can get in shape lifting fruitcake.

Well, I happen to love fruitcake and I’m tired of hiding my feelings. There is no shame in openly indulging my desire. I’m stepping out of the closet with my fruitcake.

I really do love me some fruitcake. Every year I buy one of the fruitcakes with frosting and enjoy pieces throughout the holidays. Yes, partly it is an excuse to eat frosting. And I would probably eat mud if you frosted it, or at least I’d lick the frosting off. But I actually like the fruitcake part too. And I love a good homemade dark fruitcake. I enjoy a slice with cream cheese. Delicious.

I guess I’m really in the minority when it comes to fruitcake. I’ve heard people comment how nobody actually eats the stuff. Well then, I wish they would give them to me instead of letting them go to waste. I eat the stuff.

Speaking of stuff, I also love stuffed dates. And figs. And prune pie.

Does anyone else have some sharply criticized, judged or otherwise vilified aspects of Christmas that they secretly (or not so secretly) love? Perhaps some adornment, decoration, tradition, food, trapping or trimming that is oft maligned that you really enjoy despite public opinion and all the bad press? Do share.

Or maybe you would like to malign some aspects of Christmas that you think aren't getting the traducement they deserve. Nothing like some good natured aspersions to get in the spirit. So please have at it.

I like sugarplums, but a little goes a long way!

Fruitcake crafts!
 

Okay, I admit to being a fruitcake maligner from way back, but I may have to change my tune.

The Great Fruitcake Recycling Project (http://www.fruitcakerecycling.com/)
has some fabulously crafty ideas for unwanted fruitcake. My favourites are:

hollowing it out and using as a festive picture frame
making a kitchen untensil caddy
making a Christmas wreath (beats the one we made out of trash bags)
http://www.fruitcakerecycling.com/im...es/2wreath.jpg
I will definitely try this one:
Take out those bits of candied fruit nobody wants to eat and arrange them on foil. Spray them with Crystal Clear Acrylic to crystalize them. Then pour a clear casting resin over them and let it set. I'm going to make a mosaic with them.

Not with my fruitcake you're not!!:shocking:

What are sugar plums? I always thought they were linked to fairies in some way. Popular misconception I guess.;)

I like fruitcake, I've never had any with frosting, so perhaps I should qualify that and say I like fruitcake without frosting. The gelled texture of the candied fruit combined with the crunchiness of pecans makes some good candy in my opinion; fruitcake is super sweet, a little goes a long way.

Jellied cranberry sauce, anyone? No one?
 

I'm not a fan of fruitcake, or any Christmas food, even the good stuff....not turkey, not ham, not sweet potato pie. So I can't confess any weakness for holiday food, maligned or no....but there's one holiday standard that I'm fascinated by, in a horrified kind of way: Jellied cranberry sauce.

You know the image. It's the quivering red unappealing mass on the plate that nobody reaches for. It still bears the shape of the can it plopped out of, even after being sliced into half-inch thick medallions. You can even see the ridged indentations on the sides.

Since I've never actually seen anyone EAT this stuff, I'm not sure how it's used. Do you layer it on top of potato salad, slice off chunks and eat it by itself like a steak, or use it as a garnish to cleanse the palate? Can someone please explain this to me?

JD

Some people like ketchup on their meat, others like gelled cranberry sauce; personally I prefer the whole berry kind.

That's why they are dancing in the heads of the kids in "The Night Before Christmas".

And there are actually sugar plums. But they're not plums at all. I'm sure I would like them. I like anything sweet. It is very hard to have something be too sweet for my liking. As a matter of fact, I don't recall that ever happening. I might not like the taste of something, but it's never because it's too sweet.

Every year growing up, we'd receive a homemade fruitcake from cousins in Ireland. These were, and are, like no fruitcake you will ever buy in the states, because they soaked it in pure Irish whiskey for weeks (perhaps months) before packaging it off to us. I'd regularly get loopy as a child, from eating said fruitcake, which was more like pieces of fruit and nuts barely pasted together with bits of dough. Dense is an understatement.

I don't care what anyone says or thinks about Peeps these are my new holiday tradition.
If you haven't yet, please try these peppermint peeps!!!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wZ1_2Akf4Y...eps-741961.jpg

I gotta agree with you there JD. What is the point of jellied cranberry in the shape of a can? Although I have seen people eat the stuff. And maybe like me and fruitcake there are people who really enjoy an occasional slice of what looks like cranberry flavored jello to me.

And I suppose why not, people seem to have a strange attachment to jello. People i know have even thrown it (jello I mean, not cranberry sauce, though that might work for all I know) together with fruit placed it in a mold and then put cool whip on top of it and tried to serve it to me as dessert.

Maybe jellied canned cranberry sauce should be placed in the dessert category as it's so sweet.

Personally I like my cranberries mixed with caramel and dipped in chocolate. They're called cranberry bogs. hmm good.

Peppermint peeps. Yay!

I haven't seen these around yet. Awesome. I love peeps. Sometimes I put them in the microwave.

Another thing about Christmas is Christmas music. Which I love. And I can't wait to start listening to it. So I have to take some of the blame for what happens. I start hearing it in malls right after Thanksgiving and then as soon as December rolls around I find myself listening to stuff online. By the time it's a week before Christmas I've had it with Christmas music.

Oooh, check out the "scientific" research on Peeps: http://www.peepresearch.org/ Be sure to click on Fear Response for the experiments on Peeps in microwaves... :D

My mother always has a can of the cranberry stuff sliced on the Thanksgiving table. I never really cared for it until the last couple of years. I take a small slice, eating only about half of it, small bites eaten throughout the meal. Somehow it fits in inbetween bites of turkey, stuffing, etc. It just fits somehow. Can't explain it. My mom has always been the only other one that has eaten it. It is the one and only time of year I have ever seen it on our table.

The quality cranberry stuff (the one with real berries), I don't care for. Go figure.

*Looks at watch*
Hmm, that looks to be just about...

NOW!

*runs*