Notes from a Food Diva: Christmas in July

Christmas in July is nothing new to me. During my 20-plus years at Good Housekeeping magazine, we put the greatest effort into the December issue that had to be photographed in the middle of summer. 

Air conditioning didn’t exist then, which presented a problem when it came to food. I’ll never forget the candied apples. They kept weeping. The frosted cookies - wonderful ones dangling before a gold deer weathervane that now tops my Douglaston garage - drooped in the humidity.

It was Christmas in July all over again last week when I attended the absolutely amazing convention of the Golden Glow of Christmas Past, an organization for collectors of antique Christmas memorabilia.  More than 600 members from the United States (including three Hawaiians), the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Canada came to Westchester to display, collect and learn about Christmas memorabilia and traditions. Their antique ornaments were on view in locked glass museum cases. 

Each night during room hopping, antique ornaments were bought and sold. In addition, there were lectures on yuletide subjects. There was a door decorating contest during which I represented Austria with a miniature violin, mandolin and harp on a gold wreath along with a medallion of two children in costume kissing that was on loan from Charlotte Hermann, president of the Douglaston music group.

An Under the Tree contest was held during which ballots were placed in boxes. I wanted to enter, so I checked to see if [Zion Episcopal Church’s] Father Pat Holtkamp had Adam and Eve, an ark, rams horns – the burning bush, Moses, the Red Sea and, of course, a crèche. Then I learned everything had to be pre-1966.

Three huge, heaped trays of fresh, baked cookies were set out on a long table and kept heaped for a day under hospitality chairwoman Lucille Ghidiu’s supervision. Coffee was available in quantity. I have never eaten so many cookies over a three-day period. I've never seen as many homemade cookies consumed.  “Six hundred pounds,” Lucille told me.  “Ten pounds on each tray.”

There was also a cookie contest for which members brought 12 cookies on a paper plate with the recipe underneath and the category (rolled and cut, molded, bar, chip, refrigerator, drop) on top.

Selections were rated based on Christmas orientation, appearance, freshness, texture, taste and satisfaction. Below is the recipe for the winner of the bar cookie category. You be the judge.

Visions of sugar plums did not dance in my head at night, but during room hopping, I found 900 molds for making Springerle, an anise flavored, business card shaped cookie with an embedded design in the floury white top. Instead of the firm textured traditional German Springerle, here was a new recipe for Swiss Springerle - lemon flavored, softer and much easier to work with.

In spite of the nonstop cookie consumption, everyone met for cocktails and carols outside the Westchester Ballroom room each night before dinner. The ballrooms had been professionally decorated, as was the entire hotel, in keeping with this year’s theme: Christmastime in the City.  Particularly effective were the 24 by 60-foot canvas backdrops and the light projected snowflakes and horse drawn sleighs. 

Wednesday night’s welcome reception on the patio was informal with frankfurters on buns, knish in paper sacks and chocolate and vanilla ice cream cones with do- it- yourself toppings.

And Santa gave out a molded chocolate when you sat on his lap for the photo op. The chocolate drummer boys were made in Franklin, the town with the farmers market in the Western Catskills. Bill Steely (of Larchmont, whose junior yachtsmen compete with Douglaston each year at Little Neck Bay) was conference co chair. He’s my neighbor on Oakhill Road in Franklin. That’s how I got involved in Christmas in the City in July. 

Before the final ballroom’s “goodbyes,” 60 members pledged to bring three-dozen baked cookies to next year’s convention in Asheville, N.C.

Nutty Bars

1st Prize  Category: Bars

1 ½ cups all purpose flour                 

1 can (11 oz.) mixed nuts

¾ cup brown sugar                 

1 cup butterscotch chips

¼ teaspoons salt                 

2 tablespoons  butter

½ cup (4 oz.) cold butter                 

½ cup light corn syrup

1. Heat oven to 350 deg F. In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. With two knives, cut in butter until coarse crumbs. Press into 13-inch by 9-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 deg F for 10 minutes. 

2. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with nuts. In small pan, over low heat, stir butterscotch chips until softened. Add corn syrup and 2 tablespoons of butter. Mix well until smooth. Pour over nuts. Bake 10 minutes.

3. Cool. With sharp knife, cut into 40 bars. Makes about 3 ½ dozen cookies.