Happy Holidays: From our Kitchens to Yours
At Meal Hero, we celebrate everything about food. We believe in home cooking as a way to nurture ourselves and our families. This holiday season as we start to think about how to define holiday food and recipes, we are reminded that everyone has their own definition depending on the holiday itself, cultural background and customs, geographical location, and the unique memories and rituals that create these special traditions. From our kitchens to yours, we wish you happy holidays, a happy new year, and happy cooking!
“Cincinnati chili on Christmas Eve, and French toast casserole on Christmas morning!” - Mary, Senior Designer
“We keep it very British traditional. We have a full Christmas dinner (turkey for the second time in a month), with Brussels sprouts with pancetta, roast potatoes, Paxo stuffing, roast parsnips, and Bisto gravy from England. I normally spatchcock the turkey to speed up the process and then for dessert it’s Christmas pudding with brandy butter. We then, later in the evening, settle down with a cheeseboard.” - Chris , Director of Product
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter
“Cookies, and white chocolates with liquid center.” - Julie, Product Designer
“Reliably, it’s been pie and warm cider. It’s usually pumpkin, but I’ve been vying for sweet potato.” - David, Engineer
“I would say that our Christmas dinner itself looks eerily similar to Thanksgiving, but turkey and cranberry sauce is swapped for beef tenderloin or maybe even a ham. My family does have a small holiday food tradition though — cheese fondue on Christmas Eve! We use the traditional mix of Emmental and Gruyere but have all sorts of dipping accompaniments like bread, crunchy steamed veggies, raw onion (yep!), potatoes, apples, etc. Also, the days leading up to Christmas and New Years are filled with lots of baking and Champagne drinking!” -Lucy , Marketing & Content Strategist
“Potato Latkes!” - Arti , Growth Marketing Manager
“We visit one day our paternal grandparents and the next our maternal grandparents. In each home we have chicken, lambs and goats depending on the family size. They are roasted, boiled, or stewed and we eat them with kachumbari, fried potatoes, chapati and ugali.” - Crispus , Engineer
“Dehydrated bacon. It’s an Alinea recipe that is basically jerky. It’s dehydrated at 140°F for 24 hours. You should try it!” -Tam , Head of Product
“Roasted and grilled goat meat and grilled chicken with roast potatoes, lots of veggies, and salads” - Mercy , Engineer
“My family makes a traditional dish every year, stuffed cabbage, for eating Christmas Day.” - Erik , CTO
“Korean traditional dishes such as Kalbi (a short rib dish either BBQed or braised), and Japchae (glass noodle). On New Year’s Day, we eat rice cake soup (Tteokguk) because it is believed to grant the people good luck for the year and a year of age. We say you just gained two years of age when you have two servings of Teokguk! - Rachel, Engineer
“Italian wine cookies. My grandma bakes them and mails a box of them to all my family every Christmas.” - Patrick, Engineer
“We have roasted goat with other accompaniments. Chicken is also my tribe’s favourite with rice and chapati and lots of local Kenyan vegetables(Sagaa/Saget — Spider Plant, Mrenda/Murere — Jews Mallow, Kunde — Cowpeas Leaves, Mito/Mitoo/Miroo — Crotolaria/Slender Leaf, Gourd Leaves etc). Sometimes I travel to the rural area to visit grandma.” - Kimo, Engineer
“There’s nothing like a Bluegrass Christmas singalong over a good homemade eggnog!” - Jason, Engineer
“My family celebrates Hanukkah, aka the Festival of Lights. It is traditional to eat fried foods like latkes (potato pancakes) with applesauce and sour cream. I like to experiment with different types of root vegetables and frying them in duck or chicken fat. It’s also the time of year to indulge in sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts)!” - Araminta , Culinary Advisor
We hope that even during this strange holiday season, you continue cooking and enjoying festive food traditions. And maybe, if you don't yet have one, this post will have inspired you to start your own.
We'd love to know about your family's holiday food traditions or if you plan to start a new one! Email us at support@mealhero.com or message us on Instagram!