A Family Christmas tradition

Before I met my Quay Lo, Christmas to me was party time. Every Christmas eve was spent in our favorite Country Western Pub. We would party till the wee hours and dance, and laugh the night away. After I met my Quay Lo, Christmas became all about spending time at home with the family. When our son, Nicholas was a little boy, on Christmas Eve we would have a light dinner and usually watch a Christmas movie together. Before we sent him to bed early, he and Stitch (my Quay Lo) would put cookies and a glass of milk on the coffee table in the living hall. My Quay Lo would read the "Night Before Christmas" to him, from a beautiful illustrated copy that he had bought especially for Nick. Then off to bed, warning him to never try to peek or come downstairs early, or he might scare Santa away.

Then Stitch (my Quay Lo) would put on some nice Christmas music and we would fill Nick's Christmas stocking and put all his Christmas gifts under the tree. My Quay Lo would take a bite from a cookie so that when Nicholas awoke on Christmas day, he would believe that Santa had visited our home. This was practised till the time when Nicholas was old enough to know that the Big Santa was actually his Dad which he remembers was not until Nick was age 10. He once told me that in the U.S. kids lose their faith in a Santa at a very early age. He thought that they did so because of of too much sharing of information about such things as children's fables and that kids there were too eager to show that they were grown up. We both agreed that was a loss for them. The excitement in Nick just grew and grew as Christmas approached. Stich said that when he was younger the common belief in Santa was held longer and to see Nick get so excited was a pleasure. 

The Davis's family had a Christmas tradition. According to my Quay Lo, my late father-in-law loved chocolate covered cherries. 

My late father-in-law with my Quay Lo having at an arm wrestle

Stitch remembered that during Christmas's as a boy, his father, who was a busy executive in the construction and  architectural woodwork trade, often came home with gifts he received from associates. He specifically remembered bottles of whiskey, a hamper of huge red apples, and a smoked ham. One year his father brought home a fancy box of chocolates. I am going to ask my Quay Lo to tell the story.

"My Dad would put those chocolates on a high shelf over the fridge and tell us to never eat them unless he gave them to us. I thought they must be very special. Now and then, after dinner, he would take down the box and let us each pick the one we wanted. It seemed like such a special treat. They were of course. But these treats were also a mystery, because we never knew what we would get when we picked one. We would excitedly share with each other what we picked, and thus determine who the winner of the "chocolate lottery" was. All of us kids loved the vanilla filling. Nuts were ok, but inferior to soft fillings. Candied orange peel was like a punishment, often sending one of us back to Dad to whine and ask for another pick. During the selection process I noticed that sometimes one of us would point to one, and my Dad would say no,  explaining that one was his. I remember wondering what was inside.  Eventually I asked him, and told me that it was filled with a cherry."

So, when my Quay Lo was 11 years old and he was earning some money delivering newspapers, he saved up enough money to buy Christmas gifts. The prospect of doing so excited him. So I'll let him tell the rest of the story:

"One day I was at Woolworth's and they had a candy counter. On a corner was a big stack of "Brach's chocolate covered cherries". I thought they would be way too expensive but got up the nerve to ask anyway. I was surprised that they only cost $3.00 per box. I quickly paid for them and ran home to wrap them up. I was very excited to present the chocolates to my Dad on Christmas Day. I kept the tradition of giving him chocolate covered cherries as long as he was with us. As the years advanced I switched from "Brach's" brand as I became more aware that they were an inferior chocolate. But I never missed a year. It was only later that my mother told me that the reason my Dad kept the cherry centered candies for himself was because they were filled with cherries and kirsch, the cherry flavored licqour."

When my Quay Lo was still living in the U.S., his daughter Erin would buy him a box of chocolate covered cherries every Christmas, continuing the tradition. There was one year in the past, during Christmas time, she sent her Dad a box of chocolate covered cherries from US and when it arrived at our home, they were almost all melted from our tropical heat.  We laughed as we scooped out the muddle of cherries and chocolate, and searched for the few that remained whole. I think Stitch later suggested to Erin not to send them again because they would not survive. Unfortunately to get good chocolate covered cherries in Kuala Lumpur is like looking for a needle in the sea. We had them a couple of times when we found them in Singapore. So this year, I thought I would carry on the tradition by making them at home. This is especially made for my Quay Lo with lots of love.


What I like about this recipe is that the cherries were first filled with vanilla sugar before dipping into the dark chocolate to be covered. Can you imagine how divine it is to have the sweetness of the sugar and the flavor of vanilla infused into the cherries (as if cherries were not good enough,) then covered in dark semi sweet chocolate too? YUMMY!! When I tasted one, I now understand why the Quay Los like to say when they eat something very delicious, "I think I died and went to heaven already!"

Chocolate covered Cherries

Adapted from Barry with modification

Yield 18 cherries 

Ingredients:

¼ cup white sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

18 cherries with stems

Method:

Pour the sugar into a shallow dish. Drop two drops of vanilla at a time into the dish in 16 separate places to form lumps of vanilla sugar. Set aside to allow the lumps to harden. Pit the cherries carefully from the bottom. I use a long thick needle. Make sure the stem stays intact. When the lumps of sugar have hardened, insert them into the cherries where the pits were; set aside. Melt chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. Hold cherries by the stem and dip into the chocolate. Set on waxed paper to dry. Refrigerate overnight to allow the sugar lumps to dissolve inside the cherries and for the chocolate to harden.

I am submitting this to the Christmas Giveaway in The Sweet Spot

Tweet

Pin It