Several years ago, I began living an organic-vegetarian lifestyle. I look forward to sharing my complete journey to alternative living with you in 2013.
In the meantime, there’s Christmas. All year long, I enjoy the benefits of free-flowing arteries and the free-style cooking required for my organic subsistence. That is, until the holidays roll around. Although I try to stand firm in my commitment to clean eating, who can resist the temptations of Christmas?
Every Southern Christmas get-together starts with Great-grandmother Wells’ special dish filled with a variety of candied nuts. The familiar Christmas tablecloth is all but hidden beneath a sea of delectable holiday delights. No traditional Southern Christmas is complete without an assortment of homemade chocolate and peanut butter fudge and just a taste of heavenly divinity candy made with lots of sugar and corn syrup, candied fruit and nuts. A steamer filled with Little Smokies floating in grape jelly and barbeque sauce sits next to a pile of cheesy sausage balls. Aaahh! You have now entered the realm of Celestial Cholesterol City!
Christmas meal is bound to be special. But an old-fashioned Southern Christmas dinner just wouldn’t be up to par without pineapple-glazed ham, sweet potato casserole topped with sugared pecans and marshmallows, golden macaroni and cheese, and good ol’ collard greens swimming in a little bit of pot liquor. And don’t forget those fluffy, buttermilk biscuits that rise as high as Flo’s hair in Railroad Man!
Dessert is the crowning jewel to any holiday meal. From Mississippi to North Carolina, we Southerners know to always leave a little room for a slab of 3-day coconut cake that’s honestly worth dying for!
Every year around this time, my energy level drops a bit and an extra pound or two shows up on the bathroom scale—just because. When the madness of holiday cheer is over, I hope you’ll join me in 2013 as I share my journey to a healthier alternative lifestyle.
Until then…
Wishing you and yours the merriest!
Alle
