Tis the season of Christmas indulgences

I have always made a special Christmas cake for Adam. Allergic to nuts, when I made his cake, when nuts were called for, we substituted fruit. Extra cherries, extra peel, extra apricots and raisins make there way into his cake. It doesn’t call for much sugar, but then if you begin with almost four pounds of candied fruit, you really don’t have to add much sugar. Even in the raw, the cake is delicious.
A sign at a recent craft show caught my eye. It was over some baking and proclaimed to people who were concerned about sugar, that the cake had no sugars added. “I chuckled” to myself knowing full well that most Christmas cakes could all do without sugar and still be overly sweet.
Holidays, family celebrations are always celebrated around food. Each has its own treats and we condition ourselves for them. People from Sweden, the Ukraine, England, Italy, Norway, Russia, France, the far east bring their favourite ethnic to the table. Each community has it own traditional Christmas dishes. And in a multi cultural country like Canada, we get to enjoy the best from around the world.
As a person who suffers from diabetes, checking my glucose levels and watching my carbohydrate and sugar intake, I am constantly checking labels. As my dietician keeps telling me, you can have those treats, but you have to balance those indulgences out. A dessert might be balanced by dropping the potato or bread. But at Christmas, everyone is out to tempt you with their best fare.
We are now into the season of treats and special baking. Every family has its favourites that only are made at Christmas time. In our household, it includes short bread, a cranberry-orange square, fruit cake, almond balls and several more. The first or second ingredient in any of these recipes is flour followed by sugar. And just thinking about these treats can have a person’s mouth watering in anticipation
Almost every church and organization has a bake sale at this time of the year. I know as a fact that if it makes the bake table it is going to be “go-o-o-o-o-o-o-d.” No one is going to send their baking with even a hint of scorching. Every morsel will melt in your mouth. Every donation will be a family’s very best.
The Aquanaut swim team held a bake sale recently, and what didn’t sell came into the office Monday morning. The chocolate peanut butter caramels disappeared instantly. The carrot cake with the cream cheese icing vanished almost as quickly.
Home made bread, rolls and Christmas baking tempted everyone. I must admit that walking by all that fresh baking was a real challenge. Instead of walking directly past, my body seemed to drift sideways testing and tempting my will power. And the Christmas cookies.... Just smiling to be picked up.
To protect me, my wife bakes and freezes everything. We’ve cut down on baking knowing full well that neither of us needs the extra calories. So this table of Fort Frances swimmers families’ best cooking is a real temptation.
The Christmas season let us indulge ourselves. Food fantasies become real. We will suffer from the over doses of good food with glee. And come January reality will return. And a whole year will pass before Christmas tempts us again.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher