By Jesse Wilson

With the holidays just around the corner, I thought you might enjoy a peek at some traditions that our family has adopted over the years. My husband and I are very lucky — our families actually get along. Really! Both sides of our families get together for all of the big holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Presidents Day, etc. We try to find any excuse to celebrate and we always involve as much food as we can get in the door and way more than we can actually stomach.

We also are blessed in that we all have broad tastes, always are willing to try something new and enjoy experimenting with different recipes.

I wanted to share with our readers some of the recipes that have become holiday traditions in our family. They have to be made ahead of time, so we’re including them in this October edition to give everybody a head start to try a little something new and fun.

Hot Dill Olives & Smoked Oysters (Printer Friendly: 3x5 ; full page)

Prepare about 2 weeks before serving

What you’ll need:

2 small jars, (about 10 ounces),

            with a tight seal

Green Olives (we prefer Manzanilla)

Olive oil

Garlic

Dill Weed

Lemon

Dried Red Peppers

Two Weeks Before Eating:

Fill an empty small jar with green olives (fill the jar slightly more than 3/4 full), 2-3 cloves of garlic cut into large chunks, .2-.3 ounces of dry dill weed, a couple thin slices of lemon and and 2-3 dried red peppers (use more if you want more heat). Fill the jar with olive oil and let the olives marinate for at least two weeks, rotating the jar every couple of days (make sure the lid is on tight, so that the oil does not leak out).

Serving: We prefer to serve the olives with canned smoked oysters and saltine crackers. They not only taste great as a holiday appetizer, they are great for tailgating.

Spiced Peaches (Printer-Friendly: 3x5 ; full page)

Prepare about 1-2 weeks before serving

(the longer these marinate, the stronger and spicier they’ll be).

What you’ll need:

Large jar, (one that can hold about 64 oz.)

2 x 14.5 oz cans peach halves in light syrup

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1 cinnamon stick

1Tablespoon whole cloves

1 Tablespoon whole allspice

Cheesecloth

Kitchen string or thread

One to two weeks before eating:

Create spice pouch with a small sheet of cheesecloth, add cloves and allspice and tie up with string.  Drain peaches and add syrup to small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and apple cider vinegar until sugar dissolves. Add spice pouch and cinnamon stick. Bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Place peaches in the jar, add liquid spice mixture to peaches. **TIP: If you hold a butter knife over the opening of the jar and pour the hot mixture over the knife, you will avoid cracking your glass jar from the heat.  Allow to come to room temperature then refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove spice pouch after the first 24 hours, then refrigerate for another 1-2 weeks until ready to eat.