Reflecting on Giving Back, Togetherness and Sharing Food with Loved Ones

This holiday season, we wanted to feature some of our team members’ favorite holiday traditions enjoyed by our “work family” and our real families.  We hope they give you good tidings and joy!

Donating a Tree – shared from the Caves of Faribault team

One tradition that the Caves of Faribault participates in every year is the “Christmas Tree Donation” event hosted by the Faribault Parks and Recreation.  Local businesses come together and donate Christmas trees to the town.  Each business decorates their donated tree the Monday after Thanksgiving.  The trees are on display from late November until early December.  After that, the trees are packed up and donated to local families in town who do not have the means to purchase and decorate a tree.

 

Saying Thank You to the Crew – shared from the Caves of Faribault team

Every year, the Caves of Faribault senior team gives thanks to the whole crew by serving up delicious Thanksgiving treats on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  This year, the senior team served up some pie and ice cream to say thanks to the whole team!

 

Grandma’s Timeless Recipe – Shared by Erin Clancy, Regional Sales Manager

Like many people, my family traditions are deeply rooted in the food we ate growing up.  Depending on what side of the family we celebrated with, the dishes were different, but exceptional on both sides. One of the go-to favorite appetizers is my Grandma Audrey’s Stuffed Celery.  We still use this recipe today for most of our holidays!  Like all good recipes, most of this is to taste, so go with your gut.  Blue lover? Add more.  Love the Worcestershire tang?  Go heavy on it.  Remember though, go slowly when adding it as well as the heavy cream.  You can always add more, but it’s much more difficult to remove something already mixed in.  This original old-school recipe calls for Roquefort since it was popular at the height of this appetizer craze, but I love to use St. Pete’s Select.  It gives me the flavor I want, and being that our caves made the first commercial American Blue cheese in the US based on Roquefort, I feel like it's a great way to update this recipe!

1- 8oz cream cheese

4-6oz St. Pete’s Select Blue cheese

5-10 dashes of Worcestershire sauce (we go HEAVY on this in my family)

1-2 tbs heavy cream (this is just to thin it out a bit, but remember you still want it to be firm)

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for about 4-6 hours to combine flavors.  Bring to room temp.  Do one more final taste (do you need more Worcestershire?)  Once you feel like it tastes perfect, stuff it into celery and sprinkle with paprika.

 

You’re Bringing the Cheeseboard, Right? – Shared by Erin Clancy, Regional Sales Manager

Like most people who work in the cheese industry, all of us have the *expected* tradition of bringing the cheeseboard to the holiday party.  It’s kind of a given with what we do, and honestly we don’t mind!  We love to show off the Caves of Faribault cheeses and what we love to pair with them.  Check out the photo gallery to see the holiday board that we made last year!  We paired tons of Christmas treats with our cheese like gingerbread, caramels, cookies and chocolate pretzel bark as well honey comb, pomegranate and dried pineapple.

 

A Special Box – Shared by DeMetria Isabel, Marketing Specialist

Admittedly, I’m one of those weird people.  You know, the ones who really love Christmas a little too much.  Holiday jams can be heard pouring from my speakers as early as October and my Christmas decoration collection has grown quite large and currently overflows into a storage unit up the road from my home. It’s safe to say I love the holidays, especially Christmas. Until just a few years ago, my holiday celebrations included my friends and extended family.  Three years ago, my son was born and I’ve made it my mission in life to ensure that he loves the holidays just as much as I do.  As a matter of fact, his birthday is just a few days after Thanksgiving, so it makes the holiday time even more special because I get to celebrate this amazing little addition to my life.  My love of the holidays isn’t new though.  As a kid, I loved the holiday season, especially Christmas.  Sure, I loved presents.  What kid doesn’t?  But, I really loved the time we spent together as a family.  I loved the decorations, putting up our tree, baking holiday treats and all the traditional holiday food.  My family is from the south, so you can image that our holiday meals were filled with turkey, dressing (it’s not stuffing in the south), ham, candied yams, collard greens, homemade pound cake and caramel cake and the list goes on.  I think I loved the food the most, quite honestly.  Even though the traditional meals were wonderful, one of the things I looked forward to the most was the box my mom would pick up from the stand in the mall.  It was a seasonal pop-up shop where they sold gift boxes that were filled to the brim with sausages, cheeses, spreads and crackers.  She’d pick a few up for gifts for friends and neighbors, but she always made sure to get a special one just for our family.  On the evening of Christmas day, after all the gifts had been opened, the holiday meal devoured and we sat contentedly playing with our new toys and watching our favorite Christmas movies, she’d plate the goodies from “the box” and we’d snack as a family all night long.  My family looks a bit different these days, but those memories have never faded.  As a solo mom, I try really hard to ensure that my son gets to experience some of the same family traditions that always remain near to my heart.  So on the evening of Christmas day, after all of the gifts have been opened and the holiday meal devoured, I pull out some of my favorite cheeses and we make memories that I hope he’ll cherish, too.