It’s around that time of the year when families come together to celebrate the holidays after being apart for a while. A great way to celebrate is to cook and bake food to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or between meals during celebrations. Some members of The Wolf staff have provided some wonderful recipes you could make for your holiday get together.

Pho Bo: Kent Pham

Ingredients: 

• Beef bones
• Water
• Ginger
• Shallots
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Dried coriander
• Fish sauce
• Sea salt
• Chicken flavor soup base
• Meat from beef bones
• Thin-sliced beef steak
• Fresh rice noodles
• Yellow onion
• Cilantro
• Limes

Directions (simplified):

Boil beef bones in a pot of boiling water to clean them (around 3 minutes. In a separate pot, add water and bring it to a boil. Add the now-clean bones, roasted shallots, and ginger. Simmer for several hours (around 2), removing impurities as needed. Throw away aromatics, take the meat off bones for later, then discard bones. Season the stock with salt, fish sauce, and chicken powder, as much or little as you prefer. The stock should now be ready. Get another pot with water, bring it to a boil, and blanch the rice noodles for 15-30 seconds. Add noodles and beef to a bowl, and fill with broth. Top the bowl with sliced onion and chopped cilantro. Finally, squeeze as much/little lime as you would like. Enjoy!

Lumpia Shanghai Recipe: Juliana Villanueva

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork, beef, or chicken 
• 1 large carrot
• 1 stack of celery 
• 1 yellow onion 
• 1 bunch of green onions 
• ½ can of spam 
• 1 small can of water chestnut 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of ground pepper 
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper 
• 1 package of egg roll wrap 

Directions:

Wash vegetables. Ground beef or pork may already be chopped up but chop up if not. Peel and chop the carrots and onions. Dice celery into small cubes. Chop water chestnut. Chop the spam into small pieces.Put it all together and mix well. Then, beat 3 eggs and mix them with the vegetables and spam. Next, put one teaspoon of ground pepper, and ½ teaspoon of salt and sugar. Then, add ¼ teaspoon of black pepper. Mix well. Combine everything and wrap in lumpia or egg roll wrapper (you can buy the wrapper at H-Mart or any other supermarkets that sell them).  After wrapping, deep fry all rolls. If needed, for a more salty taste, add a pinch of salt on the already fried rolls. Then, you’re done. 

The Best Snickerdoodles: Victoria Gillard

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup butter
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2-¾ cups flour
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. Then add salt, flour, cream of tartar, baking powder and. Form dough into 1-inch balls and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Buttermilk Banana Bread: Olivia Trone

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas*
• 4 Tbs. buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 & 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Directions: 

Grease and flour two large loaf pans. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla until the batter is well mixed. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined. Divide batter into greased and floured bread pans and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Note: Oftentimes, I’ll decrease the sugar to 1 cup, increase the bananas to 1 1/2 cups, and the bread still turns out extremely moist.

Spicy Ginger Crunchies: Gracie Lancaster

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 ¼ cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• ¾ teaspoon ginger 
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

Beat butter and sugar light and fluffy. Stir in egg,vanilla and molasses. Gradually add combined dry ingredients and beat well. Chill several hours. Shape into balls ¾-inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes.