For many families, the legacy of recipe swapping goes back generations. Preparing any food is a great way to bond with family or friends, especially if it is a family recipe or a recipe from their culture.

Sophomore Belle Witham adores cooking, and her favorite recipe is her family’s tamales..

“For the holidays, [my family and I] like to make sweet tamales and instead of the normal meat, chicken or beef. We make cheesecake pecan, or we have a really good cinnamon one,” said Witham.

Witham is trying to find ways to connect with her culture, and baking these tamales is one way to do so.

“If you do any research on the food, they’re of Mexican heritage and I like to bring anything into my heritage because I grew up not with it.” stated Witham. “And I’m like, ‘I want to learn more about it.’ So I do as much as I can with [the heritage].”

Senior Quinn Beaugard and twin brother, Luke, became great chefs when they started baking when their mother. Beaugard has a signature dish known well by his friends: his Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.

“My favorite meal to cook is chicken teriyaki,” said Beaugard. “It’s super easy to make and it’s so good. Baking wise, I can pretty much make anything, but I can make a pretty mean gooey gooey butter cake.”

Every holiday season, Beaugard tackles a new baking challenge. This year: Grinch brownies.

“[My favorite] holiday recipe varies from year to year. I’m going to try this Grinch brownie recipe, it’s just brownies with mint ice cream on top. They look and sound off, but I want to try them,” explained Beaugard.

Junior Oscar Cheng has two main recipes: killer hot chocolate and “banger” rice. Sadly, he doesn’t know the exact recipe for his hot chocolate.

“I definitely say hot chocolate is my favorite,” said Cheng. “But it’s not the Swiss Mix kind of hot chocolate, it’s kind of like the homemade hot chocolate with cinnamon and stuff on it. I just put whatever in it and then it’ll taste good.”

Not everybody celebrates the holidays, but that won’t put a damper on most of the high spirits for getting a break from school.

“I just wanted to have something because I usually don’t celebrate the holidays at all. So, I feel like making this hot chocolate kind of brings some festiveness to my house which doesn’t really have that much festiveness to it,” explained Cheng. “I would love to show people how to make my hot chocolate, but I don’t have an exact recipe. You just have to improvise it.”

Following recipes and cooking different cuisines is an important part of the holiday season for many families. Preparing different spreads is a way to gather others together for holiday festivities. Go and gobble up some food with family and friends.