Vitalia Active Adult Community – Montrose’s Culinary Brings “The Twelve Days of Christmas” to the Table

 Did you know “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is quite a unique song? Besides the fact the singer’s true love gives a lot of very bird-heavy gifts, it has a long and interesting history. The first written documentation of the song was in an English children’s book from 1780 titled Mirth With-Out Mischief and the lyrics were a bit different than they are now. For instance, it originally was Four Colly Birds, not Four Calling Birds. A colly is old English slang for blackbird. It wasn’t until 1909 when Frederic Austin penned the lyrics that we’re all familiar with and the song took on its more permanent version.

At Vitalia Active Adult Community – Montrose, we are excited to celebrate “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and look forward to honoring the song through our unique takes on food. It’s a great opportunity to get creative and turn classic recipes on their heads! This is the second year we will be pairing food items with the song. We start on Christmas Day by incorporating pears into our menus to represent the Partridge in a Pear Tree and finish on January 5th by presenting unique breadsticks that represent the Twelve Drummers Drumming.

The day that I am most excited about would have to be Eight Maids-A-Milking! I am a huge fan of Christina Tosi and am more than in love with her corn cookies, thanks to my sister, Karen. She has lived all over the globe and always is the finder of fun and unique things. She was living in New York City years ago and brought home Milk Bar’s corn cookies. I had never heard of such a thing at the time and, admittedly, I was a bit skeptical at first. She assured me I’d go bonkers over them as soon as I tried one. Well, she was most definitely right. Since that day, I have been obsessed with these cookies. So, if you have never had a chance to go to Milk Bar, I highly suggest running to the closest one you can find!

I took inspiration from these amazing cookies and put a spin on them, quite literally, making them into a milkshake! Picture this, a cookie that is a hybrid of a chewy, soft, fresh, sugar cookie crossed with the best buttery cornbread you’ve ever had in your life. A couple summers ago I made corn cookie ice cream, and it was a huge hit. When we were making our Twelve Days of Christmas menu, I knew I just had to do another take on the corn cookie.

I’m so excited to get to share my Corn Cookie Milkshake inspired by Christina Tosi, my sister Karen, Milk Bar, and all mighty corn cookie!

As the Culinary Director, I’m proud of these offerings and excited to share them! So, consider this my personal invitation for you to stop by on any of the days to give my specials a try.