My brother learned to make fry bread when he was in elementary school. We made it for awhile and it always makes me think of him (in general, though, my mother never, ever, fried anything so we haven't made it in ages. I should do that again sometime).

The Mexican restaurants in Denver always had fried ice cream (with a crunchy crumb shell--possibly sweetened cornflakes?) on the menu and that was the BIGGEST treat ever. I never see it here in Texas.

Our favorite cold-weather meal was green chili gravy (something else my mother got in Denver but that I don't find in Texas)--thickened broth base with tomatoes, onions, loads of garlic, chilis (not ragingly hot, though), and meat. We always ate it over eggs, rice, and shredded lettuce but I don't know what is the "proper" context. My brother eats it like soup.

Christmas always meant gingerbread houses (we are pros at this), oatmeal-raisin cookies (which I hate but appreciate for the effort my mother took to devise the perfect recipe), Mom's precious sugar cookies, and my grandmother's labor-intensive Moravian molasses cookies. I love those Moravian cookies but they are so much work to roll out properly!