Breaking bread: Your all-Marquette-made holiday meal, from cranberries to cannoli

Photography by Blue Moon Studio; Food styling by Kathryn Conrad and Joshua Rink

Food is the great uniter, at once essential for survival and important to how we gather. It is nourishment and community. This is never more apparent than at the holidays, when family and friends come together to share memories, laughs, tears — and a great meal. Few understand this better than Marquette alumni who grow, produce, make and purvey food and drink. They passionately believe that “food is medicine” and that it’s necessary for community building. And they have all the ingredients you’ll need to gather loved ones around a table and celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and other sources of light this season.

The bread

Make this stuffing with a twist

Bavarian-style soft pretzels from Milwaukee Pretzel Co. not only make a one-of-a-kind welcome gift to admitted Marquette students; owner and CEO, Katie (Spaulding) Wessel, Arts ’07, a former private chef, also incorporates them into an elevated version of a holiday staple.

Ingredients:
4 cups cubed day-old pretzels
1 lb. Italian sausage
½ cup diced onion
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large carrot, diced
¼ cup dried cranberries
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
½ tsp. garlic powder
2 cups chicken stock

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the cubed pretzels on a baking sheet. Lightly spray with cooking spray and bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes until golden brown.
3. While the pretzels are toasting, brown the sausage until no longer pink.
4. Add the cooked sausage and toasted pretzels to a large bowl and add the onion, celery, carrot, cranberries, parsley, sage and garlic powder. Mix until well combined.
5. Add 1 cup of chicken stock to the bowl and mix well. Gradually add the remaining stock ¼ cup at a time until the stuffing is wet but not dripping with excess liquid.
6. Add stuffing to 9-by-13-inch oven-safe baking dish and bake for 20 minutes until stuffing is heated through and golden brown on top.

“I think most people have a particular way they like to interact with others. … For me it’s always been cooking and serving,” says Gene Webb, Arts ’88, Grad ’91, owner and head baker at North Shore Boulangerie, just outside Milwaukee. As a student, he hosted dinner parties for friends at the Varsity Apartments at 15th and Wells streets. Today, he creates artisan breads, breakfast pastries and desserts at his charming French bakery. “From my earliest memories as a child, I was in the kitchen with my mom,” Webb says. “I had — and still have — an undeniable attraction to the kitchen.”

At Thanksgiving and Christmas, Webb’s draw toward la cuisine is almost ritualistic. “I do the complete grocery run for these meals without shopping lists and cook the entire meals without recipes,” he says. “Despite decorating the house weeks before, these holidays do not really start for me until I start cooking. Food is central to grounding me these two days.”

The sides

Invariably, everyone’s Thanksgiving favorites are the side dishes. Dressing or stuffing; green bean casserole; mashed potatoes; cranberry sauce. Two Marquette alumni are responsible for a few of these. For those buttery mashed potatoes, there’s Mitchell Bushman, Bus Ad ’90, co-owner of Bushmans’ Inc., a major producer and marketer of potatoes near Wausau, Wisconsin. And you can skip that canned cranberry concoction this year — Ray Habelman Jr., Bus Ad ’97, brings the real deal as CEO of Tomah, Wisconsin-based Habelman Bros. Co., the world’s largest grower and packager of fresh cranberries.

Hot cup

A warm after-dinner beverage can tie a meal together, aid digestion and, importantly, keep the conversation going. Jenny (Vonckx) Daniels, Bus Ad ’05, is CFO and COO of Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea, a purveyor of premium tea and botanicals imported directly from growers across the world. She says tea is all about connecting people, even across cultures.

“Tea itself has been bringing communities together for thousands of years, and that spirit is especially evident during the holidays,” she says. “Knowing that something we produce can become part of someone’s morning ritual, family gathering or moment of relaxation makes the work meaningful.”

Dave Tamburrino, Law ’15, agrees. “We love coffee and everything about it, especially how it has the unique ability to build community,” says the co-owner and co-founder of Idyll Coffee Roasters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. “We love to inspire, uplift and brighten the day for everyone.”

Seeking a more potent potable? Daniels has you covered. “I also enjoy making holiday cocktails using tea-derived simple syrups,” she says. “Rishi’s cinnamon plum or masala chai teas make a great syrup to be used in an old-fashioned.”

The mains

A perfectly browned turkey. A pink-inside standing rib roast. It’s said we eat first with our eyes, and these are the showstoppers. Julie (Bogaard) Dietlin, Bus Ad ’99, will bring one right to your door. (Well, she’ll have it delivered.) She’s the founder and chief executive of Milwaukee-based Brewers Organics, an “online farmers market” delivery service specializing in organic vegetables, meats, eggs and other essentials.

Dietlin’s passion for nutrition was born, in part, from an illness. “After my cancer diagnosis in 2018, we really researched how food fuels your body and what was most important to eat. We would like everyone to be able to eat in this healthy way while eating as local as possible.” Around the holidays, Dietlin goes big. “We have delivered turkeys for Thanksgiving and all the produce one would want for an amazing meal to share with family and friends. We offer roasts and other meats, as well, for Christmas.”

The desserts

“Desserts make people smile. Smiling is contagious.” That’s the sort of joy Tony Volpentesta, Bus Ad ’11, hopes to bring to holiday tables as owner and operator of Tony Cannoli Sweets & Eats in Mundelein, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. However, the shop’s origin story begins far from the Midwest — or even Italy.

“Sitting at a traditional Japanese sushi counter on a trip to Japan, I was intrigued by how traditional sushi (three ingredients, best served fresh) reminded me of Italian cannoli (three ingredients, best served fresh),” Volpentesta says. “Upon returning home from that trip, I got into the kitchen with my Italian grandmother and learned how to make handmade cannoli shells from scratch.”

The winter months don’t typically scream for ice cream, but Katie Heldstab, Comm ’03, says the holidays are the exception for Pittsburgh-based Leona’s Ice Cream, which she co-owns and operates with her wife.

“We do slow down in the winter, with the exception of the holidays,” Heldstab says. “We’ve been doing holiday packs for a decade, and they are now part of people’s holiday tradition. We make ice cream sandwiches including Pumpkin Roll, Butter Pecan, and Cranberry for Thanksgiving and Peppermint Bark and Egg Nog for Christmas.”

For Heldstab, feeding is an act of love.

“Everyone needs to eat, so it’s a common starting point. You can solve the world’s problems, or at least your own, over a meal. It’s fundamental.”

Feast of tradition

Alana Yazzie’s Indigeneity does not define how she celebrates Thanksgiving, but
it does inspire it.

“Growing up, Thanksgiving was always a holiday where family would come together; that is how I celebrate it today,” Alana Yazzie, Bus Ad ’10, says. “It’s also a day of appreciation for the enduring perseverance and resilience of Native peoples and their land. Because of that, I always encourage others to learn about their local Native tribes and buy from and support Indigenous food producers.”

Originally from New Mexico, Yazzie operates thefancynavajo.com, a lifestyle and food blog that follows her life as a contemporary Diné (Navajo) woman living in Phoenix. By sharing recipes, fashion and gardening content inspired by her heritage, she aims to inspire others to embrace their culture, wherever they live. In 2024, Yazzie released her first cookbook, The Modern Navajo Kitchen.

Navajo food is, of course, a centerpiece of Yazzie’s holidays. She enjoys making blue cornbread stuffing, her Fancy Navajo twist on a popular holiday side dish, and simple dishes such as freshly roasted pumpkin with a drizzle of maple syrup, both Indigenous ingredients. “I love being able to bring my family together with recipes that have been passed on for generations,” says Yazzie. “Food is medicine, so it nourishes our minds as well as our bodies.”

From the fall 2026 issue of Marquette Magazine

This and other stories from the fall edition of Marquette Magazine are now available online. Print copies are available on campus at the Zilber Hall security desk, AMU Information Center and outside Zilber Hall 235.