One way to keep special family memories alive is to use family recipes in your celebrations.
When my mom brings cheese-stuffed celery sticks to Thanksgiving dinner every year ("because my grandmother always made these"), or when my girls make "boiled cookies" for Ron's birthday, or when Kati takes a coconut cake to the Christmas party for Ron's side of the family, it demonstrates the significance of family food traditions.
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As long as I can remember, my mom has been making sugar cookies for Christmas. They are sweet and buttery and decorated with red and green sprinkles, and is it okay to think that they are better than any sugar cookie ever? I think it. Every year, Mom brings these wonders to our Christmas gathering, and she also brings a small package of them to my sister and to me.
Last Christmas, I told Mom that I had never made these cookies, because they were her domain. She insisted that not only would she not mind, but she would love to turn these over to me! So this year, I will be venturing into the business of making THE sugar cookies.
(Of course, Mom makes the best potato salad and cole slaw too, but those will stay in her domain. For one thing, there would be mutiny...)
In family lore, Ron's grandmother is famous for her banana pudding. I hear that she made a huge bowl of it when family was coming, and that it would feed a crowd. I don't have her recipe, but I made banana pudding (from scratch, as I imagined that she would have) one year for Ron on Father's Day.
A few weeks later I made a bowl for Ron's dad for his birthday. In a little over a week, he had passed away, and I was glad that I had favored him with a good memory of his mother.
I have a yummy sloppy joe recipe from my Great Aunt Minerva. She cooked this for Ron and me when we visited her as newlyweds, and she shared the recipe with me.
I served Aunt Minerva's sloppy joes at a family party to welcome my youngest granddaughter Alaine. I have also cooked them for several informal suppers with friends.
When I reorganized my recipes a few years ago, I decided to add a few photos of loved ones beside their recipes. It's a pathway to memory, not only for me, but hopefully one day for my children and grandchildren.
Do you have specific foods or recipes associated with certain family members? Do you incorporate family recipes into your celebrations?
This is Day 28 in the series CeLeBRaTe!! Click ~here~ to see more.
The first one that comes to mind is the recipe for my Grandma's sugar cookies. They are also known as Amish butter cookies. They are large, soft, buttery, vanilla-y pillows with raisins sparingly sprinkled throughout. My children would be horrified if I didn't make these at Christmastime!
ReplyDeleteAnother recipe is my husband's grandmother's recipe for sweet potato biscuits. They are a MUST at Thanksgiving and Easter dinner.
And with the Christmas ham, my mother's special glaze that is served on the side... my husband gets into a sulk if it isn't on the table!
Oh, and potato salad that my mom passed the torch to me to make at the tender age of 13... it is THE BEST. Well, we all have our own tastes ;-)
Oh I love this post...I love them all, but this one brings warm memories. My mother and I once had a conversation where we agreed that there was not one family event, not one holiday party, not one picnic, I could go on, where we could not remember what was served. I think we have/had a great love affair with food. Now whether that is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteOh boy howdy! You've been entrusted with the sugar cookie baking. Are you gals going to get together and have a sugar cookie party?
This post has brought me to tears, it is unreal how much food ties us to family. I would love these recipes, too, Cheryl ;-). At a recent family Christening, the conversation went to long ago recipes brought to America from my grandmother. Nothing written down, all in her head. I need to start experimenting and figuring them out. xo
ReplyDeleteI love your idea about putting a photo of the cook with the recipe. What a wonderful way to keep that loved one in memory for future generations. Blessings, Sharon D.
ReplyDeleteIn our family we have many recipes that give honor to our past relatives. My Mama's macaroni and cheese, my mother-in-law's potatoe salad, my sister's dressing, my grandmother's hot rolls. I could go on and on...It just wouldn't be a holiday meal without these foods on the table.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of a photo to go along with a family members recipe!♥
Oh yes family recipes are the best. i love the old stained recipe cards in the handwriting of those gone before. And current day recipes from friends near and far remind me of them. I often drop a note to an old friend (not local) when I use their recipe, saying "thinking of you today." What a neat idea to put the pics with the recipes. The only family recipe I did not like was mincemeat! But I am right now looking at the large blue and gray piece of pottery where my ancestors made their mincemeat!
ReplyDeleteIf she is giving out the recipe, I want the sugar cookie recipe, too!
ReplyDeleteI just love this post so much, brings lots of fond memories to mind, My Maternal grandmother would make lunch for her children and their families every Sunday, I always remember her banana pudding, it was the best, I am sorry to say i didn't get her recipe, but remember those Sunday dinners with much love. Thank you for sharing this Series of Celebrate. It has been such a blessing to me.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of putting a picture with the recipe! In our house it is hands down grandma's mac and cheese; Doe Doe's Hemphill cookies; and hot pudding served with ice cream! [don't know who invented that one but so worth commemorating!]
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