I was thinking about this menu endeavor I have taken on this year as I was cooking for a few hours on Sunday. I made a favorite Big Fat Greek Meal and thinking how nice it is to sit down to something we all love and look forward to, no matter what.
My mother, on of eight, is at the top of the ladder. So growing up we had lots of cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and family around for every event. Birthdays, first communions, holidays, new arrivals, every occasion was marked with food - Lots of Food. A lot of that food was made by my mother.
This came to me last night as I asked, ordered, begged, and threatened my boys to come into the kitchen with me while I made The Big Fat Greek Meal. (never happened) I was thinking of all the meals that my mother prepared for 20+ people on any given weekend. A full family holiday party was easily over 50 people with out of town family flocking in.
But as I cooked I wasn't reminiscing so much about the food, or special recipes, or hours of prep work made fun or festive by gathering all of the generations in the kitchen to cook together. There was just food. There are certainly things that my East Coast Cousins attribute to their Ohio visits. Grandma's Potato salad, BBQ Beef, Macaroni salad (with Old Bay Seasoning), Cheesy Potatoes, Easy Lasagna, and of course Strawberry Barbe recently renames Strawberry Crack. My mother acquires the recipe somewhere and for the life of her still can not remember. She brought it to exactly two events when it became so famous that everyone was asking for the recipe. When she gave it to about the 10th person without a name on it they said, "You should just call it Strawberry Barbe" and we did for 25 years.
When I think of the bond that food has and the power that it holds I want to make sure that my boys know that feeling. The joy of turning a simple box of cake mix into the best Star Wars Birthday cake EVER. Of watching people's face light up when they see their favorite food on the table. Of healing the sick of body and sometimes of heart with something you just threw together.
The next time that you are in a food rut bust out your Grandmother or Mother's recipe's....or your own. Just cherish the love behind the food that makes it the best thing you've ever had.
Menu for March 14th
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