Food And Family And A Walk Down Memory Lane

I just finished reading Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes
by Shauna Niequist. Every time I finish a book by her, I feel inspired to cook more, spend more time with my friends and take action to make my life richer. So, I’m thinking about food and family today.

I’m thinking about the experiences we have with family, and recipes our moms and dads made for us over the years.

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When I think of my growing up years and the food at our table, I think of the sweet potatoes with marshmallows my mom always served with our Thanksgiving meal even though I think she might have been the only one who liked them. 🙂 Christmas Eve always meant Wild Rice Soup (a recipe from her Byerly’s cookbook). And no one can grill a steak like my dad. No Name Steaks. Yummmmmmm.

I think about how my mom was A-OK with letting Baker’s Square provide the pies for our holidays. Candy Cane French Silk for Christmas, but she had elaborate templates we used when we cut out and constructed gingerbread houses every year. These weren’t graham cracker houses or houses made from a kit. She would bake the gingerbread for the walls and the roof herself. Every year I would mistakenly use the roof pieces as the walls and have to undo my “construction” and start over.

There were plenty of things she served that Brian and I turned up our noses at. I remember the season of Orange Roughy (fish), and the recipe she made where she mistakenly added sugar instead of salt.

I wish I had payed more attention when she tried to teach me how to cook. I was one of those daughters who wasn’t really interested in developing my cooking skills until I had children of my own.

Now I’m wondering what my kids will remember about our dinner table. Years from now they will gather around Audrey’s table and talk about how their mom used to make them spaghetti even though Audrey hated marinara sauce and Isaac didn’t like pasta. Hopefully, it will be a warm memory.

 

 

 

 

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