What’s Cookin’?
Post by: Rebecca Burch
Town: Spencer
Website: Carpe You Some Diem!
My favorite traditions involve food — baking Christmas cookies, summer barbecues, Thanksgiving dinner, going out with my Dad to several different stores looking for the perfect Easter ham… my belly growls just thinking about it! Now that I’m an adult and I am sharing those same memories with my children, I am starting to realize that the best part of these traditions isn’t so much the food (my tastes have changed so much since then!) but the rituals of preparing the foods with the rest of the family. I remember spending weeks of evenings and Saturdays in the kitchen preparing Christmas cookies with my mom, and then freezing them until Christmas Eve, when all our hard work would be displayed on her best crystal platters at my Aunt Bonnie’s house. I remember helping my Dad prepare wild concoctions that he would marinate meat in overnight, then get up at the crack of dawn on July 4 to begin grilling, roasting, and preparing amazing foods for his yearly 4th of July cookout — the “Billy Bash,” as our family would call it. I remember all these events in my childhood that centered around food, but the process of creating something to feed our huge family is really what it was all about!
So many family problems were handled by the women in the kitchen! This is when they would all come together — to cook — but actually, to discuss family matters and how best to handle them. I think that we call it “networking” these days! One cousin going on vacation would find a caretaker for her pet, and in return, the caretaker could barter for help painting a nursery. The care of elderly family members, pregnant family members, and newborns was worked out between daughters and cousins, and people came together in a way that doesn’t happen anymore.
Now, a lot of the older generation has passed on, and the cousins have all moved away. We don’t get together in the kitchen on holidays anymore, and the “Billy Bash” has been scaled down quite a bit. It’s sad, in a lot of ways. But I’ve been keeping the tradition alive in my own family by bringing the children into the kitchen. We bake bread, make Christmas cookies, plan cookouts, make goodies to take to elderly neighbors, and rework some of the old heirloom recipes. (Apparently, my ancestors knew nothing of cholesterol.) And while in the kitchen, we discuss school bullies, grades, plan vacations, solve social problems, tell jokes, and find solutions. Our kitchen is truly the heart of our home, and those traditions are still the best times of my life — especially now that I get to share them with my children!
