62 www.<strong>eatdrink</strong>.ca I was just reading through the Food section of our local newspaper, which featured a recipe for a honey cake to be made for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration. e author acknowledged that nobody really enjoys it, but noted that the cake is part of a very old tradition, which is apparently reason enough to go through the motions of making it. It seemed to her that to not oer honey cake would somehow be sacrilegious, even if it went stale in the cupboard after the considerable eort required to bake it. e Christmas fruitcake has also suered a serious decline in its ability to excite party guests, and we’ve all heard jokes pertaining to its regifting or its potential use as a paperweight. But fruitcake too, like the Jewish honey cake, continues to have its place during the holiday season, like it or lump it! at recipe got me thinking of some of the traditional dishes that I have come across: some great, some horrible, that continue to grace the tables of families across the country on their special feast days. I moved to California some years ago, and the rst American anksgiving I was invited to was at the home of a friend who had grown up in Georgia. One of her anksgiving Day “must-haves” was a cornbread stung. It had the visual appeal of a pasty porridge and a taste equally as bland, but despite another guest bringing to the potluck a savoury sausage stung, the table wasn’t complete for the host without her family “go-to” dish. Other sides that arrived that year (and every year to follow) were the green bean casserole (beans smothered in cream of mushroom soup, topped with canned fried onion rings) and sweet potatoes with marshmallows broiled on top. No doubt these dishes were great hits in the ’70s before nutrition became a serious study of interest, but people continue to prepare them out of nostalgia, № 32 | November/December 2011 the lighter side Comfort Food & Holiday Traditions By CAROLYN MCDONELL completely dismissing the not-so-new knowledge that fresh ingredients are really much healthier for you and your heart! It seems nutritional value and good health practices go out the window with the desire to uphold the memories of old and the comforts of foods from our youth. Many people are more than willing to have their sodium and caloric intake skyrocket for the day, rather than leave their much-loved recipes a memory of the past — despite having to shop for many ingredients in the canned food aisle. Perhaps much of this has to do with the fact that many people are not lucky enough to be sharing their special days with their families and old friends, and somehow creating the same meal their relatives are making (and have made for decades) brings back many fond memories and makes them feel just a bit closer to home. My family was invited to a neighbour’s house for Christmas a few years back and the menu consisted of prime rib of beef, mushroom risotto and salad. Blasphemy! I had grown up with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and all the xings, and this, albeit delicious sounding menu, just seemed wrong! I brought a sweet potato casserole, a cranberry cake my mother always makes for Christmas Eve, and my father’s favourite: a mincemeat pie. No doubt they didn’t lend sophistication to the prepared culinary feast, but at least I felt a little closer to my roots! e only thing that was missing was the dessert platter, containing a delicious assortment of squares and the Christmas cake my mother labours over every year. It’s never something that I enthusiastically reach for, but there is much comfort in the fact that it’s always there! Something like family ... CAROLYN MCDONELL is a UWO grad now living in Los Angeles, where she has established several new traditions while introducing some Canadian standards to California.
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