Tasty Traditions

I promise, I will have something baked tomorrow to show you! For today though, I thought I would talk a little bit about traditions - those involving food of course. For starters, in our house we passed through a few different stages where we had the same dish on a certain night. For example, at one point we had Friday night spaghetti. Another time was Wednesday night pizza or pancakes (biweekly), for a quick dish because Wednesdays were busy with activities for us. Yet another time we ate pasta for a quick lunch every Sunday, following 9:30 mass and skating.

We step away from the traditional ham, and always cook a turkey for Easter, with all of the trimmings. We also have a similar turkey dinner at Thanksgiving, prepared by my grandmother at her house. The same at Christmas, except with the company of a lot more relatives. On Christmas we eat the big turikey meal at lunch, stuff ourselves with various desserts throughout the afternoon, then enjoy a "light" supper at another relative's house. I saw "light" because that is the idea, but we all  end up pigging out on lasagna, meatballs, cabbage rolls, and chicken wings anyway. This is followed up by even more desserts. Hey, it is Chrstmas afterall! Since we don't cook a turkey ourselves at Christmas, we always cook one at home for New Year's. It is also a Dutch tradition to make ollie bollen - deep-fried fritter pastries roled in icing sugar - on New Year's Eve, and enjoy the leftovers for breakfast the next day.

We also have regular, everyday traditions, like a birthday cake at every birthday, as well as dining out to celebrate (usually at our favourite pizza restaurant, where the birthday person eats free). My mother always makes her famous chocolate chip cookies when we are invited to someone's house, and if they are lucky, her prized rum cake too. We barbeque as much as possible in the summer, and enjoy homemade soup in the winter. Lasagna is a dish we like to serve to company, as well as enjoy it any other time we get the craving for it. Pasta is our go-to dish when we don't know what else to cook. We've also got a collection of tried and true favourite recipes we make in different rotations. And there is always homemade muffins or loaf waiting on the counter when I go home.

Traditions are about celebrations, family, friends, and of course, food. Enjoy them!