Family Traditions

There are several people who are in LDE and some who have been; when they ask you to do something, you just say yes. Then you wonder how and what you are going to do. Joan and Nancy asked me to write something for the newsletter….about traditions with my kids, the holidays etc. I find sharing my thoughts in the written word to be a challenge not to mention that the holidays in everyone’s mind are supposed to be filled with clever traditions.

The most daunting part of the ideation process was I rarely write a recipe down nor do I make the same thing twice. My family lives out of town and Tony’s live here. We flip flop holidays between his cousins, Aunts, my sister and parents. Who ever has the youngest children gets to host Christmas Eve and Dinner so Santa stays real, all other children are sworn to the BELIEVE game. Of course tradition prevails in some format, old Spiaggia recipes for Biscotti dipped in chocolate and Cornmeal cookies. My mom always serves Beef Tenderloin and Gravlax. It used to be Steak Tartar. There is a meringue cake layered with whipped cream, from my grandmother, for which I searched for the right pans at garage sales for years and finally found. Gingerbread men have been made every year. When it is Tony’s family’s year for Christmas we gather all 50 of us for a potluck dinner. The meal includes polish sausage, great Grandma’s kolache, and Uncle Joe’s homemade bread. So the tradition is managing the chaos and raising my kids to be ok with a different set of expectations every holiday.

But if the Grinch could sit and think, I thought so could I. I have sons who love to eat; can cook when forced to make a meal on their own; yet the reality is they love having a chef for a mother and are spoiled with great food. What is it that my children have participated in making, consider it a food tradition, and we eat it every Christmas?
Blue Berry Jam is the epiphany!

Three boys, two nieces two nephews, and a sister who I talk to every day even though she lives in Cleveland equals tons of energy when we get together in the summer. Lots of little fingers to keep busy …and so the tradition of blueberry picking came to be. Of course two sisters and lots to conversation to catch up with, good wine had to be drunk …and so the tradition of blueberry jam the night of picking the blueberries came to be.

All seven of the kids participate; washing, picking the stems, measuring the sugar, pectin, juicing lemons, smashing the blueberries, and eating the muffins we make in tandem. There is a small table in the kitchen the perfect height to mix and smash until the pot is full and ready to cook. The counting of the jars of finished jam in the morning and evenly distributing them into the visiting families car. My sons always feel our family should get more because they eat more since they are older, my sister acquiesces…in a few years her family will take more jars as my boys will all be in college.

Five months later the traditional phone call is made, after Thanksgiving. How many jars of jam does each of us have left? How many jars can we each bring for Christmas morning, we have to give several to Mom and Dad. Debbie, my sister makes a pear coffee cake and I make cinnamon rolls. The jam is spooned out and consumed bite by bite on Blue Dog Bread (a bakery in Louisville), comments are made that one jar is left and plans are made for the picking date for next year.

The beauty of food traditions and family is it keeps the memories alive in our children’s minds as they create their own families. After all as a mother, our primary business after the love, self-esteem, manners, and education have been accomplished is the business of making memories. I hope someday the blueberry jam is passed down to a new generation. Yet I realize it may not be it may be too much for a new wife to do and blend with her family, as she takes one of my sons as her husband. I am secure that my sons will cherish the memory and create their own new tradition with their family and know that food traditions keep a bind a family together.

As life my life is blended from one stage to another I’ve taken heed to the importance of food traditions and spent the past year creating a tool to pass on this important information. The site is Salty Fig. It is a place to Collect, Organize and Share your recipes. I invite you to sign up as a user and click add recipes, under House recipes you will find Aunt Deb and Aunt Sue’s Blueberry Jam. I also invite you to become a partner on the site if you have recipes to shear on your site.