The Holidays and Cooking

So this time of year has always been one of my favorites. It is holiday overload for three months; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then New Years. Halloween is my favorite holiday mainly because you have a reason for wearing a costume eating a lot of candy and having your own scary movie marathon to get you ready for October 31. There is another purpose behind the Halloween goodies... they get your stomach ready for all the turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, pies, and everything else your family makes for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the holiday that everybody gives "thanks" for what they have and to eat, a lot. Thanksgiving is mainly focused around food and family. It gets people ready for Christmas because you get a dose of family for a day or two or three. Then you are ready to see some taillights until you have to see the headlights come Christmas. Christmas is another holiday, to me, about being thankful for what you have and giving to others. Of course it is mainly about the birth of Jesus, and remembering how he came and died for us. There is also a lot of eating that goes on as well. Pretty much the same type of food, at least at my house, as Thanksgiving, but family is around a little bit longer than Thanksgiving. I enjoy all the decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is almost as if the holiday stuff just explodes in our house. Love it! But the last holiday is ALL about the party. New Years. Time to come up with a "resolution" to loose the weight you gained over the holiday season, turn over a new leaf, or just hope for a better year. Either way you are either about to blow your self up with fireworks, completely inebriated before 10 PM, or whatever.

The holiday season was the time of year that I gained most if not all of my cooking knowledge growing up. I learned from my grandmomma Billie, my mom's mom. My love of cooking began at an early age. I would always sit in my Momma Billie's cramped kitchen and watch her and my momma get the food prepared during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Over the years I was allowed to take part instead of just watching. My grandmomma was the one in charge in the kitchen, even when we started having Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents. Over time she did less and less, and by default my mom and I did more and more. We still use the same recipes, some are written down others are from memory. I can prepare all the dishes from memory if need be, but we still pull out the recipe cards and pieces of paper just to have reference.

This time of year now is more about remembering than anything else. Just over a week ago marked two years since my grandmomma passed away. I remember the day very well because I was stressed out about German test I had the next day and I was working at the Thacker Mountain radio show when I really needed to be studying. I knew something was up when I was getting phone calls from my dad, mom, and my little sister. They all knew I couldn't answer past 5:15. I tried calling after the show but nobody answered. So I called my German study partner(s) to let 'em know I wasn't coming. I walked into my parents place and from the look on my little sister's face I knew. I then heard my mom on the phone. I don't remember much else from that night, but I was up most of the night not studying. The next day I had to go to my teachers and tell them what had happened. My German teacher made me leave class and not take the test, THANK YOU!! The holiday season was very different that year. It wasn't easy but it did get easier. My grandmomma Billie is missed dearly. If you spent any time around her you see whom I take after. Love her and miss her a lot.

So now come holiday cooking time it is just my mom and me in the kitchen. Others were kicked out of the kitchen because of planned sabotage, that is a whole other can of worms I will open at a later date. But, in the next couple of days the preparations will begin on making the broths for Thanksgiving. Too soon? Think not b/c it gives them more time to let the flavors meld together. Cooking for me is very therapeutic. If something is going wrong, bad day, stressed out, just because or a friend is having a bad day I'll cook. My roommates loved it and when I was at home, my mom would get mad b/c it was mainly sweets that I would make. I do cook full dinner menus, too. That is when I call my friends over or take left overs to them. But during the holiday season when everybody else is stressed out about when the food will be ready or stressing about what they have to get done, I'm considerable calm. I move at my own pace that sometimes bugs my mom (and others around me), but she knows that things will be done; it is when I'm thrown off that it isn't done on time. My mom has learned that over the years.

I hope everybody has kicked off this holiday season right. I will hopefully post again soon to show pictures of a green velvet witch's hat cake I made for my mom. Till then...