Today I want to talk about the holidays. My thanksgiving already passed, but the American Thanksgiving is later this month (I can totally still celebrate that, right?), and Christmas is in just over 50 days! Soon the year will be over. Where did you go, 2011? I will be an old lady before I know it. End melodrama now.
I'll start by announcing that I don't have many holiday traditions or special memories, especially not involving food. I grew up on processed, packaged foods. My parents aren't much of cooks, so they use a lot of boxed mixes and such. Rarely was there anything homemade, and definitely nothing like cookies made from scratch. It makes me sad to think about it, truly.
Somewhere along the line when I was a vegetarian and had to make meals for myself, I picked up some kitchen skills. I had to teach myself how to cook, use a knife, season my food, etc. Where my persistence and patience came from, I don't know.
But that's a different story. What I'm trying to get at here is that regarding holiday favourites—like pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and gingerbread cookies—all of the ones I grew up with don't hold much weight in the memory for me because they were all store-bought. And I might be ok with that if there had been just one thing I could hold on to, as if to say, "At least I have ____!" But I really don't.
I was thinking, now that I'm a vegan, maybe I should be making my own holiday traditions. I mean, a tradition can't become a tradition right away, but it has to start at some point before it can hold traditional status and all that.
So I'll be mucking around with a lot of cookie recipes (poor, poor me), and more savoury things, too. Please do recommend me recipes, or even just a food that reminds you of the holidays (and is vegan, of course). By this time next year, I should have a few recipes under my belt that make a reappearance. And I do mean quite literally under my belt. Such are the consequences of bulk recipe testing.
I pulled a fast one on MoFo too. It was too much work for me, really. We tried though, right?
ReplyDeleteI think that it is great that you're going to start making your own traditions for the holidays. Traditional holiday food in England for me was Shepard's Pie and Yorkshire Puddings with lots of veggies for our Christmas day dinner. And then there was always the (what I thought were horrid as a kid) Christmas fruit cake and Fruit Trifles. I didn't grow up with the gingerbread men and cookies or bread being a big thing during the holidays though.
I like your picture of the cookies at the top :) I haven't ever made gingerbread cookies.
That's so exciting that you are going to be starting your own traditions; I'm going to keep following your blog now that the Vegan Month of Food is over. :) I made oatmeal raisin cookies as my contribution to Christmas dessert last year, as well as stuffing and a corn, mac, & "cheese" bake for dinner, all of which I hope to do again this year.
ReplyDeleteIsobelle- Agreed! It's the thought that counts, I suppose. Vegan shepard's pie sounds like a good idea to me. this was my first time making them, and I'd do it again. Makes the kitchen smell like spices.
ReplyDeleteJulie- Thank you! This corn, mac & cheese intrigues me. I do hope you will post the recipe sometime!