Food through the generations

I love food.  I love the tastes, textures, colors and memories that come along with food.  And I came by my "foodiness" honestly.

While my father eats to survive and considers a piece of bread with a squirt of mustard and a slice of onion a reasonable lunch, my mother has a much higher view of her meals.  My mother is half Spaniard and half Portugese and her European roots mingled with her own deep seated creativity brings life to her kitchen.  When my mother cooks, food becomes art and tastebuds are tickled.

Last week, I went through my kitchen and smiled.  At least 80% of our kitchenware has come from my mother.  When each of our four babies were born, she came and cleaned, snuggled, shopped, served and cooked for us. With some exasperation, she would fumble through my partially stocked and poorly equipped kitchen to bless us with a taste of "home." Before she left, I always had a new pot, pan or other extremely useful kitchen item.  A well equipped kitchen is a delight to cook in and my mother has helped to create that for me.

As time goes on, she cooks a little less and I cook a lot more. This week she sent me an enormous box of kitchen items that she doesn't use anymore- pots, pans, bakeware, racks and even a coveted turkey pan. Oh, happy day!

Naturally, it overjoys my mother to hear that sometimes I teach our kids how to cook.  Sometimes I slow down my pace long enough to invite the less skilled, yet extremely eager, budding chefs in my midst to watch, learn and practice.  Mom loves hearing about these moments. 

While I too often lack patience in the midst of daily life, there are times of the year when cooking becomes a family affair.

Thanksgiving is one such time... and this post is for my mother. 

When our family of six is in charge of the Thanksgiving meal, we like to each choose a dish and each take charge of cooking it.  I step down as head chef and become mentor and helper- and it's fun. 

This year, we had six dishes, one meat and one side of beautiful bread. Much to John Z.'s delight, the bread was a gift from our kind neighbor.  JZ loves bread. He also really loves marshmallow covered sweet potatoes.  He was in something of a quandary trying to decide which to choose for his side. Well, until our tasty gift arrived.  The matter was then settled...

John Z. & Daniel each chose potatoes....  one sweet and one savory...  

While they peeled, Bryan worked on his choice: Pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  He baked like a pro- that man has some mean kitchen skills!

Daniel cut his tots...

...and mashed them to perfection.

John Z. cut his sweet potatoes like a samurai...

...and mashed them. Aunt Rickie taught us to put crushed pineapple in our sweet potatoes. We add a couple pats of butter with the pineapple and they're AMAZING.  

JoyAnna chose Macaroni and cheese as her dish.  I pulled out our Pioneer Woman cookbook and JoyAnna got confused.  Wait, where was the box?  Oh, sweet girl, today is the day you learn how to make yummy mac & cheese. 

I'm so glad for Thanksgiving cooking lessons! 

 Josiah could have chosen anything- absolutely anything.  He chose mushrooms and roasted broccoli.  I love this kid.  In every area of his life, he's unashamedly unique.  We made some lovely garlic mushrooms in wine sauce- and we're convinced that roasting broccoli is the best way to eat these little trees.

We were undecided about our meat until last night's grocery run. Bryan found pork loin on sale for 50% off.  He googled a Pioneer Woman recipe (love that lady) and we had some AMAZING pork on Turkey day.

And when it was all said and done, we had one meat, some lovely neighbor gifted bread and six dishes (I chose cranberry sauce-I plan on eating it by the spoonful all this next week).

The family chefs were all very, very excited about their dinner. 

It was a lovely, lovely meal and we are all SO thankful!