Christmas Cooking
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I just saw an ad about making Green Bean Casserole for Christmas. I think they bring out this same ad every year at this time. The first year I saw it I realized that my family wasn’t the only one who ate this side dish every Christmas. The funny thing is, as much as we love Green Bean Casserole, we only seem to have it on Christmas Day and sometimes on Thanksgiving. That’s it. And I guess we aren’t the only ones as this ad is only shown at this time of year. So why is that?
There are a number of other delicious meals that for some reason we only eat once a year. Take eggnog for example. Why is it served only at Christmas time? Why not on Valentine’s Day, too? Personally I am not very fond of cranberry but I know other people like it yet again we only seem to have it with Christmas dinner. Why can’t we have Mom’s wonderful home made potato salad for lunch on Christmas Day instead of only eating it on the Fourth of July and Labor Day? I’m sure a lot of you have your own traditional meal which is only made once a year.
A Christmas Day staple growing up in my house were those delicious cinnamon rolls you bake in a round pan then top off with this thick surgery icing. Mmmmm. Nothing can beat one of those warm soft rolls with sticky icing dripping down the sides. Even the kids will agree to a break in opening packages so that we can ice them and then serve everyone a roll. And it doesn’t matter if I am at my brother’s house or visiting either sister, they all serve this same thing on Christmas morning. The funny thing is I don’t even like breakfast and yet once a year I look forward to these rolls as much as the next person.
Many years ago, when I was living up north, Mike and Candy (who was just his girl friend at that time) drove up from Florida to visit me. This was the first time my brother had ever stayed at my house and I wanted it to be nice. So I came up with the idea of making our Christmas cinnamon rolls for breakfast one morning. Long story short, they burned to a crisp. I was devastated. Here I was trying to be a nice big sister and I ruined our cinnamon rolls turning them into blackened lumps seared to the pan. I gave up. I never again tried to bake them and now just enjoy them Christmas Day when my sister-in-law makes them for all of us.
Unfortunately my disastrous attempt has itself become part of Christmas Day traditions. Now every year when Candy serves her perfectly baked rolls my brother will retell how I burned them beyond recognition. And if he forgets to tell the story then my young nieces who have now heard it so often will remind everyone about I how ruined them! {sigh}
Maybe the moral of this story is that you should stick with making your traditional meals and dishes during the holidays and not at any other time of the year. (Although I can hear my family laughing at me and arguing that the real moral to this story is that I should never go into a kitchen at any time of the year!)
Comment by juliehershey on 17 December 2008:
Haha! Reminds me of the first dinner I made for my husband and me just after we returned from our honeymoon. I meant to have broiled steaks but we had just bought a house that included a very old stove, and I didn’t know how to use the broiler. Well, the stove caught fire, so the first thing I did was grab the box of baking soda and dump it on the burning steaks. Hmm, they looked ok, although the stove turned black. I thought I’d serve them anyway - very salty but tenderized. My husband drank a gallon of water during dinner and never said a word, but somehow (?) it became one of those stories that everyone laughs about during family gatherings. So here’s to cinnamon crispies and soda steaks! (Hey, even Julia Child had disasters).