I have a semi-regular dinner with my closest girlfriends here in NC – although it can ebb and flow depending on our collective schedules, we generally converge once every two weeks or so. It’s the kind of get together that’s very low pressure – we have some insanely amazing chefs in the group who can always be counted on to cook something mouth-watering. And then there are others who very capable of instigating the imbibing. Needless to say, I’m usually in charge of wine (I’m okay with that – it’s all about embracing your strengths people!). But, we’re always looking for ways to spice things up.
For a recent girl’s night, someone suggested we each bring a dish from our childhood. Something we remember eating as a kid that was so ingrained in our family traditions, that you never stopped to question whether it was weird to anyone else. There are certain memories evoked by songs or smells, but nothing can bring forth your childhood quite the way a certain taste can…
Mid-week, my life is insanely busy. Every second is accounted for and although I like to cook, it is just not something that I ever manage to squeeze in before our 7pm start time. But, as I was racing into the supermarket to scoop up my favorite bottle of wine, I started to think about what I would have brought if life weren’t so consistently full of sharks and students. There are a lot of favorites I remember – corned beef and cabbage, fried zucchini from my grandpa’s garden, these fried cookies in the shape of butterflies. My dad’s side of the family is Polish, so sauerkraut, pierogis, and kielbasa hold a special place in my heart and my stomach.
Despite the many food memories to choose from, there is one that always rises to the forefront of my mind. My mom makes this dessert called Pineapple Delight. A mix of pineapple, vanilla, rice and cream, there was almost always a vat of it at every family gathering. It was my mom’s grandmother’s recipe – handed down to my grandmother and her sisters, and then passed on to my mom, and later to my sister and I. To the untrained eye, it kind of looks like a bowl of slightly-yellow tinted glop. But to me, it tastes of summer bbq’s and a sense of belonging.
And though I didn’t have the time to make Pineapple Delight for the girls that week, I knew at the very least, I could dress the part…
Many moons ago, my mom wrote out the recipe for my sister and I, and we tucked it in our cookbooks for safekeeping. This past Christmas I opened a gift from my sister – she had found a woman on Etsy (Kathy Fick Designs) who printed things into pottery. And in the middle of a stunning ceramic bowl, there the infamous recipe sat. Carefully written in my mother’s impossibly neat handwriting, forever protected by glaze and kiln fire.
I put the bowl into the china cabinet in our dining room, and pull it out each time I continue the family tradition of combining pineapple, coconut, rice and cream. And I walk by that bowl nearly every day. It reminds me of where I came from. Of the parts of each of our families that we can take for granted when we’re kids. And the beauty that comes in that blissful ignorance, only because of the wisdom that comes with age.
In the age of digital photos and typewritten emails, sometimes I forget the joy that comes from personalization. From the unmistakable arch of the way someone scrawls their ‘f’ on a piece of paper. Of the words written in my mother’s hand, carefully copied from words written in her grandmother’s hand, passed between the generations like an edible memory.
There are a lot of things that tie people together. Food. A shared past. Garments passed between generations. Traditions only known to those who hold them dear.
What are your family traditions?
xoxo
Outfit Details:
Dress: Sea of Vintage (similar modern or vintage here, here & here)
Ring: Swarovski
Necklace: street fair (similar)
Bracelet: vintage (similar)
Handbag: Kate Spade (similar)
Shoes: Cecelia NY
Lip Color: Retrofuturist
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