Mother may have thought that she was traditional. She was an at-home mother of sixteen whose work was caring for her family and home. But, when Mother’s children were all grown, she opened her own convenience store business – that’s anything but traditional for women from her generation especially in Trinidad. Reflecting on myself, I see that I like Mother have blended the traditional with the nontraditional. In one season of my life, I was a mom who worked exclusively inside my home, caring for my toddler daughter and then-husband, in another I’m an attorney, divorced with a twelve-year-old, finding a way to work my love for food and writing into what I do because it feels like who I am too.
This weekend I saw Disney’s newest animated film, The Princess and the Frog (http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/), which blended new characters, an old theme, with traditional hand-drawn animation. It’s the first Disney animated film to feature an African-American woman (Tiana), from a working poor family, who’s working hard to save for her own restaurant in part to honor her deceased father’s dream. She first turns into a frog, before becoming a princess, after kissing a prince-turned-frog who has been cut-off financially from his family because of his lazy, lady-chasing ways.
As you may have guessed, if you’ve been following this blog, I identified with Tiana’s character in many ways. Like Tiana, much of my work ethic was instilled when I was a child, but unlike her, I didn’t learn from watching my father, who was in- and out- (mostly out-) of work. My mom was and continues to be the breadwinner in my family, going from below minimum wage nanny/maid to six-figure earning nurse. From mom, I learned that realizing a dream is about doing everything in your power to achieve it. One thing she rarely mentioned was the role that fun and rest play. Enter (in The Princess and the Frog) Prince Naveen who encourages Tiana to dance. Reminding her that even in pursuing her dreams, she shouldn’t forget what’s important, that life is too short not to do things that bring joy.
Speaking of joy, this weekend was Christmas in our house. Our new family tradition since my divorce is that in those years when, as we’ve agreed, my daughter’s father has her for Christmas vacation, we celebrate on a different weekend in December. We eat (lots as you’ll see from this week’s menu below) we go see Urban Nutcracker (http://balletrox.org/urbannutcracker/) a nontraditional take on the time-honored ballet and we do the conventional present exchange under a Christmas tree. Thus, in our home like in Disney’s newest princess movie, the nontraditional and the traditional are melded together.
Culturally, outside of our house, there seems to be trend away from solely defining traditional as what has been done in the past by one’s grandparents (no offense Mother). The traditional is now, not only what’s historic or custom, it’s also what you do that you or family will remember, regardless of whether you did it just once or year after year. Because of this, traditions today are less about obligation and more about creating quality memories. And, I being in a non-nuclear, multi-cultural, multi-national, cross-faith home/family appreciates this tradition-in-transition trend!
Let me walk you through the extensive (not-traditional-to-me) menu I have laid out below as well as offer you some ideas (not requirements) for serving the dishes that were part of our Christmas celebration. On Friday night, when as the Christmas song lyrics do, “the weather outside was frightful,” it was below freezing (somewhere near 5 degrees Fahrenheit without factoring in the wind chill factor) we ate the soup and cornbread schmeared with the chestnut butter. (And, my daughter said that I also need to let my readers know about the drink recipe for the kiddie cocktail we had with Friday dinner. She added fresh lemons, limes, and their juice to store bought fruit punch, which made it taste like the all drink’s fruits had been fresh squeezed.)
On Saturday, we had a brunch spread of goat cheese brie, roasted nuts, the pate, candied kumquats, fresh fruit, grape tomatoes, lemon wedges and the rest of the chestnut butter. I toasted some day old brioche, cut into triangles, which we used to create our own little plates. I liked, for the savory option, topping my toast point with the pate and a piece of cheese, with a couple of the kumquats, tomatoes and lemon wedge on the side; for the sweet, a bit of the chestnut butter with some roasted nuts was divine! I think these dishes can also be served as hors d’œuvres.
Dinner on Saturday night was steak, potatoes, and beans done different, followed by a blueberry sorbet that was delectable on its own, or for a creamier option that tastes like a blueberry pie a la mode, serve one scoop of the sorbet with an equal part of vanilla ice cream.
I look forward to hearing from you (via post or email) about your own holiday traditions (stay tuned for a Mother May Have contest opportunity), and if you decide to incorporate some of mine, as we say in Trinidad, “better fête” loosely translated, good times!
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Chicken Gizzard and Corn Chowder
Mother may have 