In my culture, almost every meal is a celebration.
In less-affluent societies, most families eat a diet that is relatively unvarying, usually simple although perhaps time-consuming to prepare, and made up of staple, non-costly ingredients. My own parents grew up in the southeast US in families who ate some form of legume and cornbread as their main meal of the day at least five nights per week. It was pintos and cornbread or white beans and cornbread or black-eyed peas and cornbread or field peas and snaps and cornbread and on and on. My mother’s family, who were a little more prosperous, usually had hamburgers on Saturday night and some kind of roast, normally pork, on Sunday for their dinner. My dad’s family was sometimes reduced to just cornmeal, salt, and water formed into little cakes and fried in a little fat for their meals. At times, usually in winter, meat simply was not part of their diet.
In these less-affluent societies, holidays are welcome respites from the sameness, a day here and there through the year where the home economist in the family saves some money to purchase a special ingredient or two or budgets actual foodstuffs in the days leading up to the important event so as to have a little extra for larger helpings or a greater number of dishes served at the same meal. It is one day when there may be a treat or two — extra meat or the addition of some luxury ingredient like cream poured over the potatoes or butter for the bread. Perhaps there will be a special sweetened bread or cake. Perhaps everyone will get a piece of fresh fruit or some nuts. When the day ends, the treats are consumed and the meals return to normal.
But in my culture, almost every meal is a celebration. It is a double-edged sword, isn’t it? On one hand, I’m terribly grateful to be able to buy butter and cream and sugar and fresh fruit whenever I wish. We aren’t rich, but so long as we choose less expensive meats and shop sales and use reasonable restraint, I can cook pretty much any dish I desire. That hasn’t always been true during some earlier years of my marriage, but even then we enjoyed a good deal of variety in our meals and I was able to afford most things if I really wanted them and was willing to sacrifice in other areas. And I love the variety — it gives me a great deal of pleasure to use lots of different foods in different ways, to taste new tastes, to experiment with new techniques. I like the largess of it all.
Sometimes, though, I wonder if it is good for us. This Thanksgiving is an example. Here are our menus for the days before and after the holiday:
Sunday: Beef Stew, French bread, and Cheesecake
Monday: Steak with Mushroom Sauce, Baked Potatoes, Salad, French bread
Tuesday: Ina Garten’s Indonesian Chicken, Rice, Carrots
Wednesday: Chicken Fried Rice w/ Veggies
Thanksgiving: all the old traditional favorites
Friday: leftovers of Thanksgiving food + popcorn at Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, Part I
Saturday: Homemade Pizza with Ham and Green Peppers
Sunday: Beef Ragu over Polenta, Salad w/ Feta/Mango/Walnuts/Romaine, Bread, and Cheesecake
Besides the actual holiday food, the only unusual meal during this week is the Monday night steak. We eat steak perhaps 3-4 times per year, and most often I make it on a night when our kids are elsewhere and it is just The Husband and me for dinner.
After a week of eating those sorts of meals, it seemed like we needed to eat some plain food, but what did I find myself making for last night’s dinner? Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Bubbly Baked Tomatoes, leftover Sweet Potato Casserole (which didn’t fit with the rest of the meal but needed to be consumed), and Steamed Cauliflower. Not expensive and meatless, but not exactly light. Tonight I’m trying to do better. We are having soup made with turkey stock from the Tgiving carcass, Basmati and wild rice, and veggies. I know it is good and light because I made it this morning and had a preview bowl for lunch. Of course, now I’m wanting to make some cheese toast to go with it, which fancies it up.
I have no answers about this — I’m just musing. What do you think?
Now get up and go cook something good.
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