The following post was written by my mom, WWW. Thanks mom!
This is the purpose of holidays—to bring together our loved ones for a few joyful and chaotic days. And, afterwards, return to normal, whatever that is.
After everyone leaves, the silence in the house is
loud—almost disturbingly so. The sounds
of laughter and conversation, music and footsteps are sucked into the black
hole of quiet. I straddle two worlds…that of mother/grandmother and the other
as artist/teacher, and the sharp transition of stepping from one to the other
is always a jolt, the same way I feel when I plunge into my beloved cold
Pacific Ocean—it’s painful at first, but after a few moments I get used to it
and am glad I jumped in. In the same
way, it takes a few days to get used to my silent space again and return to my
routine, and it is during this period that I often reflect on both what I’ve
learned from the past year and where I want to put my energy into future
growth, new projects, and my work.
I thought I would spend today’s post reflecting on what
worked for me in the culinary department over the holidays. I know this is kind of after the fact and I
promise to re-post this in early December when it is probably more useful, but
most of my lessons learned could be used for entertaining at any time of the
year, so I thought I would share now while they are fresh in my head.
1.
Cook
ahead. When everyone is here, I
cook…and cook and cook. For the last
several years, I have done some of this ahead of time and that really
helps. We sometimes order take-out, but
that quickly adds up, so having easy homemade dinners ready to defrost makes a
big difference to my holiday sanity and budget. Soups, chili, casseroles, pasta sauces, gravies, tomatillo salsa, and cookies all freeze well. We had an open house in
honor of David and Alyssa's engagement a few days after Christmas and I cooked almost
everything ahead so that I could enjoy my family instead of slaving in the
kitchen.
2.
Dust off
the crockpot. It has been years
since I have used my crockpot for more than a warming pot. By New Years Eve, I was not in the mood to
spend a lot of time in the kitchen and wanted to make black-eyed peas, so I got
out the crockpot and threw together a delicious meal in 5 minutes. Yes. 5
minutes. Of course the 5 minutes of
cooking needs to be done in the morning so a little planning is necessary, but I
can’t imagine why I have let this cook’s helper lie dormant in my
cupboard. 2014, you are going to be
filled with many more meals in a pot. Stay tuned.
3.
Oh, those
nuts . For those of you who made the
sweet and spicy nuts, you already know. These made the best
gift EVER, keep well, and are great to have in the house for snacking or
bringing out when folks drop by. And
they don’t need to be reserved as holiday food. I’m still making them!
4.
And don’t
forget the sprouted lentils. I know
some of you thought this was an odd gift, but everyone went nuts over the lentils (and lentils over the nuts?) My
sprouting jar worked double time between keeping a supply on hand for the
family and sprouting for friends. By the
way, having a few jars of these in the refrigerator for snacks worked
great! And of course, lots of our
favorite sesame truffle salt to top them off. (Home made sprouted lentils, a sprouting jar, a bag of mixed
lentils to sprout, and a jar of your favorite seasoning is a gift you can give
all year round to your special friends.)
5.
Make
lists and daily schedules so you don’t freak out. I fail miserably at list making, but at
holiday time, lists are my best friends. A week before Christmas, I couldn’t
sleep one night, worrying about all that needed to be done. The next morning, I
sat down with my paper and pen and wrote out a daily planning schedule for my
cooking and shopping. I stuck to it
religiously and didn’t have another freak-out the whole holiday season.
6.
It’s fun
to try new recipes but also to revisit the old ones. Years ago, my favorite vegetable to make on
Christmas was spinach and marinated artichokes.
I don’t know why, but I stopped making it and then lost the recipe. When planning Christmas dinner this year, I
suddenly remembered this old favorite and decided “who needs a recipe! I can wing this one!” The result was
delicious and I am sharing it with you below.
This is an EASY side dish meal for any special occasion:
Spinach and Marinated Artichokes
2 lbs chopped spinach (either frozen or fresh)
20-24 ounces marinated artichoke hearts
1 small onion, chopped
½ pt sour cream (regular or non-dairy)
1 Boursin garlic and fine herb cheese (or if making vegan, 2
crushed garlic cloves and chopped chives)
Grated Parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast for vegan)
If using frozen spinach, thaw and drain in a colander.
When thawed, squeeze out excess liquid (there
is a lot in the spinach so you need to really squeeze). If using fresh spinach, cook till wilted with
a couple of tablespoons of water and drain and squeeze out the liquid.
Combine spinach with marinated artichoke
hearts and chopped onion and pour into a 9x9 inch casserole.
Mix sour cream and Boursin cheese together in
small bowl and spread over casserole.
Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, or until bubbly in the middle
and slightly browned.
Serve as a side
dish, or over quinoa or rice:
Top with Parmesan cheese.
***
I would love to hear from you as to what worked and what
didn’t over your holiday season. Also,
as we start this new year, I would love to know if there is anything special
you would like me to write about in 2014. I started doing these posts almost 4 years ago and so appreciate your
support over the years. I never would
have guessed in a thousand years that I would, four years later, still be doing
them. Thank you for being my inspiration!
Happy New Year!
Love,
WWW
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