Food For the Soul - Day 1

We've always been a big family. Growing up next door to my cousins, aunts and uncles, gave me a unique and incredible upbringing. Our family is blessed in so many ways, but one of the biggest blessings is our gift of cooking. My mom and my aunts, even my uncles, always share stories of how my grandmother taught them how to cook - many dishes from scratch - and how to manage and work their way around a kitchen. My grandparents used to run a restaurant at the corner by their house and naturally, it's where my mom and her brothers and sisters worked. So they have always been used to being around food, learning recipes and more importantly, learning how to cook for the masses. This obviously came in handy with a family our size. Bar-B-Que's, weddings, holidays, or just any celebration in general, meant cooking for many of us, but it also meant time together. Food often brings us together, and more often than not, it's the comfort of the food that we all look forward to the most. Traditions are such a huge part of our family and food plays right into that. Christmas Eve isn't the same without my mom's creamed white potatoes, New Year's Eve isn't a party without my aunt Yolanda's menudo, Halloween is no fun without a hotdog roast and my mom's chile con carne, Easter isn't Easter unless you've had my aunt Yolanda's pistachio pudding and Thanksgiving isn't sweet without my mom's pumpkin roll. Still, it isn't just the holidays - my 8th grade graduation wasn't complete without my aunt Viola and my uncle James' homemade Chinese food; my niece's high school luau themed graduation party wasn't tropical without homemade pineapple meatballs; BBQ's are never dull with my brother Joey's salsa paired with whatever meat he has on the grill or my aunt Yolanda's rice; then there's my uncle Ray's burgers at the Trailride, my brother's pozole in the winter, and my mother's banana nut bread any time of the year. The list goes on and on, but what makes all this food so comforting, is that it was always made with love and from somewhere special. This plate of chalupas, while simple and generic, is more than what you see. It's New Year's Day and my mom made us dinner. She invited us over and we sat with my uncle, my aunt, and my cousin and we ate, laughed, shared stories and even had a beer. This IS NOT out of the ordinary. This is what we do, and it's what we will continue to do. Our children watch us, and they also look for the food, and the stories, and the get together's....my girls ask if grandma is making her fettuccine alfredo, I call and ask if my aunt Yolanda made her enchiladas without onions, Johnny asks if my mom has any leftover oatmeal from breakfast - we all have our favorites, and I, along with my siblings and my cousins, work to make sure those traditions, those recipes and family favorites, are never forgotten. It's the comfort of the food, and what feeds our hearts and our souls, that makes each plate that much more delicious. Till next time...