Make This Holiday Season A Thanksgiving
We do not need any divine power to predict this year’s Christmas, and the Holiday Season will be celebrated at home, with our immediate family and perhaps a few close friends – if COVID-19 restrictions allow it. Add the usual cold and stormy winter weather, and the 2020 holiday season may go down in collective memories as a hangover that is best to be forgotten. That is unless we embrace our harsh times as an opportunity.
You guessed it! Let’s make the probable “COVID-19 lockdown 2.0” a merry one with a twist. Rich with our recent experience during the first wave, and our new-found skills for baking sourdough bread, we are ready to rise to the next challenge – Holiday Cuisine!
Here is my challenge to you. Peruse those old cookbooks filled with Christmas recipes, scour the internet for new ones. There are so many possibilities; patés and terrines, gingerbread houses, Yule logs, fruit cakes, cookies decorated and ready for the Christmas tree, elaborated appetizers, beef wellington, trifles, charlotte royale, and so much more. Zone in on a few inspiring recipes and go at it. Get lost in the creative process, enjoy the moment, engage your children and your partner.
I know, I know! I hear you – “children and partner?!” If you can’t get the kids off their screens to help you or to initiate the fun, no problem. Rural internet is infamous for its poor connectivity, meaning it can easily crash at the most inopportune time. In our household, we have been guilty of creating such “crashes” on a few occasions with the flick of a switch on our router, unbeknown to the intended captive audience. Worked every time. Suddenly bored to tears, the children (and later, teens) become receptive to a hands-on experience.
But wait! There is more. You must use local ingredients to the extent possible. What better way to thanks and celebrate our local producers?! Without them, we would go hungry, and the diversity and the quality of our food would not be the same.
In the end, though, should that fancy meat pie burn or that souffle deflate, all is not over. Most restaurants (from fast food to fine dining) do takeaways nowadays. Call them, place your order. Or, check them out. A few are trying new ways to serve you, including lighting up outdoor fires or heat lamps on nice days for your enjoyment.
On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, once the internet will have “crashed again,” turn off the lights, light up the candles, start the woodstove or the fireplace and play soothing Christmas music. You are now ready to savour the moment and create what might become some of your best memories.
My present to you is a few pairing suggestions with locally produced mead, spirit, wine and beer to enjoy with your culinary creations.
Cheers!
Invitation to food artisans, growers, producers and restaurateurs:
Do you produce, make or serve quality local food that best exemplifies our terroir? Interested in being profiled? Please email me at mail@tastingpleasures.ca
