Grandma's Cooking

Every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas my whole family gathers at my great- great aunt’s house for dinner. This annual tradition has taken place since my grandma was a little girl. We join hands around the table, which is

The biggest memories that come to me are going to church in my hometown. Every Sunday was a special schedule. I got to wear my best clothes of the week, which was usually a dress, long socks, and a bow for my hair. Once my whole family was ready we would walk to church. On our way, my mom would often stop and talk to neighbors. Sometimes I would have to remind her that we were going to church or tell her that we were going to be late. Mass was an hour or so. After mass, my mom and dad would give me money to buy an ice cream or junk food. When I finished my ice cream, we would walk home with neighbors who lived on the same street. Walking home everybody would talk about how beautiful the ceremony was and how well the priest explained the Gospel. I loved the sense I was given by my neighbors. Comforting and belonging is what I felt when I was around them. McClay and McAllister refer to this as “anchor our memories in something more substantial than our thoughts and emotions,” which is my hometown connecting me back to my neighbors at my

Heavenly smells in the air, footballs on T.V, family is gathered around, and a comfortable homey feel of my grandmother’s house makes Thanksgiving one of my favorite meals of the year. I will always have memories of thanksgiving at my grandmothers. The smell that rushes your nose as you walk in to the house. So many mouthwatering smells go through the air at my grandmother’s thanksgiving. Her Thanksgiving dinner never fails to fulfill my expectations. With the whole family gathered and the dinner table full of delicious food, I can’t help but feel content.

One such tradition is not socializing with neighbors but only talking to her sisters or other family members. Both of my great-grandparents came from a large family and so the Sunday was always considered family day. It was nothing to see a yard off of kids playing or see the men playing a game of horseshoes as the women would set out the dinner. However, it was the winter time that holds the most memories for my mother. It was then that the families would all gather at the family pond and go ice skating and the men would build a big fire and everyone would stand around and drink hot chocolate. One such tradition in the winter time was right after the first snow fall of the season. We would take a big mixing bowl and go out and fill that bowl as full as we could. Then she would go in and make a big bowl of snow ice cream (Food in Every County). One bright sunny day, our family was going to Lake Pomme De Terre for a family picnic. Like Shteyngart, I was all set for some grilled hamburgers or hot dogs or even some fried chicken. However, that was not meant to be. Like Shteyngart, is aw food being set out that was I saw food that was familiar to my great-grandmother’s culture. Instead of grilling hamburgers, she set out chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans and for dessert a shoofly pie, sugar cookies, and schnitz pie, which is made with dried apples (Food in Every County). My mother laughed when she saw my face because later my

Dorothy Allison, well-known author and essayist, begins her essay by discussing how she remembers her mother’s gravy and the process of making it, including the pounding of the meat in order to flatten it out. She adds pathos by saying gravy is the “most memory-laden dish” she has learned how to cook and the comfort it brings. Instead of calling it country-fried steak as others normally do, Allison’s mother calls the savory dish cube steak, a more underprivileged name. Allison says, “It was not until I was grown that I understood

We started sharing even more stories about how we loved foods that grandmothers made that you found amazing because of the “baked with love” moment you have for them. She explained that her grandmother was a very beautiful lady with sophistication and class. “No matter how she looked I always stared into her eyes so bright and blue.” Caroline then

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

There is just something about Southern Cooking, something about the women who’ve mastered it, and something about what it represents. A Southern Feast represents time spent in careful preparation and an almost entire region of people that didn’t get the memo about cholesterol. Southern cooking brilliantly displays a community that still remains untouched by at least some of the craziness in the world around us. Things move a little slower in the South, and one of those things is the cooking. Preparing a Southern feast is a job. It is hard work, and it takes some time, but that is part of the charm. This cooking is the kind that allows for sitting around canning

Inside would be an outfit so stylish that it begged to be worn. Accompanying the clothes would be a small white box with a red rose bow that flopped over the sides of the box. Inside this box would be a ring from her collection or another piece of jewelry she had picked out for me. However excited I was for the presents, the excitement quickly turned toward thoughts of the upcoming meal she had prepared for the family. It did not matter what she had prepared for the meal; the kitchen always had such delectable scents that wafted through the air and just settled over the house. My mouth was in a constant state of salivation and my stomach waited expectantly for what was sure to be another meal that left my stomach uncomfortably full and yet yearning for more. And yet, no matter what she made, the best part of the meal that you always took thirds or fourths from came from the salad bowl. A simple salad served with homemade Italian dressing and fresh crumbled Roquefort cheese, it was what reminded me best of grandma.

The essential part to a good family meal in my family is my mom grossing my brother out by talking about bugs at the dinner table or my sister and I fighting. If that does not happen at the dinner table it is a dinner not well spent. While it is a different story in Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen, there are severally meals I could have chosen from for this assignment but one that particularly stood out me was, when Elizabeth the main protagonist character has an uncomfortable dinner at Lady Catherine’s

Eating brings people closer together everyday, and for everyone, there are important memories that have been created because of food. Whether it’s a formal dinner, or an informal picnic, there will always be special bonds between people because food was involved. We need to have traditions with food because they form and strengthen the bonds between us.

I remember waking up on Christmas day with a huge smile on my face, heart full of joy, and my stomach barking. I can smell all the spices cooking down stairs. As soon as I got out of bed I will rushed down the steps into the kitchen to see what my mom had prepare for us on this special day. We had different variety of food turkey, stuffing, ham, bake beans, mac and

Since my family lived so close together, we had many family traditions that remain important. We gather for nearly every holiday for a meal and routine. For Easter every year, we have an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my grandmother’s house. For Christmas Eve, we always went to my great-grandparents house and had dinner and exchanged gifts. For Christmas, we celebrated at home, and then went to my grandmother's for breakfast with our cousins. The importance of all of the holidays we celebrated was that no matter what was going on in our lives,

We all have family traditions, some of which we take pride in, some of which we dread and despise but, whether you know it or not they are what make us who we are. One of my favorite traditions that I can truly say I’m passionate for would have to be Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner for the holiday goes by in a blink of an eye because of all the enjoyment. However, the preparations that lead up to the day are long and prestigious even though they are what make the dinner so great. Since the holiday comes up before we know it, we get started as soon as the year hits mid fall.

Some of the many memories I carry with me every day of my grandmother are the holidays when we used to get together. I remember Thanksgiving and Easter most of all. On Thanksgiving the entire family would come together for dinner and then we would all stay at her house for the night. I remember this so well because we would wake up the next morning to the smell of breakfast and all the ladies would be gone shopping to the "After Thanksgiving Sale".