December 26 – Soul Food. What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth and touched your soul? (Author: Elise Marie Collins)Well, this year was filled with many old favorite foods, as well as several new ones, particularly while we were in Russia! So here are a few "food" shots of some of the things I ate there. The food was awesome in Sweden too, but that would just be too many pictures to post in one day.
First, a cafeteria in GUM in Moscow:
Best dinner of the trip, Georgian food in Moscow (cheesy bread that I dream about!):
An Uzbek dinner in Peter:
A random dinner:
Which included traditional borscht!
And of course blintzs! Or blinis. Whatever you call them:
Dessert blintz!
A breakfast blintz (and yes, that is a plain cheese single on my bread, this hotel had boring breakfast):
Plate o' mushrooms near the Church on Spilled Blood in Peter:
Wow, that trip was filled with good eats. If you're potentially dissuaded from going to Russia because you don't think the food will be good, you're wrong! Go and eat!
But realistically, the food that went into my mouth and touched my soul, it would no doubt be something my mom made. I know lots of people think their moms are great cooks, and I'm no different (but of course, my mom really is!). She's been wonderfully accomodating of my transition to vegetarianism, though admittedly for the first few years she seemed surprised I was "still doing that." But growing up we had meatless meals every so often, now she makes awesome meatless dishes whenever I'm home. Here are a few photos of some things I got to eat when I was home over Christmas -- not enough energy to go back and find photos from further back in time (and yes, I know many of the cookies I make are copies of hers, what can I say? she's a great cook!).
To choose one food that I ate in 2011 that touched my soul, I'd have to say stollen that my mom made. This Reverb post came out on Dec. 26 and I ate stollen for the first time this season on Dec. 25, so it's okay to use that as my example (and I also doubtless ate some in Jan. 2010).
First, a photo. This is my breakfast plate on Christmas morning. The stollen is on the left side of my main plate (that's panettone (an Italian Christmas bread that is only a family tradition since my hubby's been in the picture) on my bread plate to the left/at the top of the photo).
Also, just to show the complete Christmas breakfast offering my mom prepared, here's a pic of my now-official future sister-in-law's plate, which, besides stollen, quiche and fruit, also featured the pork pie my mom made.
Stollen is a German Christmas bread that my mom makes every year. When I was home for Christmas, we had a big conversation about foods, stemming from my mom wondering how there are so many foods I hate (bananas, raw tomatoes, eggs on their own, cucumbers except in tzatziki sauce, and doubtless many others), when there are so few foods she hates (organ meats from animals and blood sausage were all we could think of, but those don't even count to me as normal foods). Anyway, during the course of the conversation, it came out that many people in my family (not me, not my mom) don't like raisins and/or other dried fruit.
My mom's stollen recipe makes three loaves, and basically she makes it all for me and her! Sometimes my hubby will have a piece, but he doesn't love sweet things. Sometimes one of my brothers will have a piece. And now my future sister-in-law has some. But mom and I eat most of it. We usually eat part of one loaf Christmas morning with breakfast. Then she sends some home with me. Some years, I get both loaves -- I'll eat one over the week or so I'm first back in Dallas (and sometimes I'll share a couple slices with a very select crowd of friends all of whom I believe might enjoy it as much as I do (someone is allowed only a very small part of a slice first to determine whether they like it enough to be in the running to get an entire slice)). And then I'll eat the second one next or occasionally I'll freeze it and then have my own little "Christmas in July." But some years, she gives me only one loaf and gives the other to someone else. This year, my new future sister-in-law's parents were the lucky recipients. I hope they appreciate it!!
This Christmas stollen tradition tastes delicious but it touches my soul because of the great effort my mom undertakes to make it, the fact that it's mostly for my benefit, and the memories it brings of other wonderful Christmases (Christmasses? Christmasi?) with my family!
And before anyone asks, no, I don't have her recipe. She might give it to me if I ask, but using yeast makes me nervous, and she'll always do it better, and I wouldn't trust myself to make it only at Christmas, and what doesn't taste better when it's made for you with love by your mom? It's my soul food!
Updated 1/1/11: Here is a shot of breakfast this morning, finishing off my loaf of stollen:
And I found a picture from 2004 of my mom packing cookies near her freshly-made stollen:
No comments:
Post a Comment