Old family recipes serve a number of purposes. These recipes, which are passed from generation to generation, not only provide food that taste wonderful, but the spirit of multiple generations is put into those recipes. The result is not just food, but memories of times long ago.
In my family, the recipe that is most associated with the holidays is called 24 hour salad. This recipe goes back five generations to my grandmothers family. The story goes that many years ago a recipe was provided to allow for families to make a fruit salad that was effectively ambrosia. The key was that it was chilled for 24 hours and once ready for eating, the salad could last for several days.
As a young kid, I watched my mom make the salad for Thanksgiving day, and for Christmas Day. As I grew older, I started becoming involved in the making of the salad to a point that, when I finally moved to Maryland, I was ready to make the family fruit salad on my own.
Making the salad over the years brings back a lot of memories that I had growing up. But two of my favorite memories occurred about 25 and 19 years ago. In late December of 1998, my whole family gathered for Christmas at my sister Sheri‘s house. It was rare for my family to gather together for Christmas once my sisters and I became adults. But earlier in 1998, my sisters and I agreed that we should spend Christmas with Sheri‘s family, and that we should get my parents up there as well. Everyone agreed and so we gathered for Christmas in Illinois that year.
A lot of good memories occurred that Christmas, but my favorite was on Christmas Eve morning when the adults of the family gathered in the kitchen for cooking and making dinner for the following day. My job was to make the 24 hour salad but no less than six adults were in the kitchen at one time … Talking and remembering the past as we were cooking. I stopped now and then to just listen and take in the moment because I knew how special that Christmas Eve morning was. My sisters with their significant others, my parents, and I all working together while the kids mostly slept upstairs.
The second memory occurred on Thanksgiving day in 2004. I had been dating my future wife for about six months when her family invited me to Thanksgiving dinner. I told him I would come under the condition that I brought a dish. By then, I had mastered making the 24 hour salad, so I knew it would turn out well. The question was would my girlfriend’s family like the salad? The answer came pretty quickly. They loved it, and my future mother-in-law asked me for the recipe. Ultimately that recipe was put in our church cookbook in 2008, and it was credited to my grandmother and her family.
This year I will be making the salad again, but there are two changes that have occurred this year to make it more poignant. This will be the first holiday season without my parents. My sisters and I are now the keepers of this recipe. The second change, is that one of the main ingredients of the salad is no longer being made, and as a result, I am forced to find substitutes. Nevertheless, I have all the ingredients ready to make the salad on the day before Thanksgiving. As I am making the salad, I’m sure a lot of memories of holidays past will come flowing back. And that’s the point of these old recipes. Not only are you making good food for family and friends, but you’re also remembering wonderful times of the past. Soon, I will pass that recipe to Joshua & Lydia… and the tradition will continue.
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