‘Visions of sugar plums’ don’t dance through my head come holiday season. No, instead I see flashes of spatchcock chicken, chicken patés, celeriac fries cooked in duck fat, beignets with cranberry dipping sauce, orange cheesecake, chicken alfredo pizza cooked on Lebanese crispy flatbreads and meatloaf.
Eating turkey and stuffing, glazed ham with pineapple or prime rib with red wine glaze just wasn’t our thing as a family. So, weeks before the holidays approached, I would explore cookbooks for just the right items to challenge me as a cook and challenge my children’s taste buds.
Admittedly, the paté was a bust — I think we ended up eating macaroni and cheese that year — but I made it. We all tried it. We all tried to like it. We all hated it. We all laughed.
As you gather around your table this year, here are a few things to keep in mind. Big Grove Brewery chefs TJ and Taylor are planning on making pizzas with their respective families. Delores up at the hardware store misses the Christmas goose with all its traditional trimmings that she grew up having with her family but relishes the holiday because she will be with her niece and family here in Solon. Carolyn Trump, happy to be back at the hardware store after an extended illness earlier in the year, just likes the good old turkey and dressing to share with her loved ones.
Whatever it is that you serve, or are served, traditional or new-fangled, from a box or gourmet cuisine, remember to enjoy some part of it.
Merry Christmas.