recipes – Wild Woman. Wild Minister. Wild Writer.

The Gringo Ofrenda

The more I learn about other cultures and customs, the more I think, Wow! I wish White people had that! Whether it’s Black aunties who’ll give you the side-eye if you’re not acting straight or random family gatherings like our Hispanic next-door neighbors have, we European-descended Americans don’t have anything like that. It’s about community, being connected to something bigger, stronger, and more timeless than what any individual one of us can be.

Not only is it about community, but it’s about keeping our heritage strong. We see this in the ofrenda. An ofrenda is a traditional Mexican altar to honor the ancestors, seen particularly around Dia des Muertos (Day of the Dead). Pictures of the ancestors are placed on it, and the family shares stories of each one. As Dia des Muertos arrives, they place food offerings on the altar.

That’s such a neat custom, isn’t it? In this way, Mexicans stay connected to their ancestors and their family histories.

I was reflecting on this over the weekend. My younger daughter turned fifteen last week, and since her birthday landed right in the middle of the week, we did the big birthday celebration all weekend long. It started with a breakfast of her choosing–biscuits with sausage gravy (homemade, of course). Last year I found this biscuit recipe that makes delicious, flaky biscuits, and every time I make them, I think, Man, Grandpa would’ve LOVED these! And it hit me. Just as the favorite foods of the deceased are part of the Dia des Muertos custom, we also have our own food customs.

There’s that coconut cake that’s baked and served every year at Christmas because “Santa” loved it. There’s that gelatin salad that is made the same way Mimi (what Peter called his grandma) made it and is on the table for Christmas dinner. There’s the tradition of experimenting with vegetable sides at Thanksgiving because that aunt would do that. And there’s the thought of, Man, Grandpa would’ve LOVED these biscuits! The favorite foods of our loved ones keep them in our memories.

We also have the picture displays. Maybe we don’t put up an ofrenda, but we have family picture walls. In my parents’ home in the upstairs hallway hang pictures of family members past and present, and Mom tells who each of them is and something about them. In my own home, we have family pictures hanging on the stairwell, and Peter and I have told the girls stories about them. We keep their memories alive if they’ve died, and those who are still alive stay close to our hearts in the sharing of our memories.

Maybe family picture walls and those cherished recipes–or those recipes that make us think of beloved departed relatives–are our gringo ofrendas. May our cherished family members live in our memories and hearts as we share their stories down through the generations.

The Recipe Pile

It started innocently enough. All I was trying to do was find that one grocery store cookbook that held the recipe for the casserole I wanted to make for dinner. The hutch where we store our cookbooks was a mess, though, making even accessing that section of cookbooks a challenge. So I pulled off the huge stack of loose paper recipes–all those we’ve printed off from emails and websites over the years–and placed them on the table. What a mess! While I had them all off, I decided, Why not punch holes in them and get these bound like I’ve been meaning to do?

First, though, I found the cookbook I wanted. When we were dating and in the early years of our marriage, my husband couldn’t go grocery shopping without bringing one of those home. Sauerbraten noodle casserole with steamed red cabbage on the side… Mmmmm! So good!

Recipe pile — This huge, disorganized stack of recipes had been making our hutch a cluttered disaster

This is what I started with. After about a half-hour or so of sorting and organizing them, I ended up with two 3-ring binders full of recipes, categorized by type of dish with categories in alphabetical order. My tween helped me, so there was some memory-making mixed in with the organization.

As I went through that stack of papers, pulling out what didn’t belong and seeing what I had, so many memories came at me, all tied to recipes and cooking!

Cranberry Orange Sauce–I found this recipe in the early days of our marriage at a website that was a humble alternative to All Recipes but is now a French snack food company’s website. I still make this sauce every year for Thanksgiving dinner and usually have enough to can a couple of small jars for leftovers.

Beef Stew–My dad sent my aunt Susan and me this recipe by email, and one of them made it for a family dinner we had to miss when our firstborn was in the Intensive Care Nursery. Mom brought my husband and me servings of it along with biscuits for dinner one evening while we were at the hospital.

Zucchini au Gratin–This was a side for a fun French meal I made when I was in Div school and our family was just made up of two. That night over dinner, my husband told me he wanted to join me on a long weekend mission trip that was coming up.

Taco Soup (x3)–You know when you lose a recipe, you have to print it off again? Yep, that’s this one. Except, I’ve made it so often, I pretty much have it memorized. It’s a family favorite. Paula Deen’s recipe. Look it up; you won’t be sorry. But then there was also the one from the now-French-snack-foods site and my Aunt Linda’s.

Butternut Harvest Soup–Also times 3. But I found the one that’s got my own custom seasoning tweaks written on the back. Super-win!!!

Gingerbread–Not cookies (though that recipe was in the stack, too). No, I’m talking about warm, spicy, fragrant, soft gingerbread, maybe with a lemon glaze on top. I first tasted this on a field trip to Duke Homestead when my firstborn was in daycare. Now I make it to go in an adorable Nordicware gingerbread boy and -girl loaf pan Susan sent me. Hmmm… Now I want to make gingerbread.

In this day of modern technology, recipe websites galore, and the handy-dandy online recipe storage tool known as Pinterest that we can access from any device, paper recipes are almost a thing of the past. But when’s the last time you sat down with your child or spouse with a recipe printed on paper and said, “I made this when” or “This recipe came from your grandma, and I remember that time…”? Having a much neater Mimi hutch (the hutch was handed down to us from my husband’s grandma) is valuable, but the stories of the recipes on it are treasures beyond measure.

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