It’s the week before Christmas, and I’m only just getting to my thanksgiving recap, but I figured it could possibly give you some Hanukkah or Christmas inspiration. It’s been hard to write about the holiday season this year, every word and action reminds me of my brother Tom and his passing suddenly last Christmas eve. But I’ve been practicing mindfulness, trying to slow down, and trying to do little things that honor him.
Many of the ways I’ve been remembering him have been through cooking and food, and there were a few dishes I made for Thanksgiving for that exact reason. Let’s recap my contributions to our meal:
Appetizer: Aside from myself, Tom was the only other food experimenter in my family. He loved sushi, and loved trying new and unique recipes. One of my favorite thanksgiving memories involves Jule’s Butternut Squash soup. I made it several years ago and my brother raved about it for ages, so long as to even bring it up again last year. Unfortunately, Thanksgivings since that year haven’t allowed for soup so I was never able to make it for him again. This year I made it, in his name so to speak, and even found another use for it: Make it think and it’s a PERFECT gravy for potatoes and turkey!
Dessert: I made two desserts for Thanksgiving, the Snowman Buttons (Sugar Cookies with pink sugar sprinkles), and the Gooey Chocolate Merry Mint brownies. I found the dough of the Snowman buttons hard to work with, even with sprinkling lots of flour on the surface I was working on and my hand it was incredibly sticky. However, they baked evenly and tasted great!