Every year, our family had the same holiday meal traditions. Different, of course, for each holiday, but we made the same exact recipes each year. I don’t mind saying that if anyone tried to veer from the traditional offerings, the grumblings were loud and plentiful.
Thanksgiving has always been the traditional turkey with dressing. Dressing is cooked and served outside the bird, stuffing inside…and we never stuffed the turkey. Ours was a blend of stale Wonder White bread and Jiffy Cornbread. I loved that stuffing…have no idea how she made it, so I will most likely not taste it again in my lifetime…I am the only one who really cooks in my family.
And, maybe that is what makes that stuffing special. Maybe if I could recreate it right now it wouldn’t taste as good. Do I want to risk the loss of that memory? It reminds me of something my grandmother said to me when I moved out of state. She told me that once we leave we can never really come home again. I had no idea what she meant until my first visit back, a year later. Nothing had changed, yet every thing had changed.
If I had that exact recipe and made that stuffing exactly the same way, would it taste the same? Probably not. My palate has changed over the years…and her love would certainly be a missing key ingredient. But maybe that’s why we keep holiday meal traditions…they serve as a reminder of some amazing times in our lives. Ones that we hope we will replicate for years to come.
