Have you ever dreamed about having the perfect holiday dinner? Have you ever seen those Norman Rockwell-type photographs in magazines and cookbooks showing a holiday dinner that looked almost too beautiful to eat? Have you ever promised yourself that some day you would set a table like that?

Guess what? Even though food is a huge, traditional part of celebrating the holidays, it will always be more about the people who are eating together than it will be about the food being eaten.

If you try too hard to make your holiday dinner just right, you may cause yourself more stress than you need—and you may miss out on some special moments. It isn’t about following mom’s instructions to the letter and measuring just right when you and she are cooking together. It’s about the laughter and memories you share as you’re chopping and mixing. It isn’t about being able to declare that you made that pumpkin pie from scratch (including growing the pumpkin yourself), it’s about the stories that are told around the table as the pie is being eaten. [Read more...]

Last year I went to my mom’s neighbor’s house on Christmas Eve for a casual party and dinner. When we walked in, the smells coming from the kitchen were unbelievable. They weren’t the usual smells, though. I didn’t smell ham or pumpkin pie or turkey. I smelled something spicy.

Upon further investigation, I found out that it was tamales cooking in those two large pots on the stove. One pot held pork tamales and one pot held chicken tamales. They smelled heavenly.

When I tried them, “heavenly” didn’t seem like a strong enough word to describe how delicious they were.

I still can’t think of a good enough word. Suffice it to say, they were beyond “to die for”. They literally melted in your mouth, and had just enough kick to make you blink a couple of times, but not so much that you didn’t want more. And, oh man, did I want more. [Read more...]

Don’t you love those commercials where the mother and child are in the kitchen making cookies together? You imagine doing this with your child; so proud of how hard she tries to get everything just right.

You envision imparting words of wisdom to your child during this special time together; wisdom that will serve her well as she makes her way in the world. How wonderful. How precious.

Back on earth, you’ve finally set aside the time to bake a batch of brownies with your little bundle of joy.

“Okay honey, get the eggs out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter. No, the whole carton. Take out the whole carton. Put the egg back in the carton. Put it back. Pick up the whole carton. Both hands. Both hands!”

After hubby gets back from the store with another carton of eggs, you crack them into the bowl and then hand her the package of brownie mix. [Read more...]