Cookbooks, Cookies, and Christmas

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Psalm 34:8 (NIV)

When Bruce and I married years ago, we each brought our own family food preferences and Christmas traditions to our newly formed little family. Both the Evans and Muir families insisted on homemade cornbread dressing as the centerpiece for their big family holiday meal, but differed on whether to serve turkey or ham with it.  Our snacks, sides, and dessert preferences varied as well. Together my new husband and I had to figure out which Christmas menu items were non-negotiables and which ones would be left behind.

As our family grew, so did our non-negotiable, essential, absolutely required Christmas food items. Most families have that one special recipe that, when polled, family members quickly respond with, “It just wouldn’t be Christmas without __________ to eat.”  Cornbread dressing, pecan pie, and Mama’s chocolate balls represented the “Best of the Best” on my side of our family. Ambrosia, butterfingers, peanut butter fudge, and “Mimi” punch were tributes to the Evans.

Last week I pulled out my cookbooks to begin our Christmas food preparations. Honestly, most of my favorite recipes are now digitalized for quick reference, but I still love reading and using a cookbook. My Mama died four years ago and two of my most treasured possessions are her Bible and cookbooks.  Mama had beautiful handwriting in her earlier years, but as her vascular dementia increased, her writing became less and less legible. Reading through the yellowed and splattered pages in Mama’s “My Favorite Recipes” cookbook, I find not only her recipes, but also her notes, written in her once perfect penmanship. The familiar recipes and her handwriting help me remember the sights and smells of Mama’s crowded kitchen.

Food triggers memories and creates memory muscle. For me making Mama’s savory cornbread dressing is muscle memory that always reminds me of her. Mama often said, “Give me a chicken and I can feed a crowd.”
And she did. Pans and pans of Mama’s dressing fed hundreds of folks at family reunions, holiday gatherings, and funerals. As I boil the chicken for homemade stock, chop celery and onions, bake cornbread in iron skillets, and add savory sage and poultry seasoning, my heart fills with gratitude and I give thanks for a Mama who taught me how to cook.

I was nine years old when my love affair with cooking began. That was the year Mama returned to work and Thursday nights were my night to fix supper while she got groceries after work. We had the same menu each Thursday: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, English peas, strawberry Jello, and chocolate cupcakes. Mama’s only cooking rule was, “Whatever you mess up, you clean up!”

Last week as I rolled dozens of chocolate peanut butter balls and hand-dipped each one gently in the warm melted chocolate, I could only imagine the thousands of chocolate balls that Mama made and gave away for countless bridal showers, wedding receptions, and Christmas gifts. Each one was a labor of her time, love, and skilled craftsmanship.

Baking delicate butterfingers reminds me of the sweet ladies of Forestdale Presbyterian Church who gifted me with my first church cookbook when Bruce and I married. That beloved cookbook contains the recipe for “Mimi” punch, an icy, slushy concoction required for all proper Evans’ family celebrations.

Christianity Today recently published an article entitled Loaves and Casseroles: Will Church Cookbooks Survive?  Emily Belz writes, “These spiral-bound collections of recipes have been a staple in church culture, documenting the tastes and traditions of their communities over the years. But now, as cookbook enthusiasts age, the victual volumes are disappearing.”

My own favorite cookbook is Briarwood’s Recipes to Crown Your Table published by our Women’s Ministry about thirty years ago. This little church cookbook contains some of my most treasured recipes. It is much-loved, splattered, and worn from both use and years. It’s much more than a cookbook, however. It’s a Briarwood Church history record and a reminder of the many godly women who served, mentored, and led the way in building, not just our families, but also our community and church.

This Christmas as we prepare, cook, and feast at our tables, may we gather and give thanks for Jesus, the true Bread of Life (John 6:35), who came to seek and to save us. May we also eagerly and joyfully look forward to that great day when we “gather together for the great supper of God.” (Revelation 19:17)