Friday Frivolity: The best cookbook ever

At least if a cookbook can inspire an entire family's focus on establishing long traditions and our celebrating our heritage.  We received this as a Christmas present the year our first boy was born. Up until that time we really didn't 'do anything' as a family, at least in terms of traditions.  Flying by the seat of our pants best described things through our early years. 

Though not terribly imaginative, somehow it clicked.  It's presented as a faux cookbook from the Mary Cratchit of A Christmas Carole fame.  The very loose premise is that somehow Mary Cratchit, Bob's wife, has compiled the recipes by experience or interviews, including a post- redemption Scrooge (hence Fezziwig's ball).  It has seven complete dinners, with accompanying beverages and desserts, and they are centered around the key figures of the book and the days of Christmas: Fezziwig's Christmas Eve Ball, Nephew Fred's Christmas Dinner, Cratchit's Christmas Dinner, Tiny Tim's Caroling Party, Young Marley's Boxing Day Breakfast, Mary's Afternoon Tea, Scrooge's Twelfth Night Celebration. 

I must admit, I wondered about the origins of young Marley's breakfast, since no explanation is given for how Mrs. Cratchit comes by it.  It's noteworthy, and a sign of the times, that the cookbook includes a brief nod to Boxing Day, its origins and how the tradition of giving to the poor remains today in the practice of employers giving bonuses on that day or the Christmas holiday in general.  Funny stuff.  Because of course today, the tradition has emerged that Christmastime is a fine time for companies to lay off employees and cut down on staff.  I guess a subscription to the Jelly of the Month club doesn't sound too bad after all. 

Anyway, back to the book.  Each meal features a seasonal or regional favorite main dish, like Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Turkey with Sage and Onion Stuffing, or Roast Fresh Ham with Thyme. While other entries, such as the afternoon tea sporting such dainties as Cucumber Sandwiches with Watercress Butter, Herbed Egg Sandwiches and Scones with Devonshire Cream and Strawberry Preserves, and of course Plum Pudding pad out the rest of various menus.  

It's not particular to actual cooking methods, and doesn't pretend that this is some gourmet publication.  For Mincemeat Pie, canned Mincemeat Pie Filling will do (rather than making from scratch).  Likewise frozen veggies will do.  So it wasn't even some 'cook the way they did in Victorian England' book.  

Yet for some reason, it clicked. For the record, our first foray was the Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding topped with Wassail and Plum Pudding - none of which, save the Roast Beef, I had ever had.  I doubt we've used all of the actual recipes, or even most to be honest.  But somehow, in some way, it lit a fire in us that would blossom and overflow in an ever growing number of annual traditions that defined our family over the years.

Oh, there were times when the traditions became unwieldy, especially as we tried to cling to ones that the older sons did when they were young so the youngest could enjoy them too.  At the same time the older ones were growing and pushing into new areas so that the whole began to feel almost logjammed.  

Nonetheless, over the years many of those traditions stuck, and it always did my heart good when I heard one of the boys speak to how this or that tradition meant something.  From the thrill of getting the first apple cider in fall*, to the excitement they had as kids when they heard Trick or Treat play on the old Disney tape, to the opening chords of the Carpenters' Christmas album right after Santa drives by in front of Macy's, to the smell of roast lamb at Easter - they spent years letting me know that for all the bumps, those traditions were what they associated with good times through our annual journeys.  And for that, I'll always be glad.  Therefore, I will always prize the book that started it all.  

You can trace their inconsistent enthusiasm even on behalf of their youngest,
but they're still fun memories

*I've told my sons that some things are written in stone.  That no matter what they do in life, even if they become some corporate zillionaire, there is no reason in the world they should ever have cider outside of the fall and Christmas holiday seasons.