Should Auld Tradition Be Forgot?

Our family are foodies. My sons learnt to cook at an early age and along the line I instilled into them the usefulness of knowing how to make a basic white sauce; which I consider not only a basic culinary, but a basic life skill. (Incidentally, this was one of the few useful things I learnt in school cooking classes). My sons all worked in restaurants to help support themselves though university. The youngest once commented I was the only mother he knew who recited the nutritional content of the meal we were about to eat. I have a number of recipe books and one of my habits is to have at the ready a clutch of recipes ripped from magazines and newspapers.

This time of year these recipes are pulled out for inspiration for the Christmas day menu. Glossy lifestyle magazines show exquisitely styled poolside Christmas dinners under impossibly blue, no doubt Australian, skies. And on the Australian theme, the elegant unfazed hostess in glamorous sandals and coral tipped toes, will not have a splash of fat or sauce on her billowing white pure linen caftan. As for the food, there will be Asian inspiration in the prawns and seafood and a Mediterranean take on the luscious leg of lamb and the salads. Not a bit of English stodge in sight. Our northern European traditions have been eschewed for the New World, or have they?

This year my family are gathering in Canberra to celebrate Christmas. Naturally, there has been some discussion on food. I  envisage the family gathered around a large paella pan which I am hoping to embed into family tradition. But what is offered so far? We must have the ham says oldest son, a gourmet cook. We always do the ham, that's our tradition and it was useful when the boys were growing up to take the left overs on the annual camping holiday undertaken a few days days after Christmas. Okay it has been “Jamie Oliver'ed” with Jamaican spices and flavours, which are a great way of using up that caramelised batch of marmalade I may a few years back. These jars sit forlornly on my pantry shelves awaiting for their number to be called, like an annual lottery or more appropriately, like the US president granting annual respite for a turkey. Across the Tasman the culinary success of Christmas appears to be measured by how many kilos of prawns there are on the *barbie. Dessert? For me it's got to include Pavlova and while I never say no to Christmas pudding and custard, I'd love a piece of whiskey-laced fruit cake which sadly none of the younger generation like. It seems I am tethered by tradition after all and the recipes, unsorted, put aside for another year.

Merry Christmas to all my readers where ever you are.
I would love you to share your traditions in the comments.

Isabel 

*Barbecue