Everyone has their special holiday traditions and many of those revolve around food--and some traditions are even about...going against food traditions! When I was getting a haircut the other day, people were talking about gravy and how smooth it needed to be (in our household, lumps let you know it was homemade) and other people were talking about adding an egg to theirs--as if gravy isn't rich enough! Someone else was discussing how they were looking for a cook who made really good tamales they could buy (a very Texas Christmas) while another lady was looking forward to the barbeque she was going to order. What will you have? Ham or turkey? Or maybe a roast?
For our family, Christmas Eve isn't Christmas Eve without spaghetti--but not just any spaghetti, my Great-Aunt Viola's recipe that we all make--with garlic bread and salad. And Christmas dinner isn't right unless it is fried chicken. Fried chicken? Yes, I think it was about twenty years ago when we decided enough with the turkey and/or ham and all of that--we were going to have plenty of it at our grandmothers' dinners--let's have fried chicken. My parents were just emerging from what I call their "orange roughy period" as it seemed like we were eating orange roughy every other night in the name of a new, healthy way of cooking they had adopted over their country roots of frying everything. But we missed frying everything! So, for Christmas that year we had a big delicious country meal of fried chicken (what is more celebratory that frying?), mashed potatoes, homemade biscuits, vegetables and all of those wonderful sides. An amazing feast.
But what is a non-meat eater to do? Some years I have fried seitan alongside the chicken and other years it has been some sad, chicken-less nuggets. I think this year, I'll probably make Gardein chicken strips, plus I have a recipe for "pickle sauce" I have been wanting to try. Or maybe just my favorite BBQ sauce from Garland Jack's? There is a bottle packed because they might not sell that at home. And for gravy? I'll definitely be making Isa Chandra Moskowitz's lenftil-miso gravy from her new cookbook. It is going to be wonderful with those biscuits and on mom's mashed potatoes. I can't wait...
Happy holiday! Enjoy what you eat and who you eat it with!