Teaching kids about growing food and the importance of nutrition in our communities has its perks. A few months ago I was brought on to the Jamie Oliver Foundation Food Revolution Ambassador Program.
I am one of hundreds of ambassadors from over 100 countries from all over the world who share experiences with each other and discuss how to best educate our kids about food. Part of the program involves participating in monthly challenges.
One of the December challenges is a fun one in which we are asked to recall our memories of celebrating food indulgences during the Christmas season. I have read some fantastic stories and have seen some beautiful photos of all kinds of food from many cultures.
My mom is an avid baker. She lives in Vancouver but manages to bake and deliver all kinds of goodies for her three sons and their families this time of year. Fully decked out gingerbread men (whose heads are always the first to go), shortbread, sugar cookies and rum balls packed in Christmas tins are lovingly savoured for a couple of weeks around here.
Back home as a kid, these treats were readily available even though for the majority of the year there were no such sweet
luxuries. My mom and dad were of the Friday night chips and pop ilk.
There were no cookies lying around and no chocolate bars in the lunch kit. We were an "eat your fruit and vegetables and drink your milk" type of home, but at Christmas, all bets were off.
The food traditions at my house back in the day are probably typical. We would often enjoy chili for dinner on Christmas Eve and try to get to bed relatively early before creeping up the stairs to see what Santa had left under our beautiful tree.
Like most kids, my brothers and I, at a very early hour, would take our stockings back to our rooms to check each others' stuffers out. The only food at this stage of the game would come from the candy and the Mandarin orange in the toe of the stocking.
Later, though, dad would get the bacon going while we would wait for gramma and grampa to walk down the street and join us for Christmas breakfast. Mom would have baked blueberry muffins the day before, and they would add to the feast. This, of course, was the longest breakfast imaginable if you were a kid waiting to open presents.
Christmas day afternoons were usually spent outside playing with our cool stuff until the next round of food made it out of the kitchen and into the living room. Tourtiere, sausage rolls, prawns, flowered radishes, green onions and pickles were the mainstays. The big meal saw turkey and ham and all the usual suspects, including the big bowl of Brussels sprouts that, as it has turned out recently, nobody liked. I'd take one, maybe two, and then cleverly bury it under something.
Boxing Day was equally spectacular. It was served buffet-style in the dining room and friends and family would help themselves all afternoon to baked spaghetti, roast beef sandwiches and various salads.
Savour your celebrations this Christmas and remember all of those great times spent around the dinner table. Peace, love and Merry Christmas to all!
Mike Schneider is founder of Project Pickle and likes to write about growing, cooking and eating food.
