ArcaMax

December 11, 2012 would have been my mother’s 91st birthday. I still miss my mom even though she died 18 years ago. Today I am going to dedicate my comments to my mother and the things she taught me about entertaining at the holidays.

My first real interest in cooking began in my sixth year. I went to find my mother in the kitchen and asked her if she would teach me how to cook. (My mother was always in the kitchen. With seven children to tend to, she rarely got out of that room. If she did, it was usually to go to the basement to do laundry or out to go to the grocery store. She was a hard working woman.) My mother was busy so she found a very easy way to complete my request. She just looked at me and said, “If you can read, you can cook”. She then went back to the project she was working on.

I took that one sentence as a directive. My next move was to crawl up on the pantry counter (which was a no-no) and open the cupboard. I pulled the bag of chocolate chips off the shelf and turned the bag around to the back. There was a recipe there for chocolate chip cookies. I realized I could read the recipe and the rest was history.

Chocolate chip cookies led to Christmas cookies, candies and more.

Now, back to holiday advice from my mom.

The biggest thing my mom did was set an example. She taught me early on never to be intimidated by a crowd. Everyday cooking was for a crowd. Remember I said we were a batch of seven kids.

But on top of that our holidays were always an expanded crowd. My mother thought nothing of having the boyfriends or girlfriends join us at the table. We might have one of the priests from our church. We had an adopted grandma, (a little old lady who lived down the block) and more.

To this day, I take in what I call the holiday orphans. If there is someone I come across who has nowhere to go celebrate the holiday I invite them to our holiday. There’s no limit to the number of people at my dining room table. Come one. Come all.

But then you have to cook for those people too. Again my mom led by example. She didn’t get frazzled by having to cook a lot or for a crowd. She just got up early, stayed organized and kept at it. I remember my mom always had a used grocery list in the pocket of her coat. Today I find grocery lists in my coats too.

For a few years my mother had a part time job cooking. She worked for a halfway house cooking for the residents. After school I’d meet her there and help. I might be the one to set the table or peel potatoes; whatever she needed.

When holidays came those guys at the halfway house still needed to be fed. They didn’t usually get to go home. So if you think making one turkey dinner is a challenge try doing it twice in one day! My mom and I would get up and get our huge turkey in the oven. Then we’d go to the halfway house and get their smaller one in the oven. We’d make everything they needed for their dinner and get it staged in the kitchen. We’d leave notes on when to take things out or whatever last minute prepping they had to do and we’d be off; back to our house to finish up our dinner. They’d eat their meal late afternoon and we’d have ours at regular dinner time.

Just watching the organizational skills it took to buy the groceries in two different trips was a lesson to learn. She was a master.

My mother was so generous that by the time I was a teenager I learned another very important lesson. She taught me to make my own holiday dates. What I mean by that is in many families there’s this argument about who’s going where on what day and what time. There are fights so many have about which place they are going to eat dinner at. Will it by my mom’s house or your mom’s house? Maybe you’ve heard some of those arguments.

That never happened at our house. For Christmas or Easter in particular, my mom would happily host her holiday dinner either on the weekend before or after the actual holiday date. If Christmas was on Wednesday, she’d have her Christmas dinner the next Saturday. That way there was never an argument. Everyone got to participate in the holiday festivities at both houses. Even now I try to schedule my parties on odd dates that I think the most folks will be available instead of trying to compete for the most popular date.

One lesson I’ll be forever grateful for is the advice she gave me when I moved away from home. She told me to use the good stuff. And then she gave me a lot of her good stuff.

So what’s the good stuff? That’s the glassware, the wine glasses, the fancy plates and the silver. Because we had so many kids we didn’t often use the fancy stuff; especially the glassware. There was just too great a risk a kid would break a delicate glass. On holidays we used it but my mom told me not to be afraid to use the good stuff all the time. She thought it was a shame to leave it in the china cabinet.

For holiday dinners she took it one step further. She let me set the table. She took the time to teach me what all the forks were for; all the various sizes. She taught me where to put the knives, forks and all the glasses and taught me what each thing was used for. Then I got to choose what we used and set the table. I have a feeling there were times I put so many knives and forks out at each place setting that we didn’t even have the number of things to eat that required those but she never complained. She let me do my thing.

This prepared me for dinner in fancy restaurants. I had a pretty good idea what spoon to pick up when the soup arrived. I knew what fork was for dessert and which one was for my salad. Those tidbits came in very handy when I began attending business dinners or when a date wanted to take me someplace very special. I was never embarrassed and never felt lost at what to do at the table.

My mother never made a big deal about these lessons. They weren’t things she did in a formal fashion. It’s not like we had table setting learning day. They were just lessons she offered me because she knew I was interested and I have carried them with me always.

My mother taught me one other thing that had little to do with cooking that I wanted to share today. She taught me how powerful you can be while being quiet. My mother was not shy. I’m not saying that. But my mother wielded a lot of power without yelling. My father did the yelling in our family. We didn’t need two doing that.

My mother could stop a kid cold with that look. Lots of mothers can do that but she could marshal a group of ladies cooking for 300 teenagers just by giving helpful hints. She didn’t bark orders. She didn’t try to show them how much she knew. She never showed off. She just guided them along like a mighty pied piper of the kitchen.

Every holiday I remember the grace my mother showed in how she greeted her guests and kept things informal enough that no one felt intimidated and everyone felt welcome. And now I endeavor to do the same.

Thanks Mom...and Happy Birthday.

Today I’m offering up a recipe for a Broccoli-Cheddar Soufflé. If you’re going to be doing a lot of entertaining over the holiday this is a treat that can be eaten any time of day. Soufflé often sounds intimidating to cooks but you’ll see with this one, it’s really not so hard.

Broccoli Cheddar Soufflé

This is a wonderful side dish, brunch dish or breakfast. It’s also a meatless meal for the vegetarian in your life. Light and fluffy.

3 cups of frozen broccoli bits, thawed (one bag)
1 Tbl of butter
2 Tbl of flour
1/2 tsp of grated sea salt
1/2 cup of cream
1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs -- separated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

If you have an electric stand mixer you can start the egg portion of this recipe and then while the eggs are whipping, work on the broccoli. Otherwise do the broccoli first.

In the mixer bowl beat the egg yolks for about five minutes until thickened and lemon-colored. While these are beating you can start on the broccoli.

In a sauce pan add the broccoli and butter. Cook on medium until butter is melted. Add flour and salt and stir. Gradually add the cream. Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes or until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir to melt the cheese in. Add the broccoli mixture to the egg yolk mixture.

In a small bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. If you use a small bowl with high sides this goes faster.

Fold the egg whites into the broccoli cheese mixture. Do this slowly and carefully so the egg whites stay sort of fluffy. Pour into a non-greased baking dish. You can use a soufflé pan if you have one or you can just use a 9-by-9-inch oven-proof dish.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Check if it’s done by inserting a knife in the middle and if it comes out clean it’s finished. It will be a light golden brown on top. How long it takes to bake depends on which pan you use.

Six servings as a side dish.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola