Jenn B. offers some Filipino family traditions

Aunt Lucy--just for you. Love,Jenn

Superfoods friend Lucinda asked the Organic and Local Food clients to send in a personal food story for Thanksgiving. We're in the midst of packing and prepping for travel, so my mind isn't working in full, narrative form, but I do have some really wonderful memories of family, food and all that makes gatherings wonderful and dear...

My family is Filipino, and never in all our years of celebrating the holidays with our culture's food did I wish for something other than what was available through family recipes. And what a community affair! There was a dining room table, but never enough room to seat everyone. The celebration of food took place upstairs, in the basement (near the early '88 karaoke machine), on the front porch, in the sunroom...the whole house filled with celeberatory energy.

Yes, the host/hostess of the gathering often supplied the dishes and main entree, but everyone always brought something--it was expected that Tita Tessie's Ginataang would make an appearance, as well as Tito Joey's special, no fat skimmed pancit. We had Lechón, Chicken Afritada, Atsara, Menudo, Cassava Cake, Biku, Ensaymada, Sinigang, Turrón, Bibingka...just to name a few. Someone, as a joke, would manage a can of cranberry sauce, which would sit on some unnoticed plate, quivering fearfully. In my mind, I would think, "Fear not, red, gelatinous goo, no one wants a taste of you!" Not when so much other Foodly Goodness could be had!While we keep our cultural food as a strong base to any gathering, the effects of diaspora are inevitable, and many other dishes did creep in and make their home on our community table. Bohemian Horns from my mom's friend, Adele (a nod to Granite City's large Eastern European population), Green Bean and Corn Casserole (one of the few foods made from canned vegetables that I would, dare I say, have seconds of?), that spinach salad with dried cranberries that initially attracted us That One Year We Dieted, all of Tita Debbie's different pasta experiments. (And somewhere in there, Black Forest Cake? Who made that? Why don't we see it anymore??)

Over the years, this community of Family began to include not only new food from other cultures, but new people bringing their own traditions, integrating into our lives, love--our very DNA (Nathan, Alina and Baby B!). For me, living on the other side of the state, the holiday celebrations vary from year to year. Different food, different locations, different people, a different order of animal (as I try to finish typing this with a kitty on my lap). I am so thankful for the foundation of food celebration instilled in me from childhood--I take it with me wherever I go, and have it with me with whomever we celebrate.

Casa Clark Thanksgiving Menu

As we come upon the Thanksgiving holidays I want to put a note about why this holiday is so special to me. First of all, who doesn’t love a holiday completely centered on giving thanks and coming together to eat? However, for me it is more than that. As many of you know, I spent many a years on the east coast away from my family. Being ever so consumed in my career and personal life I didn’t make it home for the holidays. Instead, I had friends over for a breakfast feast consisting of traditional Midwestern biscuits and gravy followed by a day of playing cards and an eventual evening meal. Now that I have discovered old roots are hard to pull, and found my way back to the Midwest- Thanksgiving is celebrated at my house. The torch has been passed to my generation from my lovely grandmother. My sister cooks the turkey, grandma still brings the noodles (I haven’t quite mastered the art of the noodles yet), and I cook the rest. Every year I look forward to hosting Thanksgiving, because it symbolizes my maturity into womanhood. There is something significant in the fact that my sister and I are now entrusted with the feast preparing. Although I will not pretend to be able to fill gran’s shoes, (it takes both my sister and I to prepare the meal) I am very grateful that I have been given the opportunity.

Here is what we are having this Thanksgiving- please email me for recipe information if interested!
Sugared walnuts
Cheese tray
Kitchen sink salad (salad with various fruits, nuts, and whatever else strikes me as good)
Turkey
Maple Glazed Ham with roasted chestnuts
Cranberry Sauce
Green Beans with bacon and onion
Trio of Roasted potatoes
candied sweet potatoes and apples
Steamed Carrots glazed with a tangerine sauce
Noodles
Wild rice, cranberry and sausage stuffing
Hot rolls made with a pear sourdough starter
Homemade blueberry wine (has been aging all summer)
Triple berry pie from Rayville
Custardy pumpkin pie
Lemon Pie
Black Walnut Pie
Freshly whipped cream

Meal Plan using 10/18/08

Sweet Potato, apple and chestnut pudding
Mash baked sweet potatoes, bake apples and cut into chunks, roast chestnuts peel and slice. Use two cups of mashed sweet potatoes, add 2 tablespoons melted butter, ¼ cup honey, and ¼ cup brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and touch of vanilla, whisk in 2 beaten eggs, ¾ cup heavy cream, and ¾ cup whole milk. Stir in chestnuts and apples. Bake at 375 until set (about 40-50 minutes)
Brown rice with pumpkin (pumpkin from 10/11 box)
Cook brown rice, bake pumpkin until tender but not too soft cut into chunks, add pumpkin, honey (or sorghum) , and salt to brown rice. Eat up!!!
Scalloped Turnips and baked Chicken
Bake the chicken (rub with olive oil and seasonings) boil or steam peeled turnips, and then make a thick sauce to poor over the turnips consisting of milk, butter, cheese (if you have it), and flour used to thicken on the stove.
Orzo (rice shaped pasta) with green beans and tomatoes
Cook orzo. Stir fry beans and tomatoes in butter or olive oil then add to orzo. Season as desired.
Peppers stuff with ground beef and goat cheese
Dip gutted peppers in boiling water to soften. Brown hamburger, and mix with goat cheese put into pepper and bake for 20 minutes.
Potato casserole with apples and sausage.
Make mashed potatoes, slice apple really thing, and cook sausage. Put a layer of mashed potatoes, then a layer of sausage, a layer of apples, a layer of sausage, and then mashed potatoes on top. Bake until it browns.
Okra Beignets
Wisk one egg and ¼ cup of heavy cream together set aside. Mix together ½ cup flour, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cut up okra and toss in flour with cooked rice (about half a cup), you can add cup onion and bell pepper if you want. Stir in egg mixture. Drop by the large spoonfuls into hot grease and fry until done.

Meal Plan using 10/11/08 Box

Sweet Potato pie
Boil or steam your potatoes and peel. Mush with ½ cup of melted butter; add ½ milk, and 2 eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. If making this as a supper dish, leave out the sugar. If making this as a treat put a cup of sugar in it. Put into a pie crust (I make mine out of lard, Martha Stewart makes hers from butter, and I have heard of people making pie crusts in a dehydrator out of almond meal) At any rate, mix up the potato mixture and put in the unbaked pie crust, bake in the oven on 350 for about an hour. It will puff up as it cooks, and come back down as it cools.
Poutine
Make French fries or roasted potatoes out of the potatoes, put cheese curds on top and cover with brown gravy. Doesn’t taste the same unless you use cheese curds, which we get from Milton Creamery- but they sell at Green Acres as well.
Salad with tomatoes
Self explanatory. Add nuts if you want a little protein.
Chicken and roasted zucchini
Cook whole chicken marinated with rosemary and olive oil. Keep some leftovers for later meal. Cut up zucchini and roast in the oven with garlic and olive oil.
Chicken and Noodles
Boil your chicken broth and drop in noodles (See last week’s post to find out how to make egg noodles) When the noodles are done add the chicken.
Baked squash with apples
Cut the tops off and hollow the squash of seeds, add chopped up apples and bake until squash is tender. I add a bit of butter, cinnamon, and sugar as it is cooking.
Green beans with onions
Put green beans in crock pot with onion and a bit of water, add some salt, and bacon (optional) for flavor. Eat when it reaches your desired texture.

Meal plan using 10/04 box

The Clark’s menu for the week:
Savory Winter squash soup, bread and goat butter
Savory winter squash soup: bake squash in the oven until it starts to collapse, cut in half , remove seeds, and put pulp in blender with milk or chicken broth, rosemary and roasted garlic
Oven roasted eggplant and potatoes
Cut eggplant and potatoes brush with olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings bake on 350 turning once or twice until golden brown.
Roast and carrots
Put roast in crock pot with carrots, cover with water and cook until tender
Baked butternut squash, strawberries with homemade whipped cream and sprigs of lemon balm
Cut squash brush with butter and cinnamon or put upside down in a glass pan with a little bit of water, to make whipped cream you just beat cream until it becomes whipped cream.. feel free to add a little sugar.
30 minute mozzarella cheese and tomatoes over pasta
30 minute mozzarella recipe can be found at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Mozzarella.pdf - please note that instead of citric acid I have been known to use a half a cup of vinegar.
Beef and homemade egg noodles
Take left over juice from roast and heat to a boil. Drop in noodles (1 egg, and about 1 cup of flour, a pinch of salt… rolled out very thin and cut into strips with an herb cutter (or a noodle cutter if you are lucky enough to have inherited one like I have). Cook until mixture thickens. Add left over roast.
Sweet potato fries, apple and walnut salad
Cut sweet potato into small strips, dust with olive oil and seasonings, bake until done, or fry.
Apple and walnut salad- thinly slice apples, add walnuts (other nuts work as well), make a honey and water mixture (1 part honey, 2 parts water) and drizzle over the top.