Today I'm attempting to make bouncing babies - an oven-baked pancake that is basically yorkshire pudding but made with butter rather than whatever fat it is that makes yorkshire pudding so dang yummy.
I found a bouncing babies recipe online - I really need my mom's. (hint hint) They're in the oven now and yum - they smell amazing. I've got my lemons (from the tree!!!) and powdered sugar ready (and butter and syrup in case some infidel wants to them that way).
I'm making these bouncing babies - a staple in our house growing up for weekend breakfasts. And it got me thinking about my mom, food and recipes. So this morning I pulled out my sad excuse for a recipe box to see if I had Mom's recipe and I realized that most of the recipes in my little file card box were cut out from the Washington Post back when I lived in DC... you know - 15 YEARS AGO!!! Some of them were interesting - all of them are veggie, most were tofu based. I cleared out some of them (don't eat a lot of tofu these days - soy = bad). I tossed a lot of the recipes and will probably toss a few more later.
Recipes are a lot like a history book - most of the recipes in that box are reminders of a bygone era when I first was becoming vegetarian and when I lived with roommates, not a husband. The recipes in my Mom's big wooden box are like signposts of my childhood - bouncing babies, Andalusion Condiment Soup (takes all day, but oh so fun and oh so good!), that amazing chocolate cake Mom would make for my birthday that was so moist and not overly chocolatey, and which was made for the lame excuse for a birthday party my friends tried to throw me when I turned 17.
As we are now fully into the holiday season, Ajax and I have been talking a lot about traditions - what we want to start for our family, what we want to keep from our own childhood and incorporate and what we want to begin. Thanksgiving will definitely need some tweaking - or more turkey-cooking practice on my end (brine brine brine). We've already marked our calendars to help out at Gobble Gobble Give next year in the morning and cook in the afternoon - I'm already looking forward to doing that.
For Christmas, we're going to do our Christmas CD again (get ready!) and I really look forward to continuing that tradition with our kids as they get older. This is our first Christmas here at our home - just the two of us this year. We're thinking we'll steal Scott & Sue's tradition of a big Christmas Eve dinner so we can left overs on Christmas Day, leaving that day for playing, relaxing and maybe a hike in the park.
For me, holidays are about cooking, but I get overwhelmed with the amount of recipes that are out there in the world to try. I'd like to narrow it down to a few that I master and make every year. The ginger snap crusted sweet potato pie was a good start, but not quite there. The lemon roasted green beans were also close but not quite it. I'd like to find those recipes and get them down pat - I see a future filled with kids helping in the kitchen and I'd like them to call me when they are grown-ups and ask for that recipe I always made... just like I do with my mom!
PS - here is the finished bouncing baby! It was delicious, yes, but not as good as my Moms. Nothing ever is.
