Food Traditions

Easter to many is a time of reflection, celebration and A new beginning, What better time to start my weekly blog posting? Most of my posts will be food or nutrition based, today's post will take a different slant on that aspect. I would like to talk about family holiday traditions and how food is a major part of that. Yesterday, I learned the value of that. We all have memories of Holidays past. We remember the aromas of the kitchen, the anticipation of a delicious meal, the noise of pots and pans. They’re probably are one or two items that are on every table every year. To me, that is part of the tradition.

This year I was almost guilty of breaking a tradition and now that I reflect on Easters past. I am glad I did not. Let me explain. On Friday my daughter came home for the weekend from college. When we started talking about weekend plans, to include dinner she nonchalantly asked, "did you go to Little Poland yet?" You see this is where we get our traditional Polish sausage "Kielbasa".

(This freshly made, garlic laden wonderful sausage has NOTHING to do with the store bought brand in the hot dog section of your local grocer. It is night and day. 'Nuff said.)

When I told her no, she was astonished and said "you’re kidding right?" I once again said no and a look of disappointment came across her. She then said "BUT WE HAVE KIELBASA EVERY EASTER!" I told her that it wasn't every Easter; (we did attend some Easter brunches where I did not cook.) The conversation changed after that and I thought the subject was closed. Later that evening my daughter tells me that she texted my son in TX and he too was surprised about the lack of Kielbasa. It was then that I realized my faux pas. All the hard work I did over the years, fostering this old country tradition of Easter Kielbasa and Sauerkraut, was not in vain. The tradition brought from Poland/Lithuania lives on, and I must keep the flame alive.

Well I did get up early on Saturday and drove to Little Poland (not South Boston this time but Worcester, MA, Check out Golemo's Market top notch European deli and homemade sausages) , picked up Kielbasa and cooked it off last night. I went a step further and made Babka (Polish Easter Bread) as well.

The Easter tradition lives on!

Chef Rob