Our household has always been filled with food and culture, and for as long as I can remember, we gathered to celebrate every holiday with special dishes. We dressed for Christmas, we dressed for Easter, and we dressed for birthdays and picnics, yes, even picnics.
And everyone had a dish they were known for. Someone made the rice, someone made the beans, someone brought the dessert, and those recipes appeared again and again until somehow they became connected to the people who made them.
The table was a delight.
And still today, when I think of a special dish, I think of the special person who used to make it, because somehow the two became inseparable. A certain taste or smell can bring someone back to me in an instant, and I don't just remember what was on the table, I remember who put it there.
Looking back, I realize it wasn't only the food, it was the gathering, the dressing up, the familiar dishes and the conversations around the table. There was a certain standard to it, not one of perfection or formality, but simply of making an occasion feel like an occasion.
I wonder sometimes if we are losing some of that.
Families today are spread farther apart geographically, children grow up and settle in different states, grandparents may live hundreds of miles from their grandchildren, and work and busy lives pull us in different directions. Gathering around the same table isn't always as simple as it once was, and perhaps that is why these little traditions matter even more now.
In our home today, there are Cuban dishes and Italian dishes, Rich and I brought pieces of where we each came from to our own table, and over the years they became part of the same family story. Rice and beans might sit beside an Italian dish, recipes from one childhood mingle with recipes from another, some have been handed down, some we've made our own, and some are simply things we love.
I think that makes our table even more special.
Our gatherings may be smaller today, families are spread farther apart and life has changed, but the desire to make an occasion feel like an occasion hasn't left me. I still care about making a plate beautiful, whether it is a Sunday Cuban lunch or something as simple as tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and avocado.
Not because every meal needs to be an occasion, but because every once in a while, we should make one.