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Christmas is a time of year when families around the world gather together and observe traditions that are the same for them year after year and yet vastly different from those that other families share around the block. There are very few universal Christmas traditions any more and there is nothing wrong with that. In America however, there are some recipes that many people consider traditional holiday cooking and there is little that will be done to dissuade these opinions. The truth is that many of these traditional holiday foods are largely traditional in specific regions rather than the United States having one nation-wide traditional Christmas dinner.

For example, my family usually served turkey and ham. Appetizers always included black olives and a relish made with pepperoccini. Many families are like mine and serve both ham and turkey. While others answer quite quickly that it is neither. One of the best all-American Christmas cooking ideas I’ve ever seen was lasagna. There are no right or wrong traditions — only those traditions that work well for you and your family. If you feel the need to change a long-standing tradition for a large extended family, by all means discuss it with everyone involved. Otherwise it is your tradition and you should feel free to make it your own.
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Each year America has a holiday in November that has taken on almost a religious reverence. It happens tomorrow and we call it Thanksgiving. We give this holiday so much honor that it ranks with us along with Christmas and Easter as an important holiday in the hearts of family and as a nation. But this holiday, so rich with tradition, has it origins in the earliest days of the founding of this nation.

For me, I’ve always associated Thanksgiving with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, pumpkin pie and large gatherings of family and friends. It is a time of abundance and being thankful for the richness of life. But, the early years of the explorers who came to the American continent were difficult ones indeed. Those explorers, the Pilgrims, faced harsh weather, unpredictable relations with the natives, disease and other challenges as they carved out homes from the wilderness they found here. Because their earliest homesteads were in the northeast, the winters were harsh. Their ability to build houses that could keep them warm, as well as their ability to find sufficient food, was a constant worry to the men and women trying to raise families in America.
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My memories of Thanksgiving, which happens in the U.S. next week, are infused with the scent of herbs and spices, expertly used by my grandmother. The use of herbs (such as oregano, thyme and marjoram) and spices (such as ginger, paprika and chile) is a very common technique cooks depend on to expand upon the taste, flavor and afterthought of a dish. In this post, I provide a few suggestions on how to best use herbs and spices when preparing meals and following a recipe. These may help you create unique and tasty meals with your Thanksgiving leftovers.

Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh Herbs

Since dried herbs possess a stronger flavor than fresh leaf herbs, you will need to adjust your habits when adding dried herbs to a recipe that calls for fresh herbs. Simply substitute 1/3 of the amount to adjust the strength in taste. You don’t want your final results to carry an overpowering favor. Also, there are some dishes that just require fresh — those whose main ingredient is an herb just don’t taste right when made with dried herbs.
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With the number of holidays coming up, I thought it would be a good idea to discus the staples of the kitchen. How often have you looked into your pantry (whether it a cupboard over your sink or the walk in closet variety) at the end of a day and wondered how you could transform the random ingredients you have on hand into a satisfying family meal? Don’t answer, on the grounds it may incriminate you.

With busy lives — and who isn’t crazy busy in the months of November and December, what with all the family, friend and co-worker get-togethers — it’s often hard to think or plan ahead. Statistics show that most people don’t think about what to have for dinner until after 4pm that day. And when day is done, what we want is to find comfort in our personal time, not the frustration of what to cook or the disappointment of a mediocre meal.
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