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Sabroso - Winter2008
SEE JANE ENTERTAIN
By Jane Steele
Photography by Darren Phillips Photography
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I will admit to a few things I don’t particularly care for, like brains or anything with the foot still on it. But, for the most part, I will eat just about anything. I come from a long line of hearty stock, and my female ancestors look like the old East German shot putting crew: tall and thick with large hands that could pop a chicken head off with a flick of their finger. Not that I look like that. There was some good breeding a while back, but you should see pictures of these women – right off the pages of the Grapes of Wrath. And like the Joad family, they couldn’t afford to be picky eaters.
So what does this all have to do with my friend Jody Price and her mother-in-law, Joyce? How did I end up cooking a meal for 13 women that moved to my fair city because of their husbands’ jobs? In one of life’s happier accidents, Jody and Eric Price, of University of Texas at El Paso football Price’s, moved into our neighborhood. They were warm, funny and didn’t mind when my kids showed up at their door and begged for cookies. We became friends and I quickly learned that Jody is one of the nicest people I have ever met. Ever. She’ll do anything to help a friend including asking her mother-in-law to host the next ¡Sabroso! dinner. Joyce said sure and we were off and running.
Jody and I talked about a menu and she told me that unlike most women, these girls would eat whatever I decided to make. They were just happy to be invited. So I set about picking a menu they could make for their families during the approaching holidays. What do we eat during the holidays? I eat fudge. Some days, almost exclusively. Jody eats comfort food when she goes home to her family in Oregon. I asked Joyce what they ate. She laughed and said, “Everything!” That was all the encouragement I needed.
With some type of poultry dish, I figured everyone would be happy. As the guests arrived, I pulled the hot artichoke dip out of oven. Over our first glasses of wine, we stood in kitchen talking about family traditions. While the game hen seared in the oven, we sat down at Joyce’s beautiful table and continued talking. These women were from all over the United States, and their holiday foods varied from Autumn Duffie’s tamales to Kori Banks’ stuffed leg of lamb to Tara Malloe’s Portuguese stew. It struck me how the women gathered around the table were similar to military wives. When their husbands got a new job, they picked up everything and moved, clear across the country in many cases. Maintaining traditions was important to them. Imagine moving from Hawaii to Illinois and learning what it’s like to have a cold Christmas? I would have told my husband to enjoy the fire while I raced back to the beach, but I’m just selfish that way.
Jody told me that football families become your second family because no one goes home for the holidays. There is usually a bowl game, and everyone just gets together with the team for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s yet another opportunity for everyone to unite over their shared food histories, be they good or bad. I still remember the holiday dinner when Grandmother Marge sniffed at my East German Grandmother Selma’s borscht like she felt it was beneath her. Marge was no great chef herself, favoring dishes like cottage cheese covered with canned fruit. She topped it with a plastic holly leaf to “Christmas” it up.
As we finished dinner with dessert and coffee, I chatted with Becky Lorig, the newest member of the UTEP family. Her ancestors came from Holland, as noted by her blond hair, thin build and fondness for Dutch apple desserts. During the holidays her family makes a type of strudel that sounded way too technical for me. But when she sent me the recipe, it didn’t look too bad. I’ve resolved to make it with my kids, starting a new family tradition.
Maybe I’ll start another tradition of putting family recipes together in a book for holiday gifts. Grandmother Selma made a most interesting Jell-O mold with cheese and pecans. Grandmother Marge made a lot of canned food taste even worse by smoking cigarettes as she cooked. Or better yet, maybe I’ll just continue to ask those I trust about their family traditions and write a book about them instead. After my dinner with the UTEP wives, I have a wealth of recipes to choose from. |
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