Long Life Short Stories By Darcel Dillard-Suite
Long Life Short Stories By Darcel Dillard-Suite
Holiday Flavors and Delicious Memories
We all have a favorite dish or recipes that connect us to our family and friends. Tune in as I explore how holiday cooking can soften grief and turn memories into nourishment and where my kitchen turns up the heat on my momma's love!
• holiday feelings of joy and sadness
• food as a bridge to memory and love
• mother’s sweet potato pie tradition
Happy, delicious holidays.
Hey there, storytellers. Welcome back to Long Life Short Stories, where we dive into our moments that make life life. I'm Darcy. We are in a season that often conjures up feelings of joy, merriment, and sometimes sadness. It's our memories that can help us balance out the melancholy and fill up our heart and inner soul with that spiritual food of love. That fested food during the holiday season speaks right to our heart. How many of you have lost a loved one and can recall a favorite dish, meal, or recipe that no matter when you make it, the aroma and taste becomes a distinctive, delicious memory that reconnects you to that sister, brother, husband, wife, bestie, or dad and mom who may no longer be with you. I've had some losses. I know we all have. And they hurt deeply, especially around the holidays. It makes me personally cherish every memory of my loved ones because that's when they come alive again in my cooking and in my kitchen. There are special dishes that my mother used to make. I now make seasonally, and every time I make them, I reconnect to her personality, her big smile, her laughter, and her mama kind of loving energy. Her spirit comes in light again when I bake her sweet potato pies. I can see us still dancing around together, around the stove, checking all the potatoes and printing the pie curls. She left me with the sheer joy of reviving her recipe and spreading love to so many of my friends when I give them one of my mama pies. My mama's sweet potato pie. And I only make them during the holidays. I hate to say it, but I come to think I make them even better than she does now. And yet I can hear her sweet voice in my ear when I don't add enough muff or amoretto saying to me, girl and has some more, that's our secret ingredient. So if you had one of my pies recently, oh, don't you know how guided my hand in my kitchen in my heart was so helpful, right? Every minute of it from my mind. So what dish do you make that reconnects you with a distant memory of a loved one? Or what food do you savor? Because just tasting it when you close your eyes takes you right back to that moment of happiness and closeness that special person brought into you. Food is a connector. A good meal is a reminder of family, fellowship, and fun times. These spicy, salty, or sweet, these sacred flavors that wake up our taste buds, they really do reconnect us to a more divine, delicious memory that can help make the holidays, believe it or not, more tasty and more tolerant. So for those of you like me, missing a loved one this holiday season, bake up some gluten goodness or stir up some soulful gourmet specialties and add to that menu a delicious memory full of favorful lawn. Until next time, I'm Darso Diller Sweet. Happy, delicious holidays.