Dear Tradition,

Warmth. What two things doe that make you think of? Family or food. Out of all the things I carry I can always connect them back to one thing my family. My family is not only revolved around love but food and the right of passage of carrying on the tradition. So food in my family equals love. As you can imagine holidays are huge in my family. We spend week’s planning, buying and making the food. Even if the family only consists of 7 people we have enough food for a small army.

Ever since I was a little girl whenever I that’s why its call the heart of the home. I remember my Aunt Cheryl, her long black hair pulled up in her messy bun with ringlets coming out. Cursing as she burned her index finger on the hot pan. In her tiny kitchen she paces back and forth from her pantry to the counter. She tastes and adds a little of this a little of that till she gets it just right. My Aunt Cheryl once worked for a dietary program making meals and such. Every time I come over to her house I am showered on her new creation she found on Pinterest. She loves creating new ideas. Her tiny kitchen, filled with heat as she was opening the oven door over and over again, filled your nose with the most heavenly sent of fresh bakes cookie contraption she made with chocolate chip cookie dough and recces peanut butter cups. Turning around just to stride a few steps to get to her table resting the pan on a wired rack, her kitchen is small but it has produced so many dishes that have gone into our families traditional foods.

Stranding in my aunt’s small kitchen I remembered back to just a few years ago when I stayed the weekend and getting up really early to make her breakfast. It wasn’t for any special occasion but just because I wanted to, getting all the ingredients together to make pancakes. It’s not a big deal because now they have the just add water and cook (which I did) but it was something I did from my heart. Adding all the ingredients after mixing I was ready to begin. I got out a pan, greased it, turned on the stove and added my first batch of mix. I watched anxiously for the bottom to get brown ready for me to flip over. I repeated this multiple times when I heard a noise coming from my great grandma’s room. I just knew my aunt had woken up…

Some families have certain foods that have big meaning behind them. My family everything we make has a certain meaning behind it whether it be a meal my grandfather grew up on or something others have brought to this country we always put everything we have into it. I know people who hate cooking and would rather do anything but cook. I would rather though spend 10 hours a day in the kitchen cooking and creating because that is where I grew up. When I was eight years old I had my first taste of cooking. Just like every holiday my family has a big get together. It’s always filled with food, laughter and talk. Just days before my favorite holiday, Easter, I walked into my grandmother house listening to the sound of my mom and aunts gossiping about the present and the past. I hear my aunt call me out to the kitchen to help them. As I sit there, listening to them, telling about life while cleaning and chopping vegetables; I sit there just thinking about all the love and attention in the air. Helping my mom and aunts cook such an important meal was just the beginning of my obsession.

I carry my obsession for cooking because it is not just one thing its many. Cooking brings back so many memories like the past summer for a meal with my grandparent which we do just about once a week I was in the kitchen with my mom talking about life while she showed me how to do one of the most important style of cooking technique to have perfect meat, sauce, and noodle ratios. She was telling me all the different ways to arrange it and how to make lasagna my own creation. I learned how to cook from the same people who taught me how to love and how to be loved. Even now that I’m a little bit older looking back in my memories what I thought was a simple helping clean the vegetable was so much more. Looking back to these memories in the future I may even realize even more. I’ll look back remembering all the life lessons of the trick and secret not only to food but to love life and living it.


Sincerely,




E.J.G.