Food has brought people and cultures together for centuries, especially around the holidays. If eating and cooking together can create community among strangers, you can imagine, and have likely experienced, the impact it has on a family.
What unique dish or tradition graces your holiday gatherings? We asked several residents the same thing, hoping to uncover traditions as unique as the community from which they originate.
Bob Eckhart | Upper Arlington
“Many people say that friends are the family you choose for yourself, and the pie breakfast was a way for everyone to come together with their friends, in the morning, before their obligatory family engagements,” says Eckhart. “The holidays are a hard time for many people because they don’t get along with their family or their family doesn’t approve of their lifestyle. So, our pie breakfast was a diverse and inclusive event, which honored and valued individuals and what their friendship meant to each other.”
Thierno Diallo | Grandview Heights
“During Christmas and Thanksgiving, we all meet up at my grandma’s house,” says Diallo from Grandview Heights. “All the adults hang out in one side of the house and all the kids and teenagers are in another side of the house. So, when it’s time to eat dinner, everyone has to go to the dinner table. People eat at the same time.”
Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Patrick | Upper Arlington
“During Thanksgiving, my family always ate ham, cranberry sauce, potatoes and pumpkin pie,” says Patrick. “During Christmas we ate monkey bread and Swedish meatballs. Additionally, we usually had vegan options for my sister and I, like mashed radishes instead of the mashed potatoes with butter.”
Conor Hayes | Upper Arlington
“Thanksgiving is a little different for us than most people for several reasons,” says Hayes. “We actually celebrate it twice, once in October (Canadian Thanksgiving), which is when we usually cook turkey, and again in November (American Thanksgiving), when we usually do ham. American Thanksgiving also tends to double as my birthday dinner, as my birthday falls either on or near Thanksgiving, depending on the year.”
Rachael Penton | Grandview Heights
“Since I was a kid, my mom has made these cookies,” says Penton. “They’re made of yellow cake batter with a cherry on top.”Cake Batter Cookies
Courtesy of Rachael Penton
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup butter
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1 egg yolk
- ¼ tsp. vanilla
- 1 box of yellow cake mix
- Maraschino cherries
Instructions:
Mix everything together except cherries to make dough. Wrap ball of dough in wax paper and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. After chilling form dough into small balls, about one teaspoon in size each. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Place half of a maraschino cherry into the center of each dough ball. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges. Cool slightly before removing.
