“But perhaps the most precious heirlooms are family recipes.”
— Stanley Tucci
Taste: My Life Through Food (2021)
Beyond the publication of Residual Trace, I’ve come up with more recipes that deserve to be collected.
On my dad’s side of the family, we (like Tucci) have the Italian influence of big, elaborate meals that would leave you desperate for (a) any room at all in your belly and (b) another shot at the table.
In contrast, I have a letter from my mom (when she was in her early 20s with a couple of little boys) to her mother describing how much she disliked cooking.
I sit not in the middle of those two contexts, but rather at both ends at the same time. For one thing, I am Autistic, and am a very big fan of samefoods. For another, I do really enjoy putting out the occasional elaborate spread for friends and family. I also like to make special treats; for example, I found out that a good friend really really liked peanut butter and chocolate pie, so I practiced (four times, guinea-pigging other friends) and then made it for his birthday. (I’ve since moved 3,000 miles away from him, so I might never make it again.) And I still make rice cake every Truthsgiving, and also used to make it for my dad’s birthday.
Now, that balance has worked out really well with the other Autistic (and similar) members of my bio-and-chosen family for whom I am not regularly preparing meals (as they feel the same way that I do), but it has not worked out well at all when I have been in a blended family (with folks who are not Autistic) and for whom I have some non-trivial responsibility for meal prep. It ends up being something to worry about over and over and over again, multiple times a week.
Essentially, I build up a sense of irritation over the never-ending, droning chore of having to come up with a series of unique meals that will be new and interesting enough to satisfy the obsessive need-for-newness suffered by some other people, when I have no built-in reflex or talent for being inspired about this particular thing, as I don’t experience it. “But we ate this same thing three years ago!”
Aargh.
That is one big reason that I tend to have zero complaints about any food that anyone else prepares for me.
Well, enough maundering. I am just setting out all of that info because I haven’t talked about it elsewhere, and we’re in the conversational domain of [RECIPES].
This set of recipes is a mixture of things that are fun to make on special occasions, and those that are easy-to-make people-pleasers.