All-American Holiday Feasts.

This holiday season has been interesting and revealing for me. Where do I start? I'm a Filipino-American born in the US. I have eaten plenty of American food, and my mom has done a pretty good job learning to cook my dad's favorite American dishes when she married my dad and came to the US. However, after 38 years of my life, this is the first holiday I had a COMPLETE American Holiday spread of food. That's right. FIRST!

Every holiday with my family we would have a turkey, ham, and even hamhocks and beans. Maybe occasional american fixin's like canned cranberry sauce and stuffing. But, the rest of the food on the table was Filipino food. No complaints here. My mom is an excellent cook. Filipinos are biased to their own mom's cooking, but even my friends would say that my mom cooks better their moms (maybe a little pride there ;))

This year is my 3rd year away from that family tradition, but my first year to enjoy a sit down home cook American dinner/lunch for the holidays. My friends Dan and Jess invited me to their place for Thanksgiving, and made a full Thanksgiving spread for 4 people. A lot of food, and awesome to feast on. First time I had REAL cranberry chutney and candied yams (my mom's was canned.) It was amazing altogether.

On Christmas, my friend Kari invited me to celebrate Christmas with her family. They had the usual Ham, but they also had Green Bean Casserole and a Broccoli/Rice Casserole. That's when it dawned on me that I really haven't had an all-american holiday meal until this year. Restaurants don't count. I never had a Green Bean casserole or Broccoli and Rice Casserole until that day at Kari's uncle's house. It was good, and I went back for seconds. There was also a salad with yogurt (?), walnuts, fruit, and mini marshmellows. I don't know what it's called, but that was GOOOD too.

You'd never know what you've been missing unless you go outside your secure little box. This has been an interesting year....more to come on that later.