Going back generations the women in my family spent Christmas day in the kitchen preparing a scrumptious feast while the men parked themselves in front of the television to watch football. I never gave it much thought due to the fact that it was all I knew. My mother and my aunts probably never gave me it much thought either. Why would they? They were doing what their mothers and grandmothers before them had done. Fast-forward to the last decade: my mother and grandmother long gone, it is now mine and my sister's responsibility to create a meaningful Christmas dinner. We always pulled it off well; no surprise there. We are both perfectionists, we work well together and we're good cooks. I don't recall how or why the conversation came up but several years ago after the table had been cleared of the remnants of Thanksgiving dinner, the subject of my husband's family recipe for Spaghetti sauce and meatballs came up. The gist of the conversation was how mouth-watering delicious Granny McGreevey's Spaghetti and Meatballs is and, of all that Don cooks, this is probably my favorite. Someone spoke up(probably me) and said: "Don, you should fix Granny McGreevey's Spaghetti sauce and meatballs for Christmas dinner." (A side note: I'm hyper and if I'm talking about something that I'm excited about I tend to get energized as I'm speaking and no one refuses me.) Well, let's just say that the rest is history. As we sat there with our bellies full of turkey and the trimmings, Don agreed to fix sauce and meatballs for Christmas dinner.
What started on a whim is now a Christmas tradition. It has eliminated the stress (for me and my sister) of planning and creating the meal. It means that because the prep is done days before, we all get to enjoy the day as it's meant to be enjoyed: together with family in the same room without football. (Football actually disappeared somewhere along the way, not sure when.) Don prepares the sauce and meatballs several days before Christmas. The truly heartwarming part of the tradition is that he taught our son how to fix the sauce and balls. Although not as involved in the prep as in previous years, Michael assisted between writing college apps and essays.
Like many good recipes Granny McGreevey's sauce and meatballs is slightly labor intensive. You wouldn't know it though because it's all done days before at a comfortable pace with the blues playing in the background.
Is it good? It's awesome. Although he doubles and often triples the recipe (60+ balls on average) so that we can eat it for days afterward, this year we all ate so much Christmas day and a few days after, we ran out of meatballs with sauce to spare. ACK! While I have no idea what detoxing from a crack feels like, it could be as bad as withdrawing from spaghetti and meatballs so soon. Good fortune and recovery has come swiftly! Imagine my surprise this morning to find that Don is cooking more sauce and meatballs !
What began as Don's effort to reduce my self-inflicted Christmas stress, has become a tradition that as far as I am concerned is set in stone.
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