East Coast favourites
The holiday table is a special one. It’s a time when everyone’s favourite makes an appearance and, if we are lucky, we get to enjoy a truly festive dessert. My mom always loved making everyone feel special, and when it came to making holiday sweets, she was a master. In Hungarian culture, the cookies are just as important as the main dessert. We have a treasured Hungarian porcelain three-tiered cookie tower. When we were little, her Christmas sweets were comprised of her Hungarian cookies and Lebanese-Armenian sweets from Dad’s side of the family.
As we grew up, Mom began bringing in cookies from her friends. Some of the favourites were Italian lemon cookies, Dutch almond cake, and Jewish rugelach. This collection of confections became an edible cultural patchwork quilt of the community I lived in.
Since my mom passed four years ago, I reflect a lot on the special things she would do for us, and I think her cookie tower taught me more than my love for fancies, but about how much she grew as a person and her immense capacity for love and inclusion.
Mom came to Canada as a little girl. She learned a new language and a new lifestyle, which was quite different from the little Hungarian village she grew up in.
I think she shared her new connections with her Canadian life through many of the dishes she made. I remember the first time we ever ate fresh basil in our house. I was a child and it was a family gathering for Thanksgiving, I think. She made a warm potato Caesar salad to go with the turkey. As everyone took their first bites of the salad, I remember our eyes widening with wonder. It was amazing. It became a family gathering staple for the next few years.
This year, I would have liked to share this recipe for the Greek cookie, melomakarona, with my mom. We could have made them, along with the rest of these very special sweets from the kitchens from folks across the East Coast who are sharing their treasured recipes with us. Cookies and sweets are a postcard from our hearts, and I hope you enjoy these with those close to yours.