Formal dining events, multiple course meals, the sharing of food and drink for ceremonial and ritual purposes enrich the human experience —

A table laid for tea abounds with sweets, fruit and spirits.

A cultural common ground is the sharing of food and drink with others. The flip side of ritual fasting is ritual eating and drinking. Finding the ties between community, friendship, spirituality, and food is not difficult. Finding the time to express it in your own life is much more challenging. Most families have their own traditional recipes for food and drink which are served when they gather together to share important meals. I know that we have our family favorites. However, we love to try new things, too. Tofurkey might be a little much for most practicing meatetarians on such ritual eating days (so prone to strong opinions about how things should be done) as Thanksgiving, but as the denizen of the kitchen you have the prerogative to expand the culinary horizon for those who seat themselves around your table. I say be bold, consider the possibilities. Open new cookbooks to new pages you've never seen before. Blend ingredients with abandon. Experiment. Be free to expand your cooking horizons. It will expand minds, even as it expands waistlines. Besides, shaking things up now and then makes for shared memories and stronger family ties. Um hmm.

A boy in Buffalo, N. Y., who was asked to write out what he considered an ideal holiday dinner menu, evolved the following:
Furst Corse. Mince pie.
Second Corse. Pumpkin pie and turkey.
Third Corse. Lemon pie, turkey, and cranberries
Fourth Corse. Custard pie, apple pie, chocolate cake and plum pudding.
Dessert. Pie.
- (Source: Toasts and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say the Right Thing in the Right Way, authored by William Pittenger)

Links to More Fruit From Washington Ritual Recipes
and Some of our own Comfort Foods

The Traditional Turkey Day Menu -
Thanksgiving Traditional

Side Dishes -
Traditional Turkey Dressing

Desserts -
Christmas Holiday Cookies and Steamed Carrot Pudding
Halloween Old-Fashioned Candied Apples

Beverages -
Christmas Cheer Punch
Apple Wassail Bowl

More Ritual Recipes and Ceremonial Meal Preparation Links

Thanksgiving Recipes
Passover Prep and Ritual
Epiphany or Twelfth Night Cake
Barony of the Steppes - Twelfth Night Feast
Celtic Recipes from the 24th Annual Festival of Maidens Dessert Revel
Ritual Meal Recipes Using Apples
Graceful Living
Hackers Kitchen by Avatar Holiday Recipes and Menus
Susan Woodward's Recipes I Didn't Get from my Mother Holiday Feast
Vegetarian Holiday Menus
Historical Menus

Ready to Turn Your Back on Traditional Ritual Meals?

Start New Christmas Traditions
Scandinavian Roast Goose
Apple and Mincemeat Filo Wreath - One of 100 Great Desserts

Blessings & Graces

Whenever people gather for food and drink, it is cause for thanksgiving. We also have compiled a collection of blessings and graces from various peoples and cultures.

Back to the Land - Seasonal Quotations

“‘Fine fruit is the flower of commodities.’ It is the most perfect union of the useful and the beautiful that the earth knows. Trees full of soft foliage; blossoms fresh with spring bounty; and, finally, fruit, rich, bloom-dusted, melting, and luscious.” - Andrew Jackson Downing (which includes reference to a phrase from “acute essayist,” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essay XIII Gifts (1844).

For more Seasonal Quotations from before bloom to after harvest, see Fruit From Washington’s Fruitful Literary and Traditional Quotes

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