We recently compiled Spanish-language resources and promoted them around Día de los Muertos tohelp Latino families celebrate their culture and family food traditions by eating more like their ancestors, and it got me to thinking about my own family’s food traditions.

From the silly, like sticking black olives on our fingers during Thanksgiving, to the sacred, like decorating loaves of Easter Bread (Paska) with signs of our faith, my family’s food traditions cemented key values that remain with me today. Istrongly believe that no matter your background, family food traditions: 

• introduce children to cooking at a young age,

• help children experience a wide variety of flavors and tastes,

• reinforce the benefits of eating meals together as a family, and

• help instill personal values 

Growing up, we spent every Easter with my step-grandmother, whose family was from Eastern Europe. Kneading the Paska (EasterBread) dough under Grandma Emily’s watchful eye is my earliest memory of cooking. Covered in flour, even the youngest cousin could roll out long ropes of dough to braid in intricate designs or mop the loaveswith egg whites before baking. The whole family looked forward to the thickslices of yeasty bread slathered with butter that were the fruits of our labor.

Paska was just one of the traditional foods we enjoyedwith Grandma Emily. She introducedus to kielbasa, golumpkis, pierogis and other previously unknown dishes. Kielbasa remains one of my veryfavorite foods, especially when cooked with sauerkraut or red cabbage. Iappreciate that our family food traditions exposed me to these different dishes, as itinstilled in me an enthusiasm for trying new foods.

The rest of my childhood revolved around my paternal grandparents, and the several generations who would converge upon Grandma Floor’s house for Sunday dinner.(The black olive on the finger Thanksgiving tradition started with this group.) On Sundays, we’d eat pot roast, bakedchicken, stew or barbeque with carrots and broccoli, potato salad and icedteafor dinner. We’d always have chocolate chip cookies and milk for dessert.

These meat-and-potato meals were far less adventurous when compared to Grandma Emily’s, but no less influential. From sharing with others to table manners andteamwork while doing the dishes, our Sunday dinner family food tradition taught me endless lessons on the value of eating together as a family.  

Many years have passed since I was able to share Thanksgiving with my family or bake Paska with my cousins, but these family food traditions have instilled lifelong personal values. I often enjoy Sunday dinner here in California with my husband’s family and we’re always trying new foods like lumpia and paneer, but it’s just not Thanksgiving without black olives or Easterwithout kielbasa.

What family food traditions do you remember from childhood? How are you sharing your culture and getting your children involved with family meals?

SaraFloor Miller
Communications Manager