It's upon us at last, and in full force, the celebration season!
So many things to prepare for! So many things to eat! So many things to wonder about!
Like wondering about why we celebrate the things we do. And how there's always food there. (well.....I'm pretty uncomfortable with universal declarations, so let's say ALMOST always. There's ALMOST always food at a celebration. Except I can't think of a celebration that doesn't, you know, involve food.)
Last week, I started noticing that celebration happens when something happens. And that usually, what happens is either:
1. A serendipitous event
2. A rite of passage
3. An achievement.
And when 1, 2, or 3 (alone or in combination) collide with the awesomness of the person to whom they've happened, congratulations and/or celebrations often ensue.
A little like this:
The source of these celebration ruminations? The girly delight of being invited to share the girly delights of a friend's wedding shower, a rite of passage right up there with weddings, baby showers, graduations and retirement parties.
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that's Dallas, second from left, looking all shy and beautiful.
It's my good fortune to have known that Dallas was amazing
years before she'd even met these other gorgeous young things. |
And here's the food- so pretty!
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Note the second round of chocolate has started
before the veggies are half gone.
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Now. Here's the second curious thing.
It occured to me that when people of the female persuasion come together for a celebration, the food on the table gets sprikled liberally with adjectives. Words like pretty, beautiful, cute.....
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and pink?
except, gosh, that spread is absolutely, adorably, scrumptious!
squeeee!!!!
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Curiouser and curiouser: It occurs to me that if there's a man-type person in your life whose amazingness you wish to celebrate, and you ask him to tell you the truth about what he'd like for a congratulatory dinner, you'll probably hear a variation of this:
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without adjectives.
except maybe "awesome". |
Hmmm....I'm getting dangerously close to writing an illustrated essay that could be titled "Mars and Venus host a party" aren't I?
Not to worry- it's not that sort of blog.
Here's how all this thinking and overthinking worked itself out in the kitchen.
Pondering the difference between lady food and man food led me to try subbing some of the leftover frozen carnitas for the chicken in the buffalo chicken chili. Why? because the carnitas were already in the freezer, I didn't want to go grocery shopping and, for some unreasonable reason, chicken seems more girly than pork.
Doesn't it?
I wonder why?
The chili? Stupendous. I'm a winter-long hunt for the holy grail of chili recipes, and this one will be a contender.
And! (I am very excited about this!) This polenta recipe turned out to be a fun, gluten free alternative to cornbread. I'm not saying it's LIKE cornbread, but it serves the FUNCTION of cornbread. We put it alongside the chili, and it was great.
Tomorrow? a small celebration prompted by the indisputable, employer-recognized awesomeness of the home audience. I found these at Aldi.
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Gotta gnaw it off a bone?
That's food for a man celebration, my friends. |
And another cool thing? The word celebrant.
Which I thought until this week only meant someone who wore something like this:
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except with a longer neck.
and usually a cranium. |
but I learned this week that celebrant means someone who celebrates.
Someone who sees something (or someone) amazing and makes sure it does not go unnoticed.
So, sometimes a celebrant can even be a person wearing something like this:
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My luckiest apron.
Cooking, writing, painting- it makes lots of things turn out well.
Except not cleaning. I'm still looking for the apron
that makes cleaning turn out well. |
So. What do you want to see more of? (ok, besides time and money)
Maybe it's a who that you want to see more of. Or a place.
Or maybe it's love, peace, joy, hope, passion or meaning....
Anyway, I hope that today you see it, whatever it is you wish to see more of.
And I hope that in the moment that you recognize it for what it is, in the moment before it slips away, you become its celebrant,
and throw a three second celebration in its honor.
And maybe later you cook it dinner,
and it comes back.
And never leaves again.
This is why eating chicken seems more girly than eating pork:
ReplyDeletehttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/10/06/article-0-06B810C3000005DC-595_634x337.jpg
Pigs, despite how filthy they are, can be cute. Some women (perhaps somewhat confused) keep them as pets. But maybe it's because they know that in an uprising of farm animals seeking democracy, pigs are destined to consolidate their power to become the ruling class. Thus, women will generally gain their favor in such an event. No. It's because they're cute.
Thanks for your article. I never knew how to articulate my thoughts about how I like my steak until reading it.
ryan, I've copy-pasted the url, and can't get to the article. So, you agree, that a bowl of chili with pork is more manly that the same recipe made with chicken?
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right. All animals are equal, but some are indeed more equal than others. This puts a veeerrrry interesting spin on the question...
The URL works for me. Alternatively, do a google image search for "pet pig."
DeleteI agree. A bowl of chili made with pork is more manly than the same recipe made with chicken--despite the urging of the cows on the commercials to eat mor chikin.
Those commercials are mostly ineffective on me, however, because they make me wonder how steak from literate cow compares to steak from illiterate cow.
I myself have always wondered how cows can purchase paint and get themselves up to billboard height and yet can't spell chicken.
DeleteI think they make (steal) their own paint (someone else's paint). That's what often happens to cows who have dropped out of school. They begin a life of crime. It's a shame.
Delete