Page 2 December 6, 2012 TORRANCE TRIBUNE TerriAnn in Torrance Visions of Sugarplums By TerriAnn Ferren cookies can’t help but remind a lot of us of Last week during Thanksgiving dinner, I Thanksgiving. And Christmas has a different decided to ask my family what food they memory and smell. Pungent pine from a especially looked forward to during the tree or wreath and maybe different delicious holidays. Taking into account that most of scents wafting from the kitchen oven might us shy away from eating high-calorie, sugary, bring back memories of childhood. Butter high-fat food as a way of life, I thought it cookies, jam, cakes, roast beef, turkey and would be fun to ask people what they can’t even tamales come to mind. wait to taste as Christmas approaches. As I When I was growing up, our family would began to question everyone at the Thanksgiving make tamales. Lots of tamales. Christmas Eve table what they were looking forward to I morning we would gather at my Grammie and heard about deviled eggs, sugarless apple Bumpas’s house where my mom and daddy pie, Christmas cookies, dressing, Christmas along with my aunts and uncles would spend sausage brunch casserole, mince pie and pecan the day mixing, blending, making meat filling pie. I personally used to look forward to my and then wrapping and tying the husks around the masa and varied fillings of the tamales. Actually when I was young, my cousins and I would mostly play outside during the ritual, but when we were older we relished helping the grownups. Nothing can express the joy I felt when I finally graduated to tying the tamales. We would sing Christmas carols and laugh and have a lot of fun. Then later, after the day of making the tamales, we would all go home and return in our Sunday bests the next day on Christmas evening as Filip Jerzycke works at the grocery store but has his EMT certification and wants to be a paramedic. the adults steamed the tamales in huge to investigate. It turns out that sugarplums get to meet a lot of people, work with a lot pots on the stove and then we would are not really sugared plums at all. Webster’s of great people and interact with the public. eat tamales for Christmas dinner! (Of Dictionary noted, “A round or oval piece of It keeps me busy and moving all day long. course this was after my family had sugary candy.” Sugar is the main ingredient Not stuck behind a desk. I have my EMT already eaten either roast beef or and long ago sugarplums were similar to jaw certification and would like to be a paramedic turkey at my Aunt May and Uncle breakers. Think hard candy. one day. People come in and ask for fruitcake.” Millard’s house.) Those were the days Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I No, I am not going to go on with all the when we traveled a lot on holidays. fruitcake jokes… Jeffrey told me he likes the dressing that goes with the turkey. The smells for me are undeniable as Later as I was headed Aunt May’s plum pudding or suet pudding that I am sure they are for everyone when they toward the door, I spotted she would make almost every Christmas. The remember their special holidays. local resident Carol Lally suet wasn’t really suet, but a very rich, dark, As I was picking up my turkey the day by the flower display and fragrant cake that I remember eating with hot before Thanksgiving, I was thinking about asked what foods she lemon sauce. It was unbelievably dense and sugarplums. Wandering around the grocery looked forward to having dark and we only ate it at Christmas. Each store, I happened upon a taste display of during the holidays. She year I start off with good intentions to take dried fruit balls about the size of large peas. told me, “We went out to the time to make that special treat, but time Intrigued, I took one and tried it. It was dried dinner for Thanksgiving gets short and in the end I don’t get around apricot with a sort of crunch to it. It was this year, but I do like to it. Maybe this year I will take the time. delicious and I nonchalantly turned my cart to cook. My sister is a Once a long time ago during drama class, around to take a second pass by the display professional chef, so I come our teacher Marie Denn asked us to think for another taste. Very good. But they were from a family of cooks. about what smells or aromas reminded us expensive and I decided to think about the On Christmas we usually of special events. It was then that I realized purchase. After Thanksgiving, I began to make venison and we have smell and taste are very powerful triggers think more about sugarplums. Just what are a wild rice salad, so that is of memory. A house filled with the smell of they? I can’t remember thinking of dancing our big Christmas dinner. a turkey or spiced pumpkin pies, bread or sugarplums when I was small, so I decided Christmas Eve, we make homemade tamales. The David said his favorite thing for Christmas morning is the Sausage Brunch Casserole. whole family gets together headed back to the grocery store on Saturday and we make a couple of different tamale to ask about the dried fruit balls. As I walked filling recipes and then we fill them and wrap back to the same aisle, I saw the fruit not in them up and have them on Christmas.” Wow, small balls as before, but in small logs sold someone else who has made tamales and a by the cheese display. No more samples were traditional Christmas! She did tell me her offered, but I did ask the cheese expert Eric dad makes posole and the rest of the family Duarte about the item. He told me it was makes the tamales. Frankly, I would like to a new item they had displayed for tasting try her dad’s homemade posole. “One year before Thanksgiving. The product is made we did a traditional English Christmas and in Spain and comprised of either apricot we had goose and plum pudding,” Carol with almonds or plum with walnuts. Who added. Driving home I got to thinking about knew the product that I thought would be sugarplums, fruit cake and all the items we the iconic sugarplum wasn’t at all? look forward to during Christmas. The Sugar After that, I headed to another grocery store Plum Fairy rules the day in Tchaikovsky’s to see what items they might carry especially Nutcracker Ballet, and Clement C. Moore in for this time of the year. “Right now at the his poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas bakery department we have seasonal items,” has the children dreaming with “visions of explained Filip Jerzycke. “Specialty cookies sugarplums dancing in their heads.” Could and Bundt cakes…pumpkin pie is always a they be dreams of candy and sugar for sweet big seller. We have specialty cakes decorated dreams? At any rate, the sweetness of the seasonally with designs that change throughout season is all around us. the year. We will have Christmas and Hanukkah As relatives and friends gather to make stuff. This is a pretty diverse neighborhood, so or buy that special item associated with the we cater to our customers--especially Jewish holidays and special times, I often ask myself, customers looking for Hanukkah items. We “Is it a ‘worth it’?” That means, “Are the do a whole aisle just for them. We have the calories worth the splurge?” Most of the time, Rabbi who comes in and we do the whole the answer is yes. However, that also means kosher tour. Maybe about 100 people come a longer walk around the block, extra time in here looking for specialty items that aren’t on the treadmill, or exercising more during carried anywhere.” the week. But the magic of the season is all Filip has worked at the grocery store since around us. Eat up not only the fine treats, 2006 and this is his seventh holiday season. but the smells, the sounds and the love of Linda made tasty yams and cool cranberry jello salad. Photos by TerriAnn Ferren. He went on to tell me, “It is a fun job--you this special time. •
Torrance 12_06_12
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