Runners-Up, 2003 Edition

Submitted by Judith Worbeck

I am Slavic, tradition courses through my veins with the singular determination of DNA; Christmas Eve family dinner having its own genetic blueprint. My earliest memory of this family gathering being imprinted in my childhood by the sheer joy of a second Christmas, I determined that later in life I would maintain this bi-polar feast day. The Second Christmas Eve Dinner arose as a compromise between two traditional feast days, that of my grandmother ( Baba's eastern European traditional January Christmas) and that of my mother's choice (December 24th).

Custom dictated that all family members gather for Holy Supper, Christmas Eve Dinner, to share a solemn meal of twelve Lenten dishes made without animal fat or milk products. The meal began with a ritual dish called Kutia, which consisted of cooked whole wheat, honey, poppy seeds and nuts, a great idea to an eight-year old. It was followed by a variety of vegetable and fish dishes, morel -laden baked trout, jellied whitefish in aspic, wild mushroom and buckwheat cabbage rolls and ended with a compote of dried fruit, not exactly festive fare to a child.

Today as I glance through a December issue of the latest gourmet magazine, hoping to find a new twist to traditional Christmas dinner, I laugh as I read, Winter Fruit Compote with Vanilla Essence, Morels In Red Wine Sauce and I think Bon Appetit Baba. Thank you for the Second Christmas Dinner Tradition.