One of my favorite things we do with family dinner is celebrate birthdays! The first one we ever celebrated was for Keyan. The girls who come to dinner with our daughter went all out. They came super-early to blow up balloons, hang a birthday sign, and fix an extra dessert (don’t worry; we also had cinnamon rolls). Because of a football game, the boys couldn’t go home for the weekend, so the girls wanted to make sure Keyan still had a special celebration. He was appropriately surprised and thus started a new tradition. Within a month or two, we’d started our family dinner group chat (I’ll tell you about that another time) and everyone shared their birthdays. Now, I make it a point to text the birthday person the week of their special day so I know what they want for their birthday dinner. They regularly request pasta – that’s always a favorite – and I’ve learned to make new pasta dishes based on their requests. It’s an adventure in cooking when they ask for something I’ve never made. Pinterest is my friend!
Tonight was Shawn’s birthday dinner and he requested hamburgers and brats. Though I lost my last grandparent a year ago this week, I find joy in using my family’s recipes with our Family Dinner friends. My mother’s dad, whom we affectionately called Pop, loved to grill. Burgers were his specialty! Luckily, we shared dinner with my aunt and uncle over the summer, and I made careful notes as my aunt whipped up her dad’s amazing burgers. The secret is in the cracker crushing… not even kidding here. Pop would evenly place Saltine crackers in a large Ziplock bag and proceed to systematically crush them with a rolling pin. It’s both an art and a science. My dad used to give him hell but no one could beat his burgers, so it must have worked!
Both my grandmothers were fabulous hostesses and I think of them regularly when preparing family dinner. I hope I honor them as I use utensils and crockery from their kitchens left to me upon their passings. The kids probably don’t realize why the crockpot they see on my counter says “McClain” or why one of my casserole dishes says “McCandless” but those permanent markers tell a story. Feeding people isn’t just a blessing for those filling their plates.
Creating Family Dinner 