Loved ones live on through recipes
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Beside the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, many families have a less traditional dish that was passed down through the family for so long that no one is quite sure how or why it started.
It’s a way of remembering those who are no longer at the Thanksgiving table to share it.
For Rebecca Selway of Washington, that dish is “grandma’s noodles.”
When her grandmother became too old for the lengthy process of making homemade noodles, Selway went to her house to learn the recipe.
“She had it all in her head,” she said. “She never wrote it down.”
Selway said she looked at recipes in cookbooks for homemade noodles, but they could not compare to grandma’s noodles.
“I tried all of these new-fangled recipes, but none of them came close,” she said.
Her grandmother died in 2005, but she carries on her memory by making noodles using her recipe, rolling pin and cutting board.
Selway will serve Thanksgiving dinner to about 10 people this year. For Christmas, she will make the noodles for 35.
“It makes a mess everywhere, but the end product is worth it,” she said.
Selway is happy to be the designated family noodle maker.
But she already has made her selection for the next person to carry on the tradition.
She said she will teach her oldest granddaughter, who is 6, when she is ready to learn.
“When she gets to be the right age, I’ll teach her, and she can carry it on,” she said.
Dot Simpson of Washington also makes a family recipe of homemade noodles for Thanksgiving.
Simpson said her 88-year-old mother made noodles every year for as long as she can remember. Now, her daughter is taking over the task.
“My daughter is doing a better job than I did,” she said with a laugh. “It was just something everyone looked forward to on Thanksgiving.”
A more recent tradition started in Kathy Swihart’s household. She learned a recipe for baked jalepeno corn, or “hot corn,” from a coworker.
“I made it on Thanksgiving the first year, and it became a tradition,” she said.
She said her 11-year-old granndaughter, Taylor Crouse, loves hot corn and spends the night around Thanksgiving to practice the recipe.
“My granddaughter made it last year,” she said. “She got a little heavy-handed with the jalapeno, but we loved it anyway.”