I had a conversation with someone a a few weeks ago about what this project has brought up that has felt unexpected. And truth be told, there hasn’t been a lot. I always expected that it would be emotional. (Cut to me sobbing while finding photos of my grandmothers for last week’s post.) I always expected it would be at least a little stressful. (Cut to me having a full-blown meltdown over Chicken with Artichokes.)
But what I didn’t expect was that by cooking through traditional recipes from my family, it would encourage me to interrogate the idea of “tradition” and whether or not I’m actually on board with it. Growing up, the definition of “tradition” was a textbook one. We passed down the ideas, beliefs, and customs from our past generations and continue them today. It wasn’t something with major flexibility. You followed these traditions like dictations—Sunday dinners, big gatherings on Christmas, summer weekends spent with cousins.
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the idea of traditions. On the one hand, I love the connectivity they offer. Tradition provides a hand-hold to the past, a way for us to keep those we’ve lost alive. But I’ve also seen the rigidity of tradition—how tongues would click if someone stopped showing up for Christmas dinner because they got married, or if I opted to skip a Sunday dinner to spend time with friends.
When I was younger, that idea of tradition felt a little cult-like, which is why I probably shunned my culture for a really long time. I hated the inflexibility of it, especially because I didn’t feel like I fit into its strict mold. Since I didn’t feel like these traditions were easily adaptable to an ever-changing, modern world, I ditched them completely.
But cooking through these recipes has encouraged me to reconsider the idea of traditions. It’s helped me to realize that I can, in fact, adapt them and tweak them so that they fit into the family (and the world) I was to build. I can keep what I want (like the idea that we always sit down for dinner, even if we’re just warming up leftovers) and tweak the rest (I don’t have to go home for every single Sunday dinner, because I live in a different state now.)
Oddly enough, weekly soup dinners have become a bit of a tradition in our home, mostly because it’s been freezing out, but also because it’s really easy to turn anything into soup. So when we got a bunch of mushrooms in our Farm to People box, I pulled out my grandmother’s cream of mushroom soup recipe card. And let me tell you, this recipe is almost as easy as opening a can…but tastes infinitely better.
I’m excited to see what other traditions grow out of this project, and which ones stick around. Because, at the end of the day, the most important tradition is the one I’ll never give up—gathering around a table with the people you love at the end of the day. It’s the one tradition I’m most excited to pass on.
INGREDIENTS
1 lb mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups chicken or beef broth
1 cup cream
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper, to taste
Chopped parsley, for serving (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Melt butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Sauté onions over medium heat until just translucent, and then add in the mushrooms. Sauté for another 5 minutes.
Add in flour and mix until combined with the mushrooms and the mixture is thickened. Add in the broth and stir until the mixture is thickened, about 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and allow the broth mixture to cool for about 15 minutes. (If you’re making this soup a few hours ahead, you can also stop at this point and leave the soup covered until you’re ready to eat.)
Once cooled, stir in your cream and spices. Once combined, I like to use an immersion blender to blend up a portion of the soup, but this is optional.
Heat the soup through over medium-low heat, never allowing it to fully come to a boil. Top with fresh parsley and serve warm.
PS: The kind folks at Farm to People have offered my readers $10 off their first farm box with the code “MARIAD13”! Click here to order your first box.
I love cream of mushroom soup, so this is definitely a recipe I'll be trying. On the subject of tradition, I empathize. Coming from a very large family, there are many traditions, and MANY family gatherings on the calendar at all times. But, being married and figuring out our own little family traditions, we're starting to feel overwhelmed. What to keep, what to leave behind feels messy because we don't want to hurt/offend anyone. Have you received any backlash? If so, how do you respond to it?