Food & Family = Home

As always our New Year began with our Tastebuds preparing brunch together.  This year was a bit bittersweet as there was a hole in our gathering without our dear friends who moved last summer.  It was a relaxed day with quiet conversations, kids playing, and food preparation.  We each fell into our roles, prepped food, helped where needed without a word or a need for asking.  It is really interesting how a group can begin to anticipate over the years and just click in place.   It was Mastering the Art of French Cooking (as we had all watched in the movie Julie and Julia), that had inspired our group to begin with oh so many years ago.  So we always begin each new year with Julia's Formage Souffle.

Our theme for the brunch was food as good luck symbols for the new year.  We had a pulled pork with chipotle apple butter panini, cheesy polenta topped with collard greens and lentils, oyster hush puppies, and finished with eating 12 grapes and molten chocolate cakes.

I transitioned the house from being peppered with holiday cheer, to warmed with winter white candlelight.  The trees are down, and only a few snowmen and white glittered pine cones sparkle in the flickering light.  There is a clean simplicity that happens when you transition into the new year, one that has many blank pages to be colored on and written in.   For me, home is comfort.  It is filled with food and laughter and always has family, of all stripes, at its center.