Essay #2 final draft

Family Activities and Food Belong Together
When I think of family, food is among the thoughts that first that spring up in my mind. This may seem weird until you think about everything families can do together and realize that most of them involve some sort of food. Dinners, holidays, sporting events, traveling, and parties are among just the few examples where food and family activities combine. Every family is different from each other depending on the priorities and likes.
In today’s world few families make the time to sit down together to enjoy an all important meal whether it is home-cooked, fast food, or store bought. Although my family didn’t have the time or the ability to sit down together for a meal every day, I remember making the effort several times a week. Occasionally it would just be my sisters, my mom, and me if my dad had a meeting or if one of us girls had to run off to a school event early. This time was also special. Enjoying a meal, no matter what type of food or even where the meal is being eaten, as a family provided my family time to talk about our day and what all we had to do during the week. Meal times allow for bonding and memories that cannot be replaced. Meals that I ate with my family will always be with me and started a tradition I hope one day to continue with my children.
Another tradition for my family that I would like to carry on is going to Cardinal baseball games. These games include special memories when it comes to being a family with food. Every season my family tries to attend between two and four games because my younger sister and Dad really enjoy baseball. While at the games my mom, my younger sister, and myself always get the supreme nachos. These nachos are fully loaded with cheese, meat, sour cream, salsa, and jalapeño peppers. It’s something the girls in my family share and enjoy amongst each other.
As a family that loves to do things together traveling to as many places as possible on vacation provides us opportunities to try new, different food specialties of that area to try. When we were in New Orleans the food to try was the jambalaya and Creole food. Creole food that the girls in my family liked the most was the Cajun Creole shrimp. This Creole food is spicy and tasty for those brave enough to try something with a kick. Another New Orleans’s dish that we were able to try was alligator. I enjoyed trying the alligator and thought it tasted like chicken in a way. My entire family tried and liked the alligator meat. While in New York as a family we were able to try New York style pizza as well as go to Cold Stone Creamery for the first time. The ice cream was a big hit for my family and we returned for a second time because it was both entertaining and had a variety to choose from. Traveling to Mexico with my younger sister provided the opportunity to taste green salsa and other Mexican specialties. The green salsa was excellent to dip chips in. With school my mom and I got the chance to travel to Panama and Costa Rica where every meal was served with beans and rice. After a while beans and rice got old, but the ability to travel with my mom and experience new and exciting foods together is unforgettable.
One type of vacation my family loves to go on is camping trips. My family and I enjoy grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and brats while camping. Inside the camper foods my mom cooks include baked beans, hominy, and macaroni and cheese. Potato salad, salad, and chips are favorites and easy while camping. Lunch meat sandwiches and BLTs also satisfy our taste buds. While out with the camper, biscuits and s’mores are our favorite desserts. We make biscuits by rolling the uncooked biscuit on a dole rod and slowly holding it over the ashes of a campfire. We then fill the biscuit with peanut butter and white syrup or any kind of pie filling. This dessert is a rarity and a favorite among my family. Camping is something my whole family enjoys doing together and allows us to make lots of memories including ones about food.
Desserts rank at the top of many people’s favorite food lists. Homemade pies made for Thanksgiving such as pecan, cherry, custard, and pumpkin allows there to be something for everyone to enjoy and are always made by my grandma with love for her family. Homemade chocolate cake made by my grandma draws the whole family around the table to enjoy a piece; sometimes with ice cream. This cake is a favorite of both my little cousins and my younger sister. Also among the favorite desserts in my family is the variety of candies my mom makes at Christmas time. She makes around five different kinds of fudge, puppy chow, caramel chow, caramels, nutty noodle, and toffee. Although this takes a lot of time the candy is loved and ate by all bringing the whole family together as we discuss the new fudge flavor for that year. Rolled up pie crust with cinnamon-sugar are the perfect bite size dessert made by my grandma’s loving hands, which we affectionately we call Circle Things. My favorite dessert is Sour Cream Pound Cake. This cake is delicious and makes me smile every time my grandma makes it for me especially on my birthday. Desserts are not the only special foods for the holidays.
When it comes to holiday meals my family can be quite unusual. For New Years our favorite meal to eat is side pork, fried potatoes, leaf lettuce, beans, and cornbread. This food is always good and said to bring luck. Easter varies from year to year. We could have ham one year and fried rice and spring rolls the next. Thanksgiving is pretty much the expected food of turkey, dressing, two types of homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and gravy. My family however, also has three types of cranberry sauce, cole slaw, crock pot and regular corn, and green beans. Christmas and food at my house is a different story, because my grandma prefers to cook something besides turkey sense it is only one month after Thanksgiving. On Christmas Eve we have barbeque or ham sandwiches, chips, pickles, and lots of different kinds of dips and crackers. Some of our favorite dips are hot chicken, cheese ball, and shrimp dip. The reason my family does snack type food is so we have time to open presents by a decent time. Christmas Day food also makes my family unique. We do not eat turkey or any other food that is normally at by families in the United States. Some years my dad grills ribs outside, other times my grandma and Mom cook homemade fried chicken, and still others we eat spring rolls and fried rice. This variety when it comes to Christmas food at my house is loved by everyone. Holidays are a time to bring families together with good home cooked meals.
Food and family go together in everyone’s life. Everyone needs to eat to live, so it makes sense to share the time when people eat with those they love in their family. Times like holidays, vacations, sporting events, and countless others provide connection between members of the family and different food preferences.