Why celebrating with food is a good thing
Episode Twenty Four
Hello! Thanks for joining me again this fortnight, I’m super glad you’re here. Snuggle up somewhere comfy with a cup of tea, and let’s talk about food!
I was going to chat with you today about cake, and how it’s come to be the thing we celebrate with. I mean, have you ever really thought about it? Why do we produce a big cake loaded with candles for someone’s birthday? Where did that originate? Why don’t we have a huge baked zucchini or a fried calf’s head?
But that riveting read shall have to wait for the next edition, because yesterday something rather special happened in my little writing life.
I got short-listed for a short story competition!
It’s a spooky short story comp, run by The Katharine Susanna Pritchard Writer’s Centre (locally known as KSP). 1,200 words only, on the theme of Don’t Look Up. The story that came to mind was a bit of an interesting mash-up of Greek mythology and TV chef reality shows - make from that what you will!
When it’s PUBLISHED (Maggie’s doing a little jig right now) in the anthology, if you think you might like to purchase the book, I’ll try and pop the link in after the launch, which will be sometime in August.
Isn’t it funny, but the first thing that came to mind was, I should celebrate this with cake! I wouldn’t have minded a piece of this one, actually…
…alas ‘tis no more, and is quite fiddly to make again just for us!
I think most people celebrate life’s wins with food, sometimes accompanied by a glass (or three) of one’s favourite bevvy.
I had a quick look on my phone today for past photos of celebrations we’d observed with the partaking of scrumptious food.
(I really don’t know why they’re still called phones. They’re more like photo repositories, messaging enablers, entertainment devices, and note books. I use mine as a note-taking device a lot more than I make phone calls on it.)
But I digress.
What other night of the year do we all celebrate with good food and (sometimes WAY too much) drink, than the ringing in of a new year? As someone who’s worked in hospitality all their life, and pulled a few New Year’s shifts, it’s one of the biggest nights on the calendar. The only other day that’s possibly bigger is Mother’s Day. New Year’s Eve is a night that goes on and on and on, so much food and drink is consumed, accompanied by loud out-of-tune singing. Out the back, we hospitality peeps get so very tired and sick of it all, glaring at sozzled revellers through the circle windows in the restaurant doors while we prepare yet another cheeseboard and ignore our throbbing feet.
My New Year’s Eves are a lot more sedate and less foot-weary these days. As the picture above shows, this is now how I spend the night. We drive for an hour to one of the many glorious beaches here in Perth, and spend the afternoon frolicking in the waves. Then we dry off, snuggle our bottoms in the sand, and tuck into something light and luscious for dinner (smoked salmon bagels last year), a glass of something light and bubbly (apple cider perhaps), followed just after sunset with a light and fresh dessert (I think last year was Eaton mess). We watch the sun sink into the sea, leaving behind mystical swathes of glorious purple, pink, and copper, and sometimes people clap. Which is kind of weird.
When the sun went down at Coogee for New Year’s Eve 2020, the entire beach exploded in a rapturous applause for a full minute, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one whose eyes welled up. Goodbye you crappy year and your horrible Covid! May we never see you again.
We celebrate with food for other things too, not just birthdays and the end of the calendar year. It’s the old saying isn’t it? Any excuse to go out for a meal! I finally tidied up the third drawer in the kitchen! Fabulous! Let’s go out for lunch to celebrate!
As you may know, I used to have a wholesale baking business that I ran from home, baking boxes and boxes of gluten free and vegan cakes, biscuits, and slices for many busy cafés around Perth. So many incredibly long days working on my own, so many sacks of flour and sugar, so many kilos of butter, and uncountable eggs. After multiple Cortisone injections in my feet and lower back to keep me sane going, I had to have one in my right hand in November 2023, and that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
I waved my little white flag and called it a day, much to the horror of my customers.
After I’d made the very last delivery, my youngest son and I went out for breakfast. Because making big scary business decisions because your health is suffering should be celebrated, right?
Going out for breakfast is a thing, isn’t it? You know how partial I am to porridge, and its warming winter wallop, in fact I shall be enjoying a bowl of it tomorrow morning when this blog trundles out to your inbox. I have a very ripe pear in the fruit bowl, so thin slices of that will be dotted across the melting brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon and maybe a touch of nutmeg (Chai inspo?), then a liberal showering of pistachios and sliced almonds. I can’t wait.
But when we’re on holidays, something other than porridge is required, especially if the morning is sunny, and you’re walking around the Fremantle Markets.
Other times to celebrate with food are when you’re with your best friend you haven’t seen for a while, or when you take your lovely mum out to a High Tea for her 80th birthday (hello Mum :-) ), or when you and your husband find yourselves finished at an appointment earlier than expected, and you discover the most beautiful cake shop a block away.
Actually, who even needs an excuse to treat oneself?
Is the fact that we’re alive, we’ve survived another week, we didn’t stab anyone with a fork yesterday, and we have a sneaky hour to ourselves not reason enough?
It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be something as simple and delicious as a fresh, hot cinnamon donut, that fried vanilla dough smell is very difficult to walk past!
You could even take some of your own cake that you made at home (not to a café, mind you, that’s rather frowned upon and rightly so) and sit in a park with a flask of tea.
Life is too short and precious not to treat yourself regularly.
So off you go, today’s a good day to celebrate. Have a slice of cake at your favourite café to celebrate my pending short story publication. Or to celebrate that you made it out of bed this morning. Whatever works.
Even just celebrate you.
Because you’re fabulous.
I’ll leave you with one last photo of a time last year when I just treated myself because I wanted to, because I thought I deserved it. I ate enough sugar in this dish to last me three weeks, but it was worth it!
What’s your go-to treat?
Or do you do something different each time?
I’d love to know :-)
Have a fabulous fortnight!
Maggie xx
Congratulations on the short story Maggie! Yay! I'm so glad you and your son celebrated changing your business - it is so easy not to do that and just rush to the next thing. While I do totally different work it is often very physical - like construction, which keeps me fit but also tired as I get older! My favourite treats are cheeses :)xo