If you recall, dear reader, I am embarking on a holiday theme entitled “Almost Vintage.” I’m scouring through my hoarded Gourmet and Martha Stewart Living magazines from the 90s, 00s and through 2022 (when MSL ceased publication). It’s been a stroll down memory lane for sure.
It’s on to the December issues now. I first picked up my copy of Gourmet, December 2003. (Theses posts are not in any chronological order, obviously). Again, I noticed the heft (218 pages), the ads (luxury), and the paper quality. I also noticed how dated the car model looked in the Jaguar ad. I also noticed the words. This magazine relied on words. I started reading and loving the writing from page one.
Ruch Reichl (still my idol), offers up an exceptional essay in her “Letter from the Editor.” It’s about her grandmother. If you’ve read any of her memoirs, you know that her family life might have been less than ideal. Her grandmother, she writes, did not believe in presents. When the young Ruth would show up at her door for the holidays, her grandmother would hand her a list. The list included names of all the people who had sent the young child gifts—gifts that she would never see. Her grandmother had almost immediately sent Ruth’s presents “to people who needed them…far more than I” (“Present Values.” Gourmet, Dec. 2003, p 24). Yet, Ruth was still expected to write thank you notes to everyone on the list. Merry Christmas and Bah Humbug!
Despite this, she still loved the holidays there. Her grandmother, that gift Grinch, also hated to cook so she would book holiday dinners at restaurants where they were known patrons. Ruth got lots of perks from the waiters and she loved the attention (and the extra cherries in her Shirley Temple).
She segues to the year she was ten-years-old and was inspired to make a réveillon (French-Canadian Feast) for her family. Even though her Bûche de Noël resembled Stonehenge, her family congratulated her on the effort. Her editorial essay helps introduce the “Winterlight” spread of a réveillon (156-165) and includes the entire menu midnight feast. Included is Spicy Tomato Cranberry Preserve (158) that will be highlighted here soon.
Moving on, I read John Thorne’s article about savory vs. sweet for meal endings (“So Long, Sweetheart.” Gourmet, Dec. 2003, pp. 86-89, 206). He declares he never has been one to delight in dessert at the end of the meal and always yearned for someone to recognize that savory bites could end the evening.
Who knew that the whisper of melancholy that creeps in at dinner’s end, that sense of inchoate yearning, needed only a plate of anchovy toast, even a bowl of salted nuts, to set things straight? (87)
Look for a savory and sweet nut recipe to come.
What else is to come in December for the holidays here at EE? Who knows?
Let’s see where the vintage language and words and writing and style take me.
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