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A Tale of Two Christmas Dinners: Industrial v Homemade
Debra Redalia
Preprepared Christmas Dinner from Whole Foods.
Larry and I live in rather unusual circumstances.
We live with his mom, who is now almost 90 years old and two of his siblings who take care of her. Before we came to live with them three years ago, these three had a ongoing household that also included Larry’s father. When he died in 2017, many things changed, but their household continued on as before in the way the lived and the food they ate. Remarkably Larry’s mom at age 89 is quite healthy—while she has memory problems she has none of the modern industrial diseases of the body. She walks up and back a long driveway every morning to get the paper and every afternoon to get the mail.
They have their ways of doing things and Larry and I have our ways and they aren’t the same. But we all allow each other to “whatever works” as Mom says.
This year what happened for Christmas dinner was that two other siblings who don’t live here decided to send those of us who do live here a preprepared Christmas Dinner from Whole Foods. Because of covid restrictions, we didn’t have a family Christmas as we have had in years past. I was told this dinner was arriving on Wednesday. But generally, I make a Christmas dinner and I still wanted to make it.
Larry and I decided what we wanted for Christmas Dinner and purchased the ingredients.
On Thursday night the Whole Foods Christmas Dinner was heated and served.
When I ate it, I realized an important difference between the Whole Foods Christmas Dinner and my homemade dinner, which became very apparent when I made my homemade dinner on Friday.
The Whole Foods dinner consisted of a turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and a whole apple pie for dessert. Being from Whole Foods, the quality of ingredients was higher than if it was purchased at a supermarket, but it was still notably industrial.
I usually think of industrialized food as being in a package of some sort—a box or a can or an aseptic carton—made in a factory. But even thought this meal was prepared from scratchin the Whole Foods kitchens, it still had an industrial characteristic.
What was industrial about this meal was that it was conceived of and made to a standard that would allow Whole Foods to sell the same meal to many customers. To make doing so efficient and profitable (their major objective) the meal was not particularly interesting or delicious, but rather designed to be standard enough to appeal to a broad range of different tastes.
Each dish was recognizable as what it was supposed to be, but it was just so uninteresting and so institutional.
And this is one of the major characteristics of industrial food. It is made for the convenience of the industrial process and not the delight of the customer. All individuality is put aside and foods are made to conform, so every Christmas Dinner that leaves Whole Foods tastes exactly alike. That’s the industrial way. Everything exactly the same.
I appreciate the gift aspect of it. Obviously the siblings who gifted it wanted their mom and other siblings to have a Christmas Dinner without any fuss. And they did. It was “acceptable.”
But it wasn’t anything close to my own personal idea of Christmas Dinner. So on Friday Larry and I spent the day making the Christmas dinner we wanted to eat. And we did this in my tiny kitchen in the corner of my office and our 24” inch Wolf stove that is temporarily in a storage room that required a walk of about thirty feet to get to. And it was raining all day.
But our Christmas Dinner was one of the best I’ve ever made. I wish I had a photo but by the time we made the dinner it was just too dark to take a photo and I couldn’t stop the serving for a photo setup.
Here’s what we made.
Roast Turkey Breast and Gravy. We bought a turkey breast and just sprinkled a little salt and pepper on top, then just roasted it in the oven at 250 degrees for about two hours. We also bought a turkey wing to make stock and simmered it with onion, celery and carrot starting at about 11:00 in the morning. We then basted the turkey breast with this stock, which caramelized in the bottom of the turkey pan. When it was time to make the gravy, we combined the stock in the pot and the stock in the pan and had a lot of gravy. Usually I make gravy gluten-free but yesterday I just used standard flour. This is a very simple way
My Family Mashed Potatoes. I always have to have my family mashed potatoes which are like a hot potato salad with vinegar, onions, parsley and hard boiled eggs. One of my very favorite bites of all time is this mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. So this is a must-have whenever there is a turkey one the table.
Brown Rice Stuffing. Often I will make gluten-free cornbread stuffing, but I just wanted to be simple with the stuffing yesterday. So I started with brown rice and added everything I would normally add to stuffing: onions, celery, and mushrooms sautéed in butter, fresh parsley from my garden, and classic poultry seasoning. Delicious.
Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole. You know this one. Green beans, a can of cream of mushroom soup, milk, french fried onions…I know, I know, but it’s only once a year. If I had more time and space, I would have made the green bean casserole from scratch, but everyone loves the standard recipe so I gave in on that one.
Cranberry Sauce with Pomegranates and Clementines. This was absolutely the best cranberry I’ve ever made. Just equal parts of each. The cranberry sauce was canned—but organic—but I transformed it with fresh fruit. So not perfect, but pretty good given the limitations of the day.
So even though two canned foods were used, this dinner was far from industrial because it was uniquely created to suit our own personalities and tastes and preferences. And while others were happy to have the Whole Foods Christmas Dinner, they went crazy over this one. Smiles all around. Mom thought it was “delightful!” Larry’s brother thought the cranberry sauce was so good he wanted to name it with it’s own special name. Larry was just so happy.
This Christmas I learned the importance of Christmas dinner. With the covid pandemic ranging around us and so many things in short supply, to sit down together around a table filled with homemade food—some comforting old favorites and others delightfully new—was the highlight of the day.
I learned too how important Christmas is to Larry in a way I hadn’t understood before. He loves Christmas. During the month of December, we watch every new Hallmark Christmas movie. This year, with the pandemic, Hallmark movies were our experience of Christmas. I learned this year that it’s very important to make Christmas, no matter how spare. For Larry, there needs to be a Christmas tree, Christmas gifts, and a Christmas dinner. Then he feels that Christmas has occurred.
Our Christmas Dinner, made with love and our own hands, was a bright spot in this dark winter.
Please cook. Please learn to cook if you don’t already know how. To know how to cook frees you from industrial food, is an opportunity for creativity, and opens the door to eating in a way that makes your body healthy.
Having the ability to cook, to know that I can take ordinary ingredients and transform them into a “delightful” meal that brings happiness to others and myself is one of my most treasured accomplishments. No other skill comes close in terms of importance to life.
I’m a late entry to this, Debra, but want to add my two cents. I was raised PA Dutch, learned to cook with fresh ingredients from a young age and although it’s just the two of us here, I still cook everything from scratch. I love to cook and to me it is my gift to my husband, not just on holidays but every day. For as long as I can, I will continue to create good food. I rarely use a recipe and when I do, my husband laughs because I always change it to make it my own. Cooking is not a chore, it’s an act of love.
Thanks so much for you “two cents.”
I totally agree with you and it’s good to hear you are doing this in today’s industrial world.
I want to underline what you said about learning to cook with fresh ingredients at a young age, which is something that is NOT being done in households eating takeout and industrialized foods. Children need to be in the kichen with parents who are cooking whole foods. Otherwise these skills will not move forward.
I grew up cooking with my father in the kitchen because my mother was never taught to cook. Both my grandmothers and my great aunt made a point to make sure I new how to cook and brought me into their kitchens even before I could reach the counter. I remember my material grandmother had a red kitchen stool in the corner of her kitchen. She would bring it to the counter and put my little body on it and put bits of food in my hands as she was cooking so I could learn to do what she was doing. Since she was 100% Armenian, I learned how to roll stuffed grape leaves at a very young age!
Knowing I could cook was instilled in me by my family before I even went to school, so it is a lifelong skill and love for me.
And I agree with you that cooking is not a chore, but an act of love for my husband. It makes me happy to think about what foods to prepare that will make it body health and make his tastebuds happy. It makes me happy when he loves the food I give him.
For me, cooking is part of creating life. The Earth gives me raw materials and I continue the creation with my hands and love.
I wish more people understood this.
Your husband is a very fortunate man!
There are only two of us here plus the cat! I make cranberry sauce from scratch using OJ instead of water. I add some sugar (you could use honey, cane syrup or Agave instead) and a big splash of Grand Manier liqueur. I add fruit if I have some around and pecans, too!
I live in a semi-rural area of VA and Whole Foods does not deliver here, so I wouldn’t be able to get it even if I wanted it.
I got turkey leg quarters at a Fresh Market store (a chi-chi grocer originating in NC but they have the best meats and fresh produce around here, Their baked goods and desserts are also outstanding) . I could have ordered a tres expensive ready made meal from there and done curbside pickup. I basted the turkey in melted butter, lemon juice and sage.
I cooked greens from scratch, some of which came from my garden.
I got dressing mix in a bag and added hardboiled eggs, turkey stock (in a box from Aldi) and sage. I add pecans if I have them. I got Aldi turkey gravy in a jar which is the best tasting pre-made I’ve ever had.
Whole Foods does use quality ingredients but I’ve never been very impressed with their pre-made food. Somehow the seasoning is always off and the food is rather bland. Not to mentioned over-priced. Whole Paycheck, indeed!
Although it was a thoughtful gesture for people to order Christmas dinner for others.
Your dinner sounds great too!
I know Fresh Market. I used to go there when I lived in Florida. It was the best market in town.
Your meal sounds lovely in every way. I agree comparing homemade is like comparing apples and oranges. And I do want to try the rice “stuffing” recipe. Mine, made from gluten-free bread, was quite good, yet the commercial gluten-free bread always has a non-wholesome aspect to it (just look at the ingredients on any commercial GF bread!).
I tried cooking a turkey breast this year and it came out very delicious but dry. I am curious about the low temperature you cooked yours on. Do you think it leads to moister meat? Mine was cooked at 350 degrees.
You need to baste the turkey about every half hour. Since you only have the breast you need to buy a thigh or a wing and then simmer it with onion, celery and carrot. The basting makes the turkey very moist. Try it. You’ll see.
Hi Debra We too received a Wholefoods Christmas dinner from our daughter who lives in Colorado. She wanted to make this a fuss free meal for us and to keep me from going grocery shopping with hundreds of people who might have the virus. It was very much appreciated, but not my delicious food. I agree with you that there is nothing like a true homemade meal. The upside of this meal was that she ordered a 14 pound smoked turkey from a local business which made up for the mediocre sides. This was delicious and we appreciated her gift to us.
Yes, I agree that the Whole Foods Christmas Dinner is a thoughtful and appropriate gift this Christmas considering our times.
I just wanted to show it as an example of industrialism we don’t usually think of and the striking difference between industrial and homemade food.