Bread and Cookies Smell like Christmas
“Jingle bells jingle bells, jingle all the way”… Christmas cheerful songs, the big green trees, the sparkle Christmas lights; and the delicious smell of tamales are part of the most special holiday around the world, but in my family my grandma added one more special dessert: some bakery that she prepared secretly with all her love and we used to eat in Christmas day every year.
In a pleasant and sunny place called Villa de San Antonio in Comayagua, very hardworking people wake up daily to work and make their routine activities specially women who take care of children and keep their houses neat and very organized. Every year, my nice and sweet grandmother was waiting for Christmas to spend time with her lovely family. She was exceptional at cooking. She used to organize the kitchen and made delicious food. She made appetizing traditional food when family visited her and that was one of the reasons people love staying with her. Her favorite place was the warm and homey kitchen where she used to make up new dishes, sometimes when she cooked she seasoned food with aromatic ingredients and they ended in really savory dishes such as spicy and warm tamales, creamy sweet torrejas and bread. Meanwhile, cooking, she expressed the love for her relatives and neighbors around her.
Moreover at Christmas, her favorite snacks to cook were crunchy chocolate chip cookies and melty glazed bread. In the morning placed on the comfy kitchen, she was preparing her yummy snacks alone and never said the secret of these delicious recipes. I remember all of this and I am craving for little pieces of cookies or a slice of bread. My family and some friends enjoyed the aroma of freshly baked homemade bread in my grandma’s kitchen; however, she tried to hide the bread in her bedroom and all over the house you smelled whatever she made and my cousins used to find it. Unfortunately, her secrets and recipes never were discovered.
Finally as a tradition, when the snacks were baked, she asked for some volunteers to taste just a piece of bread and one cookie, but she asked the children who had a good behavior during the whole year. They gave opinions about the texture of the bread or the flavor of the cookies. The next group to taste the special recipe were my mother and her brothers. This time they were asked to remember the best and worst moments they had lived during the whole year and also they expressed what they had learned. The next group to taste her cookies were our close lovely elderly neighbors whom were waiting patiently to taste my grandma’s recipes, they used to say “the dessert”. Tasting the cookies we spent some time to share our lives during the year
Our lives without my dear grandma Conchita are quite different because we miss her company and definitely her food. When I visit bakery shops, I smell many kind of cookies and I have bought some of them but neither the bread nor the cookies taste or smell like my grandmas. Every Christmas my brothers and I remember her dancing while she was cooking in the kitchen or when she was taking off the snacks from the countryside oven, we just keep those memories in our heart.
Nowadays, we buy cookies and bread and eat them to celebrate these holidays in her honor. Therefore my family and I enjoy Christmas in town preparing with joy this special time. Usually people cook recipes and prepare everything to share with friends at midnight. This is a different night from other ones because we celebrate Jesus birthday and at the same time we remember those special moments that we shared with our relatives in the past.
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