Food Traditions: Coffee

Happy Friday! To honor the cozy, rainy, fall day in New England, I’m adding a new segment to the blog: Food Traditions. So much of what makes food great is who we share it with and the memories that come from cooking and eating with people we love. I want to share my memories of the food I grew up with. Sometimes you might even get an awesome family recipe. This first article isn’t baby related though many of them to come will involve me sharing my family traditions with C. If you’re here for stories about C or baby friendly recipes, check back next week, there are lots more on their way! I’m starting this series with coffee. Not particularly baby friendly, but arguably (for me at least) an essential for parenting, and in my family a very important tradition. (Check out the link to an awesome iced coffee recipe at the end)

A cup of coffee in my grandmothers china

A cappuccino in a heavy clay mug, washed with sea water and rinsed with fresh. Dark rich coffee, creamy thick foam that sticks to your upper lip, preferably served with blueberry pancakes on the deck of a sailboat, on a morning where the fog is almost as thick as the foam.

French roast, espresso grind, hand dripped through a plastic coffee cone, a splash of thick cream, carried carefully up the stairs and sipped in bed with my mother under the covers staring out at the waters of the bay from the upstairs window.

A cup of dark black coffee, so strong it is almost thick, it’s aroma waking me as my husband gently kisses my head. Drunk quietly, alone in bed, slowly becoming aware of the day.

Cappuccinos prepared in the galley of Morningstar

In my family coffee is love. Seriously, it really is. Bringing someone a cup of coffee on a rainy day at work or a hot cup in bed first thing in the morning is the same thing as saying I love you. My best memories involve coffee. Even before I was drinking it. My mother drinks her first cup black, her second with cream, but in the afternoon, for a treat, it’s cappuccino and she always let me have the foam. As an adult I now know that was true love, because the foam is her favorite part. The first time I accidentally tasted the coffee I thought it was the worst taste in the world. I have since become a convert.

I know the tradition of offering coffee as love extends far beyond my family. I have a particularly beautiful memory of helping my friend pick out the perfect coffee set in Bosnia as a wedding present for his sister. We had been served the thick dark coffee from a similar set a few days before. Coffee has been offered up to me as welcome and sign of friendship everywhere I have traveled.

I promise, he's not really drinking it!

I have no intention of introducing C to coffee any time soon. I do believe that our children should be aware of and involved in the way food and drink play an active role in our lives. The act of making coffee is both peaceful and joyful for me. From the time C was a few months old I have held him on my hip in the morning and talked him through making a cup of coffee. We recently got a vintage percolator and, while I would highly recommend it, most mornings I boil water and drip it through a coffee cone the same way my mother always has. C and I make the first cup for S, but my cup often gets forgotten and takes 2 hours to get made and isn’t drunk until it’s ice cold around 2pm. I’m trying to change that. I want to slow down in the morning. I need my son to see me care for myself. I want to have that first cup of coffee eating breakfast with him while we watch the birds out the window.

Of course, my true end goal in initiating him into the coffee ritual is for him to bring me and S coffee in bed the way I did for my mother, climbing under the covers, snuggling in and chatting about the day to come. The little rituals are important to share with our children. It gives them and us a touch point in our lives and for the day. It is perhaps a lot make so much over a little cup of coffee, but there’s value there. Perhaps it’s not for the kids at all. It’s for us. I hear too often parents talk about how they never finish their coffee. Let’s not let that happen. Take a moment each day to care of yourself in whatever small way makes you smile and let your kids see that. In taking care of yourself you are teaching them how to take care of themselves as an adult. Don’t you hope your child will take a moment in their crazy day to sit down with a cup of coffee? Besides everyone is happier if mom and dad are caffeinated (at least in this house!).

Our first (exhausted) outing after C was born was to my favorite coffee shop

What in your family is that cup of coffee? Maybe it’s pancakes on Sunday morning, maybe it’s eggs cooked a certain way. Starting those traditions now cements them for your children and allows you a little love and stability on this crazy ride.

Below is a link to one of my favorite iced coffee recipes. It was first introduced to me by one of my favorite people. Made in a mason jar it is a fabulous recipe for sharing with a friend. Bring this the next time you’re invited to someone's house and they will love you forever.

Magical Coffee from Food52

Coffee, water, cinnamon, brown sugar, over ice, how can you go wrong? Get the whole recipe here.

(Here is the address in case you have trouble with the link - https://food52.com/recipes/2018-magical-coffee)

Iced coffee and tea, canning jar style