Yesterday, I was standing on line at BWI airport, waiting to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale. I was with my husband John, AKA the Latvian bread Nazi. The flight was two hours late. I was in a somewhat sad and distracted mood.
We were on our way to Fort Lauderdale to my mother’s house, for what will probably be our last family holiday/celebration there. My mother’s health has been iffy this year. Independent living has become a problem, and her house is for sale. A time of transition for our family.
So I was standing in the Southwest line waiting to board thinking thoughts more glum than excited even though we were heading towards sunny weather when I spotted a cheerful looking guy, also on line, wearing a red shirt and carrying a very large cake.
I chatted him up and learned his name is Ed. His wife is Brenda, and it is Brenda’s dad, 76 year old Willis Hughes of Elida, Ohio who made the cake, following a cherished family recipe.
It’s a fruit cake, topped with pecans and cherries and infused with lots and lots of brandy–when Ed removed the top of the cake dish so we could get a better look at the cak, the fragrance of Brandy wafted from the cake and tickled our noses. Each cake takes Willis four to six hours to make and he makes a bunch of them every Christmas to be enjoyed by family members–the cakes are big and they get divvied up. They also get transported, as Ed and Brenda were doing, taking this one to Fort Meyers where it would be shared with cousins and friends. Willis’s secret for a fabulous fruit cake: He soaks cheese clothe in a whole cup of brandy, then drapes the cake with the brandy infused clothe and lets it sit for 24 hours. As a result his cake stays moist and naughtily alcoholic.
Being in the presence of the cheerful and excited Ed and Brenda and hearing the story of their family cake made so lovingly year after year by Brenda’s Dad, filled me with this wonderful feeling about ordinary people’s capacity to muddle through sad times and hard times with the help oftheir traditions and rituals and the love and laughter of their family and friends.
To me being a foodie is an almost holy thing. The beautiful food — and beautiful coffee — we make and share with each other at this time of year and every time of year expresses our gratitude and our reverence for life.
Here’s Ed holding his father-in-law’s cake. I wish them and all my friends a beautiful holiday and peace on earth.
