Food and Family gatherings

When your baby attacks their bottle like this you know your kid is going to become a foodie!

Food becomes an important part of your life from the time you are born when you get your first taste of milk in whatever form you get it and then you graduate to baby food and finally to whole solid foods.  During all of these food events you are connected to your parent or a family member for nutrition and at the same time its a bonding experience.  This process continues throughout your whole life in one form or another.  Family meals, family gatherings or even a drive through meal on the way to something.

You never really understand the importance of these little daily occurrences until later in life when they become vivid connected memories.

My family is gone now but I still have sense memories when I see or eat certain foods. Any wonder why we become addicted to foods we shouldn't eat like cake.  We have it at every celebration so the connection is always cake=happy.  How many people do you hear say "I hate cake" yeah, not many.

One of my best friends has a large extended family and he loves to entertain and have family gatherings for important milestone events.  He has a new baby now and has started celebrating his babies monthly anniversaries with a photo and some sort of dessert like a cake or decorated cookie.
His baby is now about 6 months old and he brought his closest family members a Rabbi, myself and one other friend together for a baby naming brunch.  His baby now has a new additional Jewish name and there was a small ceremony performed by the female Rabbi at a small room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.  With about 30 family members present to witness and celebrate the event.

Why am I mentioning this on my food blog?  Well because food was an important piece of the event.
There is wine that is drunk by the father as part of the ceremony and also bread and a prayer with one of the grandparents.  Then there is the huge spread of food for the fabulous brunch and if you think food isn't an important part of an event like this then think of what you remember about the last wedding you went to or the last other family gathering and i bet you remember if the food was good or bad and if there was something that stood out about the food you will remember it.

My friend always has probably about double the amount of food as there is people and he loves to provide a delicious variety of food.

The spread of food at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto was amazing.  There was fresh fruit, lox and bagels and all the fixings, waffles, french toast, bread pudding and even an omelet bar.  I had a reasonable plate full because I was going to another event after this one but I was still so full that I didn't eat much at the next event.

Unfortunately there was a lot of food left and I am always sad when there is too much left that doesn't get eaten when so many people can't afford to eat well in this world but it seems the hotel has liabilities that don't allow them to donate to food banks.  There must be a way to change this process.

My friend also loves to give people little party favours to take home.
On this occasion it was little baby bottles filled with jelly beans.
How cute.  Yes we love these little sweet touches don't we?

Remember the food you have at your family gatherings is more than just food it's a connection to the memories you share with the people in your life.

* Not a sponsored post