On Secret Family Recipes
Oct. 14th, 2006 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, someone made a comment stating that they don't really get the point of Secret Family Recipes.
Well, they're cool. That's enough right there.
I have knowledge of three Secret Family Recipes, and, of course, I'm not going to betray any of those secrets, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss them.
The first one, of course, is Auntie Debbie's Chocolate Dream Pie, aka, "Chokklit Pah." It's very easy to make, which is one of the reasons it's a secret -- if y'all knew how easy it is to throw together, you'd be nowhere near impressed with it when I do make it.
The second is chicken soup. ALL good chicken soup recipes are family secrets. I don't know why. They just are. My recipe is actually my own Secret Chicken Soup Recipe, which takes ideas from the Secret Chicken Soup recipes of my mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother-in-law. The stuff's pretty good, but I'm not going to count it as a real Secret Chicken Soup recipe until I perfect it, which will take another couple of years. I'm getting close, though.
The third recipe is a cordial, a specialty of my in-laws, and it's amazing. It's called, for lack of a better name, "Mountain Dew", but, instead of being the raw moonshine which that name implies, it's a dark, sweet, almost syrupy cordial with a deceptively potent kick. It can be sipped, but is also very good over ice cream. It is a secret family recipe of my in-laws. It is their secret family recipe in the same sense that the tombs of his ancestors are General Stanley's ancestors in Pirates of Penzance:
Just as the Major-General assumed a responsibility to maintain the honor of his ancestors when he obtained the manor house which contained them, my in-laws assumed a responsibility to maintain the secrecy of the secret family recipe when they took possession of the property which contained them. I don't know whose secret family recipe it was, but we know whose secret family recipe it is, and I shudder to think that we would break the secret.
Well, they're cool. That's enough right there.
I have knowledge of three Secret Family Recipes, and, of course, I'm not going to betray any of those secrets, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss them.
The first one, of course, is Auntie Debbie's Chocolate Dream Pie, aka, "Chokklit Pah." It's very easy to make, which is one of the reasons it's a secret -- if y'all knew how easy it is to throw together, you'd be nowhere near impressed with it when I do make it.
The second is chicken soup. ALL good chicken soup recipes are family secrets. I don't know why. They just are. My recipe is actually my own Secret Chicken Soup Recipe, which takes ideas from the Secret Chicken Soup recipes of my mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother-in-law. The stuff's pretty good, but I'm not going to count it as a real Secret Chicken Soup recipe until I perfect it, which will take another couple of years. I'm getting close, though.
The third recipe is a cordial, a specialty of my in-laws, and it's amazing. It's called, for lack of a better name, "Mountain Dew", but, instead of being the raw moonshine which that name implies, it's a dark, sweet, almost syrupy cordial with a deceptively potent kick. It can be sipped, but is also very good over ice cream. It is a secret family recipe of my in-laws. It is their secret family recipe in the same sense that the tombs of his ancestors are General Stanley's ancestors in Pirates of Penzance:
MABEL. Oh, Frederic, cannot you, in the calm excellence of your wisdom, reconcile it with your conscience to say something that will relieve my father's sorrow?
FRED. I will try, dear Mabel. But why does he sit, night after night, in this draughty old ruin?
GEN. Why do I sit here? To escape from the pirates' clutches, I described myself as an orphan; and, heaven help me, I am no orphan! I come here to humble myself before the tombs of my ancestors, and to implore their pardon for having brought dishonour on the family escutcheon.
FRED. But you forget, sir, you only bought the property a year ago, and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry.
GEN. Frederic, in this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what, I have no doubt, was an unstained escutcheon.
Just as the Major-General assumed a responsibility to maintain the honor of his ancestors when he obtained the manor house which contained them, my in-laws assumed a responsibility to maintain the secrecy of the secret family recipe when they took possession of the property which contained them. I don't know whose secret family recipe it was, but we know whose secret family recipe it is, and I shudder to think that we would break the secret.