Paul Whitnell
SHARING CHRISTMAS FAMILY CHRISTMASES IN CORK
W
e hope that you carefully read your Christmas edition of NetWorks last year, and diligently created your own Christmas Pudding from scratch on stir-up Sunday! If you did you will be in for a treat, and we hope that anyone who has attempted the Watkins recipe enjoys it. Christmas and food are inexorably entwined for most of us. Celebrations need good, rich, indulgent food, and whether you are celebrating the birth
of Jesus, the gathering of family, or the end of the year, Christmas is certainly an important celebration. We all have traditions associated with the time of year, often passed down through families. As a Cork-born lad, I, like many of my compatriots, were used to large family celebrations. Dining tables heaving with excellent and carefully prepared foods, rickety chairs that were gathered from sheds and attics, loud conversations, and louder laughter.
Every year I waited with anticipation and curiosity to see if I would be deemed old enough to end up at the ‘adult’ table. I regretfully remember that I was a good deal older than I thought necessary before I was granted that honour! My mammy was an excellent cook and baker, and she had the family recipe book. As a result, the heavy responsibility of creating the Whitnell family Christmas cakes fell to her each year. Uncles and aunts, cousins and more would all want
I HAVE VIVID MEMORIES OF MAMMY IN THE KITCHEN, DANCING AROUND WITH HER BIG WOODEN SPOON AND HUGE CREAM MIXING BOWL.
