Day of the Dead

A few years ago, the kids and I started something similar to the Day of the Dead. It wasn't the splashy make-up and candy holiday but rather a meal where we remembered who had passed. The meal is planned by taking into account what those members of our family would like.

Here are some photos from this year's meal.

These skull candies are the closest thing to keeping with a more Mexican theme. The one had black garlic and caramel while the other had dulce de leche. It turns out the garlic one was a hit amongst all of us.

A chocolate cake mix doctored with buttermilk and glazed with dollar store jam with a touch of orange blossom water to make it taste a little more like wild strawberries (a hint from Herve This). 

This is for my kids' grandmother. She was of French stock and her claim to fame was tourtiere. We knew she was getting ill when her pie started tasting off. I wrote a little bit more about the memory for Mother's Day.

Fish. My Dad's favourite. This was rainbow trout. Fishing was also his favourite thing to do and he drowned while ice fishing. 

And a Polish lager. The type of beer my Dad would drink. This day is about memories, good and bad and keeping interest in their lives, as they lived them. There is something about the continuation of a story well told. 

I like the idea of keeping memories alive through food. Food creates such strong memory and this gives us a little bit of time to reflect and recollect.