Center on Privacy & Technology Staff Picks: Holiday Recipes
The upcoming holidays are on the minds of the Center on Privacy & Technology staff. We are a team of people who care deeply about community and the meals that bring us together. As a holiday gift, we offer you some of our favorite holiday recipes, and the stories behind them, to inspire your own meals. Happy eating!
Mac and Cheese
When I think about Thanksgiving, I always think about mac and cheese. In my southern family, mac and cheese is the star of the show and you must meet a number of credentials before you sign up to bring the dish. A couple of years ago, I was looking to update my mac and cheese recipe and ran across this YouTube video. I tested the recipe on myself and my friends and we all agreed it was one of the best we’ve ever tried. I share this video with you, so you too can bring the star to your dinner table.
–Associate Korica Simon
Thanksgiving Leftovers Egg Bake
The cookbook is splattered with gravy and grease spots and my aunt watches me take a picture of the recipe. “Your grandpa made this recipe up,” she says to me. I tell her, “This is what I look forward to every year!” “Really?!” is her response, “not the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, lime jello (a story for another time), rolls, cranberry pudding, or pumpkin pie cake (yes, CAKE, another recipe for another time)?” “Those are all delicious, but THIS is my favorite holiday recipe.”
We throw it together from the leftovers as we are bunched up in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner and eat it the morning AFTER Thanksgiving. My extended family and I are all in our casual, cozy clothes hanging out at the table, maybe a sports game is on the tv, a half-played card game is scattered around, a crisp day outside. On a rack, the fancy dishes are drying from the dinner the night before. People come through the kitchen, grab a plate of the steaming egg bake and perch where they can to eat it — the leftover stuffing flavors reminding you of the memories we made the night before gathered around the table sharing our gratitude.
–Deputy Director Katie Evans
(Not Just in) Chicago Buona Beef
Cooking has never really been a source of tradition in the Foster family. When I was young, my mom worked fairly long hours as a banker and my dad, while proud to be in the minority of male homemakers, was far more adept at caregiving than preparing elaborate meals for four children (this is no slight against my dad–the 1990s was the decade of junk food and saw the rise of fast-casual). We departed from our usual fare of Pizza Night, Taco Night, and Spaghetti Night during the holidays, but Midwestern classics–heavy on the dairy, light on the flavor–still dominated.
Our holiday gatherings shrunk when my family moved from Chicago to the New York suburbs, and with fewer mouths to feed, we decided to drop all pretenses of any duty, let alone desire, to cook a mediocre feast. At the same time, we missed our roots! So we took the opportunity to start a new tradition: embracing the advent of online ordering to ship our favorite Chicago delicacy 700 miles across the country. If you were among the millions who watched “The Bear” this past summer, then you can guess what that delicacy is. Over the past decade, my family has assembled in kitchens across the East Coast–from Larchmont, NY to Philadelphia, PA, to Charlotte, NC– to worship at the altar of Buona Beef.
If your family (or friends or whoever you spend time with during the holiday season), like mine, cedes cooking to some other love language, consider this instant recipe, handled by experts: the Buona Beef Italian Beef Sandwich Kit,* complete–as any good Chicago Italian beef should be–with French bread rolls and hot giardiniera.
*Our devotion to Buona Beef stems from monthly (alright, possibly weekly) trips to the North Avenue location in Oak Park, Illinois, but Portillo’s and Al’s Beef loyalists need not fear–shipping Chicago eats is apparently a big business.
–Justice Fellow Meg Foster
Bengali Chana Masala
Growing up in a multiracial and cultural household meant that our family created new holiday traditions much different from our friends’ and relatives’ festivities. Every Thanksgiving meal was more of a boisterous potluck than a traditional sit-down affair. Our invite list is ever-changing to include friends, neighbors, extended family, and sometimes strangers with nowhere else to go. Each year’s table varies to reflect the guests but one thing always remains the same: our turkey breast (never a full bird) sits between platters of samosas, vegetarian stuffing, candied yams, pakoras, and ham. Plates were dressed with both gravy and tamarind chutney, the last drops soaked up with freshly baked rolls and naan. Our hodgepodge Thanksgiving meals are one of my favorite childhood memories because they feel representative of all my family stands for: good food, care, and love. Our guests taught me the importance of community, breaking bread with your neighbors, coming together across differences, and how to savor every bite and moment of a meal cooked for you by loved ones. To this day, I will always choose a messy flavorful plate over a beautiful bland one. This chana masala recipe, similar to my mother’s staple recipe that I grew up eating on holidays and weekdays alike, will make your plate flavorful and fragrant. I recommend you try something new this holiday season, it might stick as a new tradition for your family for generations to come!
–Communications Associate Serena Zets
