Obama family recipe
For the fortunate, one of the magical aspects of Christmas is the comfortingly predictable way each family comes together to celebrate the holiday -- no matter what has happened during the year.
Grandma might bake a superthin version of mince meat pie on a cookie sheet (to stretch the filling, of course!) or an uncle might deep fry a turkey out in the yard. The idiosyncrasies of these food traditions often remain a wonderful constant in a world where change -- both good and bad -- is the only constant you can bank on.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
So it may come as no surprise to hear that Michelle Obama, the wife of Illinois' newly elected U.S. senator, is not altering her family's Christmas routine this year, despite Barack Obama's stunning entry onto the national political stage. Some people may suggest Barack Obama has the stuff to become the country's first African-American president, but his family still will be celebrating Christmas their special way.
That means the day will remain a relatively low-key family affair, Michelle said in a recent telephone interview. Oh yes, but there's just one thing -- to make us chilly Chicagoans green with envy -- the location will be Hawaii, as always.
Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas-born mother, was partly raised in Hawaii by his Midwestern grandparents. So, Michelle said, the family will spend the holiday in Honolulu with Barack's Kansan grandmother, 82-year-old Madeline Dunham.
On Christmas morning, the Obamas and their two young girls will enjoy a home-cooked Midwestern-inspired breakfast in the two-bedroom Honolulu apartment where Barack once lived with his grandmother. Obama's grandmother used to make the meal, but these days Obama's sister and Michelle usually find themselves in the galley kitchen.
The meal is not fancy, Michelle said. Eggs are scrambled quickly and Michelle opts for pancake mix from a box because from-scratch takes too long. And Barack and Michelle's children, Malia, 6, and Sasha, 3, don't seem to notice the difference.
"It's a big Midwestern breakfast -- bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes and everything with a lot of butter," Michelle said. "It's incredibly casual. We're in flip-flops, shorts and T-shirts and it's 80 degrees."
After breakfast, it's off to the beach for the afternoon. In the evening, the family usually goes out to dinner at a nice restaurant.
The unconventional nature of their Christmas is very different from the Thanksgivings and Christmas meals that Michelle grew up enjoying with her family on the South Side. Orchestrated by Michelle's mother, these meals might include a turkey with oyster dressing, macaroni and cheese casserole, string beans, greens, gravy and cranberry sauce. The menu often entails a delicious turkey cooked to perfection in a paper bag, she said.
Though Michelle enjoys a good spread, she said she usually gets her fill of the heavy stuff while home in Chicago on Thanksgiving. Hawaii's heat, she said, doesn't really lend itself to such fare.
The Obama family's lack of preoccupation with Christmas eating mirrors the role that food plays in the Obama's everyday life. "None of us are huge eaters," Michelle said, noting that she considers reading books at bedtime to be their more significant family time. Dinner time is basically about making sure the kids get some vegetables, Michelle said.
When it comes to entertaining in their Hyde Park home, the Obamas, it seems, are play date-ready, she said. "But as far as entertaining, if you want to sit down for a meal, we're coming over to your house," she said.
Still, both Michelle and Barack appreciate well-prepared food and Michelle, a former corporate lawyer who now works as executive director of community affairs for University of Chicago Hospitals, looks forward to a day when she'll have time to hone her cooking skills.
For now, she said Barack can make a tasty omelet. And Michelle said she cooks up a mean linguine dish made with shrimp, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes that her husband loves. She also has tinkered with her mother's macaroni and cheese casserole recipe. Inspired by a television food show, she has increased the variety of cheeses to the dish and figured out a way to avoid dirtying a second pot to make the cream sauce.
Michelle said she often makes a tray of the cheese casserole for holiday events. But alas, Barack doesn't share her wife and older daughter's passion for the dish.
"Barack doesn't like cheese," Michelle said with a laugh. "We don't know where he came from."
Maura Webber Sadovi is a Chicago-based free lance writer.