Bowles Rosanna - Coming home: a seasonal guide to creating family traditions: with more than 50 recipes

dedication

To my Mother, my muse, who taught us the importance of family and traditions. You showed us how love is expressed by establishing rituals of caring. To my Father, a savvy New Yorker who opened our world to new and exciting experiences. Also to my dear family, who has shown me unconditional love and supported me in every endeavor.

Published in 2010 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS

Text copyright 2010 by Rosanna Bowles
Photographs copyright 2010 by John Granen, except the photograph on , which is 2010 Henderson Shorter

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bowles, Rosanna.

Coming home : a seasonal guide to creating family traditions / Rosanna Bowles ;
photographs by John Granen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-58479-836-1
eISBN 978-1-61312-126-9
1. Home economics. I. Title.
TX145.B588 2010
640--dc22

2009035981

EDITOR: Jennifer Levesque
DESIGNER: Glenn Gontha | gonthadesign.com
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Tina Cameron

The text of this book was composed in Dear Sarah Pro, Today Sans, and Vista Sans Alternate.

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When I was growing up, our family life revolved around traditions and rituals passed down through the generations. The values my sisters and I learned were based on life lessons that our parents, grandparents, and neighborhood friends learned during their lives. We were fortunate to be raised in a community with many teachers: individuals who helped us navigate the challenges of growing up, getting married, and becoming mothers.

The foundation on which we built our lives was based in the life lessons that these wise and caring people taught us. Unfortunately, this communal support and sense of tradition have all but disappeared from todays world.

Families are scattered across the globe, neighbors no longer take a vested interest in the well-being of one another, and rituals and tradition are widely considered perfunctory obligations to perform without love, enthusiasm, or care, and they often lack any sort of real meaning. Our everyday customs no longer hold the warmth of human connection.

But I want to change that.

In writing this book, I have eagerly complied the recipes, experiences, and life lessons that highlight the beauty and significance of tradition and ritual. I wrote this book as a guide, in the hopes that it will help others recapture and reestablish these soulful life experiences that have faded from our world.

In the course of my career, I have built a business that creates products that encourage interaction over the breaking of bread and for celebrations honoring small, special moments in life such as a childs birthday, a national holiday, or even just a cup of afternoon tea with a neighbor. These are the rituals that infuse our lives with richness and create invaluable human connections.

We face an array of daunting challenges. But by staying focused on the things that are truly important-family, friends, and the care of the hearth and homewe can guarantee ourselves a happy, fulfilling life.

My hope is that this book will encourage you to incorporate the notion of simple pleasures into your daily lives. By capturing and appreciating the beauty that can be found wherever we look, we can take pleasure in lifes small moments of happiness. Enjoy... and come home. Its where everything good begins.

Spring is a season of becoming.

The earth is ready for renewal, and new life bursts forth. The arrival of spring is natures way of reminding us that exhilarating changes are under way and that we are lucky participants in this transformation.

Change is, quite literally, in the air as the fresh breezes of the season blow in through newly open windows. Along with the changes in the weather, spring brings a beautiful, chaotic frenzy of growth and physical transformation. The air is sweeter, trees are in blossom, and a green patina of fresh growth covers the earth. The symbols of rebirth are all around. Dormant plant life begins to come alive again. New babies are born. All of this life makes spring the ideal season to break out of old patterns. This is the time to change old habits and start new ones, to throw tired old ways out and look forward to new possibilities of personal growth. The arrival of a new season encourages us to embark on new adventures.

Spring offers us what we all long for: hope. No matter what our age, the adage Hope springs eternal is relevant.

Plant new flowers or greenery around your home. If you have a garden, position potted plants where you can easily see them from the windows, so you can enjoy them whether youre inside or out. Nurture the new plants and enjoy watching them change with new foliage and blossoming flowers. Because of the care you give plants as they grow, watching a plant flourish can be surprisingly satisfying. If you dont have a garden, buy potted plants that can live indoors. Having something green and alive in the room adds a wonderful hint of nature to an interior.