Dani Jewell

Professor Miller

Eng 110 H5

24 February 2019

Soul in the Sole

On December 28th every year my friends and family all hate me. All 364 other days in the year, the gasses escaping my body are minimized, and I am not nearly as high maintenance. This is the special day that my favorite meal is made yearly. Sole with white wine butter sauce, green noodles and a side of broccoli has one of the utmost salty and savory tastes. Delectable and creamy, the sauce is as satisfying to taste as it is to watch a wave wash up on soft sand under your toes standing next to a lake at sunset. But, oh, the pungent aromas it causes!

Aside from the methane gases burning their eyes the entire day after we eat the meal for dinner, this meal causes an inconvenience to the people I love in nearly every way you can imagine. First off, the fish itself isn’t in the market during winter. Next, the salty and savory taste of the sauce takes hours of time commitment. Not to mention the fact we are picky eaters. These are among many of the reasons this meal is only made once a year. Through all the inconveniences this meal makes for my family, my favorite meal shows my family’s love for each other as a priority in all of our lives.

Both financially and to our olfactory senses, sole is not cheap. Sole, is a filleted fish that is the first part of my favorite meal. Its soft white flaky inside compliment the buttery crunchy layer on the outside. These wonderful tastes come at a cost however. In fact, it’s not even an “in season fish” in late December at local grocery stores; my mom special orders it at a local seafood restaurant. In addition to the time restraints, as well as monetary, the smell inconveniences everyone. Just to avoid World War III in my house over the smells my Dad boils off cinnamon for days to follow December 28th to mask the stench without using febreze. The hoops my family goes through for just the fish alone is enough to drive my family never to make this, yet they tolerate the troubles to make me happy.  

The next nuisance my family puts up with for me is their time commitment to sit down to eat together for my favorite meal. Sitting down to eat as a family has always been very important to us despite our busy schedules.

In our kitchen, past the full Jewell art gallery of handmade artwork on every cabinet circa 2008, lies our family calendar. Measuring to two and a half feet in length, there’s ink and highlights on every single day for at least one person until about five months out;  every member of the household even has their own separate column.

In just the summer alone between the five of us there’s ten jobs, two sports, one neighbor’s cat to feed, and so much more, making eating dinner as “one big happy family” nearly impossible to juggle as well. Even if that means moving dinner to “linner”–lunch/dinner–4:30pm or to 8pm for everyone or most of us to eat at the same time was crucial. During December around the holidays everyone’s schedules are blocked out to be home for my favorite meal. As my mom puts it, “well I mean it’s always hard to cook for a busy family. This is not a meal that can wait around for someone to have as leftovers. It’s one that everyone has to sit down and eat at the same time.” Any time we couldn’t sit down as a family we would leave the last person leftovers for the next day when I was growing up, but it never felt the same as eating a fresh meal next to everyone. Just blocking out the time in everyone’s schedules for my favorite meal is prioritizing how much we mean to each other.

In addition to the difficulties of getting my family all together at once, my favorite meal flavors another hardship to my family of picky eaters. It’s hard enough to get us all to eat at the same time, let alone find something we all like, however sole with white wine butter sauce and green noodles with the side of broccoli is the harmony my family needs. This is one of the only meals that no one makes themselves any side meals of mac n cheese or suffers through a burnt piece of toast as a replacement. Everyone in our house at least enjoys a part of this dish. My mother herself can never fully remember each individual’s preferences when I asked her why she thinks I like the meal and responded, “I don’t really know! Do you like the fish or the sauce? Ginny basically just eats the sauce and the noodles. Or does she eat the fish? No. Wait. Or is it Kate? One of you just eats it without the fish.” Even though not everyone eats all the inclusive parts of the meal, finding a dish that everyone eats at least a part of is as rare as finding an old mismatched sock’s mate in my house. With a family of such picky eaters, sole goes to show how much commitment my family is putting into making me happy.

My favorite meal unites my family more and more each December 28th. November 1st begins the countdown of anticipation. Soon to follow it’s T minus thirty one days. My heart begins to race with excitement as the candles and nutcrackers begin to sparkle in each window. Fourteen to go and I can feel the crunch of the warm sole between my teeth. Seven to go and I’m nearly drooling on myself thinking of the buttery sauce on top of the noodles. Yet the anticipation of my favorite meal is not just about the flavors. It’s the fact that this day is about me, myself and I. No Dani “clean this”. No “drive me here”. No “cover this shift”. There is no “Dani Do This List” the day of my favorite meal. Because my family goes through every challenge to make sure I have no work to do that day and that the meal is perfect, I know how much I mean to them.

Sole with white wine butter sauce, green noodles and a side of broccoli used to be just a meal that tasted good and a victory in finding something we all liked. I now know it means so much more to my family. My mom first found the recipe in a cook book as a beginner to cooking class with her maiden name still written in the cover– nearly thirty years ago.

Over time making this meal for our family has changed her views on the meal as she describes making it over the years. “Now it is a labor of love. Before it was about trying something new!” For her, this meal used to be about going against the ordinary. Now it shows our daily selfless acts of love for one another with this one special occasion each year. They all put their hearts and souls into being at my birthday dinner on time, with everything prepped starting at 6:00am. Since my older sister moved out, I went to college, and my little sister Kate got her license, it’s been rare we all eat together anymore. The white fish and green noodles I used to despise as a kid are now heartwarming reminders of how loved I am through all the inconveniences I cause my family and their willingness to look past them to make me happy. There’s 331 days to go until the next bite and this time around I can’t wait to smell the fish.