Foods that become family traditions for no reason - what are yours?

[IHeartKingThistle]

DS is 16 today, and I’m in the kitchen making the three things he always asks for on his birthday - Nigella’s Nutella cheesecake, feta and herb mini filo pies from the Good Food website (random) and Betty Crocker Devil’s Food cake mix made into cupcakes with chocolate icing and topped with those Aero mint bubble things.

I can’t remember how any of them became his traditional ‘birthday foods’ but they’re what he wants and I only ever make them on his birthday! (I am not such an attentive mother the rest of the year, I’ll be honest ).

Are there random foods that you always end up making for certain occasions in your family?

My dad has been having spaghetti and meatballs on his birthday for the last 50 off years.

Growing up, my Mother always made ham salad including potato salad on Christmas Eve.
For many years, Mum and I would go up to visit her Mother in Northumberland in the summer holidays. We would go by coach from Victoria coach station to Newcastle, in those days it took about twelve hours for the journey starting at 8am. But we had set off from home in deepest darkest Kent a few hours before that.
Once the coach got underway, we would have our second breakfast, this was always home made egg mayonnaise sandwiches.
Even today, all these years later, the taste of egg mayonnaise still has a hint of "going on holiday" excitement to it.

My now-adult DCs always ask for a chocolate cake from the same Mary Berry recipe for birthdays. I've baked dozens of them.

For New Year's Eve I do a bunch of different bruschetta on home-made bread - smoked salmon, prosciutto, anchovies etc - served with cheese and grapes. I can even remember when that started.

Every year I make a red velvet cake for my DD on her birthday. When she was little, she genuinely wasn’t into eating the cake itself but always liked the tradition of blowing out candles and so on. I kept trying different flavors to find one she liked and finally red velvet with cream cheese frosting was it.

DS always has an entire batch of pancakes for breakfast on his birthday.

Yes! It’s not Christmas without Delia’s truffle torte.

Ours is sweetcorn with Christmas dinner.

I once made an attempt at a Thanksgiving dinner one year so we could pretend we were joining in with our relatives having theirs several thousand miles away in the States, and I discovered that I really liked turkey with sweetcorn. They go really nicely together, and I've served it with our Christmas turkey every since.

Christmas eve meal in a diner at a truck stop attached to cheap airport hotel. I actually look forward to it

Nana’s get well soup if you are poorly in our house. It’s my grandmothers lentil soup recipe full of onions, garlic and ginger. Kids weren’t fans till I told them my Mum made it for me when I was poorly and her mum made it for her. They now ask for it and say they will make it for their own kids when they’re poorly!

Nana’s lemon curd whenever I’ve made merengue.

My Nana was a good cook!!

My lovely Mum made the most amazing stuffing which we had as children and I cooked for my children.
I always serve upGrandmas stuffing when we all occasionally have a full roast .
Also a family joke that I always cook vol au vents for any family get together,oh and selection box at Christmas for the children..all adults now!

Rice pudding with an almond in, and Delia parmesan crusted fish with Delia chips for Christmas Eve dinner.
The DCs and DH always have a Colin cake for their birthdays (I prefer something else but it varies).

Now I want to make a birthday cake!

Spaghetti bolognese that my late mum used to make. Plus the puff pastry, bacon and cheese turnover. Both we make regularly and for special occasions.

Home made peking duck pancakes and Hoisin near New Year.

Eggy bread for my birthday breakfast, not sure when that started!

Love this thread!

Jacket potatoes, sausages, and baked beans on Bonfire Night.
Lentil soup on Christmas Eve (usually cooked and frozen in advance).
"European Breakfast" on birthdays (fresh bread, hard boiled eggs, cured meat, tomatoes).

When I was younger and had been poorly I would always ask for cocktail sausages, flat lemonade and party ring biscuits! So now even being a adult and a mum of 2 my mum will still buy me these things when I am poorly

Christmas Eve is always Nigella ham in cola, egg and chips, I think there’d be a riot if I’d tried to change it now.

My birthday breakfast is always cook-from-frozen pastries.

My mum’s usual Boxing Day breakfast is leftover trifle.

Love traditions like this, and hearing about other peoples’.

Love this

We have macaroni with Christmas dinner. My mum was a post war baby and they had it as a filler part of a Sunday dinner. We've kept the tradition in memory of her.

I spent years making Italian Christmas Dinner on 25th and English on 31st December. I felt it was my cultural duty to give the DC both but now they go off to NYE parties and we keep DDog calm and safe at home, away from the fireworks. End of palaver..

Play dates with dinner we always had breaded chicken.
DC1’s birthday cake is the most unusual Viennetta I can find. Aero chocolate and hazelnut flavour are memorable ones.
DC2 loves wonky meringues with “toffee” inside, so I make them like that on purpose now.
DH is pathetically grateful for homemade cakes, especially jam tart!

For visitors I get the tea set out and we do the English Tea Ceremony “One lump or two, Mrs. Nesbit?”

I remember the excellent sound it made when it popped.

Baked Camembert with home made breadsticks, pigs in blankets and anything else that tastes good covered in melted cheese -,Christmas Eve lunch

Oh you’ve reminded me - yes that twist on the angle and then the satisfying pop… and the knowledge that you were only 15 minutes away from heaven!

They were a Saturday treat for me and my mum.
We used to make a milky coffee and eat our croissants. We were so cool. 😎