Nostalgia foods at Christmas

My grandmother, now 91, would trim pieces of carrots and celery so fine and uniform for a Christmas appetizer, they looked mass-produced. This preciously prepared crudite was served on a crystal plate with a side of decanted, bottled Green Goddess dressing, Seven Seas brand. A person could have made it from scratch, but she did not. My grandmother might have aimed high about trimming vegetables, but she loathed cooking. Of course, it didn’t matter. The tangy, jaw-tingling dip is the thing I remember most about family Christmas meals. The rest of the spread, turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce, were still a pale imitation to pizza. But the little dish of veggies and their pale green partner I could get behind. Somehow I knew they were there just for me.

Green Goddess is not easy to find these days, but it’s still made by Kraft, which bought Seven Seas and maintains the company’s name as a subhead on the dressing’s label. It’s creamy, herby and carries a backdrop of savoriness, imparted by its signature secret ingredient, anchovy. Green Goddess is one of my favorite retro foods, and one that I’ll be bringing back this Christmas, along with trimmed celery and carrots that will most certainly fall short of my grandmother’s perfection.

Merry Christmas!