For anyone who continues the annual tradition of mailing Christmas cards, it’s also associated with the bittersweet responsibility of updating address lists to remove the names of loved ones who have died each year.
On Sept. 8, my dad, Chester, lost his sister, Loretta, 93, who lived near Sarasota, Florida. Now, of the nine Potempa children, my dad, at age 91 being the youngest, and his sister Wanda, 94, who lives in Chicago, still remain.
Around 1976, Auntie Loretta and Uncle Ed (who were also my godparents) sold their home in Wheaton, Illinois, to move to Largo, Florida, and later, relocated to a home closer to Sarasota to be closer to sons Ronny and Ricky. By 1992, another of dad’s sisters, my Auntie Lottie, and her husband, my Uncle Swede, had sold their Indiana farm and also retired to the same Florida locale.
Our Florida family visits through the decades included trips to the beach, many amusement adventures at Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Busch Gardens, and in later years, even a bit of chance-of-luck fun at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa.
Whether it was traveling and vacationing in their large RV or reveling amid the orange and grapefruit citrus trees in their backyard or her love of gardening and landscaping for Auntie Loretta’s picture-perfect yard, my childhood memories associated with Auntie Loretta and Uncle Ed still make me smile.
The last 20 years transitioned from summer vacation visits to seeing our Florida aunts and uncles during our annual December jaunts with my parents for just weeklong yearly escapes from Indiana winters. This time of year, it would always seem unusually beautiful and odd to marvel at both Auntie Lottie and Uncle Swede and Auntie Loretta and Uncle Ed being able to grow their own blooming and vivid red large poinsettias along their walkway gardens and planters around their homes.
And as with any family, not every trip brought blessings.
Uncle Swede, Auntie Lottie’s husband of nearly 55 years, died in November 1997 at age 74 just a week from his birthday, and then Uncle Ed died in February 2007 just two months shy of his 83rd birthday. And as I write this column today, on Dec. 17, it was on this day in 2011 during our annual December Florida visit that Auntie Loretta and Uncle Ed’s always-smiling and all-around-good-guy son, my cousin Ronny, died in his sleep. My dad was Ronny’s godfather and Auntie Lilly was his godmother. He was just 59, and his heart simply stopped. Now, Ronny is once again reunited with his beloved parents.
Family meals and family memories, whether at home or when traveling, share a cherished connection of family fellowship, which lives on for years and generations. Included in my first cookbook published in 2004 is Auntie Lilly’s recipe for her Swiss steak, which was a favorite of her sister Loretta’s during her visits with Uncle Ed to the farm. Auntie Loretta and Uncle Ed’s wedding day photo, with my dad as best man, is featured on the back cover of the book jacket of my fourth cookbook “Back From the Farm” released last Christmas.
Today’s recipe is for an easy and clever holiday cocktail I devised to toast at Christmastime the spirit of loved ones we have lost. The inspiration for this Sugar Plum Martini comes from Clement Clarke Moore’s famous 1823 poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and the verse describing children “nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Phil’s Sugar Plum Martini
4 ice cubes
1 ounce vanilla vodka
2 ounces sloe gin
1 ounce prune juice
Splash of ginger ale
Raisins for garnish
Sugar for rim garnish (optional)
Directions:
1. In shaker or pitcher, combine ice with vodka gin and prune juice. Shake or mix well.
2. Add ginger ale and mix, adjusting amount to suit taste.
3. Chill martini glass or glasses and if desired wet rim of glass and add a sugar rim garnish.
4. Serve with additional ice in glasses, if desired, adding a cocktail skewer of raisins.
5. Makes 2 cocktails.
