Day Six: Make

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

==================================================
I make many things. I make the bed, make coffee, make up my mind, make sense of life, make love, make dinner (not necessarily in that order). Recently though, I made a souffle -- and while that may not sound reverb10 worthy, I think that it is. The event was a Thanksgiving potluck at my fiance's office. We signed up to bring sweet potatoes. Now, in my four-and-a-half decades on this earth, I have cooked sweet potatoes in many different ways - candied, smothered in marshmallows, savory - with onions, black pepper and ginger, whipped, chopped and sliced. This year, however, I decided that my sweet potatoes needed to reflect the culture of my new home - Hawaii. In many ways, I have fought becoming a part of the culture here - with all of the asian fusion foods and Polynesian influence - so I decided to try to incorporate a little bit of Hawaii into my sweet potato dish.

As most of my research begins, I typed in www.google.com to see what concoctions the Mighty Internet might provide. I found dozens of different sweet potato casserole recipes - many which would have sent me into anaphylactic shock with their use of pecans and walnuts - but eventually my eye landed on this: Sweet Potato Pineapple Souffle. PERFECT, I thought! Doubling the recipe to allow for the masses of Army, Marine and civilian diners, I set out to buy five pounds of sweet potatoes, two pounds of butter, a pound of crushed pineapple, half a dozen eggs, brown sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Two hours later, a gorgeous souffle was pulled from the oven. After the drive across town to the base, it joined the dessert table and within minutes, ooohs and aaaahs were emanating from the room. The dish was a huge hit and, despite the odd sounding combination, it was DELISH if I don't mind saying so myself.

In addition to proving that the new gal in the group can cook, the making of the souffle served a deeper purpose for me: it taught me that holiday traditions are what we make them and they can be modified to suit our current situation without the earth tipping off its axis. It also taught me that unlikely pairings often make for delightful surprises!