In the law, stare decisis rules. Precedent cases are favorably looked upon as guides for answering legal questions and building legal arguments. So too do personal and family traditions guide what we do in our lives from week to week. For example, Sunday at my house growing up was an interesting day for food and family fun, especially during football season. The first games would start at noon and so by that time we had to be home from church, fed and ready to cheer for our favorite team. Because my mom cooked most other nights of the week, my dad sometimes took over food prep duties for Sunday brunch. He often made interesting combinations like pigs in a blanket (pancake wrapped sausages) or eggs in the hole (slices of toast with holes cut in them where a fried egg was cooked). If the creative juices weren't cooking, we had the trusty standby of bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes.
Often times legal precedent doesn't exactly fit the situation at hand, or the time has come to mold those traditional ways to better fit a changing society. This is also true of what happens in the kitchen as we move out of the nest and start building our own repertoire of recipes - often from the same building blocks our family used. Recently I really started working on my little pots of herbs growing on the patio and wanted to incorporate these flavorful gems into some classic Sunday dishes. To cut down on some calories, I made turkey bacon instead of pork bacon. I also made pancakes from a simple recipe using Bisquick like we always did at home, but on top of those I used a bit of butter to hold in some sprigs of orange mint, and served 100% maple syrup straight from New York. It all made for a pretty presentation and a uniquely delicious stack of hot cakes! Scrambled eggs are one of the first things that many people learn how to cook, but few are taught that they can add items to the eggs to make them taste even better. I made my eggs by cracking them into a bowl and then using a fork I whisked them together with a splash or two of milk (for fluffiness) and a few tablespoons of chopped basil leaves (for flavor) before adding them to the pan to be scrambled. I don't think my dad even likes basil, so I'm pretty sure this isn't something we would have tried at home.
Family traditions and legal precedent serve their purposes well. They lead us and guide us. But when the need arises, we must be willing to branch out from the safety of sameness. Only then will we create new traditions and new precedent that, while holding on to the importance of what has come before, serves the needs of the challenges (and hungers!) that face us today.
Ginger
