What it Takes to be a Backlin (Days 175-181)

When two people get married, there is a sort of blending of families.  Each brings his or her own traditions and the spouse becomes a member of the other family.  For Randy and I, you would think that this means I become a Dattolo and he becomes a Duncan.  But that is only part of the story.  Randy actually became a Backlin.  Number 18 to be exact.  At least that's what my grandfather referred to him as for the first, I don't know, year of our courtship/engagement.  Backlin is my mother's maiden name and her family is very close.  Like, all 16 of them live in the same town close.  Actually, minus my brother who now lives in Atlanta. 

Our family is together for everything--birthdays, holidays, semi-holidays, you name it.  And if there's ever a crisis or need, someone from the family is there.  Right away.  When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, my uncle shaved his head with her.  When one of my aunts needed a kidney transplant, my other aunt was the donor.  And I'll never forget the day I came home from college to see a bunch of trucks plus my grandparents' car outside of our house.  Apparently a leak sprung in our basement that day and my dad couldn't be reached.  My contractor-uncle dropped what he was doing and got some of his friends to come over the fix the leak right away.  (My mom runs a home daycare and all of the kids were still at the house--it was important the leak be fixed right away!)  My grandparents were there for--moral support?  I'm so glad my husband and children are numbers 18, 19, and 20 of this wonderful family!  (I also have awesome babysitters in my cousins from this family--what more could I ask for?) 

Eat the pickled herring! Randy did, his first year with us. Not much after that.

When Randy and I were dating, my brother didn't need to give him any kind of heads up about how to act around my dad or what to expect from our family.  Actually, it my father who clued Randy in to the traditions and expectations of the Backlin family--one in-law to another.  Randy quickly learned that a big part of our family is food.  And a big expectation for him would be to eat with us--all the time.  He learned that there are as many, if not more, dessert items as there are main course items.  Everything has butter and tastes sweet--even the vegetables.  And the "down-time" between courses is only to drink coffee and make room for more food. 

Old Orchard Beach PIER FRENCH FRIES

We recently returned from our annual trip to Ocean Park, ME.  Yes, as an entire family plus friends.  Randy has come with us since our relationship began.  When he talks about "getting into shape" for Maine, he is quickly corrected that he doesn't need to eat less, he needs to eat more to 1) stretch his stomach in preparation for the food we'll eat there and 2) add a layer of fat so he can stay in the Maine ocean longer.  :)  While on vacation, everything is about food.  From the giant pieces of coffee cake to go with breakfast (that's right, not AS breakfast, but to go WITH breakfast) to the cookies that are passed around the table after dinner to the trip to the ice cream parlor, Martel's, AFTER the cookies.  We eat a lot.  And Randy has begun to follow suit.  He had to laugh out loud when another tradition came to light for him this year.  For the first time, he learned that our night-before-Maine tradition (Friday night before we leave) is to go to the local seafood restaurant.  But there are two of them.  We go to one in Charlton because it's seafood is good, but then back to the same restaurant in Auburn for ice cream because their ice cream is better than the other one.  What a trip!

2012: Teaching Abby the eating tradition while in Maine.

While we were on vacation, Days 175-181 of my cooking blog went by.  We ate out a few times.  Randy and I had these incredible crab cakes from a local restaurant in Ocean Park.  We also had some of my mother's lasagna, I made my buttermilk baked chicken, and my dijon chicken ham & cheese wraps.  I also brought up a few food items which you can find recipes for here.  All in all, it was a great week with lots of great food and oh yeah, ice cream!  Thankful for family! :)

crab cakes from Yellow Fins!