Monday, December 3, 2007

Holiday Foods

December 3 - Holiday Foods
Did your family have any traditional dishes for the holidays?
Was there one dish that you thought was unusual?
Our Christmas menu rarely varied:

Turkey with stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Boiled sweet potatoes
Canned corn
Dinner rolls
Cranberry sauce
Apple Pie

My father didn't believe in trying new things. Occasionally Mom would sneak in some squash. The turkey was unusual as we only had it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had a teeny-tiny galley kitchen which wasn't a problem until we got old enough to help. After years of practice my mother, sister & I learned how to work side by side without knocking into each other repeatedly. The kitchen still has the original 1950's stove that was in the house when we bought it.

After marrying John I discovered all kinds of different foods. The most unusual item for me was Italian spinach and meatball soup. The best discovery - Cheesecake! We usually get together with family on Christmas Eve these days so I usually fix just a turkey breast for the two of us on Christmas day.



An Advent Calendar count down
to Christmas!

Who else is participating?

Visit Thomas at
Destination: Austin Family
and get the details!
Posted by Charley "Apple" Grabowski at 6:00 AM
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5 comments:

Thomas MacEntee said...

Is the Italian spinach and meatball soup called "Italian Wedding Soup?" I remember my aunt making this (she married into a family whose roots were in Genoa) and now I see Progresso sells a version of it.

12/03/2007 4:17 AM
Lisa / Smallest Leaf said...

I like the idea that your Mom's kitchen still has the original 1950's stove. My great aunt's home is the same and I love visiting. It is one of the few places that has truly remained the same as when I visited it as a child.

12/03/2007 5:30 AM
Terry Thornton said...

Apple, Your Advent memory # 3 has triggered one in my ole brain. My father and yours must have been cut from the same cloth --- as neither "didn't believe in trying new things." I remember the year that my mother "snuck" in new dish on the Christmas table, creamed onions, and my father ate and ate and ate of it before she told him it was creamed onions. He had professed for years that "He didn't eat onions!" LOL!
TERRY

12/03/2007 7:33 AM
Janice said...

Apple, It may have been the times... most of our fathers "did time" in the military, came home, and wanted "normal good hot food." My family was the same. I was always sneaking off in high school to my Polish or Greek friends homes for something different, and strangely they wanted to eat at my house to have hamburgers :D

Janice

12/03/2007 10:39 AM
Colleen said...

Apple

Thanks for the link to the Kalochi (and the right spelling). It might not be so tough, so maybe I'll try it. I think it's high time someone in my family brought back some good old fashioned Christmas traditions, and if Kalochi is what it takes, then by gosh Kalochi I will make!

12/03/2007 10:39 PM

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