Comments on: Ceremonial Holiday Food …

By: cmf

cmf — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:16:35 +0000

Thanks Kristi for the link to the Cards of Amazing Food Items — I remember seeing them a couple of years ago but didn’t have the link … they’re hysterically funny.

By: Kristi

Kristi — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:07:48 +0000

Just in case anyone wants more recipe horror from the ’70s (and hasn’t seen this site yet, which has been around a while), here’s a fun link:
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

Mandy, that pretzel-jello thing is unbelieveable. Urk.

By: cmf

cmf — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:34:52 +0000

Wow — baked pretzels in jello! Flaming cabbage devices! I never imagined such wonders … (well, on the Jello — I did do my PhD at the U of Utah, heart of Mormon country, and anyone who has spent any time at all in Utah knows that the Mormons are famous for their jello creations). This is so much more fabulous than I ever could have imagined …

By: Mandy

Mandy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:00:23 +0000

Tara, I can’t get the image of the Coliseum out of my head, with all the little weiners looking down into the flames in the bowl below. For Christmas a few years ago, Ben’s mom gave us the church cookbook, of which the pretzel jello surprise was one of the recipes. I think I will start posting some of these recipes on my blog so they can be preserved for posterity.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:39:14 +0000

Mandy, that is SPECTACULAR! I admit, I do sort of have a soft spot for really unfortunate dishes. I found a recipe in an old cookbook I have that I’m dying to make for…something – anything! It involves hollowing out a cabbage, lighting a can of sterno inside it and sticking little smokies (or similar) all over the outside with toothpicks. It’s basically a weenie roast in miniature to awe and entertain your party guests. Maybe that will be MY sad contribution to Thanksgiving!

By: Mandy

Mandy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:40:24 +0000

Mhy husband’s family is the master of jello-based devices. Every time we visit, there’s a new jello dish on the table (they’ve been farmers since the 1840s, but never nursed thier kids and eat most of their food from packages–I don’t get it). I just have to describe one that was made for me for my birthday, which is a holiday, right? It’s a bag o pretzels chopped up and baked with melted butter ina pan to make them crispy, then cooled. Jello with fruit (red jello w/ strawberries this time) is poured over, followed by a layer of some whipped white stuff once it was cool. His aunt said “I was planning on making something else, but every cookbook I opened turned right to this recipe!” While I couldn’t believe it was in more than one cookbook, his relatives greeted it with the exuberance of finding a long-lost puppy. I actually look forward to seeing what jello confection I will meet each time we visit!

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:44:25 +0000

I really hate the yams, too – my sister insists on topping them with marshmallows, which to me is just the worst! Our signature funky Thanksgiving staple, though, is the cranberry Jello mold. Any sort of red Jello, a can of whole cranberry sauce, some orange juice, mandarin oranges, walnuts and chopped celery. Molded, of course. At some point this one was deemed my responsibility – I think I made it twice, then finally opted out and started bringing poached pears with fig preserves and goat cheese instead. Everyone loves the pears so much that no one misses the cranberry mold at all!

By: cmf

cmf — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:53:00 +0000

I’ve always wanted to do a big potluck Thanksgiving where everyone brings their family’s ceremonial dish — some of the icky ones I think are simply situational — it’s not like there was a lot of good cooking going on in the era of the green-bean-mushroom-soup-canned-onion casserole. But they’re dear nonetheless — what I love about Thanksgiving — that we all take an impractical Thursday off work, get together with people we love, and pretty much eat the same meal across America while giving thanks, no matter how perfunctorally. It’s so North American (including the Canadians here) — so New World. We made it across the oceans, we all wound up here, and we’re all thankful to be bringing our contribution to the table.

By: Ivy

Ivy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:30:38 +0000

It’s Shrimp Aspic in my family, it sounds just like your tomato Aspic but with addition of little canned shrimp… as a kid, this along with most of the other T-giving stuff, was pretty euuww. As an adult I’ve come to love the flavors of Thanksgiving, but the Shrimp Aspic, I just can’t get into it. A couple years ago my mother came to Livingston to celebrate Thanksgiving and brought her beloved Shrimp Aspic! Needless to say my guests…. well, I think I know what they thought about it!

Kristi- OH yes, the yams with all the goo on them. Luckily I escpaped that family tradition, we did regular yams. But alas my SO absolutely insists on the yams drowned in brown sugar and butter, in memory of his wonderful mother, so I’m happy to comply. Now I’m finding myself starting a new tradition of making food I don’t like!

But- it is these unsavory dishes that are part of the tradition. And isn’t that only fitting – in a sad twisted way- to make food we don’t like and then throw away to round out the irony of this rather strange holiday. If I think about the meaning of Thanksgiving, I just can’t get into it; if I consider instead the 2 blessed paid days off and time to hang out with family & friends, it’s not so bad.

And I do love the turkey!

By: Joyce

Joyce — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:37:37 +0000

Pumpkin roll. This is really good, though (it has more sugar than pumpkin ), not an item that we keep around just because it’s Thanksgiving and we should.

Traditionally, we eat pecan pie, pumpkin roll, and scrapple the next morning for breakfast.