rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2011-11-25 06:57 pm
rthstewart) wrote2011-11-25 06:57 pm
Entry tags:
Holiday food traditions
Americans celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday -- a holiday commemorated by a few people of the home (often but not always women) laboring long into the night before and that day struggling to bring to the table a collection of dishes all made at the last minute supposedly harkening back to the first feast in 1621 between the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag tribe.
In yesterday's post, and in preparation for writing Chapter 13 of AW, Christmas in 1942,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adaese and wellinghall have been providing me with fabulous information (and thanks again!). I mentioned that the Christmas traditions an American family follows may depend in part on their ethnic background -- I know Italian families who always have fish on Christmas Eve and German families who always eat spaetzle and open presents on Christmas Eve. Food traditions also vary widely throughout the U.S. by region but I don't know anyone who puts a traditional English pudding on the Christmas table. min023 wanted to know what food traditions Americans have at their holiday if not pudding. harmony_lover joined in with an observation about Christmas cookies.
And I thought, well, gosh this sounds like fun. F-list you all come from all over. What food traditions do you have at Thanksgiving, Christmas or other holidays like New Year's?
Growing up our family holiday gathering food was very hodgepodge and memorable in its eccentricity. The sweet potato casserole is the stuff of legend -- canned yams/sweet potatoes, marshmallows, orange, brown sugar, and rum, which my mother ignited 3 successive times in the oven before realizing that one could not substitute an equivalent amount of rum extract for 50 mL -- 1/4 cup rum.
There was a holiday buffet of turkey or ham, orange cold molded jell-o salad with whipped cream, fruit, and coconut, mashed potatoes, onions in cream sauce, broccoli, and the Pièce de résistance, enchiladas, which have an interesting history. That part of the family comes from the American Midwest and any meal was not complete without hot dish -- which I learned of when I moved to the great heartland. When the family moved to the West Coast where we all lived, they brought hot dish with them which became enchiladas -- a more appropriate "hot dish" for California.
When I moved to the Midwest I learned that you cannot attend any event in the state of Minnesota at which food is served and not encounter wild rice hot dish and its counterpart green bean casserole with canned cream of mushroom soup and Durkee fried onion ring topping. "Creama" is serious business in Minnesota -- Campbell's cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli, and cream of chicken soup are essential ingredients and on every shopping list.
Desserts are, asharmony_lover indicated, frequently Christmas cookies which are one of the few places where you will see the dried fruit of a pudding. I've also seen and eaten chocolate cake, cherry pie, Bûche de Noël, English trifle, pannetone, and gingerbread, again reflecting both American efforts to tie to a cultural background (real or imagined), and what's available at the bakery or Trader Joe's. Minnesota cookies were "pan of bars" -- that is, cookies baked in a pan and cut.
In truth, I don't make any of this of food, but it is what I grew up with. Anyone else want to share? And should you know anything of Christmas in 1942, I'll take that too!
In yesterday's post, and in preparation for writing Chapter 13 of AW, Christmas in 1942,
adaese and wellinghall have been providing me with fabulous information (and thanks again!). I mentioned that the Christmas traditions an American family follows may depend in part on their ethnic background -- I know Italian families who always have fish on Christmas Eve and German families who always eat spaetzle and open presents on Christmas Eve. Food traditions also vary widely throughout the U.S. by region but I don't know anyone who puts a traditional English pudding on the Christmas table. min023 wanted to know what food traditions Americans have at their holiday if not pudding. harmony_lover joined in with an observation about Christmas cookies.And I thought, well, gosh this sounds like fun. F-list you all come from all over. What food traditions do you have at Thanksgiving, Christmas or other holidays like New Year's?
Growing up our family holiday gathering food was very hodgepodge and memorable in its eccentricity. The sweet potato casserole is the stuff of legend -- canned yams/sweet potatoes, marshmallows, orange, brown sugar, and rum, which my mother ignited 3 successive times in the oven before realizing that one could not substitute an equivalent amount of rum extract for 50 mL -- 1/4 cup rum.
There was a holiday buffet of turkey or ham, orange cold molded jell-o salad with whipped cream, fruit, and coconut, mashed potatoes, onions in cream sauce, broccoli, and the Pièce de résistance, enchiladas, which have an interesting history. That part of the family comes from the American Midwest and any meal was not complete without hot dish -- which I learned of when I moved to the great heartland. When the family moved to the West Coast where we all lived, they brought hot dish with them which became enchiladas -- a more appropriate "hot dish" for California.
When I moved to the Midwest I learned that you cannot attend any event in the state of Minnesota at which food is served and not encounter wild rice hot dish and its counterpart green bean casserole with canned cream of mushroom soup and Durkee fried onion ring topping. "Creama" is serious business in Minnesota -- Campbell's cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli, and cream of chicken soup are essential ingredients and on every shopping list.
Desserts are, as
harmony_lover indicated, frequently Christmas cookies which are one of the few places where you will see the dried fruit of a pudding. I've also seen and eaten chocolate cake, cherry pie, Bûche de Noël, English trifle, pannetone, and gingerbread, again reflecting both American efforts to tie to a cultural background (real or imagined), and what's available at the bakery or Trader Joe's. Minnesota cookies were "pan of bars" -- that is, cookies baked in a pan and cut.In truth, I don't make any of this of food, but it is what I grew up with. Anyone else want to share? And should you know anything of Christmas in 1942, I'll take that too!
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The midwest staple of "Green Bean & French Onion Casserole of Happiness" (as they call it on MST3K, straight out of Minnesota) is an absolute must. But that's a rather new casserole, is it not? I shy away from the Campbell's mushroom soup 'cause all I taste is the MSG, but whoowee does Trader Joe's offer a good alternative...
My entire family, save for myself, is from the Wisconsin area and is primarily German. Backing up from Christmas, we have St. Nicholas Day which I always grew up celebrating -- we'd hang our stockings on the decorated mantle (first decorations up!) on 12/5 and wake up the next morning to discover them filled with nuts, and orange, a can of juice, small chocolates, powdered donuts and a small present. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned that the can of juice and powdered donuts only became a tradition because of the one year Mom and Dad forgot at the last minute and had to run to the gas station to find fillers... But anyway, it was a tradition my mother grew up with, coming from a solid German household. She would get peanuts, some candy, an orange or an apple, and a small toy. All that they each would not have to share, which was a big deal to a family of 6 kids!
Ah, the beauty of skype... I was able to catch my mother and ask her details on all of these things.
First thing's first, the Christmas tree came with Santa and was a surprise to see Christmas morning. Mass first, then presents. To eat it was goose or duck at first, then they moved on to turkey or ham. There were no sweet potatoes, but peas and cole slaw. Cole slaw is still very much the tradition in my family... kinda a big deal, even for Thanksgiving, which most other people outside of WI thinks is crazy. Whatever, people are missing out. And they always had homemade bread.
Dessert would be pumpkin pie (and candy, apparently, which was a special treat) for that big meal when family would come over, but it wouldn't just stop there. These days, it's just appalling to see people lugging out their used Christmas trees on the 26th and people read to move on for the holiday. For my mom's German Catholic side of the family, the holiday continued for the next several days (the 12 Days of Christmas has been LOST in modern times) with different family visiting each other on different days.
Growing up, we would have a normal holiday meal, but with Cornish Hens 'cause that was just a neat thing to do. No pies, though. It's all about homemade Christmas Cookies and candies. One year my mom and I made about 30 different kinds. Nowadays, it's usually just 6, but that's the only dessert that we have, outside whatever candy we buy. We've since done away with the big meal, but still keep to our breakfast -- egg casserole, a kuchen (raspberry jam and cream cheese coffee cake, essentially) and sparkling juice. For the rest of the day, we just do snacks of cheese, crackers, dips, veggie tray, etc. Much safer on the waistlines!
Long post is long. And now I'm hungry.
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It's 1941 and probably isn't very helpful to you, but it's a great thing to watch regardless:
http://youtu.be/aGK5EsGzKIg
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Sigh. The sequel is my BB. But I keep setting stuff up in the BB for a sequel, and then end up writing those scenes. But now, this sequel of sequel is actual two different stories, and I don't know whether to interweave them (IF it gets written at all) or make them two separate ones. And now a holidayish story came out of nowhere last night, and then ANOTHER completely out-from-left-field scene wrote itself this afternoon under the influence of a glass of Sauv Blanc that doesn't have a home anywhere in any of these plotlines, and and and... I'm in one big mess over here.
I'm drowning and I just want to get the BB done!
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Oh, cole slaw... what KIND? Is it the mayonnaise type? or the vinegary type? though... I may be getting confused. For YEARS my sister in law, a TERRIBLE COOK, always insisted on bringing the German potato salad to everything, bacon, bacon grease, and cider vinegar.
I have no idea what the origins are of the green bean casserole and its cousin the wild rice hot dish. I know that the Minnesota cookbook I got as a wedding gift over 20 years ago has pages and pages of variations on those recipes and I'd never heard before of the significance of the 79 cent can of Cream of Mushroom soup until I moved to the Midwest. (I've not even mentioned the significance of "dollar bun" sandwiches that are served at every important milestone in a person's life -- the same menus of hot dish, dollar buns, green bean casserole, and pans of bars will be at y our birth and baptism, first Communion, confirmation, graduations, wedding showers, wedding, all those events for you children, and finally your wake and funeral lunch in the church basement).
And YES, Christmas is supposed to continue to Epiphany... which come to think of it, I'm lectoring at this year.
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Yep, yep, yep to the german potato salad! I'm rather fond of it, though my mother puts onions on hers, and if they're not cooked enough, I get annoyed. She also puts in cornstarch to make it glossy. *My* sister in law, the pickiest eater this side of Mississippi, fell in love with the dish and now insists on having it whenever they put brats on the grill.
No pans of bars in WI, and I was too young to remember such when I lived in MN at the age of 4 or 5. But in WI, the desserts of choice are tortes. Gotta love the tortes. My brother has a half cherry, half blueberry cream cheese torte for his birthday cake every year. And then there's this staple:
http://eggtotheapples.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/wisconsin-roots-poppy-seed-torte/
Though people in my family make it with a meringue on top... 'cause why the hell not!
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The pans of bars is so true, though - Christmas, confirmation, baptism, Easter, whatever. They're everywhere!