Holiday food traditions

[rthstewart]

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, 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! 

Comments

Re: Con`t.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

The subject of pastry wrapped around a savory filling is a fascinating subject for me. This is really ubiquituous across cuisines. In fact, I was interested enough in it to have Colonel Walker Smythe reflect on them at the funeral lunch of Guy Hill when he discovers to his disappointment that the corn meal hush puppy is not a samosa, wonton, pasty, pirogi, ravioli, dumpling, turnover, pot pie, or the savory filled pastry in all its myriad glory.

Jello salads are... hmmm... very much a regional thing and cultural. I know a really popular one I was still hearing about involved lime green jello, Sprite soda and pretzels. I know, I don't get it either. Growing up, it was an orange jello ringed mold filled with fake whipped cream, coconut, and mandarin oranges. I've not seen Jello salad at family gatherings in a long time -- and I don't know if they have fallen completely out of favor, or if it is that the families whose events I attend don't make them anymore.

And no green salad with roast meat? I've not heard that before! thank you for sharing your food traditions!

Re: Con`t.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

In England, definitely no green salad with roast meat. You might get it with a steak, but with a roast it's vegetables - brussel(s) sprouts being the archetypal Christmas dinner vegetable.

In the 1940s, vegetables were usually overcooked by today's standards. My father (born 1939) still likes them that way.

Re: Con`t.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Really? No green salad with roast? I'm going to have to discuss with the Turkish side of the family who serves green salad with every single meal, always, and my English brother in law. There are lots of jokes about what the English do to vegetables, but I have to say that my own Midwestern relatives were no better. My mother in law still treats a red bell pepper -- capsicum in Aus and NZ -- as if it were a habernero chili pepper and has never met a vegetable she couldn't ruin.

Re: Con`t.

[snitchnipped.livejournal.com]

I must say, green salad with roasted meat is foreign to my entire family, too (besides the cole slaw) but we don't have that with roast pork or beef, usually. It seems very....restauranty. We do make up with about 3 or 4 vegetable side dishes, though!