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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Off Topics → Family food traditions
Spending the day cooking, getting ready for my daughter and her family to come from New Jersey. I never realized until I traveled that certain holiday foods from my region are odd to others. For instance..we have sauerkraut with all big meals. Must be a Penn. Dutch thing. We also have scalloped oysters, an old Maryland recipe. Stuffing must be made with sage or my family revolts! Do you have any such foods at your meals? Cathy
I don't know about any unique regional foods, but Thanksgiving sure is a one-day guilt-free exercise in hedonism for me. Going to the in-laws where old-school values and roles still exist; the men sit in the living room watching football on TV while the women folk work away in the kitchen preparing the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Not that we don't contribute however! The men do offer support and encouragement in the form of occasional inquiries such as, "Is the food done yet?" - which is usually answered with the obligatory reply, "If you think you can do it any faster, you're welcome to get your lazy butts in here and do it yourself!" Then the men all laugh, nod to each other, and return their attention to the football game while the women continue to work away.
In my best Al Pacino impersonation, "WHOOOO-AHHHHHH!"
thats funny stu . i am italian so its old school for me to football and cards and about 10 courses of food . also need ear plugs everyone likes to talk and there are ten conversations going on at once i get a headache sometimes ..we do mostly all italian foods and then the turkey ...so everyone enjoy....joe
Our food traditions dictate that we always end up with waaaaayyyyy too many starches......but we like it. Truly our traditions revolve around each one of the "kids" has a certain item on the menu that they prepare. It's usually their favorite and it becomes their specialty.
Good fun!
Now back to the game........
PC
Hi Cathy-cool thread and I have to ask, do you share recipes? I'd like to check out the scalloped oysters. The reason I ask like that is at my wedding shower my mother-in-law had a lady friend that was an awesome baker and when push came to shove, she would give you her recipe and leave something out on purpose so you couldn't duplicate it...just seem so odd coming from my culture where I would thin its a compliment! The lady was from the south and it was customary where she came from, (not meant to be mean-spirited), not that all southerners practice it, for sure. And where does your daughter live?
Stu FUNNY, FUNNY ....cool tradition Phil.
Joe Beacon-the part about all the conversations...all the in-laws, six of the them, say the same thing when they started coming to our family gatherings. When you grow up in a big family like mine, its strategic how to get a word in edgewise...I can easily listen to different conversations, multi-task and know what's going on to my right and left! My husband (100% Italian), but came from a small family...he just focused on eating initially until he figured out how to get anyone's attention...and then only after my 4 brothers thoroughly gave him the stamp of approval!
Spending the day cooking, getting ready for my daughter and her family to come from New Jersey. I never realized until I traveled that certain holiday foods from my region are odd to others. For instance..we have sauerkraut with all big meals. Must be a Penn. Dutch thing. We also have scalloped oysters, an old Maryland recipe. Stuffing must be made with sage or my family revolts! Do you have any such foods at your meals? Cathy
Good topic Cathy, since I was reflecting on how my Thanksgiving Day has changed dramatically since my Mother passed away in 2000. It used to be a big family get together at my Mom's or my sisters place or during the twelve years my wife and I were together rotating between my Mom's and hers. Since all this changed 7 years ago it's been turkey with friends at their homes, a couple times at my place with my son, I've got the gravy recipe down to a science now, and my favorite about 4 years ago my son and I did away with tradition and I prepared 5 lg. Dungeness crabs with a caesaer salad and sour dough bread and we ate crab till we couldn't move. This years plan is dinner with some good friends, several of whom are nurses who have been right by my side during my health crisis this year, God bless them. This brings me to what I'm thankful for this holiday and that is the fact that I'm still live and kickin' to enjoy it all even though I can't taste food right now, I'll enjoy it any way I can get it. Happy Thanksgiving to all the Bonamasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
J Dawg
Hi Cathy-cool thread and I have to ask, do you share recipes? I'd like to check out the scalloped oysters. The reason I ask like that is at my wedding shower my mother-in-law had a lady friend that was an awesome baker and when push came to shove, she would give you her recipe and leave something out on purpose so you couldn't duplicate it...just seem so odd coming from my culture where I would thin its a compliment! The lady was from the south and it was customary where she came from, (not meant to be mean-spirited), not that all southerners practice it, for sure. And where does your daughter live?
Stu FUNNY, FUNNY ....cool tradition Phil.
Joe Beacon-the part about all the conversations...all the in-laws, six of the them, say the same thing when they started coming to our family gatherings. When you grow up in a big family like mine, its strategic how to get a word in edgewise...I can easily listen to different conversations, multi-task and know what's going on to my right and left! My husband (100% Italian), but came from a small family...he just focused on eating initially until he figured out how to get anyone's attention...and then only after my 4 brothers thoroughly gave him the stamp of approval!
cathysiler wrote:Spending the day cooking, getting ready for my daughter and her family to come from New Jersey. I never realized until I traveled that certain holiday foods from my region are odd to others. For instance..we have sauerkraut with all big meals. Must be a Penn. Dutch thing. We also have scalloped oysters, an old Maryland recipe. Stuffing must be made with sage or my family revolts! Do you have any such foods at your meals? Cathy
i have a big family also so i can do the samething listen to a bunch of convo's at once .we are having everyone to my house so there wil be close to 50 off the wall italians here ( i can't wait lol ) it's funny when my friends come over and half of us are talking in italian the other half in english and my drunk uncle talking in some wacked out italian /english combo which no one has figured out yet . best thing to do is just agree with him or he goes nuts and gets real loud . it's real funny i guess you have to be there to see it . my grandmother is the same way with the recipes i asked her for the cheese cake recipe to make one and she gave me the whole thing on paper so there i am following the recipe when i get to the 3rd page and all it says is call me up i will tell you what to do . so i laughed my as* off so thats how some of theses old timers are they don't give them up there just like gold .joe
Angela...We share because we usually steal them from books..My Aunt Mary was the farmer/cook in the family...go out, kill the chicken, cook the chicken, food from the garden, dessert from the peach orchard, but she died when I was young. The rest of the women, just so-so (I know my mom can't read this lol)..Scalloped Oysters from the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis "Maryland Way" Cookbook..modernized version..Oven to 350...butter a small casserole dish, place a layer of crumbled saltines, drain a pint of oysters (save juice)..put layer of oysters and dot with butter, repeat and end with layer of crackers. Pour in cream (1/2&1/2) and 1/2 oyster liquid to cover...bake until brown, about 1/2 hr...If you increase, use a bigger pan not more layers...Enjoy...Cathy
Our Thanksgiving dinner is the usual fare (Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, yams, 3 or 4 different vegetables, etc.), with a few exceptions:
My mother in law makes a regular type dressing and also makes an oyster dressing. I've tried it, but I since have stuck with the regular type...just can't get used to that drastic of a change.
My wife's brother always brings a jar of pickled herring as an appetizer. I'm not sure what started that, but it's become a tradition and has been part of our Thanksgivings for the last 5 or 6 years.
Not to rain on the parade, but I read an interesting article that claimed that 50% of the weight people gain during the year is gained during the stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Be careful this weekend!
Wifey does the traditional turkey dinner but also cooks Halupki. She comes from good hunkie bloodlines and they can cook. Her people cooked cabbage rolls at weddings & holidays but we have her cook it twice a month. Meat, rice, paprika wrapped in boiled cabbage leaves then layered in crock pot surrounded with sauercraut & stewed tomatoes, good stuff with mashed tatoes.
Indians around here eat alot of salmon & caribou this time of year and turkey if they can get flown in. I always go down village and eat with the local natives; good rule to follow.
Roy, Packers game as expected, should have went out rode snowmachine early.
Happy Thanksgiving all
Wifey does the traditional turkey dinner but also cooks Halupki. She comes from good hunkie bloodlines and they can cook. Her people cooked cabbage rolls at weddings & holidays but we have her cook it twice a month. Meat, rice, paprika wrapped in boiled cabbage leaves then layered in crock pot surrounded with sauercraut & stewed tomatoes, good stuff with mashed tatoes.
Indians around here eat alot of salmon & caribou this time of year and turkey if they can get flown in. I always go down village and eat with the local natives; good rule to follow.
Roy, Packers game as expected, should have went out rode snowmachine early.
Happy Thanksgiving all
Wow! Thanks for that update from the Upper Yukon. It's nice to hear what's going on in the remote regions of the US and in other parts of the world.
It must be getting pretty flipping cold up there right about now. I think its about 25 degrees F here (outskirts of Chicago). I've eaten lots of cabbage rolls in my life, lots of salmon, but never have eaten caribou. I've had bison and venison (deer). Do you know if caribou is similar to venison?
Bill, Caribou is kinda gamey, especially after rut; why we mostly shoot cows in winter. Bou is much better july but they are too far in to bother with. Caribou is stronger than deer, and moose is better tasting than deer; we need some elk around here. You get use to and prefer whatever you become accustomed to eating; whatever is available. Fresh meat is a good thing and I haven't met an Indian yet that didn't like caribou. We usually ship in 30 hams & chickens,some pork, and eat moose & caribou in lieu of beef over the winter.
It was 35 here today, usually expect minus 30 temps by mid october; but I'll suffer through it. Awful nice weather so far this winter.
Roy, Thanks so much for the cd's especially slow gin signed by JB.
Sure hope pack beats big D nx week, we watch all football & hockey on direct tv.
Cathy-thanks for the recipe. 
joebeacon-hysterical about your grandmother..."call me". 
Was the recipe for the Italian cheese cake made w/ ricotta and a little orange rind (popular at Easter)? My grandmother's recipes were verbal and visual, since she never had set measurements for anything and it was all in her head, it was hard to write down...she just was a natural in the kitchen and had her own way, besides she would rather give me advice about men. One of her lighted hearted suggestions besides always making your man THINK he's king....related to food, was if you want your man to think you've been fussing for hours over the stove to cook him something special, a couple minutes before he walks through the door, start the garlic and oil on the stove...the aroma will seduce his senses...
Cool thread cathy although i don't think Northern Ireland is the place for fine culinary delights lol
I suppose we do have the Ulster fry. It consists of bacon, eggs, sausages (either pork or beef), the farl form of soda bread (the farl split in half crossways to expose the inner bread and then fried with the exposed side down), potato bread and tomatoes.
Heres a link to a picture on wikipedia of it in all its glory
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Off Topics → Family food traditions
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