Paella sounds tasty. Yall making me hungry, even though I know these are more family meals we are talking about. I haven't had lunch yet. Apple pie, pumpkin, or blackberry pie, which would you say is he best holiday pie?
Thanksgiving dinner means nothing to me. I haven't eaten meat in 12.5 years. So, no turkey, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole...nothing. And, to add insult to injury, I am violently allergic to pumpin. Yay me. At least I don't get fat at the holidays.
The apple or pumpkin pie was always a staple on our table at Thanksgiving, but it's really the family coming together that makes the dish, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Thanks Cogito, I'll look it up.
Cogito, I found this olive roasted pernil recipe while hunting down my paella. It's made with sliced green olives. http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/686712 I don't know, looked good to me. Maybe you could tweak it a bit, if its not exactly what you're looking for.
Thanks. Yes I saw that one, and I'm keeping a copy of it regardless of whether I find one like Wrey was talking about.
I just realized that I never answered your questions! First of all, I also detest this ritual of overserving because it comes along with some rather old-school, sexist, cultural proclivities which I also do not dig. Spanish culture is a very form following culture. That's kinda' hard to describe to the average American who has grown up with the Just do it! Nike mantra. In my culture we have a tendency to do and say things because they are the things that one does and says. No other reason. When I first came to live here two years ago, my local family found me strange and alien because although I spoke perfect Spanish, I did not say the expected things or do the expected stuff. They became shy around me because I was unpredictable to them. As for the food weirdnesses. It goes like this: The ladies do the serving. The men get served. The men expect the ladies to serve them plenty of food because this is directly correlative to how much respect the man is being shown. Refusal of food is a direct affront to the system of respect-showing, thus an affront to the very respect the men feel they should be getting. The whole thing comes down to attacking the very system of the way things are by not abiding by the rules. People all of a sudden have no idea whats going on and get very upset. It's so Clan of the Cave Bear! Right? And just so you know, I have just broken one of the biggest Latino rules of all: Never talk smack about the Spanish culture to the Non-Spanish, even if you are totally correct in what you are reporting.
Hey, this is similar to the one my grandma prepares: http://saborvenezolano.blogspot.com/2006/08/recetas-navideas.html Sorry for the spanish, but I believe you told me once that you knew spanish and this is the closest recipe I could find (It's about halfway down, along with a whole bunch of Christmas-y foods from around here). edit: Reported to the appropriate authorities. ;P
Wow, this is all very interesting. I wouldn't call it talking smack, I thought it was informing. All well sorry for making you break one of the rules. I was just curious.
Poco y poco solamente, Acglaphotis. Thank you. This one also doesn't have olives as an ingredient, but it does look more like the majority of the pernil recipes I found in my search. I often associate the olives cooked with meat as a Cuban infuence, and it's a flavor I really enjoy.
They'll just have to learn the duck tape strategy with you. No I'm joking don't take any offense to that please.
Here's a Thanksgiving story that defines the day for me. In 1999, my wife's mother moved in with us to spend her remaining time with my family. Survival with terminal cancer was already well past the amount of time doctors predicted she would live. About three days before Thanksgiving, mom had to be hospitalized and when she stabilized they put her in a skilled nursing facility for recovery. She was depressed and weak. Tradition in my house is for all the kids, grandkids and special friends to come to my home on this holiday where I prepare all the food. This year was no different...some 30 hungry mouths descended on our home, and as usual, I prepared a huge feast to include traditional fare and vegan (sp?) dishes for a couple of our strict vegetarians. That's right, I do all the cooking. Wonderful smells filled the house and everyone chattered, catching up on family news. But, something was different. My wife and daughters asked if they should "set" the tables and I said, "No." They offered to transfer food from pots into serving bowls, and again, I declined help. When the last item came out of the oven, I called out to a select list of people who came promptly, expecting to carry food to the tables. I began handing each of them a food dish or pile of empty dishes. "Follow me," I said, as I headed out the front door. Everyone quickly figured out my plan as we all got in our cars and headed for the skilled nursing facility. You should have seen the looks on the nurses when I led a caravan of food to my mother-in-law's room. I knew she had no roommate, so we used the empty bed as our Thanksgiving table and I began serving, starting with my wife's mom. Her spirits swelled, eyes filled with tears of happiness at being surrounded by loved ones. Several sat on the bed next to her while others sat in chairs or on the floor. To this day, I cherish the pictures of this frail woman, enjoying one of the best moments in her life, only days before leaving us for good. That's Thanksgiving to me.
, you make me well up reading this. You are a very kind person. I enjoy reading stuff like this. That is just a wonderful thing to do. Now that is Thanksgiving. This is such a wonderful thing to read. Gosh I have nothing really to stay.
I found the perfect Paella! Okay, so it has shrimp in it, and originally I had said no seafood, but who could resist this? http://www.madmeatgenius.com/2008/05/cowboy-paella.html I don’t know that I will do this for Thanksgiving though, but I am going to make this …with some help from my unwilling vegan Hubby of course! (Don’t feel too bad for him though, we decided to make a small veggie paella for him, because I’m all about compromise.) This is also what makes Thanksgiving so enjoyable to me every year Dean. Being blessed enough to see all my friends and family together in one place, even with the classic family arguments, or as my Granddad used to say… “Good food, good people and good conversation are hard to come by, so don’t kill each other before I’ve had a chance to enjoy myself!”
I am from Canada so I already had thanksgiving awhile ago. Next holiday meal is christmas and I cannot wait.
Christmas I like better. It isn't all about the food. I mean, its there, but it isn't the focal point of the holiday like Thanksgiving. Being a vegetarian and allergic to pumpkin, I am just a** out on holiday food. Anyone have a good recipe for vegetarian gravy or stuffing?
Do you want apples and pecans in your stuffing? Cause I looked up some vegetarian stuffing and I see some recipes with raisins and apples? Who puts that in their stuffing? Also, what kind of vegan are you? Do you eat dairy products or no? How about fruitcake? Does anyone like fruitcake? Myself I don't like fruitcake because its fake fruit. If it was real fruit then yeah sure, but no real fruit then no thank you. You know what makes a real good dessert instead of using condensed milk and stuff like that use coconut milk.
I am an ova-lacto. Dairy is fine. My sister-in-law had a great recipe for a mushroom stuffing, but she lost it. The flake.
Cranberries can be good in stuffing too. They add a nice tart accent, and loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants. I also bake cranberries into breads for the holidays, and not just the sweet dessert breads. I used to make an amazing sourdough cranberry bread, before my sourdough starter went south on me.
Carmina control yourself. I'm kidding. My blender is broken, so I understand your pain Cogito about household items just deciding one day to go somewhere else. I guess when it comes to meat and stuffing I'm not interested in fruit in my stuffing. Just cause I don't really like sweet meats. I like my meat to taste like meat.
i'm with rem. don't like fruit in my stuffing. i will have to say that many people ignore the importance of celery in stuffing. that pointless, somewhat gross tasting raw vegetable makes all the difference in stuffing (and soups and chicken based gumbos)... though we use boxed stuffing and just add celery. yum. i'm really excited about the fact that i might get to eat turkey this year. i haven't had real (non-cold cut) turkey in FOREVER... or four years. they don't have them over on the other side of earth. but the key word there was "might"... as in, i can't cook worth crap so i'm hoping i know someone who's cooking a turkey and willing to share! and as for overeating... i overeat every day, so overeating at holiday time is like... just eating. haha~ my metabolism is about to catch up with me though. run, me, run.
Celery is not my favorite vegetable. Celery is gross and that is why I usually don't eat stuffing. For me, I have to make stuffing my way or I won't be able to eat the stuffing. Regular stuffing with celery, traditional stuffing shall we call it, is my worse enemy.
Sourdough starter isn't an appliance. It is a live culture in an earthenware crock with a lid, on the top shelf of my refrigerator. I let it go too long without using it and feeding it, so it turned nasty. I do have a frozen sample from when I first started it, so I may be able to restore it in time, with a little luck. If not, I may have to order a new starter culture. In any case, I'll have to sterilize the crock thoroughly before I can begin again.
