073 Christmas recipes redux

Christmas Recipes over the Years

After researching the most liked and disliked foods on the table for Christmas, I am a bit amazed that there are so many  surviving baby boomers.  The rich foods and the quantity of foods we consume over the holiday season are staggering.  We probably all have clogged arteries and weigh at least ten pounds too much.  And, of course, it was all the fault of our mothers! It’s always the mother’s fault!

The most favored foods you can guess – turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy and that daggone green bean casserole that was created in the 

Campbell’s test kitchen in New Jersey for a way to market mushroom soup! Ironic and iconic.

Here is the list of most unpopular holiday foods: Brussel sprouts, tofu, oysters, mushrooms, red cabbage/sauerkraut, heavy-handed use of garlic (on what???), fruit cake, and plum pudding.  

With the exception of tofu, all of these made an appearance some time or other at our house.  I need to add one more item to the list.  One year we went to Connecticut for the holidays.  At the table, I served myself a large helping of what I thought to be mashed potatoes…NO, TURNIPS!!  So not on my top 10 list.  

Another year, we had dinner at a relative’s home--and there it was--a tofurkey!! 

Nope, didn’t try it.  

A typical Christmas dinner at our house was turkey, country ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, and some very weird stuffing recipe (thank goodness, for Stove Top), green beans, peas, squash casserole, and 

sometimes a sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and some “pretty fruit” on top, cranberry sauce (homemade with lemon or orange zest--awful), some sort of Jello salad mold, rolls, butter!  THEN, for dessert there were several kinds of pies (apple, pecan, and maybe mince) with ice cream or bourbon sauce (I am rolling my eyes and shaking my head--nasty stuff) and a platter of cookies and candies.

My plate was mashed potatoes  with a gravy swimming pool and a spoonful of peas for the swimmers. I still like peas in my pool! Maybe six green beans if coerced. 

That’s it.  

I much preferred the cold turkey sandwich and a Coke after everyone had gone home.  Yep, that’s me – Ms. Scrooge. 

Along with all this food came all the relatives.  We lived in a large 1850s house with plenty of room (according to my parents).  There was a children’s table as well set up in the TV room. However, as we all know, the children who have not seen their cousins in a year don’t want to sit with these strangers but rather with their parents.  OH, PEACE AND JOY!!  Or WHINE AND IGNORE! And, for the most part, until tears, we were ignored or told to go “back to the TV room.”       

[A typical Max action, but not Max]

Let’s mention--Ta Da: Tryptophan!  Yea!  Thank goodness for tryptophan.  Yes, it is in the turkey, but also we ate all those carbs-producing melatonin.  And, just perhaps, a bit of overeating and some alcohol added in.  Yes, please enjoy your Christmas dinner, then go home, and take a nap.  I want to read my new Christmas present books, anyway!

Just for fun, l reviewed a whole lot of websites and old cookbooks of my grandmother to see what has been popular over the years.  Picture this:  1947 – The White House.  Mrs. Truman served tomato consommé, olives, turkey with chestnut dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, asparagus, plum pudding and assorted nuts and candies. Not much changed for nearly a decade – broccoli replaced the asparagus and oyster stuffing instead of chestnut. 

There must have been some sort of rebellion in the 1960s.  We move from turkey to duckling with orange stuffing, wild rice, a Jello fruit wreath.  In 1960, the most popular menu was roast beef with roast potatoes, green bean casserole, apple salad (?), and French fried onion rings.  Dessert was a holiday decorated cake and coffee.

In 1975, (getting ready for the Bicentennial, I think), came roast goose with onion dressing, braised chestnuts, applesauce, green bean casserole, cranberry/pecan molded salad, and plum pudding.   

The 1980s and 1990s became more casual.  The hostess does a turkey (or alternative meat) and all the guests bring a potluck side dish or dessert. 

Entertaining myself by flipping through the magazines at the grocery store checkout line, I learned both the traditional turkey and “ all the fixings” are equally as popular as newer alternatives based on one’s tastes and culture.  Essentially, anything goes.  Maybe the idea of being with family and friends has overshadowed being in the kitchen for days!

So, here’s to your Christmas feast and your nap!  Be safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the holidays.

Glenne       

P.S.  How about some ground- up Xanax in the gravy for a really mellow Christmas evening? Okay, never mind!  Just a random thought!