Holiday Food Traditions!

[mansonlamps]

I can't imagine paying $2 per egg and then putting them in a cake, but I'm sure you have your reasons. Love black-eyed peas myself, but my kitchen remodel literally just got completed yesterday and I can't cook until I find everything and figure out how I want it put back with my updated cabinet design. So, darn, will just have to go out for a few more days.

[annzeepark914]

I guess if people don't want to eat a bowl of warm blackeyed peas, they can make a blackeyed pea salad with a vinaigrette dressing, maybe add some corn and bits of red bell pepper.  That's delicious.  Happy New Year everyone and may 2016 be healthy, happy & fun!!

[auntlada]

I remember in the last year or two I learned via discussion around these parts that some people believe these must be consumed on the first of the year for luck, and I phoned my dad to ask if that was the basis of his family's tradition.  He said no, he'd never heard that, it was just something everybody did.  Then he said, "I guess you and your mom are screwed."  Heh.

 

It's almost certainly the basis of the tradition, even if he doesn't know it. It's why everyone I knew growing up (in Oklahoma) ate them on New Year's Day. (Where in the state did your dad grow up?)

 

I don't get blackeyed peas much any more because my husband hates them. I always preferred to cook them in a dish of Hoppin' John. I haven't had it in years, though.

 

I'm pretty sure I've had a blackeyed pea salad, although I don't remember when. Probably my mother made it.

[ethalfrida]

I can't imagine paying $2 per egg and then putting them in a cake, but I'm sure you have your reasons. Love black-eyed peas myself, but my kitchen remodel literally just got completed yesterday and I can't cook until I find everything and figure out how I want it put back with my updated cabinet design. So, darn, will just have to go out for a few more days.

Okay, you reply has me questioning other purposes for the exquisite duck eggs. Personally, I bake and cook with the finest ingredients possible and all from scratch. I wouldn't dare put one in a cake mix or even use cake mix. I use them for mayonnaise also. Tell me what else is a suitable use. 

[mansonlamps]

Okay, you reply has me questioning other purposes for the exquisite duck eggs. Personally, I bake and cook with the finest ingredients possible and all from scratch. I wouldn't dare put one in a cake mix or even use cake mix. I use them for mayonnaise also. Tell me what else is a suitable use.

Oh just ignore me, I am an amateur baker at best. It would seem to me that since an egg is just blended with a multitude of other ingredients in cake that it's role in the recipe wouldn't be that enhanced by using a vastly more expensive version of the product. Unless I'm mistaken, and like I said I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt, the egg is not added for flavor in a cake, so I would think that a $2 egg would have superior flavor and richness that would lend itself to just cooking and eating as a regular egg. Or perhaps to enrich the mayonnaise you mentioned

[callie lee 29]

New years day is corned beef, collards, cornbread (honey for me),and blackeyed peas. I grew up with them meaning luck, good health, and good wealth but not sure which is which. My favorite meal is the next day: cut the cornbread in half and stick in a layer of the greens, corned beef and peas to make a sandwich. Yumm.

[ethalfrida]

Oh just ignore me, I am an amateur baker at best. It would seem to me that since an egg is just blended with a multitude of other ingredients in cake that it's role in the recipe wouldn't be that enhanced by using a vastly more expensive version of the product. Unless I'm mistaken, and like I said I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt, the egg is not added for flavor in a cake, so I would think that a $2 egg would have superior flavor and richness that would lend itself to just cooking and eating as a regular egg. Or perhaps to enrich the mayonnaise you mentioned

Of course I am not going to ignore you. You've always made valid points and sometimes we do do things without thinking of their impact.

The duck eggs are much richer than regular eggs, larger and more nutritional. The yellow is deeper also and the with less whites. So to use them in baking cakes the end product will be more flavorful and richer by far. The same with mayonnaise. All the eggs I purchased will be used for breads and other baked goods. I have this really fantastic non gluten loaf of white bread I make that is going to be totally enhanced by them.

Thanks for your input.

Edited January 1, 2016 by ethalfrida

[chessiegal]

My husband, who was born and raised in Alabama, said they always had black eye peas on NY for good luck. He also said it was the only day his mother made pork ribs in a pressure cooker with a water/tomato broth, and it was terrible! And his mother was otherwise a good cook - fried chicken, biscuits, and cornbread. I'm guessing the pork was for good luck also. My parents grew up in central PA and we always had pork on New Years for good luck - usually pork chops.

Edited January 1, 2016 by chessiegal

[BooksRule]

Mom always has some kind of pork on New Year's Day. I've heard that because pigs root forward and chickens scratch backward, you should eat pork (unless your religion prohibits it) instead of poultry on New Year's Day to invite progress in the new year.

 

That's very interesting.  I don't think I've ever heard that before, but it sounds like a good plan!  I was going to have a pork chop for dinner today anyway, so it works out fine.  I'm having my usual black-eyed peas (from dried peas, cooked with some leftover Christmas ham bits--hey, more pork!--for seasoning) for good luck and some sauteed cabbage for prosperity. I should be all set for the New Year!

[ALenore]

I'm making black eyed peas for New Years Day too.  I wasn't home for Christmas, so didn't get a chance to do any holiday cooking, so I'm enjoying this.  I never had black eye peas as a kid, but my husband did, since he grew up in the South.  He said he never liked them until I made them.  I'm making Hoppin' John.  The recipe I'm using has black eyed peas with some sauted onion, red bell pepper, garlic and andouille sausage, served over brown rice, and topped with chopped tomatoes and sliced scallions.   

[BooksRule]

I love Hoppin' John, but I haven't made it in a long time.  I just made a 'plain' pot of black eyed peas, with a little onion and small ham chunks.  I never did get around to fixing the cabbage I was going to have for dinner, so the green salad I ate (along with some more ham) will just have to serve as my 'prosperity' meal.  

[Jules2307]

We do lentil soup for New Years Day. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood and everyone always ate lentil soup. My husband always had hot dogs so I combined the two and make Ina Garten's Lentil and Sausage Soup. It's pretty labor intensive but so, so good.

[Maharincess]

I always make home made cinnamon rolls on New Years Eve. I'm not sure why I make them but it's something I've done every year for as long as I can remember.

I don't make anything special for New Years Day though.

[Babalu]

We always have pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day. My mom is from a Pennsylvania Dutch/Mennonite family and for years I thought it was a tradition specific to them, but I've learned it's general German, not just Pennsylvania Dutch. I've heard about the black-eyed peas/Hoppin' John tradition and have tried it once or twice. Here in Hawai'i, it's customary to have ahi sashimi, even for many who aren't ethnically Japanese. I saw some at the grocery store a few days ago and was thinking about it, but, due to holiday demand, the already high prices are jacked up even more ($40 for a smallish container), so decided to abstain.

[ethalfrida]

I would have loved to have had a goose for the holidays but I didn't want to pay the $60 for one. However, I was mistaken on the price anyway because they were running around $140.00 plus!!! Totally not within my budget. So I had the peas, jalapeno cornbread and oxtails. 

[annzeepark914]

Mr. P914 and I have been sick with this Thing That's Going Around since we got back from Minneapolis and so NYE and NY Day were not exactly prime for holiday meals :>(  But, we have rallied and tonight we did Chinese delivery and my fortune cookie said, "You will be fortunate in everything."  So I dragged myself to Harris Teeter and bought 5 Powerball tickets.  Wish me luck, kids.

 

Aw, phooey!  I just checked the numbers and I only got one and it wasn't a powerball number.  Why can't I win this thing? Color me blue!

Edited January 3, 2016 by annzeepark914

[Qoass]

So, I baked my Christmas ham on Saturday.  Better late than never and it was really hogging space in my fridge.

[auntlada]

So does anybody have any Valentine's Day food traditions? (Other than chocolate.)

 

When I was in college, my mom always baked and frosted sugar cookies and mailed them to me. She wrapped them in wax paper and shipped them in an old shoebox.

[chessiegal]

So does anybody have any Valentine's Day food traditions? (Other than chocolate.)

 

When I was in college, my mom always baked and frosted sugar cookies and mailed them to me. She wrapped them in wax paper and shipped them in an old shoebox.

Awwww... That's so sweet.

[Qoass]

(wink)

 

I had some gingerbread dough left over from Christmas (don't you judge me) in the icebox so this weekend I rolled out some heart shaped cookies.  That's a nice holiday transition for me.  I used to do a whole bunch of Valentine's themed food for my department at work but we've moved to a different office and there's no communal space to put it anymore.  This was one of my favorites as the color was pretty and it seems you can only get cinnamon red hots in February around here.  If somebody can find me somebody to love, I'd be happy to get back to making sweets for my sweetie.

 

I still have some party food at home I didn't use over Christmas and New Year's that I plan to use for "my" holidays:  the Superbowl and the Academy Awards ceremony.

[Trini]

I had some gingerbread dough left over from Christmas (don't you judge me) in the icebox so this weekend I rolled out some heart shaped cookies. ...

 

No judgement here! I'm planning to make a "Love Nest" gingerbread birdhouse with my leftover dough. Still trying to convince myself it will be worth it to buy even more sprinkles/candy. (Heart-shaped sprinkles, awwww!)

[Qoass]

That's the nice thing about red and green Christmas candy:  you can use the leftover red ones for Valentine's Day and the green stuff for St. Patrick's Day.

[DeLurker]

What is this "leftover" candy you speak of?

[Qoass]

That would be when I go to the drugstore the day after Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween and buy everything that's "left over" for half price.

[blixie]

 

So does anybody have any Valentine's Day food traditions?

 

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but I like to do a Coeur-a-la Creme. 

[PRgal]

Sunday night was not only Super Bowl Sunday, but also Lunar New Year's Eve.  Thus, my family decided to go pan-ethnic and had chips and guacamole along with chicken wings and Chinese food (including sesame balls, which my husband and I have every Lunar New Year's Eve.  Don't think it's a "real" tradition - just something we do).  Of course, the Chinese cuisine included dumplings, rice cakes, noodles and green onion pancakes.  Last night, I attempted to make savoury pancakes for Shrove Tuesday but it was kind of a FAIL (burnt-looking... :-().  Trying to fast today, but I don't think I'm doing such a great job - LOL! :P

[Maharincess]

I hate football and hate even more that the damn Super Bowl was in my backyard this year, but I made a turkey dinner on Sunday at my husband's request.

Now I just need some new turkey leftovers recipes. I want to do something different with the leftovers this time.

[DeLurker]

A co-worker used to make turkey enchiladas with leftovers.

[chessiegal]

Turkey tetrazzini, turkey chili, turkey vegetable soup.

[auntlada]

My favorite has always been turkey tetrazzini, but I think it's not really something different.

[Maharincess]

A co-worker used to make turkey enchiladas with leftovers.

That's one of my usual turkey leftover meals.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[PRgal]

Planning my Easter menu. We are actually doing Easter dinner on Saturday and we are roasting lamb and serving it with tabouleh from a local Middle Eastern place. Not sure what else yet, though. Suggestions? Thanks!

ETA: dessert is going to be a chocolate raspberry tart.

Edited March 22, 2016 by PRgal

[ethalfrida]

Baba Ganousch and pita chips

Cajun Dirty Rice

Forbidden  Black Rice

http://acommonstreetpeddler.blogspot.com/2013/11/monkey-bread-buttery-and-delicious.html

[scriggle]

I'll be doing my family's traditional Easter brunch.  The centerpiece will be pizza gaina (sp?) which I'll make on Friday - because that's when my mother did it and she always said it had to be made on Good Friday. There'll also be prosciutto, soprasata, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and a cheese plate.  Dessert will be a pizza dolce (ricotta pie) since I finally figured out how to make one that tastes like the one from my favorite Italian bakery.  And all this will be gluten-free as my father and sister-in-law both have celiac.

[auntlada]

I have no idea what to fix. It ought to be something I can fix in the slow cooker while we are at church. Ham seems traditional, but my mother will be here, and I don't like to fix ham for her. My father had a degenerative brain disorder that made eating and swallowing difficult, and he choked on a ham sandwich one day and had a heart attack. Mom tried to do the heimlich maneuver, but this time she couldn't. So no ham.

Lamb seems expensive, and I am not sure I have ever even seen it in the grocery store here, although the meat packing place might have some.

So maybe some kind of pork roast or just beef roast or even chicken, although I get tired of chicken because we eat it a lot.

[krimimimi]

Mr. mimi went looking through the flyers from our local Costco/BJ's/Sam's equivalent, because he said Easter meant they'd have sales on lamb, and he was correct.

Having spotted the affordable cuts, none of which I've ever cooked, he then went researching ways to grill it, and seems to have found a recipe that made him happy. Last thing I remember from last night was him reading that grill book and chirping about Uzbekistani marinades. Or maybe it was sauces. Never had anything like that, so looking forward to trying it. Plus him cooking.

He does chunks of meat and the grill in our household, I take care of the rest of the food. I like not having to know everything.

[Mountainair]

I was going to smoke a pork roast for Easter Sunday but ended up adding four more people to the guest list. So, in addition to the pork I'm going to smoke the extra turkey Inbought back at Thanksgiving to serve.

I'm also going to make a green bean casserole, cold potato casserole and seven layer salad.

We inherited my parents smoker by default and this will be our first time using a smoker. I'm leaving it up to my husband to figure it out :)

[DeLurker]

I have no idea what to fix. It ought to be something I can fix in the slow cooker while we are at church. Ham seems traditional, but my mother will be here, and I don't like to fix ham for her. My father had a degenerative brain disorder that made eating and swallowing difficult, and he choked on a ham sandwich one day and had a heart attack. Mom tried to do the heimlich maneuver, but this time she couldn't. So no ham.

Lamb seems expensive, and I am not sure I have ever even seen it in the grocery store here, although the meat packing place might have some.

So maybe some kind of pork roast or just beef roast or even chicken, although I get tired of chicken because we eat it a lot.

We always did turkey for every holiday growing up because we all loved it.  We have very few people that would eat ham, lamb just isn't my thing (and I cook the meat while my vegetarian SIL cooks a zillion sides and meat alternatives), ...so we'll do turkey and I need to stop and buy extra thighs because we have more people who prefer that.  Of course, I don't know about turkey in a slow cooker....

[DeLurker]

I was pondering a creamed spinach side dish and found what is supposed to be the Ruth Chris' recipe printed in the Orlando Sentinel.  It is so good, but just reading the ingredients makes my heart seize up.  Know I am in negotiations with myself - it is only once a year, there will be multiple people eating it, blah blah blah...

[Bastet]

My mom called me this morning and asked, "Did you know Sunday is Easter?"  Nope, and neither did she until someone asked her this morning what she was making.  So she's off to get a ham and I'll figure out what I'm making for the sides sometime between now and then.  (We don't celebrate Easter, but we did the egg decorating and hunting thing when I was a kid, my grandpa would come over, and then we'd have ham for dinner because he really liked it.  So we got in the habit of having ham on Easter, even after it went back to being just another Sunday.)

 

Ooh, and now DeLurker has me pondering Ina Garten's spinach gratin ...

Edited March 23, 2016 by Bastet

[annzeepark914]

I used to order squash casserole at a restaurant in Morehead City called Mrs. Willis'.  It was made with cream cheese and had buttered toasty breadcrumbs on top. The very best squash casserole in the world!  Anyway, it's such a zoo around here in restaurants on holidays that we're going out a different day to celebrate Easter and I'm grilling a pork tenderloin and making Lemon-Apple Coleslaw to go with it...and maybe potato salad to welcome summer (since it was 80 degrees today so I guess we're skipping spring?) I used to bake ham for Easter but holiday food traditions (for me) aren't as strong as for T'giving and Christmas.

[ethalfrida]

So if one cannot have sugar and only the lowest carb fruits what should dessert be?

[NutMeg]

Planning my Easter menu. We are actually doing Easter dinner on Saturday and we are roasting lamb and serving it with tabouleh from a local Middle Eastern place. Not sure what else yet, though. Suggestions? Thanks!

ETA: dessert is going to be a chocolate raspberry tart.

If you're going Middle Eastern, chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are always an easy and tasty option: at the most basic, just chickpeas, olive oil, salt and cumin (lots of cumin). Add ons that work: tomatoes, cut in very small chunks, carrots barely blanched cut in slices, garlic, coriander, parsley. Since tasting it in Morocco I'm also quite partial to a mix of salt and cumin powder to dip roasted lamb in while eating.

[DeLurker]

So if one cannot have sugar and only the lowest carb fruits what should dessert be?

Unless it is for an extreme health concern, I think a nice dessert can be made from an assortment of fresh fruit and it is also visually appealing.  For holiday and celebrations, we often opt for pound cake, vanilla pudding, whipped cream and an assortment of fresh berries.  For my Dad, he gets some of everything, but in much smaller portions and we load his plate up with the fruits.  I've also used the individual sponge cakes you can buy (usually 8? to a pack) to do portion control.

 

I think most berries fall under low carb, along with cantaloupes, watermelon and pears.  Not sure where they fall on the glycemic index though.

 

One of my favorite pies was from Marie Callender's Bakery when I lived in California.  In season, the would have a fresh strawberry pie which was a pie crust filled with fresh strawberries and some kind of glaze, with a band of decorative whipped cream around the outside.  I've made my own version since all the places here (Tx) have a custard or cream base in the pie (which ruins it for me because I want all strawberries).  The only reason I make a glaze is to try to keep a bit tidier when I slice,  but maybe I should try to make a non-sweet gelatin type thing for cohesion (sorry - don't know the proper cooking/ baking terms).

 

Headed out early today to do shopping for my Easter dinner.  As luck would have it, the first place I went to (Sprouts) for the fruit and vegetables, also had a small spiral sliced ham and reasonably priced turkey!  I'll need to make a quick stop for tomatoes and maybe strawberries early Sunday plus green grapes (I hate when they are a bit past perfect), but otherwise done!  Yeah me!

[ethalfrida]

Excellent ideas, DeLurker, and I appreciate your response. Actually, it looks like the berries and pound cake are going to be it. This might be a good time to try for gluten free and alternative flours version of my fave cake.

 

I have lamb chops for Easter, asparagus and the usual salad.

 

I wish I could get one of those pies to you. Polly's has them also. 

[PRgal]

Thanks so much for the side ideas.  Still trying to decide.  I don't know if I'm going to add any more chickpea-based dishes to the dinner - I'm already serving hummus and falafels (store bought.  Too lazy to cook).  I think I might get more prepared sides from a supermarket or gourmet grocery store.  Whole Foods' "detox salad" is on the consideration list. :P

[ethalfrida]

I've never tried the sweetener in this recipe, but I have bookmarked this for future experimentation. They would be divine with fresh raspberries:

 

 

http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2012/06/shannons-sugar-free-meringues-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html

Love merengues so thanks bunches. Not so sure about the Swerve so I looked it up. It is natural, o calories and healthier than other processed sweeteners like Truvia, etc. May be safe in moderate use so I will try it. Looks like a lovely recipe, Forumfish.

[callie lee 29]

Delurker, I don't think I've ever had strawberry purr that is cream/custard base (I'm in florida). That seems weird to me. Weird in a good way thought, I kinda want to try it now.

Anyway, I've always made strawberry pie with just halved strawberries and sugar poured into a pie crust.

[PRgal]

It's Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend.  I'm making my slow cooker apples again this year along with turkey breast (since it's just four people) and quinoa stuffing.  I'm SORT OF making a few sides, including butternut squash - I'm using frozen, so it doesn't really count. 

[Blergh]

I don't know exactly why but it just isn't Thanksgiving for me unless I hear the sound of that cranberry gel glob from the can onto the dish and can see the can's impressions and grooves when I'm eating it.