Posted on 11/22/2012 10:20:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
During the summer, in the Catskills resort community where I grew up during the ’50s, getting great Jewish food was not a problem. The hotels on our side of the mountains in Fleischmanns, N.Y., were dying, but there were still enough city people that it was not hard to find smoked fish and salamis and decent rye bread.
In the off-season, it was a different story. The small community of year-round Jews, to which my family belonged, had to return to the mother ship, New York City, for supplies. We went to Houston Street on the Lower East Side, the neighborhood where my father was born.
Visiting what we called the appetizing stores was not the main reason for these trips. You came in to visit family or go shopping in the morning, see a show in the afternoon. My view of the city was shaped by my mother’s pronouncements of the indisputable facts, which she considered to be whatever came out of her mouth.
“You know how you tell a New York woman,” she’d say, before leaping out of the car at 34th Street to make for Ohrbach’s, a store famous for knocking off Paris fashions and offering them for a fraction of the price, a tactic she much admired. “When the wind is blowing and a New York woman has the choice between holding down her skirt and holding on to her hat, she holds on to her hat.”
Then she was out of the car, for the three or four hours when she could be one.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Dig in.
“..great not to be trapped in the kitchen for a day.”
The past few years (out of 48) we have gone out for Thanksgiving dinner; but husband isn’t happy with it, so Thanksgiving is mostly always a power struggle. He wants to go to “blood kin” for the holiday; yesterday was at an 84 yr. old cousin’s. I felt so guilty piling in on her (and, yes, her kids still expect her to cook); told husband yesterday that was it. We took food, but still, this is just obtuse. I’ve hosted Thanksgiving at our house, gone to kinfolks other times; but have thoroughly enjoyed just sitting down to eat at a decent restaurant, getting up and walking out without all the MESS cooking creates. - Most of those times; husband has just sat at the table looking like he’s lost his last best friend - and he just about has - ME!!
The big family sit downs are harder now on everybody with so many of people’s folks having been Obama voters and the potential tensions that causes. Husband has also been tied to the “old hometown”, insists on going to every old high school gathering that comes down the pike (and I do mean “old” as in both of us graduating about 50 yrs. ago). Thing is, for both of us, about half of the crowd voted “O” and have voted Democrat all their lives. When time comes to pay the piper and Obama’s rulings take effect; I’m pretty sure these grouches will be moaning and groaning that their kids “can’t find jobs” or “got laid off” and “everything is sure getting expensive”. I’m hoping my husband will soon be able to cut some of the tethers. - I think my definition of “nostalgia” at this point is “homesickness for things as they never really were”.
Mmmmmm.......a dozen different vegetables.
Heaven.
Can never have too many veggies for my taste.
Combine 3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, cup granulated sugar, 3 eggs, beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 8 tablespoons melted sweet (unsalted) butter, tablespoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour into buttered square baking dish. Crumble Topping over. Bake Topping golden 20-25 min 400 deg. Serve hot.
Topping: Combine cup packed light brown sugar, 4 tablespoons cubed sweet butter, 1/2 cup self-rising cake flour, cup chopped pecans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.