Posted on 12/15/2010 8:20:04 AM PST by Alex Murphy
I don’t recall ever being served, at home or at a ward function, green gelatin with shredded carrots set in it. I have been served – and have served – all kinds of gelatin concoctions – most of them quite good (raspberries and sour cream, mmmm! cranberries and chopped walnuts, mmmm!), and others … well …
I remember Jell-o’s short-lived 1960s flirtation with vegetable flavored gelatin. Yeah, I can hear your “Ewww!” already. But they were good! If you’re going to put shredded carrots in Jell-o, doesn’t it make more sense to use celery-flavored gelatin than orange or lime? (The four flavors marketed were celery, mixed vegetable, seasoned tomato, and Italian salad. And they were good, whether you believe it or not!)
As I’ve mined the old church magazines for Keepa ideas, I’ve kept an eye out for gelatin recipes and discussions, and after a careful search, I can now announce what I think is the earliest documented gelatin sighting in Mormon history. Woot! Shake the tambourines and blow the horns! It’s the birth of a Mormon tradition!
(Excerpt) Read more at keepapitchinin.org ...
I don’t remember the name but it was in walking distance to the Polish/Lithuanian museum. It really had nothing on the menu that did have potatoes as its primary ingredient. I order what sounded really good, but it was in essence mashed potatoes and put in a loaf pan baked then sliced and finally fried. It was beyond bad. There was some kind of red cabbage on the plate to go with it. I have had some really tasty sausages I bought from a Polish grocers in San Jose, CA.
Do you celebrate Wigilia in Chicago? What happens in our house is that my wife sorts that out, then I do the full traditional English Christmas dinner the next day.
Come Boxing Day (26th Dec) we're all about 20 pounds heavier ;-)
>>I don’t remember the name but it was in walking distance to the Polish/Lithuanian museum.<<
Now that’s just a pity.
If you’re ever in my area, I’ll take you to the Polish store and load you up with great food. Lots of ‘clog your arteries’ meals.
That’s why we either don’t live long or if we do, we have Alzheimer. Seriously.
That does look good.
Ooops, that's right - actually 'ol Joe said that about Christianity.
Lots of artery cloggig stuff too, though as netmilsmon says, so not recommended as a constant diet!
I was just thinking about this last night. There is a girl who’s blog I read, http://thegirlwho.net/journal/ or maybe it was Dooce, and they talked about the Mormon’s and jello. (Both are ex-Mormons.)
>>Do you celebrate Wigilia in Chicago?<<
I’m in Detroit and we do.
There is a huge community in Chicago and I’m sure they do too.
We just got our oplatek last week.
On a side note, I had my first taste of Black Pudding two weeks ago when we went to the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” and they offered a traditional British Breakfast. Do you eat that? Yuck. I thought it would be like Kiska, but it sure wasn’t.
If you’re ever in Detroit, it’s on me!
I've never been fond of black pudding to be honest. A full English breakfast minus that is a great thing, though!
When I was growing up our housekeeper was Mormon, she used to make jello salads for us. She made one with lemon jello, bananas and pineapple with some sort of cooked whipped topping on it. She made it for us every Easter.
She would try to get my father to drink Postum. lol He didn’t care for her coffee substitute but he loved her pineapple filled cookies with his coffee. They used to banter back and forth about Postum and coffee.
I have an old cookbook from her church. In it are her recipes for the salad and the cookies as well as some others she made.
I tried the jello salad one year for Easter, my family were not impressed. Our favorite hot dog chili recipe is in that book though.
**Freeper Kitchen Ping** Religion section. But, where there is food, you shall find me.
My wife DOESN’T know how to cook. I am not offended by the truth.
My mother in law has lived with us since her husband passed 17 years ago (she paid for the downpayment on a home we could never have afforded). I tell my friends we moved into this great community the old way, we inherited it.
She is first generation Italian, and she is the house cook—and the best one ever. I keep telling my college aged daughters they need to spend more time by her side or they will lose out on some of the best education they are ever going to get.
She spent years trying to learn polish cooking from her mother in law. The problem is HER MIL could not speak english—so the teaching was a little lost in the translation.
She does make a great Perogi (which I can never pronounce) and some wonderful Kapusta.
The rest of it is lost on me. (I was kidding actually, I am sure there is great Polish food.) The butter comment is really directed to their Easter tradition of carved butter statues of lambs. And their Christmas eve traditional dinner which is just doused in butter.
BUT, her italian food is really the best around. My kids have friends ASK to come over when they know she is cooking. Since she lived through the depression with her family, she can put together any combination of veggies and just a taste of meat and have a wonderful meal.
Since they eat a lot of olive oils and veggies, her family tends to live forever. She is 88 and has never had a chronic prescription filled in her life. Aside from a broken hip from falling into our pool (the dog pushed her) she has never been sick. All of her siblings have lived well into their 90’s. Good eating has a lot to do with it.
As another aside, as the generations get further and further from the great migrations of the early 20th century the food is getting more and more homogenized. I find we are adding more latin flavors through osmosis. I love it, but I am starting to miss the dishes of my youth.
I am sure someone could do a decent research paper on the homogenization of American food culture.
Who stole the Kiska anyway?
My wife sings that song from time to time. Something from her days in the Polish Church grammar school.
And is Wigilia what is pronounced: Vah-LAY-Yah?
My wife will tell you that one of the funniest things was watching me—the uptight WASP guy, go through the oplatek rituals with her little old polish relatives.
I think that is when she fell in love with me.
Iowa Methodists have been serving green Jell-O for 80 years, other flavors even longer.
Tomato aspic still appears on many southern tables.
Actually, we eat more Italian food than anything else.
My Brit in-laws came to my house and I made a real Polish meal. I told them that normally, the Pork Roast resting in the sauerkraut would be lased with butter, the perogi would be fried with butter and onions and the cucumber salad would have real sour cream. I replaced all the rich stuff with Olive oil and fat free.
My MIL still gagged.
bflr
>>Does carp still feature in a big way for Polish-American Wigilia?<<
To some. Good carp is hard to find. Frozen is okay.
Lots of pickled herring has replaced it in our house.
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