And if it doesn't bring good luck, at least it will bring on a symphony orchestra in my house - the entire wind section!
Lutefisk - The piece of cod that passeth all understanding.
Stinky fish jello that once it enters your mouth sticks with you. I cannot understand why everyone doesn't just love it.
The blackeyed peas thing has been a tradition in my house for a good long while. And my parents are from the Midwest. So was confused by the "an American South thing." Sure, I'm was born and raised in the south, but my parents, whose tradition it is to eat these beans on New Year's for luck ("although called a pea, it is actually a bean").
- A New Year's Food Tradition: Black-Eyed Peas and Greens (thespruceeats.com)
I'll take the cabbage - suffer for it, but I love it so. Not so much the beans though.
Dakota isn't the only one - little realized, but Pensacola [and Mobile] have more culture in common with NOLA and the rest of the norther gulf coast, than with the rest of Florida. Though, arround here, in stores, its just seasoning blend and its great for a quick meal.
A friend of mine from Sweden doesn't touch that stuff - he prefers sushi. And near as I can tell, Minnesota is the last strong hold of that being a thing.
Quick dna nerd thing. So, you only get half your dna from each parent, right? Thing is, a sibling could have a completely different mix, depending on where they get it from. Some dna is more recessive and tends to disappear faster - for example, my mom says a cousin was convinced we've some Jewish ancestry, but there isn't any trace of it in my dna - but I've cousins with it, so its possible - or they got it somewhere else.
hehehe - I laugh because I asked my mother and she reminded me that we do eat it with greens. "The beans symbolize coins or wealth. Also prosperity of good health. . . . "we also eat them with greens - that symbolizes hoping to have plenty of 'dollars of prosperity in the New Year' double good luck".
hmm. I also have French and Dutch ancestors (Pennsylvania Dutch = mainly coming from Germany, but also the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland).
LOVE herring with onions in wine sauce! Just got a nice, big jar this last week. It never lasts very long around here.
Oddly, the abundance of sauerkraut growing up came from my mom's side. While her maternal grandmother was slavic, she worked as a maid and later cook for a german family. Since she came over at the age of 14, well, she hadn't really learned any Czech or Slav dishes to make [I need to look at a modern map and see which side she came from.
]
I don't know if there is a bunch of written down recipes from my great grandmother, and lord knows no one wants my grandmother's [she was great at golf, bridge and working when most women didn't, but not at all a good cook - according to my mom, my grandfather called her high flame Mary [he died before I was born]. And I don't think my mom writes down recipes either...I find family food traditions very interesting. Lots of times they came from whatever country the person migrated from but were transmogrified because the area they moved to didn't have all the ingredients. I have all of my Great Grandmother's cook books and hand written recipes which I cherish and also use. Since I retired, I've been thinking about writing a cookbook with recipes from her, my Grandmother and my Mother along with stories about how the recipe came into being and how they may have changed it as well as stories about the little farm that my Great Grandmother had.
The challenge has been trying and photographing all the recipes but eventually I'll get there.
Actual quote from my French-Canadian mother when I brought a lentil-based dish (it was a type of shepherd's pie) home one time:
