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Recipes - Main & Side Dishes
Front-Ranger:
I wonder, when did mac and cheese become a holiday dish? And why? My children were reminiscing about family meals when they were growing up and were mourning the lack of mac and cheese or pizza for dinner. They didn't get to eat the foods the other kids ate and liked to talk about. I personally thought a good pizza could be very nourishing and healthful but my then-husband was opposed to serving it at the dinner table. Odd, since he is of Italian descent.
You only have room for so many morsels of food at the holiday table, so why include something as mundane as mac and cheese? I will say that I often make a turkey casserole that has some kind of pasta and some kind of cheese as a way to use up the leftovers. I call this Turkey Tetrazzini. My mother used to make it although she had no Italian heritage of any kind. In fact, the dish is reputed to have been invented in San Francisco: "The original dish is named after the Italian opera star Luisa Tetrazzini. It is widely believed to have been invented circa 1908?1910 by Ernest Arbogast, the chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where Tetrazzini made her American debut at the Tivoli as Gilda in Rigoletto on January 11, 1905." This is according to Rosalie, a Houston Italian restaurant.
A similar dish that I make is Turkey Stroganoff. Here is the recipe that comes closest to what I do. However, I put in chopped spinach or chard. The recipe calls for parsley...I add that at the end. For the tetrazzini, I most often add chopped celery. I never add peas, which most of the recipes use.
southendmd:
No mac 'n' cheese at my house. Instead, I made a gratin of leeks and potato. Very simple, from Melissa Clark of the NYT, it has earned great reviews. Simply put, it's extremely thinly sliced yukon gold potatoes (with a Japanese mandolin that will make 0.5mm slices) layered with richly caramelized leeks in butter. Cream is simmered with garlic, bay and thyme, then nutmeg is added and poured over the lot. Topped with gruyere and baked. Rich and amazingly sweet, it was a big hit next to Niman Ranch rack of lamb (flagrantly rare) and french beans sauteed with shallots.
We are generally burgundy and/or rhone lovers, but this time we had a velvety bordeaux.
Joey's son baked a round loaf of bread with spelt, rye and something else and it somehow overshadowed the whole menu!
Dessert included Joey's famous homemade fruitcake, also stollen, miniature pralines and 20 year tawny port.
Our dear friend Laurence did his traditional reading, this year Hans Christian Andersen's melancholic "The Fir Tree".
I was happy to have cleaned up and made it to bed early.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 26, 2023, 08:26:25 pm ---I wonder, when did mac and cheese become a holiday dish?
--- End quote ---
Well, I found this, but somehow it doesn't strike me as a sufficient explanation. I don't get a sense of continuity in including mac and cheese on the holiday dinner table.
https://forgottennewengland.com/2012/11/11/macaroni-and-cheese-for-thanksgiving-thanksgiving-dinner-in-1883/#:~:text=If%20you%20were%20to%20sit,lot%20has%20changed%20since%201883.
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: southendmd on December 26, 2023, 08:44:28 pm ---No mac 'n' cheese at my house. Instead, I made a gratin of leeks and potato. Very simple, from Melissa Clark of the NYT, it has earned great reviews. Simply put, it's extremely thinly sliced yukon gold potatoes (with a Japanese mandolin that will make 0.5mm slices) layered with richly caramelized leeks in butter. Cream is simmered with garlic, bay and thyme, then nutmeg is added and poured over the lot. Topped with gruyere and baked. Rich and amazingly sweet, it was a big hit next to Niman Ranch rack of lamb (flagrantly rare) and french beans sauteed with shallots.
We are generally burgundy and/or rhone lovers, but this time we had a velvety bordeaux.
Joey's son baked a round loaf of bread with spelt, rye and something else and it somehow overshadowed the whole menu!
Dessert included Joey's famous homemade fruitcake, also stollen, miniature pralines and 20 year tawny port.
--- End quote ---
;)
Front-Ranger:
Every family celebrates the holidays in their own way. It's ironic that my children bemoan the lack of mac and cheese on the T-giving table and forget about the crown roast or the leg of lamb, doused in warmed Pern?d and flamed.
Jeff, that article states that mac and cheese was considered exotic and elegant. It was served by Thomas Jefferson at state dinners. Whereas now I consider it something to keep on the top shelf as an emergency food ration. Then, when you look at Paul's menu, the ingredients include potatoes, leeks, lamb, spelt, rye, beans and such, all foods that peasants would have eaten. But the way they're prepared, they're elevated to the height of sophistication! I call that pretty high entertainment!
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