Holiday Menus

[ednbarby]

Yum!  That's what my mother always did, adding potatoes and carrots to the turnips. She usually served up a great big dish of that mixture, with pork chops for the meat.

That sounds 'nummy.  You know, I think vegetables are really just butter/salt vessels.  They all taste about the same to me.   Maybe that's why I don't like olives - you kinda havta eat them raw.  And unlike other raw veggies, they have a distinctive taste.  Definitely an acquired one, in my opinion, and I haven't acquired it yet.  But I do love to cook with olive oil.  Go figure.

[ifyoucantfixit]

I'm guessing "tuna wiggle" is canned tuna inside a jello mold.  That's enough to make a vegetarian out of me.


Re green bean casserole:  My Mom was also into the new conveniences of the 50s and 60s, which meant we rarely had fresh vegetables.  However, at Thanksgiving, we always had fresh green beans (cooked to death in the pressure pot).   We had a variation on the casserole, but for the leftovers:  it was like lasagna, in layers.  A layer of shredded turkey covered with a layer of stuffing covered with a layer of green beans, the whole mess infused with cream of mushroom soup and baked.

Those onion thingies in a can scare me.

  THAT IS SCARY,,,  i may never eat jello again....green food not grown in a garden kind of creeps me out....janice

[ifyoucantfixit]

I love Brussels sprouts, too.  But I love lima beans even more.  I think it's quite possible Jeff and I may be the only people who fall into both categories.  Basically, with the exception of olives, I have never met a vegetable I didn't like.

i love nearly all vegies, green beans, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, lima beans...all sound good to me...but lime jello, not so much, no matter what you put in

[ifyoucantfixit]

         my holiday menu includes fried stuffing sandwiches for lunch the day after thanksgiving....go to the fridge and slice it off,  fry in butter of course, and make a sandwich with choice of bread, and mayo. put cranberry sauce on top of stuffing a little or a lot,,,,,,good stuff

[Jeff Wrangler]

You know, I think vegetables are really just butter/salt vessels.

Tell you what, I think you may be on to something there, Barb! 

[Jeff Wrangler]

         my holiday menu includes fried stuffing sandwiches for lunch the day after thanksgiving....go to the fridge and slice it off,  fry in butter of course, and make a sandwich with choice of bread, and mayo. put cranberry sauce on top of stuffing a little or a lot,,,,,,good stuff

Can't say I've ever had a "fried stuffing sandwich," but my mother's preferred way to reheat leftover stuffing--back in the day before God and Amana gave us microwave ovens--was to fry it in butter. Went real good that way with leftover gravy on top! 

[Meryl]

Yum, there's something about anything fried in butter that has an appeal! 

Jeff and Janice, there's now a Leftovers thread for stuff like stuffing. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yum, there's something about anything fried in butter that has an appeal! 

You bet! It doesn't have anything to do with holiday meals--or holiday leftovers--but when I was a very small boy, my mother's method of reheating leftover macaroni and cheese was--you guessed it!--to fry it in butter! 

[dot-matrix]

Just for fun    These are actual Christmas Menus from historic places in the old west, collected by North Pole West in Cody Wyoming.  Some I'm sure you will recognize

Christmas Dinner Menu
LaVeta Hotel, December 1889
 Claret Wine      Reisling Wine 
Blue Point Oysters     Hearts of Lettuce    Kalamazoo Celery
Oyster Consomme a la Jardiniere    Barbecued Trout     Parisienne Potatoes matre d h Boiled Ham
Brazed Elk    Champignons Blance Rabbit a la Francisco     Duck a la Maringue    Queen Fritters Sweet Wine
Roast Prime Rib of Beef    Young Pig Stuffed with Apple Sauce     Povindeur of Turkey     Cranberry Sauce
Antelope with Current Jelly    Chicken Salad Mayonaise      Mashed Potatoes     Baked Sweet Potatoes
Petits Pois Hot Slaw    Green Apple Pie     Mince Pie     La Veta Ice Cream  Assorted Cake
Christmas Plum Pudding with Hard and Brandy Sauce     Fruits   Raisins    Assorted Nuts    Muscat Grapes
Chocolate with Whipped Cream   


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Christmas Dinner Menu
Shared between Trappers and Indians Utah, 1840
Stewed Elk Meat Boiled Deer Meat
Boiled Flour Pudding with Dried Fruit and Sour Berry Sauce 
Cakes and Strong Coffee Sweetened

After dinner tobacco pipes were smoked
Shooting contests passed the remainder of the day. 
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Christmas Dinner Menu
Camp Desolation, 1848
Recorded by Thomas E. Breckenridge, member of Colonel John Fremonts 4th expedition west.

Soup: Fried Mule Mule Chops      Boiled Mule    Stewed Mule
 Boiled Mule   Scrambled Mule     Shirred Mule    French Fried Mule     Minced Mule
 Damned Mule Mule on Toast
(without toast) Short ribs of Mule with Apple Sauce (without Apple Sauce)   
Beverages: Snow Snow Water Water   

"It really makes no difference how our meat was cooked. It was still the same ould mule".
****Note: He might have been exaggerating

Booth Family Christmas Dinner Menu
Four Mile House, Denver, Colorado 1883

Stewed Oysters, Boned Turkey
Stuffed Ham, Mashed Potatoes
Turnips, Beets,
Fried Celery Gelatin with Fruits and Nuts,
Candied Sweet Potatoes, Plum Pudding,  Baked Lemon Pudding .
Fruit Cake, Nuts, Candied Oranges, Coffee 
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Mountain Man Christmas Dinner - White River region 1842
"This great annual feast is observerd with all the exhilaration hilarity and good cheer that circumstances will allow. Several little extras for the occasion have been procured from the Indians, which prove quite wholesome and pleasent-tasted. One of these, called washena, consists of dried meat pulverized and mixed with marrow; another is a preparation of cherries, preserved when first picked by pounding and sun drying them (they are served by mixing them with bouille, or the liquor of fresh boiled meat, thus giving to it an agreeable winish taste); a third is a marrow fat, an article in many respects superior to butter; and lastly, we obtained a kind of flour made from the pomme blanc (white apple), answering very well as a substite for that of grain.
The above assortment, with a small supply of sugar and coffee, as well as several other dainties variously prepared, affords an excellent dinner, and though different in kind, by no means inferior in quality to the generality of dinners for which the day is noted in more civilized communities.
Rufus B. Sage 
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Cheyenne Cowboy Stew
1 pound cubed brains
1 pound cubed sweetbreads
2 cubed beef kidneys
1 cubed beef heart  1/2 pound cubed beef liver
1/2 pound cubed beef meat
3 pounds marrow gut sliced into 3/4" peices

Place all ingredients in a cast iron pot; add 1/2 gallon of water- bring to a boil.
Then let simmer for 5-6 hours. Add additional liquid if need be. Season to taste.
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Christmas Dinner
Fort Custer, Montana

Troop G
1st U.S. Cavalry
1889


Soup
Oyster
Macaroni Entres
Broiled Prairie Chicken
Roast Porterhouse Beef, Natural sauce
Venison, Applesauce
Pig
Turkey with Cranberry Sauce
Oyster Dressing

Salads
Lobster, French Slaw, Shrimp

Vegtables
Potatoes,mashed   Onions,stewed
Sugar Corn    Beets
Potatoes,roasted   Tomatoes,steamed
 
Relishes
Worcestershire Sauce, Chow Chow
French Mustard
Pickled Cucumbers 
Pickled Onions


 
  Pastry
Mince Pie
Cranberry Pie
Apple Pie

Dessert
Preserved Peaches
Preserved Pears 
Apples
Raisins
Nuts

Tea    Coffeee    Chocolate 

 

[Ellemeno]

"Mmmm" (sound of Ennis diggin' inta the can a beans)

"hyucghhh" (sound of Ennis kneeling in the alley)

Some of these are more delightful-sounding than others.  All are right interestin' though, thanks, Dottie.