"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[Trout Hound]

My dad was the eldest of nine children. Growing up in the South during the Great Depression left a lifelong memory of hard times with not a lot of anything. They usually butchered a hog when the first frost arrived. His traditional New Year's Day meal was hog jowls, collards, black eye peas, and skillet corn bread. I remember him telling me that many a day he only had collards and biscuits for his school lunch when he was a kid.

As a friend of mine once said, “We had beans and taters one night, and taters and beans the next.”

 

[sitflyer]

As a friend of mine once said, “We had beans and taters one night, and taters and beans the next.”

When times were lean in my childhood, mom would cook a big pot of cabbage and potatoe soup, with a pound of kielbasa sliced very thin into it. On New Year's Eve, it was always a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, with meatballs, sausage and ribs, and we were of Irish and French Canadian descent lol.

 

[leghog]

There were eight of us. Mom would make nine pork chops just to see what would happen.

 

[sitflyer]

There were eight of us. Mom would make nine pork chops just to see what would happen.

One gets to cut, the others get to choose?

 

[r8shell]

There were eight of us. Mom would make nine pork chops just to see what would happen.

Someone gets a fork to the back of the hand?

 

[Will Power]

Someone gets a fork to the back of the hand?

Survival of the Greediest

 

[Will Power]

The only Black Eyed Peas we got to hear about in Europe was the Fergie Duhamel sort..

 

[Jolipapa]

Orders were clear : no quarter!

 

[Jack Black]

I had a drink with an old pal of mine about a week before Christmas, and he told me that his Polish wife had to go back to Poland over the holiday to look after her mother, who was ill. I invited him for Xmas dinner, but he had already made plans, with a couple of slightly younger male friends joining him Christmas Eve, and staying until Boxing Day.

I just exchanged texts with him, and was surprised to hear that he'd spent Christmas Day in bed with a hangover. I asked what had happened to his guests, thinking perhaps that their plans had changed. 'I cooked them pizza for breakfast, then went back to bed, and left them to it'!!

 

[Henry Beige]

The only Black Eyed Peas we got to hear about in Europe was the Fergie Duhamel sort..

Years ago, it occurred to me, maybe after an an outdoor street performance on the Today Show, that Black Eyed Peas were ripe for a Saturday morning cartoon show. Then I put them out of my mind, forgetting about them completely until just now.
Sure enough:

https://goo.gl/images/[/I]

 

[JB in SC]

My grandmother in South Carolina would put up watermelon rind preserves. As you said, waste not, want not.

I consider sweet watermelon rind pickles a delicacy.

 

[5K Qs]

Happy New Year everyone! We normally eat 'New Year's rolls'. They signify the new year that's about to unroll.

At the end of the year we eat 'kniepertjes'

Mark, does anyone in the Netherlands still bake banket around Christmas? It's about 12-18 inch roll of flaky pastry crust wrapped around some kind of almond paste. My paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents were all Dutch immigrants, and one of my grandmothers always baked banket for the holiday season. Very delicious, but grandma passed away many years ago and I never eat it anymore! Here's a link to a picture:
http://delectablymine.blogspot.com/2014/01/banket-new-favorite.html

- GT

 

[Will Power]

Sounds mouthwatering GT! Sad when culinary traditions disappear...

 

[Bartleby]

Mark, does anyone in the Netherlands still bake banket around Christmas? It's about 12-18 inch roll of flaky pastry crust wrapped around some kind of almond paste. My paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents were all Dutch immigrants, and one of my grandmothers always baked banket for the holiday season. Very delicious, but grandma passed away many years ago and I never eat it anymore! Here's a link to a picture:
http://delectablymine.blogspot.com/2014/01/banket-new-favorite.html

- GT

One of the wonderful things my grandmother Meinders used to make, I can still recall it from my childhood (though she passed in '77!). Thanks 5K Q for bringing it to mind! Now to locate some....

 

[5K Qs]

Happy New Years! I'm off to find some black eyed peas. You have to eat some for luck on New Year's Day, it's a southern tradition. Do folks in other places have traditions like that?
...

Here's a question for all you Southerners with a New Year's tradition of pork, black-eyed peas, cornbread, etc. I was out shoveling snow last night and heard sirens that turned out to be a firetruck and then an ambulance showing up at the house 2 doors down across the street. Since it was about 6˚F outside at the time, the neighbors didn't come out to spread rumors at the time, but my wife told me that the lady who lived in that house had apparently died, maybe last Friday, and her son found her last night and called the authorities. But part of the story, and I didn't see its relevance, is that there's a "Southern tradition" that a woman can't go into a house on New Year's Day until a man has walked through the house. Anyone familiar with such a New Year tradition?

- GT

 

[JB in SC]

5K Qs that'a a very old superstition but not necessarily Southern. First Footer (first person to enter a home after midnight on New Year's eve) should be a dark haired man, women supposedly bring disaster.

 

[5K Qs]

Thanks, Jerry! With your help in providing terminology for the superstition, I googled "first footer new year" and found links that suggest the practice comes from Scotland and Northern England (including Yorkshire). I learn so much about so many areas here!!

- GT

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks, Jerry! With your help in providing terminology for the superstition, I googled "first footer new year" and found links that suggest the practice comes from Scotland and Northern England (including Yorkshire). I learn so much about so many areas here!!

- GT

When I was a kid, dark-haired male neighbours were very much in demand at New Year, and of course could always rely on being given a drink or three! I can even remember seeing people run out into the street to grab hold of the first qualifying passerby! My dad would often get asked, but I think his hair was only dark because he wore Brylcreem!

 

[Peregrin]

When I was a kid, dark-haired male neighbours were very much in demand at New Year, and of course could always rely on being given a drink or three! I can even remember seeing people run out into the street to grab hold of the first qualifying passerby! My dad would often get asked, but I think his hair was only dark because he wore Brylcreem!

If I'm remembering correctly I was the first person to enter our home on new years day. I'd gone out to fill the bird feeders. I'm not sure if formerly dark hair, now mostly gray, will meet the requirement.
Some of the traditions and superstitions are pretty crazy. I suspect this one was started by a group of dark haired men who figured out a way to get a free drink or meal!

 

[5K Qs]

If I'm remembering correctly I was the first person to enter our home on new years day. I'd gone out to fill the bird feeders. I'm not sure if formerly dark hair, now mostly gray, will meet the requirement.
Some of the traditions and superstitions are pretty crazy. I suspect this one was started by a group of dark haired men who figured out a way to get a free drink or meal!

Never having been dark-haired myself, I have no difficulty believing your suspicions, Gary! You dark-haired lot have always struck me as a nefarious group!

- GT