[Sca-cooks] crudites

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>:
>  > >addition to the basic food, and appropriate condiments 
>available, there was
>>  >always the home-made pickle jars, and a plate of sliced onions, another of
>>  >sliced tomatoes in season, and at least one, usually two, types of bread as
>>  >well as the catsup, mustard, salt, pepper, and butter- it was just how you
>>  >set the table. Unfortunately, I think with our nuclear families, we're now
>>  >setting nuclear tables- just the food and salt and pepper, maybe butter if
>>  >we have bread, and leaving it at that.
>
>*giggle* this Yule, I showed up at the ritual meal with a jar of my
>homemade pickles (a little soft, but 7 adults got through half a quart
>jar of pickle spears, so they can't have been too bad) along with my
>assigned foods, on the grounds that it isn't a holiday meal without
>pickles.
>
>When I was growing up, my grandparents set the table for most regular
>meals with bread, butter, cottage cheese, pickles, chutney, some sort of
>leftover salads and veggie dishes, along with whatever the main course
>was. In summertime, peeled tomato slices made an appearance at every lunch
>and dinner.

I was bringing a lot of stuff to my mother's house for Thanksgiving, 
and discovered a jar of watermelon pickle in the fridge. I think it 
was two years old, and I hadn't liked that particular batch (I think 
I used the wrong kind of vinegar, which kind of masked the watermelon 
flavor). Well, I brought it, figuring this was a golden opportunity: 
someone would be bound to eat at least some of it, and I could in 
good conscience just leave it at my Mom's house to fester in her 
fridge if nobody did.

Yes, I think my status as Evil Incarnate is well established by now.

Well, the pickles seemed to have improved with the long lagering. Not 
only were they all eaten, but people from Maryland and Alabama were 
waxing nostalgic on past-life watermelon-pickle experiences. It seems 
my niece by marriage (? my nephew's wife) is from the Western side of 
the Chesapeake Bay, and remembers her grandmother making watermelon 
pickles. She also said that grandma would serve the pickles in a 
peculiar sort of ritualistic fashion; not as part of a meal, but more 
a sort of, "Everybody gather 'round, we're all going to eat 
watermelon pickles now."

She said she couldn't tell if this was just a local tradition or if 
her grandma was merely... well, a little odd.

Adamantius