[Sca-cooks] Holiday Recipes

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

As i mentioned in a previous SCA-period food oriented question 
(thanks for your suggestions, RJ), i've been looking at Holiday 
Recipes on the Web.

While i certainly don't expect everyone to eat dinner composed 
entirely of gourmet food with everything made from scratch, i am 
surprised by the vast array of things involving Jell-O and Cool Whip.

Some make me shudder - astonishing (and to me inedible) things 
involving Twinkies, among them. I e-mailed a few recipes to my 
ex-consort, and last night he told me he had been served one of them 
at his Thanksgiving dinner by his "rural white-trash" (his words) 
relatives in Oklahoma from whence both his parents came - it involved 
Cool Whip, instant butterscotch pudding, canned pineapple, and 
marshmallows.

Another recipe that sounded completely inedible to me combined orange 
Jell-O, "Circus Peanut" candies (which do not involve peanuts except 
in shape), canned crushed pineapple and Cool Whip. (i have always 
detested "Circus Peanut" candy)

I'm a food snob, true, but i'm willing to taste just about anything. 
I've eaten servings of a number of "salads" that were layered Jell-O 
molds. Some weren't too horrible.

But i am shocked by what sounds like a large amount of ersatz food 
products on USAmerican holiday tables. While i whined about the meal 
i had, everything, other than those really nasty dinner rolls no one 
ate, was homemade (ok, so they used a frozen pie crust for the 
pumpkin pie).

And while i complained about my Thanksgiving dinner, in the past (oh, 
say 30 years ago) they were actually well-cooked and comparatively 
pleasant. So i do have a few memories of good food and good company.

But I just have to wonder what sorts of holiday food memories a few 
generations are going to be having...

Just some meandering thoughts in the midst of a cold grey holiday season,

Anahita