sparkling husband primitive preserves fishy tradition

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x83106

Oh my.

Stinky The Clown  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-23-10 08:20 PM
THE SPARKLING HUSBAND PRIMITIVE, #02 TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2010
Original message

Preserving tradition - the Feast of the Seven . . . Five . . . uh, Three . . . make that one Fishes?

The Italian Christmas Eve tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes is one that was observed in my family. I simply cannot recall a single Christmas Eve when it wasn't. The menu and the venue changed, but not the tradition.

That changed some years ago when my mother died and my aunts (her sisters) grew increasingly frail.

The first year I orchestrated it with a new audience (our kids and their families) in a new venue (our house) the reviews were decidedly mixed. The biggest problem was the amount of food. It is simply impossible to make just a small volume and still have seven entrees and appropriate side dishes. Everyone was uncomfortably full, and the overall effect was not fun. Too much food and too little collective capacity to eat it.

The tradition allows some flexibility. It is usually held that Seven Fishes is the tradition. But the bigger notion is simply an odd number. When our crew was, for a few truly wonderful years, greater than thirty people spanning four generations, we did Nine Fishes. As the family moved away, as marriages took some of us to new in-laws for the holiday, or maybe every other year's celebration, things changed. We did Five Fishes. Once we did Three Fishes.

Here at StinkySparklyville we've done as few as three. Last year it was just Sparkly and me. We shared it with our neighbors, but did just one fish dish, an appetizer with fish in it, and a side with some fish essence.

This year we hope to go back to all Seven Fishes, but with a twist. We're going to do it for the entire week. The menu is not yet fully set, but we'll do one fish entree a night, and a fish appetizer on some nights, for five days. The audience will be different each night, too. The kids or not. Neighbors and friends. People we see a lot and some with whom we've lost touch.

I have this vision of sharing one meal with a family less fortunate, but we're not sure quite how to effect that - or even find the family. Maybe next year.

It is a truly wonderful, sustaining tradition. It is based on the core notion of a common meal and of sharing.

I have thought about this for years, ever since the people with whom I shared this as a child were gone from us. I think I may have hit on the form of the tradition that fits with the state of our family and our corner of the world.

Whatever is your holiday tradition, please accept my best wishes for you and yours and that the best of the season finds its way to you.

For those to whom it has meaning: Buon Natale!

And a late Feliz Navidad to the second-ranking top primitive of 2010 from franksolich too.

Denninmi  (415 posts)      Thu Dec-23-10 08:41 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. I don't really have any great family traditions.

My mother's family was boring -- typical American stock of English and Dutch descent, no real "traditions" to speak of. I think the mentality of the 19th century was that fun was sinful.

My father's parents were both immigrants, their traditions I think were left behind with their families.

I've tried to make some of my own over the years, but it's not much fun when no one else wants to participate, and the family is small and scattered.

Yeah, it's kind of sad.

I picked up a package of frozen seafood blend the other day -- clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, crab, octopus, and squid. Seven right there in one convenient package. I was thinking about making a red curry with coconut milk, basil, and lemon grass some day.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-23-10 10:42 PM
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
Response to Original message

2. We've never done the fishes.

As a matter of fact I never heard of it until the first time you mentioned it here. I do remember my great aunts and my gran frying smelt so maybe that was as far as our family carried it. I dunno.

Even though Bill and I don't celebrate this particular holiday anymore in any form really, except maybe having a nicer dinner than usual, we did make the pizzelles. We made the chocolate ones this past weekend and shared them all with out co-workers. Tonight we made the traditional anise ones. They are a flavor that evokes many memories for me and the house smells wonderful.

Well, well.

Mrs. Alfred Packer is over her mourning.

Watch for "Mrs. Alfred Packer does Christmas" when franksolich returns later on in the week.

tigereye  (1000+ posts)        Sat Dec-25-10 10:14 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
9. I love pizzelles- and want to get a pizzelle maker - my husband's family is Italian and Polish - and my MIL made smelts, pannetone, and pizzelles for Christmas. She also made the best meatballs.

My own family is Irish/German, but for some reason we always had lasagna most Christmas Eve nights. We didn't really have any Irish traditions for Christmas, other than Catholic ones- midnight mass, singing carols and carrying the baby Jesus statue to the manger as kids.

Since my husband and I do the main Christmas Eve dinner now that our parents are gone or much older, we have done lasagna, shells, my husband's own impromptu version of chicken curry with lots of red peppers, French bread, other breads, and this year, paella and salmon. So I guess we pick and choose different holiday traditions.
My son has many cultures in him, so it will be interesting to see what he decides to do when he is old enough.

Whoop-de-do.

franksolich, just like most other people, decent and civilized people and primitives all included, has many different cultures in him--English, Welsh, Scots, Brandenburgian, Slovak, Hungarian, Judaic, Ruthenian. Austrian--but an English Christmas always suited franksolich the most.

tigereye  (1000+ posts)        Sat Dec-25-10 10:06 PM
Response to Original message
 
8. very cool - my husband's family is Italian and my MIL mostly did smelts the last few years we visited, although she had done as many as 3 over the years. She also made pannetone in a flower pot, which I thought was really cool and made her own pasta.

I love the idea of all the fishes. Last night we had paella with shrimp, and also had a big plate of salmon. So we did 2 fishes!

[vesta111]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x83106

Oh my.

And a late Feliz Navidad to the second-ranking top primitive of 2010 from franksolich too.

Well, well.

Mrs. Alfred Packer is over her mourning.

Watch for "Mrs. Alfred Packer does Christmas" when franksolich returns later on in the week.

Whoop-de-do.

franksolich, just like most other people, decent and civilized people and primitives all included, has many different cultures in him--English, Welsh, Scots, Brandenburgian, Slovak, Hungarian, Judaic, Ruthenian. Austrian--but an English Christmas always suited franksolich the most.

Thank you Frank, I for over 20 years have wondered where the fish on Xmas Eve came from in Hubby's family.

For some reason his Irish, Italian, Polish family did not make that big of an impression on the 7 kids. Once the grandparents died allot of the traditions were cast aside by the parents who were just to exhausted from working in the factory's to be continued with all those kids to raise.

The one with the fish and some kind of soup made with tiny meat balls and arugula remain with them but as both parents died within 3 months of each other, leaving 3 teenagers and 4 kids in early twenty's, to go their own way ,it surprises me that all the kids are still alive at this time.

We had little tradition in my Yankee family except that on Xmas Eve we got to open just one present.  Xmas Day we put out a turkey and ham, Lobsters and root vegetables that my Dad cooked, at home, the grandparents stopped having family dinners except at ThanksGiving.

We tend to place little value on traditions of our forefathers, perhaps this is a very bad thing, it leads us into a cultural waste land and a loss of identity.  This makes us  outsiders from those that know who they are and have  pride in their roots, in the past family that sweat's and died to make it possible for us to be born. 

Sometimes this comes to bite us on the butt.  People who have any blood line from northern Europe are never tested for Cycle Cell Anemia.  Those with a grandparent from Africa or around the Mediterranean Sea are tested.  Comes as a shock to parents that there may be blood from a Greek family member on one or both sides of the family. These children are tested.

Family tradition is so very important to us, gives us a calming sense of togetherness---a bond with strangers that also follow the tradition.

Few American brides of any culture will have a wedding without----Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.??

[Karin]

we did make the pizzelles. We made the chocolate ones this past weekend and shared them all with out co-workers. Tonight we made the traditional anise ones.

Talk about food and smells bringing back memories.  When I was a kid, I visited my best friend's Italian grandma.  She gave me one of those...that night I came down with a terrible violent flu.  I can't smell licoric/anise without becoming ill, and I got queasy even reading hippiewife's post. 

Stinky sounded all jolly and traditional up there. 

[Splashdown]

We do the seven fishes at my house. Of course, the traditional, inedible Italian dishes have gone by the wayside, replaced by more edible shrimp, fish, crab, scallop, tuna, etc., etc.

[Ballygrl]

Oh no, Stinky is Italian? Marone, we share a heritage.

[Celtic Rose]

We do the seven fishes at my house. Of course, the traditional, inedible Italian dishes have gone by the wayside, replaced by more edible shrimp, fish, crab, scallop, tuna, etc., etc.

My uncle's family is Sicilian, and we have Crab Cioppino (with crab, scallops, mussels, shrimp, etc.) every Christmas eve.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Hey, Stinko, sounds like a large can of sardines in tomato sauce should fill the bill nicely, and the cat with whom you share the majority of your life would approve as well, should you need to dispose of any leftovers.

[delilahmused]

Our tradition is oyster stew. I look forward to it all year. It's waaaaayyyy too fattening and decadent to eat more often.

Cindie

[Boudicca]

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-23-10 10:42 PM
MRS. ALFRED PACKER
Response to Original message

2. We've never done the fishes.

Well, neither have Mr. or Mrs. B, but it's interesting that one finds this caveat on the DUmmieboard.  Interesting, but hardly surprising.