Western Christian Christmas dinner at the Hingston's in Ukraine tried relatively successfully to mix two culinary cultures. Roast goose, mashed potatoes and gravy, Salad Olivia, smoked salmon, red caviar on small slices of bread, fried fish, five kinds cold cuts, fresh veggies and I forget what all else. Enough food for 20 in anticipation of 10. Consumption parted the clans, with the Ukrainian side not touching the potatoes and gravy while Lyn and I had double helpings but avoided all things fishy.
Andrei was not feeling well so bowed out but about 7:00 pm, our friend Small Tanya from Dnipropetrovsk showed up at the door. She had been promising to visit for two years now and finally made the trip. She and Tanya stayed up until 2:00 am talking after everyone else went home.
Lynmara, Roman and Lena hit it off instantly, as I was pretty sure they would. Lyn wants to go shopping with Lena, as they have similar tastes in clothes and similar budgets, (read NIL).
We did a video call to the kids in Canada by Skype. It was great to see them. Grandma who will be 91 a few days into the new year is quite puzzled by the wonders of modern technology but did say hello and listened while the rest of us talked. (NOTE: Other families we video chatted with this holiday season showed off their new babies. Mine show off their dogs. HINT).
*Some families have Christmas movies that are a tradition. White Christmas, Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas, a Christmas Carol (the old one), Elf, Miracle on 34th Street and many others. However for CBC Radio fans like me, Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe Christmas stories of Dave and Morley are also part of Christmas. You can listen to the perennial favourite "Dave Cooks the Turkey" here.
Hint all you want.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they like mashed potatoes and gravy???
Sounds like a great time but I'm with May-B! What's with disrespecting the potatoes and gravy??? ;p
ReplyDeleteGlad that the cookies worked out for you. I've made them a few times too now and haven't had any problems with them ... yet. ;p
Enjoy the rest of the holiday!!
((Hugs))
Laura
I'll go out on a limb and say that maybe the Ukrainians are too close to potatoes. Much like us poor Americans are getting tired of surviving on ramen.
ReplyDeleteI think that potatoes are not festive enough as Demeur suggests. Gravy is a take it or leave it affair. Tanya doesn't make gravy but her grandmother did. And they enjoyed all the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteThe no fish thing is not a North American thing as I know plenty of people who would have dived into that. It is just a my family thing. None of us are fish lovers. More red caviar for Tanya that way, is what I tell her.
Sounds like a truly wonderful "mixed" time. Orthodox Christmas will be an interesting counterpoint.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for your hint, I think your kids probably have enough dogs.
For serious, I wish I had taken pictures of the food. Roman had some potatoes, and I had some fish cakes. I don't think either of us are going to repeat the experiment.
ReplyDelete