So John asked me today if I was making pork & sauerkraut tomorrow. I had never heard of that until Balloon Juice – where does that even come from?
I didn’t even know there even was such a thing as New Years Day traditions. At our house, New Years Eve was the big deal. I may have told you guys that my parents owned a tavern, and we lived in an apartment upstairs (actually, 2 apartments with the walls knocked out between them).
New Years Eve was a huge night in the tavern, with hats and noisemakers. We had those upstairs too, and we could hear the moment that it struck midnight from the outcry downstairs. But New Years Day was just a regular day at our house.
So what are your traditions for New Years Eve and New Years Day?
What were they when you were growing up, and what are they now?
Tell us about them, if you have them!
How Smart Is Joe Biden?
raven
Watching my Dawgs advance to the National Championship and making blackeyed peas and collards!
Alabama Blue Dot
I grew up in a military family, including several years in Charleston, S.C. My mom picked up the food tradition of hoppin’ john and ever since then I’ve been sure to have blackeye peas, cornbread, and greens, plus either ham or a ham hock. I started my collards today so they will be ready tomorrow!
Baud
@raven: 👍
raven
@Alabama Blue Dot: We even ate them in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl five years ago!
Eric NNY
Used to be pork & sauerkraut when I was young, then it became pigs in blankets (meat stuffed cabbage rolls) and cheesy potatoes as I got older. Making them now. Happy New Year Jackals!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: just saw a “Notable deaths” link with a picture of Ratzinger and thought they’d jumped the gun, but apparently the Popus Emeritus has joined the choir eternal
Barbara
By New Year’s Eve sauerkraut was likely the only edible vegetable left, and hogs can’t be slaughtered until it’s cold enough — which tends to coincide with when animal feed gets low. Hence, the tradition, at least for German speaking people.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Also, Barbara Walters.
MagdaInBlack
My mother used to make pork spare ribs in sauerkraut and just…. “yik.” To those of you that like it, god bless you and you may have my serving.
I ordered Thai food, and it was wonderful
Happy New Year ❤️🎉
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I tried the the black-eyed peas and greens thing for a few years, but it hasn’t brought good luck.
Maybe if I can get to the store in the morning I’ll pick up some sauerkraut
Librarian
When I was a kid, in the 60s and 70s, one of the NY stations would show the Jack Benny movie “The Horn Blows at Midnight” every new years eve after midnight. I looked forward to it every year. I also remember Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians ringing in the new year.
M31
I make lentils every new year — an old Italian tradition: they look like coins, so ushering in more coin in the coming year.
trollhattan
Grilling a hunk o’ beef for myself and visiting bro, because no-mo-meat spouse has taken the joy out of doing so just for myself.
Since we went to the Amador County wine country this week, there are red liquids to accompany it and a break in the rain means I can start while hanging out in the backyard, instead of dashing out briefly to turn the thing.
New Year bowls no longer on New Year, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to all that mess. Lord, how they have ruined college ball.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My favorite take, so far:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/327f4bebdb964003dbe11422a2e55aefb56656b4dc0776240db24e93515de042.jpg
Josie
Black-eyed peas cooked with ham hocks and jalapeño peppers. I have never cared for collards, so I use spinach instead for the greens. Corn bread, of course.
sab
When I grew up pork and sauerkraut for New Years was a big deal. I think it was because my maternal grandmother grew up Irish/Scottish in a German speaking town in Wisconsin. Everything she knew about life she learned from hausfrau neighbor moms.
My family never much ate pork, and after I met a few neighborhood pet potbelly pigs I will never eat pork again (my sister’s Chinese in-laws say dog is delicious. We don’t eat that either.)
But we still like the sauerkraut tradition, even though it is the pork that brings good luck.
New Year’s day we bake sauerkraut dabbed with butter, with turkey or beyond burgers on top, and mashed potatoes on the side.
I think this might be a midwestern thing, and southerners are doing something else. And out west they are eating delicious tamales instead.
BC in Illinois
Since our days in Alabama and N Carolina (in our 20s and 30s) we have had Hopping John, when we could, on New Year’s Day.
This year, since we will be at one daughter’s house — with her family and friends and another daughter’s family — until midnight, with a break to pick up son and his family between 11:30 and midnight* . . . there may not be a lot of activity tomorrow. My son, the seminarian, is preaching at his “fieldwork” congregation” tomorrow. We will watch it on the congregation’s facebook page. Then take a nap.
[* – They fly back late on New Year’s eve because Southwest, on Tuesday, cancelled their Thursday reservations.]
raven
@Josie: I use smoked turkey necks instead of hocks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara:
My Germans require pickled herring (which I hate). Chicken is banned. Herring swim forward; chickens scratch backward. Of course, my Germans come from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern just south of the Baltic Sea.
ETA: I have to go out and buy fucking herring. I don’t have any.
sab
@raven: What a good idea! I learn something useful everyday on this blog.
Kent
Sauerkraut is basically how you preserved cabbage prior to they days of refrigeration and modern year-round produce selection at the grocery thanks to international refrigerated shipping.
And pork was traditionally the cheapest meat. Much cheaper than beef or chicken (which were more raised for eggs).
So pork and sauerkraut or pork and root vegetables or potatoes has always been a German staple
Both of my German-Mennonite farm grandmothers cured huge crocks of sauerkraut in the back pantry and they always had butchered hogs that were curing into hams, sausages, and other cured pork products around too. I can still remember as a little kid my grandmother teaching me how to salt-cure hams that were always sitting in the back pantry of the farmhouse.
They didn’t do herring, but my grandfather dip-netted smelt in Oregon so always had big wooden barrels of dried and smoked smelt.
sab
@M31: What a good idea. Next year New Year might be different.
Phasing out pork has left us bereft of good luck measures. Lentils sound great, also too I like them anyway.
Josie
@raven:
I like those too, but couldn’t get them this year. It’s strange the things that turn up missing at the grocery store. I used to use chicken feet in my bone broth, but no more. It’s as though chickens don’t have feet anymore.
oldster
@trollhattan:
Love it! I saw that over at LGM in comments, and immediately sent it off to some relatives who will enjoy it.
WaterGirl
Can someone explain why pork and sauerkraut brings good luck?
sab
@WaterGirl: Of course we can’t explain it. My grandmother’s friends parents told her it did, so it did. That is how this stuff works.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: That’s cold!
Suzanne
So two days ago, I saw a conversation on my neighborhood Facebook page, asking, “Where are you going to get your New Year’s pretzel?”. I had legit never heard of this. It’s apparently a big thing in Pittsburgh due to all the German immigrants. But they’re not like real pretzels, more like pretzel-shaped doughnuts.
I will not be doing this. I’ve got some Prosecco. That’s all I need.
I will not be doing pork or sauerkraut. I am not a fan of most German food. I still remember ordering a salad in Stuttgart and being served a bowl of ground sausage with some leaves in it.
I am of German and Italian descent primarily, but the Italian side shaped my food preferences quickly!
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: Just like anything that people believe brings good (or bad) luck: belief 😉
Tom Levenson
My New Year’s Eve new tradition:
Test positive for a little spikey friend.
Feh.
Gary K
Where I grew up — Berks County, Pennsylvania — you would need to look hard to find someone who _didn’t_ eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day.
Josie
@WaterGirl: I didn’t know that pork brought good luck. In my family it was always the black-eyed peas that were supposed to bring the luck, and the pork was just there to make them taste better. ;-)
LeftCoastYankee
Fresh Ham and pickled red cabbage (you’d get a harrumph if you called the red version “sauerkraut”) was a usual on New Year’s day with my Mom.
Which is something I completely forgot until this post. I think that’s more a statement on my food preferences than anyone’s cooking though.
WaterGirl
@sab: Boy, that sounds like “made up traditions”, which I understand are similar to “made up religions”. :-)
*was it made-up religions that people were complaining about this week? or made-up something else. I am apparently not tracking the bullshit outrage well enough.
narya
My Italian grandmother insisted on some kind of pork on New Year’s Day, and my mother nags me about it every year. This year’s dinner will be . . . boar tenderloin. Haven’t figured out the total prep yet, but bacon, and fig jam, are likely to be part of the picture.
Leto
@Alabama Blue Dot: if you don’t mind me asking, what years were you in Charleston?
As far as a Avalune and I, we’d done sauerkraut and brauts the past few years. Considering our luck, we’re going back to blackeyed peas and ham.
oldster
@Tom Levenson:
Oh dear. Condolences.
One of our household just tested positive today as well. So far, the rest of us are negative. And now keeping our distance.
I had my first case in October, after 5 rounds of vax, including the bivalent. It wasn’t too bad — far milder than many cases of flu that I have had over the decades. But I still don’t want it again.
I hope your case is mild and soon behind you.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: Okay, got it. “because it does.”
I thought it might be that the moonlight might have shone on some random pig a million moons ago, while the farmer’s wife was putting up sauerkraut, and evermore pork and saurerkraut brought you good luck. Or something.
WaterGirl
@Tom Levenson: Well that sucks. You or your whole family?
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: Could very well be. I kinda like your version, its very Terry Pratchett 😊
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: I don’t believe that it does, but I am about to go out and buy fucking pickled herring which I hate because I am not taking a chance that a whole line of moms and grandmothers are wrong about it. On a related note, I am not throwing away my stone that repels tigers.
RevRick
Pork and sauerkraut is a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. And by Pennsylvania Dutch I mean Lutherans, Reformed (from the Palatine region), Moravians, Mennonites, Brethren, and Schwenkfelder, who occupied the 60 mile arc outside of Philadelphia bounded by the Appalachian ridge line. The Amish are just a small subset of oddball Mennonites.
Leto
@sab: @WaterGirl: The True Story of Traditional New Year’s Lucky Foods
RevRick
@WaterGirl: Pigs root forward. And we all know cabbage is slang for $.
Citizen Alan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I can top that. i knew Benedict was dead, but when you called him Ratzinger, my first thought was “Oh no! Cliff from Cheers is dead too!?!”
JML
@Tom Levenson: good luck. hope it’s mild and passes quickly for you. because dang, it sucks.
Our family tradition on New Year’s Day was taking down the Christmas Tree.
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: My father told me the coffee ground he threw out the back door onto my mothers flower bed, kept the alligators away. His proof: we had no alligators. (In northern Illinois)
I assume you have no tigers either. Keep the stone 😊
sab
@WaterGirl: Irish Catholic married a Canadian Scot Presbyterian and they moved into a German/Lutheran town in Wisconsin.
OF COURSE THEY MADE UP TRADITIONS to fit in. That is the point.
Leto
@Tom Levenson: man, that sucks. Hope everyone feels better soon!
Bunter
@WaterGirl:
It was made-up holidays (about Kwanzaa), which turned into all holidays are made up because all religions are made-up.
Suzanne
Another thing I am doing all weekend: listening to WYEP’S 2022 Countdown. WYEP is one of the best things about living here in PGH….independent radio station, no commercials, listener-supported, plays just fabulous music.
Tom Levenson
@oldster: Thanks. 5 vaxes here too, last one bivalent. (P,P,P,M,M.)
I feel like hammered donkey excrement, but in the really bad cold spectrum. Hope this is where it decides to sit. If it does it’s just a reminder that respiratory viruses suck and you want to avoid them even if you very unlikely to die from them.
kalakal
@Tom Levenson: Oh that’s a pain. Hope it’s mild and you recover fast
KM in NS
Black-eyed peas of course! Now… to check out the number of people who have said the same thing…. Lol.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: My Chinesea brother in law, who spent the Cultural Revolution on the North Korean border, says you can repel tigers by banging in pots and pans. He has actual real life experience repelling actual tigers.
Citizen Alan
I slow-cooked my blackeyed peas yesterday and this morning in a crockpot (mixed with onion, garlic, various spices, Tony Chachere powder, and a homemade broth made from the remains of the goose and turkey breast I cooked for Christmas for the fam. I’m in Oxford right now and will eat BEP, cornbread, and greens tonight at Ajax Dinner and then reheat the slow-cooked peas and cook the rest tomorrow at my place when I get home. I could never remember whether you’re supposed to eat them on NYE or NYD, so I just do both.
Also, I have found that black-eyed peas are surprisingly tasty if you add enough things to them that are not black-eyed peas. Same principle as cauliflower, really.
zhena gogolia
@Librarian: Haha, I remember that Jack Benny movie too.
My big thrill as a kid was sitting up to watch Johnny Carson, eating Ritz crackers and cheese.
Tom Levenson
@WaterGirl: Just me so far. I’ve taken over the master bedroom and consigned my spouse to the spare. Suckitude hath its privileges.
Tom Levenson
@JML:
@Leto:
Thanks!
HeartlandLiberal
Coming from Alabama originally, on New Year’s Day we always have ham, blackeyed peas, and turnip greens (or collard greens) and cornbread made with yellow corn meal. The corn bread has only a bit of flour and buttermilk and eggs in it, and no sugar; that is Yankee cornbread.
zhena gogolia
@Tom Levenson: Oh, I’m sorry. What a drag.
OB-118
@MagdaInBlack: Pepper has the same quality. During our family’s sojourn in Atlanta we all ate pepper is prescribed quantities; not a single alligator waddled up the creek out back for eight years.
Josie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Reminds me of the braided rope of garlic hanging in the kitchen that keeps the vampires away.
Tom Levenson
@kalakal: and thanks again for all the good wishes
Tinare
@Suzanne: My family never did the pretzel thing at New Years, but pork and sauerkraut was a given for dinner. I was at Shop N Save last night and picked up a small pretzel to try this year. They were labeled as “good luck” pretzels, so I figured why not.
Tom Levenson
The good news is that I finished the hunger games movies n the day they leave Prime and I’m getting stuck into The Peripheral.
Ninedragonspot
I skip the antiseptic New Year’s Concerts from Vienna and Berlin and listen to 78s of old Austrian schrammel ensembles, yodelers, natursänger, and folk instrumentalists. https://twitter.com/ninedragonspot/status/1609297584086220800?s=61&t=H4pP15yWwRdqRlgaCozDyg
oldster
@Tom Levenson:
I think back on the early days of Spring 2020, when the NYC ICU’s were full of patients whose lungs solidified and slowly choked them to death. And I say a prayer* of thanks for the vaccines.
They turned a lethal killer into a seasonal annoyance.
* (to Science!)
zhena gogolia
Tomorrow we get to have tamales at a friend’s house. I like this tradition.
KM in NS
@Josie: agree! Black-eyed peas were the bringer of luck. No one up here even knows what they are. Heathens!! 🙂
Almost Retired
Our New Year’s tradition is to go to Pasadena after the parade to see the floats on display. And every year I complain about the crowds and traffic and vow never to go back. Until we do. Looks like it might rain on Monday afternoon, so that will give me something else to grumble about.
nellelouise
Hoppin’ John (black-eyed peas, ham hock, onion, green bell pepper, celery, garlic, red pepper, fresh th;yme), collard greens, and skillet cornbread. A low-country traditional meal to bring luck for the new year. Apple and berry pie for dessert. The peas are for good luck, and the greens are to bring financial prosperity.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Somewhere early in our marriage we’d picked up the idea that it was traditional to have a New Years Day Open House, where you put out party food and invite your friends to drop in within some time window. We thought this was a great fit as we have never been big New Years Eve party types. [*]
Unfortunately our friends were apparently the party type, as not a single person showed up.
[*] We went to one public New Years Eve, a hotel that was holding three different ballrooms with three different music styles. We opted for the disco (which was not yet dead) but by 12:10 am we were both tired of being pushed and bumped by the crowd and decided we’d rather have a quiet evening at home.
realbtl
No saurkraut but elk sausage and onions fried in bacon grease and garlic mashed with tons of butter and cream. Yum.
trollhattan
Had blocked out last year: the furnace broke bigly NYE, we had a couple days of wood left for the woodstove, and it would be days before a service person could come. A Home Depot run snagged enough space heaters to keep the joint livable, which was a good move since it took something like three weeks and a couple grand to get the part installed.
Replacing the whole shebang next month.
This year is MUCH better (so far).
eclare
Pork and sauerkraut? Never heard of that as a New Year’s tradition. Collards and black eyed peas where I live.
Josie
@KM in NS:
Oh yes. One of my memories of childhood was my mother telling us that a woman who had moved to town from up north said that people should not eat black-eyed peas since they were only for the hogs. Mama was really insulted.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Sounds like my Munich “wurst salad” experience. I asked the waitress in my rudimentary German if that was a green salad with wurst on it. She answered “Nein” but I did not understand her long complicated explanation. So I ordered it anyway and said to my wife, “we’ll see what arrives”.
Huge pile of sliced wurst with a little bit of shredded cabbage stirred in.
Which admittedly I did enjoy.
I have never heard of pork and sauerkraut or any other New Years Day food tradition.
When I’ve googled “Wurstsalat” what comes up looks a little more like something you could call a salad, but maybe the online recipes have been modified for American tastes.
sab
Black eyed peas. That’s a steep learning curve for this midwesterner. Going to work on it. Lentils sound easier, but black-eyed peas sound more American.
schrodingers_cat
Traditionally the Marathi New Year is around Easter in early April. it’s called गुडी पाडवा. Gudi Padwa. The meal is festive with pooris and either shrikhand or basundi.
My family traditionally does not eat either pork or beef.
Jan 1 we sleep in after staying awake until midnight. Toast the new year with either champagne 🍾 or wine.
Heidi Mom
@Gary K: My husband grew up in Berks County and he agrees, as do I, having grown up in Snyder County. Cumberland County, where we are now, was more Scots-Irish than “Dutch,” but there’s enough demand that a number of restaurants offer pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, and we’ll take advantage of that.
James E Powell
In my family’s case, from Bohemia. Pork roast, dumplings, and sauerkraut with caraway seeds. My grandmother was such a great cook.
trollhattan
Chatted with a fellow yesterday whose wife is on day 10–of the flu. Raging fever, weakness, bed-ridden, the whole thing. He got himself the shot, which they had both ignored in this age of covid.
KM in NS
@Josie: I would be too !
Nancy
Sauerkraut and Polish sausage even though no one was Polish in my family of origin. My Polish American husband doesn’t like sauerkraut.
Happy New Year.
JPL
@Tom Levenson: If you have a TV in your room, you can cheer for GA. There’s a game tonight just in case you didn’t know.
This morning while checking out at the local grocery store, I asked the clerk if he had big plans for the evening. He mentioned that he was going to watch the game with some friends. He then said now don’t tell me you’re going to cheer for GA. I laughed but did hope he didn’t mention that to others. Here even Tech fans know to cheer for GA tonight.
Feel better!
schrodingers_cat
Traditionally the Marathi New Year is around Easter in early April. it’s called गुडी पाडवा. Gudi Padwa. The meal is festive with pooris and either shrikhand or basundi.
My family traditionally does not eat either pork or beef.
Jan 1 we sleep in after staying awake until midnight. Toast the new year with either champagne 🍾 or wine.
@Tom Levenson: Are your kittehs taking good care of you?
Leto
@Heidi Mom: currently live in Berks county, but we tend to eat a good bit of pork and sauerkraut over the year. Close proximity to all the farmer’s markets makes it too easy. Going back to the southern traditions this year just to switch things up.
SiubhanDuinne
My tribe has a New Year’s tradition of red wine and dark chocolate. I plan to observe this ancient custom again this year.
Actually, it’s not limited to New Year’s. It works any time.
dr. luba
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: With his history of covering up child sexual abuse, it’s probably the choir infernal……
cleek
pork and kraut was the tradition in my mom’s family (eastern euro in upstate NY).
won’t be making it this year because i can’t taste anything and i don’t want to waste my time. thanks, COVID!
Leto
@JPL: the first playoff game that’s on atm, Michigan v TCU, is pretty good so far. My son gets annoyed at me because unless it’s Clemson, I don’t really care who wins. I simply want a good game.
prostratedragon
Black-eyed peas, rice, and ham hock with some kind of greens here. Late aunt used to tap the Mississippi roots with assorted pig parts — after her caviar breakfast.
@trollhattan: Yes they have. But I think the issue this year is the Sunday NYD. As I recall, they’ve never played the college bowls on Sunday.
sab
@WaterGirl: I have a lovely amethyst cross from my grandmother’s aunt, Abigail Rothman McGovern. I got it because of my birthdate, but it fits my life also.
Duke of Clay
Growing up in the rural South, ham hocks, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and cornbread were our traditional New Year’s Day meal. Now, as a retired urban professional, I continue this tradition as a reminder of where I came from.
WaterGirl
@Bunter: It’s all coming back now, thank you!
weasel
For the last decade or so I’ve been in the habit of starting the year off with a walk out in nature. Usually just a short stroll in a close by woods, but it sure is a nice.
eclare
@sab: Black eyed peas are delicious! I hate lentils, to me it’s like eating tiny round rocks, with the same flavor as rocks.
dr. luba
@zhena gogolia: Tamales sound great!
In Ukraine, since the Soviet era, it is a day for gifts, “Xmas” trees, concerts and special foods, including shuba (a herring dish) and Olivier (a type of potato salad).
As the child of anti-communist American immigrants, it was just a day off work, hanging around the house. Family might drop by. Parades and old movies on the TV.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I have a cousin and a dear friend who are diehard Michigan fans. Of course they’ll be rooting for Michigan, but I hope their hatred for THE Ohio State University will also prompt them to root for UGA.
If the final turns out to be UGA v. UM, I can’t do anything about that.
Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)
One of the children–usually the youngest–always wishes to stay awake until midnight. We parents no longer chaperone such behavior.
*My* parents used to spend occasional weekend nights playing card games with friends in another city; they consumed cheese, crackers, and summer sausage during such events and it was a treat for the families’ children to sample some of that. Now it is our tradition to feast on cheese, crackers, summer sausage, and carbonated juice on New Year’s Eve.
Phylllis
I’ve done pork, collards, cornbread, and hoppin john for years for NYD. This year, we’re going to eat bbq because I just can’t face cooking another holiday meal. We’re noshing on meatballs, veggies and dip, and chocolate covered pretzels for dinner.
dr. luba
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Back in the late 80s I visited a friend in Freiburg, and we went out to a farm that served meal on weekends, in a barn type building with long tables and benches.
They had wurst salads, cheese salads. No greenery was involved. And once you’d finished your plate, a second one arrived. This seemed to be the practice in this region–second plates arriving….
sab
USA is interesting because government, and also because so many people under one government think we are the same until we eat.
I have 350 years history here, but we eat like the newer guys. A very good idea. New country, new foods.
wmd
Cabbage, often beans too. I think I’ll be having fish with bok choi and considering that as my cabbage this year. Thinking about beans, but likely not until Tuesday in some soup.
eclare
@Phylllis: The BBQ places here are packed on New Year’s Day, lines out the door into parking lots.
JPL
@Leto: So far TCU is making a fool out of me for saying they shouldn’t be in the final four. I still think Alabama is the better team.
oldster
@dr. luba:
“…special foods, including shuba (a herring dish) and Olivier (a type of potato salad)…”
I assume that it’s called “Olivier” because parts of it are excellent but overall it’s too hammy?
NotMax
No traditions per se but for many years the week beforehand was spent kitchening, putting together the Mother of All Buffets, including no less than 4, 5 or 6 different kinds of dips, for an expected 20 or so fellow humans, Party tended to not break up until dawn.
Big bowl of Spiced Shrimp on crushed ice was always a hit. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
1 pound cooked, peeled and deveined medium to large shrimp (if frozen cooked shrimp, can be used without thawing first), tails on because they look pretty
3 medium onions, thick sliced, leave slices intact
at least 2 lemons, 1 sliced, the other for juicing
½ cup white vinegar
¼ cup water
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. dry mustard
¼ tsp, ground ginger
½ tsp. whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
at least ¼ tsp. Tabasco or other hot sauce
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup salad oil
.
Fill a bowl with alternating layers of shrimp, onion and lemon slices. Place in fridge, covered, while preparing marinade.
Combine vinegar, water, salt, sugar, dry mustard, ginger, peppercorns, bay and hot sauce in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 5 minutes.
When completely cooled, strain into a bowl, add lemon juice and oil and stir.
Pour over the layers of shrimp in the big bowl.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 24 hours, stirring contents occasionally, or alternatively turn bowl upside down to redistribute the marinade and then upright again and return to fridge.
Drain before serving (or not if you don’t mind them being a bit messy to handle; in this case skip the crushed ice).
Return any leftovers to marinade and refrigerate again.
Lasts for a good several days.
.
eclare
@JPL: I am a fan of anyone who plays a Big Ten team. And my Vols made a statement last night!
sab
OT Starscream is curled up like a little fuzzy ball sleeping next to me. I never in my life thought I would think of him as little. Big kind friendly personality. Now he is just very tired.
kalakal
We’ll see in the New Year with champagne, sadly the traditional rendering of Auld Lang Syne doesn’t really work with only 2 people.
Weather permitting tomorrow we shall go out to one the large parks and have a good long walk. Mrs Kalakal had a knee replaced at the beginning of the year so we go out for a walk every day but on my days off we go further afield.
On a bright note we were getting worried about the new knee, it was still swollen and probably operating at about 80%. She just had a follow up visit where they drained a load of liquid* and the effect was remarkable. I won’t say she is gambolling like a spring lamb but it’s so much better.
One tradition from back in NE Scotland was the local farmers and their dogs showing off. It was great. Not sure where this is from but it is the sort of thing
https://youtu.be/lAjc502ALOM
* Apparently this is not unusual and nothing to worry about
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Right now neither offence can get its act together. But what’s really killing Michigan in the first half so far is mistakes. You just don’t fumble a half a yard from the end zone if you’re trying to win.
sab
@kalakal: So am I right that you started NE Scotland and now central Florida? Jackals do get around.
eachother
Watch the ‘ball’ drop in Times Square on TV. It’s only 10 Mountain time. Used to be an early to bed advantage. Now a days, fireworks go off after midnight here. Times have changed.
Happy New Year.
For a few minutes, we celebrate the possibilities in unity.
Health. Prosperity. And Happiness in the New Year.
2023
eclare
@kalakal: Gotta love working dogs! That was awesome.
Kelly
I’ve ran bears away from my camps banging pots and pans
SiubhanDuinne
@kalakal:
Happy Hogmanay and lang may yer lum reek!
Yutsano
@kalakal: @eclare:
Heh. Border collie gonna border collie.
NotMax
Come to think of it, a kind’a, sort’a tradition is watching a production of Die Fledermaus. However already did so earlier in the month when a version new to me was available on sneak peek for one week only via one of the streaming service to which I subscribe.
Phylllis
@eclare: We plan to get there right at 11 am to beat the Christians. It’s a terrific local place near the South Carolina campus. Students don’t come back until mid-week and we figure since it looked like half of SC was at the game yesterday, they’re probably still stuck on I-95 trying to get back home.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell:
And now the caraway or no caraway fights begin.
kalakal
@sab: yep but via a very roundabout route. My dad worked for Shell and we were international nomads. I lived for quite a while in West Yorkshire from University onwards but have been in sunny ( not today it isn’t) Pinellas County for over 10 years
eclare
@Yutsano: Which is why I will never have one. Way too much work to keep them exercised and happy!
eclare
@Phylllis: Enjoy your cue!
Phylllis
@Librarian: I told my husband watching Guy Lombardo was a family tradition when I was a kid & I think he thought I was making it up. Until he saw an ad for Guy & his orchestra at whatever chi-chi club they used to broadcast on CBS from in NYC in the FTFNYTimes Machine from 1972 the other day. Tickets were $35 to $45.
Kelly
@Tom Levenson: I’m 3 episodes into The Peripheral. Like it a lot. Mrs Kelly found episode 1 too gruesome so I’m squeezing in episodes while she’s out of the house.
trollhattan
@Kelly: Same. But in Yosemite it’s more like interrupting them and wondering if the response is going to be, “Yeah, so? You’re makin’ a racket there.”
cain
we don’t have any traditions that I’m aware of. Of course, I’m newly married so my wife might have some traditions. I’ve been alone for most of the past decade and so all these holidays just become superfluous. Being married again I’m now back into the celebrate the holiday season. :-)
Speaking of which, now that we are on the cusp of the new year – any word on the pet calendars?
sab
We always had the tradition of popovers on NYE (much puffier yorkshire puddings.) I have no idea where that came from but there it was. Probably Erma Rombauer Joy of Cooking. Another wonderful made up tradition. ( h/t WG).
davecb
A Canadian tradition is to hold a levee on New Year’s Day. Originally one hosted by the Governor General, the tradition spread widely across the country.
2 E&K Scot used to hold theirs as a stand-to at dawn on that day. It maximally annoyed the members who had lately been celebrating New Year’s Eve (;-))
Sloth1066
Growing up in North Wales, we had a tradition of First Footing, which required the first person through the front door to be a tall, dark, handsome stranger, bearing food, drink, and a piece of coal to symbolize warmth. Due to a lack of tall, dark, handsome strangers, it was usually done by my little old grandad, carrying one of my gran’s leftover mince pies.
KCSteve
Born in 1951 in Topeka. The family was Volga Germans that immigrated from Western Russia and settled in western Kansas. My paternal grandfather came to Topeka to work for the AT&SF( look it up). The tradition in our community was called winching. New Years day was a chance to visit family and friends in the neighborhood. Everyone prepared some traditional German foods as well as various finger foods. Winching was going from house to house sampling the goodies. The men typically started with a shot of liquor at each stop and the ladies sampled the food items and go caught up on the family gossip. After the first half a dozen stops the men tended to be a little or a lot tipsy so the common strategy was to start the day at the maximum distance from the house and work your way back. Then you could expect random acquaintances to show up throughout the evening to sample your food and share your adult beverages. As a teenage boy in the 60’s it was the best holiday of the year.
jeffreyw
@Josie:
“..for the hogs.” That’s what my mama told my daddy about turnips.
Omnes Omnibus
I have pickled herring now. In case anyone was worried. There was a terrible moment when I mistakenly picked up the even worse stuff in cream sauce, but the error was discovered in time and disaster averted. Now I just heed to find the tiniest piece and try to swallow it without tasting.
sab
@davecb: //
eclare
@davecb: What is a levee? I am only familiar with the earth mounds that protect against river flooding.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Was in Aberdeen for Hogmanay in ’74. Place was wild, celebrations of one sort or another lasting a week.
There’s a tradition in Stonehaven (outside Aberdeen) of locals forming a long line on the beach in the darkness, each swinging overhead a wire basket filled with flaming pitch (and I think small pieces of pine?). Needless to say some of the participants were already half in their cups and wobbled a mite when it came to keeping the line straight. Nice and low key then, apparently a big deal (read: commercialized) tourism draw today.
OverTwistWillie
A crockpot of Glögg for the bowl games.
Nicole
John would have gotten along GREAT in my family- we were a pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day family, too. I think it must be a German (or German-American) thing. I like sauerkraut; I’m not as big a fan of pork. I do have a half-eaten jar of kimchi in my fridge; that’s also fermented cabbage so it counts if I eat it tomorrow, right?
eclare
@KCSteve: That sounds fun!
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Gary K: I live in Berks County PA and it is now even harder. And that is what we ate on New Year’s Day where I grew up in suburban Pittsburgh. Fortuneately I like baked (Dutch oven style) pork with sauerkraut. Although I like steamed dumplings (Biscuit dough cooked on top for the last 30 with the lid on!) not a big fan of smashed potatoes, but I make those for my wife.
NotMax
@Phyllis
Puh-leeze. Waldorf-Astoria ain’t no club.
;)
Matt McIrvin
We never had any particular New Year’s Day traditions aside from not doing much. As a kid I’d stay up until midnight to watch the silly New Year’s Eve TV broadcasts, but these days I don’t really see the point. There would be parades and football on the following day.
I used to imagine that I’d rouse myself to do some kind of hellacious partying on December 31, 1999, but I did not evolve into any sort of partier, and when it actually rolled around, I recall my partner/fiancée was feeling kind of sick for whatever reason, wasn’t up to doing anything and I spent the actual moment of the rollover to 2000 just petting our kitty Niobe. She was a good cat.
JoyceCB
Special food, meh. I go out birding. It’s the first day of a brand new birding year, with a brand new birding list!
Kay
Kransekage – wreath cake. It’s horrible – almondy marzipan and…hard. I’m not superstitious so I no longer eat it but it is the tradition.
kalakal
@eclare: I love border collies but they are not happy unless they’re burning energy. A 5 mile run is a warm up. And they will herd anything.
In West Yorkshire they’re everywhere ( lot’s of sheep farms, think of the James Herriott tv shows) . There’s an unofficial breed of dog there known as Lurchers which are a Collie/ Greyhound or Whippet cross and they are really something. Think of a superfast Collie or a super Athletic Greyhound. They tend to be super smart like Collies.
They’re my favourite dogs
This gives the idea
https://youtu.be/sZpiAVD5moY
MagdaInBlack
@Phylllis: Now that you say that, I believe my parents had Guy Lombardo and his orchestra on too.
Phylllis
@NotMax: I couldn’t remember. Too lazy to wiki it.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: I’ve heard you’re supposed to bang pots and pans when coyotes show up. I saw a young one scratching itself in our front yard once and did not yet know what to do.
NotMax
@Kay
Lutefisk when was in Minnesota. Because… reasons.
Any and all of which are questionable.
:)
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
If you were coming over, I’d have a separate seedless dish for you & anyone else who prefers it.
kalakal
And a traditional Scottish toast to you all
Here’s tae us! Wha’s like us? Gey few, and they’re a’ deid!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Almost Retired: I’ve done that once, also went to the parade once.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Almost Retired: I’ve done that once, also went to the parade once.
mrmoshpotato
Pork shoulder with sauerkraut and potatoes comes from being awesome. 😁
Omnes Omnibus
@kalakal:
Traditional army toast: To us and those like us. Damned few of us left!
eclare
@kalakal: Awwww, what a sweetie. Please tell me he found his forever home.
Shana
My mother always made manhattan clam chowder for New Year’s Day. Out of the question for us since we keep kosher. Then I learned about the Hoppin’ John southern NYD thing and I make a great chicken and andouille sausage gumbo so that’s become our tradition.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: My Chinese brother in law said that every Saturday they went to their village for movies. Tigers lurked to pick off the stragglers. Might have been locals toying with the new city kids but he believed it and still does.
I think they were in JiLin
ETA Our coyotes are really timid.Look at them and they are gone. Sneeze, and they are in the next county. I still wouldn’t trust any of them around a small dog or a cat.
Barbara
@Suzanne: My mother’s forebears were 100% from German speaking lands and I have never heard of this “tradition.” As with wedding cookies I’m sure Gvg6 will set me straight.
kalakal
@NotMax: I’m from just a bit north of there. Yeah it’s one huge party. A biggie round the village was First Footing. Basically everyone wanders in and out of everyone’s houses all night but the first person to cross your doorstep brings you their luck for the year. They should be tall and dark and bearing a gift.
eachother
Maybe eating pig being lucky came from the inquisition times?
It would get you another year of not having to eat pig until you had to prove again who you worshiped. To save your life by eating pig. Painless way to save your feet from the fire
It’s like proving you are or are not something by not drowning. Rather, when tossed into the water, swimming. Unexpectedly not drowning but rather swimming and being crowned king for what must have seemed like obvious reasons in the 13th century.
Omnes Omnibus
@eachother:
I think that you might be overthinking things.
Barbara
@Nicole: Absolutely. Fermented cabbage means “survival” in at least half a dozen languages.
CarolPW
@Omnes Omnibus: You could always put a lot of mayonnaise on it (Ha!).
Nicole
All right, I googled, and I guess it’s a Pennsylvania Dutch thing:
https://www.fox6now.com/news/new-years-history-of-lucky-food-traditions-including-tamales-pork-and-sauerkraut
SpaceUnit
I took a year-end peek at my portfolio yesterday.
We’ll be roasting sparrows on a curtain rod here.
geg6
No idea where the pork and sauerkraut tradition came from but my German American grandfather made his own sauerkraut and he always made it with pork for New Year’s Day. My mom carried on the tradition and now all of us sisters have brought it to our families. And honestly, in this part of PA, everyone has it. Could have German or Eastern European roots, just based on common ethnicities around here. I have a beautiful pork roast and some homemade sauerkraut ready to go tomorrow. I’ll roast it with kielbasa, carrots, potatoes apples and beer. Some green beans in the side and we’ll be fat and happy tomorrow with plenty of leftovers.
oldster
@JoyceCB:
Fox News Headline:
“Democrats Support Open Birders!”
Omnes Omnibus
@CarolPW:
::side-eye::
Kelly
@trollhattan: I had a bear on the Rogue River that was in no hurry to leave. Eventually the entire dozen or so of us were awake and making racket so it ambled away.
Nicole
@geg6: I posted above, it looks like it’s a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition (so, yeah, German in origin, but mostly a PA-Ohio tradition). Our family did it too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eachother: or just you managed to raise a pig to full size and didn’t have to sell it to pay for firewood or thatch for the roof or for the local wise woman to tell you which herbs to steep to cure your belly-goblins or your ear-sprites
eclare
@geg6: That sounds yummy.
NotMax
@Kalakal
And it’s tradition to give the entrant more than a wee dram o’ the good stuff.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes!! Chicken is verboten at New Year’s and pork is required for the same reason. Chicken goes backward when eating and pigs go forward. So pork is good luck and moving forward in the new year.
KenK
@Barbara: Yep. My paternal lineage is German and pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day it was.
zhena gogolia
@kalakal: Hmm, I guess that’s where Stephen Sondheim got that line in Merrily We Roll Along.
sab
@kalakal: I did my junior year overseas in Durham. Their Ag School sheep were traumatized by border colies. (Not really. Sheep toughen up) . I swear every border collie in County Durham turned up to torment those sheep at least twice a week.
Steve in the ATL
@eclare: what do you expect with the world’s best bbq? I’ll take Central Park, please!
NotMax
@Not Max – @kalakal
Was explained to me at the time the bestest First Footing luck comes when it’s a dark-haired stranger. Was dragged along by a small crowd of acquaintances old and new there to visit what seemed like every door in town for more than a few days.
;)
eclare
@Steve in the ATL: I assume you mean Central BBQ, on Central?
geg6
@RevRick:
I think it’s just a German thing, unrelated to religion. My German American and Roman Catholic grandfather always made it for New Year. He made the sauerkraut in big crocks every year. It was a Bavarian style kraut, which is where his family was from.
sab
@geg6: Scottish and English in Eastern Ohio but from Western PA. Of course sauerkraut and potatoes and hope for pork.
I thinked the sauerkraut leaked from Wisconsin.
Geminid
@MagdaInBlack: I had reason recently to look up the Volga Deutsch. These were Germans who settled in the Volga region of Russia in the late 18th century, encouraged by the Russian state. Many of the Volga Deutsch families moved again, settling in the upper plains states of the U.S.
Lawrence Welk’s family were Volga Deutsche. So was Senator Tim Daschle’s. And another Volga Deutsche descendent made a name as a musician. That was John Duesendorfer(sp?), who we know as John Denver.
My Atlanta friend is a big Lawrence Welk fan (Warren has singular tastes in music). He told me that Welk’s father bought him an accordian when he was a teenager. This was a very expensive instrument for the time, and Welk had to work on the family farm until he was 21 to repay the cost.
Then Welk left and before long he was leading a popular midwestern dance band. After a few years of touring, Welk believed in himself enough to move to Los Angeles. He soon had a show on local radio sponsored by a local car dealership, and that led to a weekly national broadcast sponsored by the auto brand.
Leto
@Nicole: @geg6: @eachother: comment #43 had a nice long article on the history of most of the common “lucky” food items.
NotMax
Huzzah! Tardy Amazon package arriveth on the doorstep!
eachother
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah. Just remembering things that once mattered. Some still do and separate us. Pig is one. And sinking or swimming as a test was another.
The dietary standard once mattered. Worms. The cloven hooves were a weird add.
Being able to swim is a good idea generally, earth being 2/3 water.
Suzanne
I hope the package of sushi from Whole Foods that I am about to eat bodes well.
M31
in the Greek side of my family, my grandmother would make a spanikopita and bake a silver half-dollar into it, and whoever got it in their piece would have good luck all year. Of course my grandfather would tape a quarter onto the bottom of every kid’s plate so we all had good luck.
I still make pita from her recipe but it involves making the phyllo dough from scratch (“first, roll out the dough to about 3 x 6 feet without making any holes in it”) so it’s sadly a rare event
eclare
OT I am disappointed that Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper have been banned from drinking on their NYE show. CNN boss Chris Licht is determined to drive that network into the ground.
Chris was Colbert’s director for years, makes me wonder about Colbert.
Redshift
We never had any New Year’s Day traditions in my whitebread American family. I picked up the black-eyed peas tradition for a while when my sister was living in Louisiana, but it didn’t really stick long term..
eclare
@NotMax: Mazel tov!
Steve in the ATL
@eclare: yes. Missed the edit window!
NotMax
@Suzanne
If you knew sushi like I know sushi…
:)
Sushi a MAJOR New Year’s thing here on Maui. Price of sushi-grade ahi goes through the roof for the holiday.
MagdaInBlack
@Geminid: I remember traveling through North Dakota, as a kid, and getting a brief lesson on the Volga Deutsch from my mother when we passed near or thru Lawrence Welks home town.
And my parents were Lawrence Welk watchers too. God I hated Bobby and Sissy. ( dancers )
(my high school educated parents knew more about the world than a lot of people i know.)
frosty
@Redshift: I’m the same.
I don’t have any family traditions that I can remember. Ms. F’s family (originally from Indiana and Punxatawny PA) had pork and sauerkraut. We did that for awhile but haven’t made it in the years after her parents and both siblings passed away.
I started a tradition of Hoppin’ John but nobody much liked it. The last year I made it was 2016, where clearly it didn’t bring good luck in politics and I haven’t made it since.
Turgidson
My darling wife waited in line in the rain this morning for Dungeness crabs, which are finally *officially* in season here in the Bay Area (though quite expensive due to limits on how much can be fished at the moment). We’ll be having crab and garlic noodles with some family tonight, then probably crapping out before midnight our time.
kalakal
@NotMax: Haha lol! It really is a great time. Yep one of those occasions where blondes don’t have more fun.
@zhena gogolia: I’m sure it is, it’s often ascribed to Burns but I’m pretty sure it’s older
Turgidson
@NotMax:
Even though I live in the Bay Area where good sushi is plentiful, some of the best ahi sashimi I’ve ever had was at the Hula Grill in Kaanapali. Was definitely surprised at the quality given that it’s basically all tourists there.
Sure Lurkalot
I don’t remember any traditions growing up. My bro married a Mississippi gal and they do the greens and pea thing.
We stopped going out for NYE about a decade ago and make a special meal instead. We’ve made steak Oscar, lamb shanks, short ribs…this year it’s cioppino. It’s easy and fast but the price of fish and shellfish made it 1.5x as expensive as in the past.
mali muso
We haven’t done anything exciting on NYE since at least the time the widget arrived six years ago. Currently sipping some prosecco and noshing on crackers and smoked salmon dip. I missed the window to buy black eyed peas (the grocery store was sold out by the time I thought to check), so tomorrow it will be ham hock and 18-bean stew with homemade cornbread.
Kiddo and I spent a few hours this afternoon cleaning and organizing her playroom (which looked like a tornado had touched down) and it feels great to start the new year with a completely tidy space.
geg6
@Barbara:
LOL! Yes, I must say that the big sweet pretzel is a tradition. Obviously must be German, because…well…pretzel. Maybe a regional thing? My grandfather’s family is from Bavaria.
oldster
Off-topic, but on-topic, Zelenskyy’s new year address:
https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/novorichne-privitannya-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelens-80197
An inspiring leader makes you want to be a better person.
Kay
I love sauerkraut.
There’s a Scandinavian dark bread that is delicious. You put butter and then fish and onions on it. It’s dense and a little bitter so not everyone likes it. My daughter in law made it for me this year so I went to Meijer to get higher fat imported butter to go with and the butter selection has exploded. Our rural Meijer has Irish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish butter. And Vermont. Butter specifically from Vermont.
Suzanne
@geg6: The pretzel thing is definitely new for me. But my German ancestors were Jewish and from Hamburg….maybe it’s more of a southern Germany thing?
And the pretzel is just a doughnut with a ton of frosting and sprinkles on it! I looked at some pictures….gross as hell. HARD PASS.
dnfree
I have made this vegetarian hoppin’ John recipe ever since I first saw it in Parade magazine years ago. Parade magazine no longer exists as of November 2022.
https://parade.com/31619/katielee/katie-lees-hoppin-john/
sab
Starscream still here very much alive but sound asleep. Alive but not at all well.
I am going to miss that cat. I am going to be devastated when he is gone. He is still sleeping but here.
sab
@Kay: I always thought butter was butter. Who knew?
eclare
@sab: I am so sorry about Starscream’s poor health.
Barbara
@sab: Fat content varies, along with “tanginess.” I think northern European butter has more cultured milk and lower fat content than French butter — there is a brand called “Plugra,” which I adore and sort of speaks for itself.
Kay
@sab:
Danish butter is delicious. Higher fat. I think it’s how they get kids to eat the bitter, dark bread because eat it they do at nearly every meal.
Barbara
@sab: I’m sorry. They work their way into your heart and it’s so hard when they leave.
lowtechcyclist
My wife’s family always did hoppin’ john, greens, and corn bread on New Year’s Day, so that’s what my wife does.
Only this year, she’s still pretty low energy as she gets over the Covid (sorry to hear about your new tradition, Tom Levenson!), so fortunately for us, this great local hole-in-the-wall Southern/New Orleans carryout was making hoppin’ john today. I went by and picked some up.
(Spanky, if you’re reading this, it’s Pinky’s Eatery. There’s a tiny strip mall on the east side of Route 2 just south of Mt. Harmony, and it’s in there. If you’re within reasonable driving distance of it, you should check it out!)
geg6
@Suzanne:
Generally, it’s just a small piece that you eat. We had six kids in our family. Once you cut it up into 8 or 10 pieces, it was a nice sweet note to end the meal or have with coffee in the morning.
kalakal
@sab: I’m so sorry. It’s heartbreaking
Leto
@sab: I’m so sorry. Our beloved Bella passed away in May, and it was similar. While we’re happy she’s no longer in pain, we still miss her almost every day.
Suzanne
@geg6: Okay, that’s better, at least. The pictures I saw looked like they were drowning in that same super-sweet frosting that they put on sugar cookies at the grocery store, when there is just as much frosting as there is cookie.
Tom Levenson
@schrodingers_cat: They are.
Both on the bed with me now. As they have been most of the day.
Good kittehs!
Kathleen
@Tom Levenson: I hope you feel better soon! You already know to take good care of yourself. Sleep and liquids. Lots.
Leto
@geg6: Our Amish market sells both sweet and savory pretzels. Sweet is basically a cinnamon sugar pretzel. It’s nice to split one with Avalune or the kid.
Tinare
This thread made me google. Apparently it originated in southern Germany according to this. Seems we made it sweeter in America, maybe. https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/297433-neujahrsbretzel-german-new-years-pretzel
Kathleen
@Nicole: My ex husband’s German aunt fixed sauerkraut, pork sausage and mashed potatoes on New Year’s Day. That’s the first time I even knew there were New Years food traditions because we had none in my family. My dad was morning man on radio and had to work any holiday that fell during the week plus Saturday so New Years was just another day for us.
Suzanne
@Tinare: @Leto: So that one in the picture at that link looks delicious. A sweet cinnamon pretzel is also something I could get behind.
My neighbor sent me this link and every photo in it looks revolting. This pretzel tradition needs better PR!
jonas
@Kent: I tried to cure a crock of my own sauerkraut this year and f’ed up somehow and it got moldy and rotten so I had to throw out the whole science experiment. Didn’t weight it down right. Next time I’m getting some real non-reactive sauerkraut pressing weights, measuring my salt right, and will try again. Maybe NYE 2023 will involve some real homemade sauerkraut and a good pork hock.
Kathleen
@Geminid: I mentioned in another comment my dad was in radio and he got to have dinner with Lawrence Welk and his wife. Dad had little patience for many of the celebrities he met but he said Welk was one of the nicest people he ever met, along with Perry Como and Jim Reeves.
Tony Jay
Happy New Year, Jackals and Juicers! It’s all wet and gritty over here on the Septic Isle but hopefully 2023 will see an irresistible onslaught of carnivorous gerbils targeting the bipedal monstrosities who blight everything they touch and things will start improving.
Huzzah!
WaterGirl
@cleek: I hope you get your sense of taste back soon!
Kathleen
@MagdaInBlack: My grandmother loved Lawrence Welk and watched him religiously every Saturday night. One of the members of Welk’s band was the father of a college friend.
Tinare
@Suzanne: That is a lot of icing! :)
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@NotMax: I was told that to have a dark haired man enter on the first day of the year was good luck, and the worst luck was to have a blond man enter.
no explanation other than maybe something that harkened back to Viking times? But that seems a stretch to me.
eclare
@Kathleen: That is nice to hear.
cain
@Barbara: I hear you there. I was supposed to keep my ex-wife’s dog who died 3 hours after she came here. I got the ashes two days ago and now I have to put it back at her place – maybe have a shrine or something.
WaterGirl
@sab: Cherish every minute.
schrodingers_cat
@Tom Levenson: My kittehs too were good nursemaids. Hope you feel better soon.
WaterGirl
@cain: Sadly, Cafe Press still does not have their calendar stock. We are checking daily.
eclare
@cain: Oh that sounds awful.
Barbara
@Kathleen: My great aunts adored Lawrence Welk. Nice to know he was a good guy.
eachother
@SpaceUnit:
Total Stock
Total Bond
You decide the comfortable % allocation for each.
Mostly buy and hold.
No managers No fees. You are for the most part, one with the market and it’s movement.
Free at all times to do what you chose or need to do.
Keeping it simple is not stupid.
Leto
@Suzanne: Oof, yeah I can see why you’d say HELL NO to one of those. But as geg6 pointed out, one of those split 6-8 ways wouldn’t be bad. Just a bit of sweet to round out a NYE meal. As far as sweet cinnamon, I’m sure you’re near a mall so you could stop by an Auntie Annie’s pretzel shop. Cinnamon pretzels, and pretzel bites, galore.
eclare
Can we have a thread for UGA vs THE OSU?
Gary K
@Phylllis: I spent one New Year’s Eve on the job — and the job was recording Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. The company was a mobile recording studio based in East Providence. We drove down to Manhattan and parked at the curb outside the Waldorf-Astoria. Part of the crew worked in the van, making sure everything was getting onto the gigantic 16-track tape reels. There was no way in hell that CBS was going to share their nationwide-broadcast feed with us, so each musician had two different microphones in front of his stand. It must have been the 1972-73 cusp, because I moved away from RI shortly afterwards.
Gary K
@eclare: Although I spent most of my career as an OSU professor, I have zero interest in football — I just learned from your comment who they’re playing today. (Funny thing, I was also a professor there for a couple of years.)
eclare
@Gary K: It’s a good game, about a minute to go.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
This is probably a dead thread No! Someone just posted. OK, my husband makes Navy Bean Soup for New Year’s Day, because his father (who had been in the Navy) did. Probably started to give his mom a break from cooking after the holidays. When I first visited over the holidays I thought WTF? But NBS is surprisingly good and very filling. The only problem is getting your gut bacteria to get with the program. We usually make it a few times in the winter (cheap, filing, and good), and the gas is less with every go-around. :-
ETA: Being in California, I have never heard of pork and sauerkraut for NYD and good luck. Live and learn (but we won’t be eating it).
davecb
@eclare:an event starting when you get up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_levee
Amir Khalid
Sorry for interrupting the conversation about New Year’s Day fudz, but this pedant has to vent.
I saw this video title on my YouTube home page:
Where to begin: The hideous and potentially confusing excess of initial caps? Using only, which doesn’t make sense here, instead of few which is what the sentence requires? Saying that a bakery is wood-fired, when the wood-fired thing is the oven? (I’ll concede that the video title writer correctly called the place a bakery.) Harrumph.
Okay, venting over. As you were.
suzanne
@Leto: My Spawns love those Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites. I don’t think they taste as good as they smell. That aroma is amazing.
Speaking of cinnamon, though….Mr. Suzanne and I went out to a dance performance last night and we got ice cream at Graeter’s on the way home. Graeter’s is new to me (well, since moving to PGH, we did not have it in PHX). They had cinnamon ice cream and I had a scoop of that. That was delicious and just my thing.
When I was a kid on Long Island, we had Swensen’s and Friendly’s. And Carvel.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Well, I can see one New Year’s resolution you didn’t make.
Tim in SF
My tradition is a Valium at 10PM and waking up in the new year.
JPL
@eclare: This was a great game, even though I have to hang my head in shame for discounting them earlier in the day.
Ruckus
@cleek:
Still have a sense of smell?
Because most of what we consider taste is actually what we smell. I understand this because I have no sense of smell, haven’t for a number of years. So few foods have much actual taste, although some do. Garlic is one that is all smell and was the major clue that my sense of smell is gone. A few years ago I was cooking garlic shrimp and couldn’t smell the garlic roasting in the pan in front of me, while my roommate’s daughter 20 ft away told me it smelled delicious.
Kay
@Tim in SF:
lol
zhena gogolia
@cleek: Hi! Sorry you have Covid. But nice to see you.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid: “one of the only” is one of my pet peeves, too.
Leto
@suzanne: that sounds pretty delicious! We have some local ice cream joints around here that are pretty good, but they haven’t done a cinnamon flavor. Maybe next year?
Yeah, AA can be overly sweet and the pretzel itself isn’t that great. Def agree that the smell is amazing. We have a lot of options around us, which I’m thankful for. If you make it over to the Philly area I’m sure a number of us can give some good recommendations.
WaterGirl
@eclare: I just put one up for you. But now I see that the game might be over?
p.a.
Former family 12/31 trad: watching NYC ball drop and commenting how the people in Time’s Sq are nuts.
Former family 1/1 trad: lentil soup, bowl games in the long-ago when college conferences made regional sense.
Now: they’re just days in the stream.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@kalakal: Look like Indian Runner ducks. They look very cool.
One thing I love about Mendocino County is the county fair every year has Sheepdog trials on the Sunday of the fair. Held in the rodeo arena with 3 sheep. Wonderful. Opens with a parade of the contestants led by a bagpiper.
Ms. Deranged in AZ
My Southern relatives always celebrated with black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread and ham (if you had it and if not, bacon in the peas at least). And Northern relatives would do the pork and sauerkraut tradition.
Quiltingfool
@Geminid: I think my mother’s best friend’s mother (whew) was Volga German. The story was she and her sisters were sent to America after the youngest came home from school declaring there was no God (result of the Russian Revolution). As staunch Catholics, this did not go over well. Also several male family members murdered was an important sign to get the hell out…
Anyway, the sisters traveled across Europe in a train boxcar and made their way to Hays, Kansas. Clare (mom’s friend) grew up in a house that had all sorts of wonderful German traditions and foods.
Our family has continued to bake a very delicious cookie (recipe from Clare’s family) called Spitzbuben. And we are of Scottish and Irish ancestry, lol! Ain’t America great!
sab
Ponyo the lovely pittbull is whineing because I am ignoring her. I am ignoring her because the cat of my life is currently dying of kidney failure/ hyperthyroid. Normal old cat diseases.
I love Ponyo, but shocked she is giving Starscream so little space on his own death bed.
Sounds like a cartoon but it is not. Someone I love is dyying and Ponyo is jockeying for position? Whining?
She finally figured it out. She never was a genius. Now she is shocked! Her little brother is dying!? Yes he is. Ponyo is an idiot.
steppy
In my youth in northeast Philadelphia, the family got Chinese takeout every year and ate the leftovers while watching the Mummers on New Years Day. Now that I have settled in northern Chester County, PA, we go to my oldest college buddy in Lancaster for pork and kraut. It’s what we do in Pensilfaansch Deitsch country.
Barbara
@sab: Per Robert Frost: “In three words I can sum up what I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
Comfort your kitty. Your dog will still be there. So sorry.
steppy
@jonas: Shit happens. My suggestion, as someone who has suffered such a failure, is to stick to the sacred proportion of 3 tablespoons of kosher salt to 5 pounds of cabbage and to smash the cabbage with your fists to get the juice to cover it. And, we got some proper weights from Ohio Stoneware. It’s way better than putting a plate over top.
sab
@Barbara: I am sobbing now for the cat and he isn’t even dead. yet.. My husband is concerned. So is the idiot pittbull. Stupidist dog ever. She will never ever regain my respect. She will always have my love but she will never ever have my respect. Stupid stupid dog. Bad reflection on the whole species.
Tinare
@sab: So sorry.
Betsy
In my dad’s mom’s family, we always had hog jowl (pronounced like the name Joel) and blackeyed peas on NYD for a happy new year. Oh and skillet cornbread – if you have an egg or two you can make it rich and delicious, or you can have plain and simple without the egg, but you must have buttermilk for it to be right. NO SUGAR for goodness sake
Hog jowl is a lot like bacon, but from the cheeks of a hog, not the side or back. It is the same cut as Italian guanciale (used for pasta carbonara).
Where I live now, Christmas trees stay up until Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. It is very very tacky to toss your Christmas tree out the day after Christmas Day, when Christmastide has only just gotten started!
And the tradition of first footing is alive. You want the first person into your house on New Year’s Day to be a man, (preferably tall, and dark haired), who must be from outside the household (does not live there).
He must come in the front door of your house and walk straight through to the back door and go out.
And after that, you may have anyone you like to come to your house.
Another thing that is taboo, between Christmas and New Year’s day you must not change the bed linens. Just bad luck or something.
This last, I never heard of until I came here, a little waterside town at the end of the earth.
sab
Starscream is still sort of alert and affectionate. I am in tears again.
Betsy
@WaterGirl: I don’t know about the German tradition. My family did blackeyed peas and hog jowl on NYD, because it was said if you eat poor on NYD, you’ll eat rich the rest of the year.
Smoked fat pork and dried beans and cornbread without even an egg in it, being about as cheap food as would sustain you on a Tennessee farm.
But it helps that these are winter foods anyway, and I suspect the same is true of the German pork and kraut.
(As a Southerner, it was news to me when I heard it said many decades later that blackeyed peas represent coins, collard greens represent greenback money, and ham hocks or whatever form of pork side meat represent still something else, I forget what. This sounds possibly authentic, or not, but it wasn’t said in my family)
Suzanne
@Leto: I’m in Philly pretty frequently because my office is there, in Center City. Would be fun to have a meet up sometime. When I’m there, I usually go to DiBruno’s, which has one location half a block from the office. I’m always looking for yummies when I’m there.
The Mexican food situation is just terrible.
Betsy
@sab: I like that answer.
I’m very sorry about your dear baby cat.
Betsy
@HeartlandLiberal: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Leto
@Suzanne: a meetup would be fun! We’ll have to coordinate something here in a bit. I’m over in Reading but it’s not too far so down to explore more food joints :)
RevRick
@geg6: I have no doubt about that. Considering that the twelve days of Christmas are feast days, pork and sauerkraut would have been quite a splurge for a lot of German peasants. The Germans who settled SE PA was the first mass migration of them.
International Mikey
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought he might last another week or so thinking that we might have a twofer for 2023. Papa Francesco not looking too good himself.
RevRick
@Leto: I’m in Allentown, sooo…
kindness
Most years I go out to a concert NYE. Not this year but most of them. That means coming home very late, sleeping late. Getting up late feeling a little crispy from the night before. Drinking coffee, taking down my holiday decorations & packing them away and watching football.
It’s not much but it’s a life.
NotMax
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Only item required by ruling of that chamber to be on the menu of the Senate dining room daily.
Leto
Reading? I lived in Sinking Spring for a couple of years. Thence moved to the Flying Hills complex in Reading for a bit. doubt it, but is Joe’s still in business? Famed for serving a variety of fresh-gathered mushrooms.
Oh, how about The Peanut Bar? Littering the floor with shells mandatory.
NotMax
@kindness
While never a tradition did attend the NYE Peter Schickele concert at Town Hall in NYC now and again.
Who do we get on stage year after year at this turning of the calendar on Maui? Bill Maher. No thanks. (Even more stay awayable is that the next act scheduled this January when he departs is Pauly Shore.)
sab
@eclare: Joe Scarborough’s before that. I think that is where his heart is.
sab
@Betsy: We finally took him to Metropet hospital. He was having trouble walking. He is there now, being rehydrated. He didn’t seem upset to be there. He takes everything in stride, unlike all the other cats.
StringOnAStick
@Tom Levenson: I am afraid that given how I feel right now and cough I have developed over this evening that I will test positive for that spiky little bastard tomorrow morning too. Crap. I hope we’re both better soon.
StringOnAStick
Hmm, the only new years day tradition I remember from childhood is my parents mixing beer and tomato juice to help calm their raging hangovers. For decades I thought that was a bloody mary, and no, I don’t drink anymore since the family tree is full of serious alcoholics. There’s no good reason to tempt genetic fate.
Seanly
My wife likes to cook ham in a crockpot. I think that came from her late father who did pork & saurkraut but niether of us like those. He grew up in N Dakota & descended from Germans. She also likes to do collard greens and black-eyed peas to draw forth money – the greens represent dollars & the peas coins – that came from her Southern step-mom. She will make some of her fantastic cornbread.
My wife also has a prohibition of doing laundry on New Year’s Day – you’ll wash someone out of the family.
She broke her upper arm very badly a few weeks ago so no New Year’s Day dinner this year. But still no laundry on New Year’s…
My family just says happy new years (think we’re all traditioned by then out as our Xmas looks almost exactly like Ralphie’s).
AM in NC
@Alabama Blue Dot: Well yes. Black eye peas and greens of course, for luck and money in the new year. Having lived in various parts of the South all my life, I thought this was a universal New Year’s Day meal.
My husband, from upstate New York, is not exactly thrilled with the menu, but he deals.
Happy 2023!
pieceofpeace
@Tom Levenson: Happy New Year? Best of fortune to recover soon.
frosty
@Leto:
I could do a meetup in Philly, it’s 90 miles away, not too bad for a day trip.
Catnaz
@Barbara: why can’t hogs be slaughtered until it’s cold enough? I thought it was just a tradition with no real justification.