thanksgiving weekend!

Ahh.... and thank you for the link. I did remember reading you message yesterday ? or the day before and wondered what the heck a turducken was. I was close... I thought science had figured a way of crossing a turkey, duck and chicken to come up with some new weird bird. LOL

Gemini

Ahhh, there we could have a bit of a battle... I like the pineapple too! ;o)

Be careful inviting me, I may take you up on that some day! ;o)

And that's how it should be! If I had any inclination at all of running a restaurant that sold fish & chips... it would definitely be open on Good Friday!

Ahh... sounds wonderful! I have a Sweet Pickled Cottage Roll in my freezer, but I have to wait until a weekend to cook it up so we can have it at noon and not be still stuffed at bedtime. LOL

LOL Yep, that's me... a mainlander! ;o) Like I said, my Mom said I was an afterthought, and because I was the only one of her kids not born in Newfoundland I was her "foreigner".

I'm trying to remember some names of streets that my Mom mentioned in St John's.... Water St, New Gower St (sp). And she told me that her mother, at some point, ran (or owned, I'm not positive about that) a hotel in Briggas - Briggus (sp) which I think she said was just outside of St John's.

I have never ever been to Newfoundland and someday I do want to go there to have a look around and see if I recognize the names of streets that my Mom mentioned. There is also a park with a statue of Peter Pan in it where she would go swimming as a girl... and a Catholic Church built in the shape of a cross that she mentioned too. Her father drowned in the Regatta the year before she was born, in front of her mother who was pregnant with her at the time... and her mother's hair turned snow white overnight, the doctor said it was from the trauma of seeing it happen. My Mom worked at a Chinese restaurant during WWII where she met my Dad who was stationed in St John's with the Royal Canadian Navy.

She told hilarious stories of when she was a girl and her friends would sit her in a box on top of a sled, drop the ropes for steering rather than give them to her, and push her down a very steep hill. At the bottom of the hill was a house just the other side of the cross road, and she was forever going through their window and landing on their kitchen table. They finally put up heavy screen on the window, and the first few times she would *bounce* off it, but eventually it would give way and there she would be back on their kitchen table again. LOL

I have a jigsaw puzzle of St John's that was given to my Mom a couple of years before she passed away. She pointed out the house she used to live in, so I circled it so I wouldn't forget. :o)

Gem

An ex-boyfriends family always made turducken for Thanksgiving. I didn't believe him until his mom confirmed it. (He would tell the wildest lies that could almost be true.) My family never makes anything that exotic. My brother and I are about the only ones with adventurous stomachs. I'm responsible for making the turkey (I always brine it first), the stuffing (apple raisin), the gravy and the bread (this year a very dry pumpkin bread and Grants Loaves- a minimal effort yeasted wheat bread.) Mom made mixed veggies, mashed potatoes, and supplied the cheese, tinned jellied cranberry sauce (which was a pain to get out of the can) and the gathering place. My nearly blind Grandmother brought the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin and mince pies. I didn't know you could get mince pies in the freezer case. It must be a seasonal thing.

Christmas fare is considerably lighter, just ham, green beans, cookies. I can't think of anything else we have.

Easter on the other hand is very important to the family, foodwise. We have ham, hot potato salad, traditional potato salad, pickled beets and eggs, asparagus with white sauce and buttered cracker crumbs, sheep babka, sweet pickles, cheese slices, rye bread, olives, potato rolls, horseradish, brown mustard and occasionally kiflis and baked beans. Sometimes I'll make an additional loaf of bread.

Because of my odd food memory, since Grandma started loosing her vision, I've taken the responsibility of making some of the family dishes. The family recipes are passed down orally, with visual measurements, but I'm trying to motivate myself into writing the recipes down. Sarah

Brigus, yup. Water St, New Gower St are in downtown St. John's. The oldest, most historic part of the city.

Bowring Park, right next to my neighbourhood.

.. and a Catholic Church built in the shape of a

So where was the house? Do you know any of the streets around it? At

Michelle

LOL the canned cranberry sauce reminded me of my daughter trying to get it out of the can in one piece to slice up and make pretty on the plate. Took her a while to figure out that if she took the top off the can, turned it over on a plate and then took the bottom off, she could just push it through! I never did tell her *grin*. I just waited and watched. I know, I'm not nice.

The last sentence of your message rings true for so many families, doesn't it? I can remember some really nice meals that my parents made... but did they write the recipes down... noooo! Of course some of the things they made they didn't really measure the ingredients for... just off the top of their heads. Okay, not *totally* true... some of the recipes that my Dad made are written in a binder, but a LOT of the recipes that he and my Mom used to make are nowhere to be found. I had a heck of a time finding a recipe that even came close to a couple of the things they made. My older brother and sisters do remember eating the food, but they never knew the recipes for them either.

One of them (the stuffing for the turkey) I just happened to spot in a magazine while I was at the laundromat one day. It isn't *exactly* like my Dad's, but very VERY close... so I borrowed the magazine (yes, I did bring it back) and copied the recipe out.... leaving out some things that I *know* my Dad didn't put in there, and adding a couple of spices that I remembered seeing him add to it. That was just before Christmas last year... I crossed my fingers and said to my Dad (I talk to both my parents all the time and don't care how odd it may seem to others) "Okay Daddy, help me get this right... guide my hand." Sure enough, the dressing tasted exactly like my Dad's always used to. :o) Matthew prefers his dressing drier and outside the turkey, so he requested Stove Top Stuffing this past Thanksgiving.... but for Christmas I *might* make both kinds as I really missed my Dad's stuffing for all those years.

The year before my Dad passed away, and five months after having a stroke (he wasn't totally paralysed and could walk with an exaggerated step... but even though he had a tight grip when you got him to squeeze your hand, he couldn't hold a glass in his right hand) he got up and went to the kitchen on Christmas Eve... came back into the livingroom with a HUGE bowl and a loaf of bread, and laid on the sofa watching TV and breaking up the bread into small bits for the stuffing, just like he had always done before. When he finished breaking it up, he went back to the kitchen and proceeded to mix in the spices and he stuffed the turkey! It makes me smile (with tears in my eyes) that he wanted so badly to continue on doing what he had always done for his family, even though he had suffered a stroke. :'o)

Anyway, with some searching and magazine reading, and asking online for ideas of recipes from my memories (thank you Katherine for the pea soup and the boiled beans recipes... haven't done them yet... it hasn't been cold enough, but everything is ready to go when I need to now), I have managed to gather a few of the missing recipes... or very VERY close to the ones my parents used to make. I even managed to find a very close (I haven't tried it yet, I'm waiting until closer to Christmas) recipe to the one my Mom used to do without measuring for her fudge that everyone loved so much. It sounds almost identical to the way I remember watching her make it. If it turns out exactly like I remember my Mom's it will be one more that can go into the recipe binder of my parent's recipes. When I can gather up enough of them, I want to put them all into a book form and give them to my brother and sisters. :o)

Gemini

Oh cool... thank you for that site. I will go have a look and let you know if I spot the house.

Gem

I just had a look around and there are so many names of streets that I remember my Mom mentioning. I remember her mentioning Bond St, and Duckworth, and a few of the others as well. I can't remember what street she said that she lived on. The next time I'm talking to my oldest sister, I will ask her if she remembers... of course that won't likely be before Christmas.

I have saved that website to my favorites so I can have a look around some more. Thank you again for sharing it with me. I didn't see Bowring Park though.... where is that located?

Gem

It's in the west end.

If you want to discuss more details, why not email me? :) easternstorm AT gmail DOT com

Michelle

I just called the "other Newfie" who lives in our town... when my Mom met her she liked her of course.... but she said to me afterward, "I don't know why she talks like that. She sounds like a Bay-girl and she lived just around the block (or a couple of streets over) from where I used to live, and Townies don't talk like that!" LOL Anyway... when I spoke with Elizabeth just now, she doesn't remember where my Mom used to live or her mentioning it, but Elizabeth lived on Patrick St. She asked me what my Mom's maiden name was (apparently a lot of people from the same families lived on certain streets), but my Mom's maiden name (Peter's) didn't ring any bells with Elizabeth either. *shrug* I tried!

I was just trying to remember Elizabeth's last name.... but I can't think of it, and I don't want to call her back again and bother her. I think it was a Scottish name... my Mom said her father was a brilliant lawyer years ago. I want to say Mackinroy, or something very similar to that.

Gem

Hi Gwen

Glad to help :P

Michelle

Many of the old homes in the downtown have been sold, renovated and resold at huge profit, so many of the old families have moved on to other areas.

I had a look on the Law Society's register of current and old members...lots of Mac and Mc names on there. Maybe one will strike your eye?

Gemini, your story of your folks in Newfoundland was very interesting - I loved New Foundland ( especially the icebergs outside the window of the B&B in St Antonys), and Nova Scotia is a real favourite of ours - in our dreams we bought a home site overlooking a little village with a white church with a lovely little spire. God Bless Gwen

Ummmm mot possible - I could never recover form the turkey glut !! I would just keep it going God Bless Gwen

Well, Gwen, everything I have ever heard about Newfoundland from my Mom and anyone and everyone else who have ever been there, have been good things. My Mom used to say Newfoundland was "God's country", and I have heard so many people say that Newfoundlanders are the friendliest people on the face of the planet. Growing up with my Mom, I can believe that... there weren't too many people she met who she didn't like. Mind you, if she didn't like you, you knew it... there were no backdoors about her... I guess I tend to take after her for that. I *try* to be nice and polite to people... but when I don't like someone, they don't want to push the wrong buttons or they find out in a big hurry exactly how I do feel about them. ;o)

Someday I will make it to the east coast and get to see the Cabot Trail, and Signal Hill, and have a good look around St John's to see what places names I recognize (likely just the streets and the park mentioned previously). It will just be nice to walk around there and know that years before my mother grew up there and when she met my Dad they used to walk the same streets. :o)

My dream has always been to buy the house that I grew up in on the other side of town, and rennovate it into a single house from the duplex it has always been. That is the house that holds the happiest memories for me (especially since the house my Matthew grew up in was torn down). I remember my parents being so happy there, and I always felt safe and happy there too. Things were good then! :o)

Gemini

I seriously miss our very large deep freezer that we had to leave behind at the old house because the three guys couldn't move it. It was with our family for about 30 years and was still running very well... had a bit of rust on the outside near the bottom, but that didn't stop it from doing its job. That thing could hold a TON and a half (slight exaggeration) of food... so when we had a LARGE turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had room to store a lot of leftovers.

Now we only have the freezer part of the fridge and with other things in there, it doesn't leave a lot of room to store much added stuff. When I can, I try to cut the leftover turkey into small bits, add a bit of gravy for moisture and freeze it in plastic ice-cream tubs for turkeyburgers at a later date... another tub with more gravy than meat will be the stock for turkey soup... sliced leftovers, with stuffing and jellied cranberry sauce is used for sandwiches, and sometimes I make up a plate or two for each of us for leftover dinners.

For some reason the turkey we had this past Thanksgiving didn't last as long as I thought it would (I think it was smaller, because we didn't have much money) so we got one extra meal, and one batch of turkey burgers from it. There was only about 1 1/2 cups of extra gravy that I used with rice one day while Matthew was staying in the city. If we can swing it (now that Matthew is back to work), I would like to get a larger turkey for Christmas to make sure we have lots for leftover meals, and to freeze for future use.

Gem

- Oh yeah... and while I'm preparing the leftovers for the freezer, I also put a lot of the small bits and fatty parts into a bowl to mix with Casper and Buffy's kibble for a couple of days. So they have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner too! ;o)