Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas

Hemulen said:
Mjd, you can check some Finnish dishes from this website: Finnish Food. Salmon is served in every form imaginable and Christmas is not Christmas without salted, oven-cooked ham with mustard and vegetable casseroles. One typical recipe is a salad made of cooked potatoes and beetroots, potatoes, pickled cucumbers (or gherkins) and onion, served with whipped cream seasoned with a pinch of sugar, salt and vinegar and colored with a splash of beetroot juice. Traditionally also salted herring is added but we skip that ingredient. The movie link in my previous post should work now. You can pause the video and type the Christmas recipes straight to a translator (e.g. Google translator).
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Christmas with my parents -- they always have a honey baked ham from Kroger (cheapest available) at Christmas. It is store bought already cooked, and only needs to be heated in the oven, and glazed with a glaze from a packet sold with the ham. It is okay, but not great. The sides are green bean casserole (canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, canned fried onions), and mashed potatoes with NO butter, just skim milk -- and no seasonings.

I cook the Christmas morning scrambled eggs. I have to sneak butter into the house, and put it in the pan when my mom is preoccupied by my sister. My dad cooks reduced fat sausage in the microwave oven, and makes toast. So, at least we eat good eggs.

CD
 
Dear Hemulen you are always very kind! Yes Christmas is a difficult time for me but I'm sure it won't be like that forever. Some of my friends didn't like Christmas for the same reasons as me (family drama) but they say things changed when they became parents. I'm not that desperate though! :D
 
TastyReuben said:
As they say around here, it ain't the holidays until everyone is fighting! :laugh:
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My mom always hosted the holidays for both sets of grandparents and a couple of great aunts and uncles. Some liked to dip a little too much into the holiday cheer and my mom was never one to over indulge or find humor when other's did. One year, the paternal grand mom was supposed to bring the vegetable dish to Christmas dinner. Prior to arriving she had stopped at friends for Tom & Jerrys. Upon arriving at our house for holiday dinner not only did she have a snoot full, she presented my mom with one 10 ounce can of corn to be served as the vegeatable at a dinner for 13 people!! 😂😂... good times!!
 
TastyReuben said:
I'm not going to lie...I love the "commercialization" of Christmas as much as any other aspect. It's just another part of Christmas, and just as it's easy to feel the season when walking across a meadow with a covering of crunchy snow, it's also easy (for me, anyway) to get that feeling when going through a bustling shopping mall, with all the decorations and music and people in their Christmas colors, carrying bags and bags of goodies. I love it!
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TastyReuben, the first recipe link in your previous 'punch post' didn't work. I love the enthusiasm you show towards Christmas - and pretty much everything else - like dressing up. I'm not that annoyed if I hear Christmas carols at a shopping mall in October. There are worse things in life. I usually visit the department store Stockmann in Helsinki before Christmas just to be overwhelmed with their Christmas compartment.

When our kids were little, they got a huge pile of Christmas presents...and then some. Nowadays we try to stick to a 'one present' rule but I never obey. This year, I've already spent a motherlode of my student beans into personal gifts and gifts made to order - starting in September. I'm bringing it to a halt now, though, as I'm focusing in... juniper berries and cooking. No, really, the rest of the year will be studies, apprentice work (3D modeling) and cooking - no more presents. My kids probably don't visit this forum, so here's a spoiler: my youngest is interested in pre-revolutionary Russian literature and history. I found a piece of a 1910's Russian newpaper online with pictures of the Tsar family and ordered it as a gift. My mom and stepdad < heyy, I just heard that Finland won Ireland in the Nation's League football!> will get covid masks with their late terrier pictured on top.

Finnish Blossa company develops annual Christmas gluhweins ('glögi' in Finnish; 'glögg' in Swedish) which are popular here. We also make white gluhwein from white wine, apple juice and spices. Eggnog is popular, too - and all sorts of Christmas ales.
 
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Hemulen, I'm sorry the ham gets overcooked. Is there some way to get the cook to make it in a slow cooker? Sometimes, we just have to grin and bear it. ;-) My maternal grandmother wasn't a good cook. The first time I got drunk was from her spaghetti in which she generously poured red wine. Ha Ha. I hated spaghetti for years after that. I like it now but I don't add any liquor to it. ;-0

Thanks for the link. I will check it out! I will also watch the video and type out some recipes. I'm excited! Sometimes, do you just ever feel in a rut because you're cooking the same foods the same way all the time? I do.

Thanks again!
 
Hemulen said:
TastyReuben, the first recipe link in your previous 'punch post' didn't work. I love the enthusiasm you show towards Christmas - and pretty much everything else - like dressing up. I'm not that annoyed if I hear Christmas carols at a shopping mall in October. There are worse things in life. I usually visit the department store Stockmann in Helsinki before Christmas just to be overwhelmed with their Christmas compartment.

When our kids were little, they got a huge pile of Christmas presents...and then some. Nowadays we try to stick to a 'one present' rule but I never obey. This year, I've already spent a motherlode of my student beans into personal gifts and gifts made to order - starting in September. I'm bringing it to a halt now, though, as I'm focusing in... juniper berries and cooking. No, really, the rest of the year will be studies, apprentice work (3D modeling) and cooking - no more presents. My kids probably don't visit this forum, so here's a spoiler: my youngest is interested in pre-revolutionary Russian literature and history. I found a piece of a 1910's Russian newpaper online with pictures of the Tsar family and ordered it as a gift. My mom and stepdad < heyy, I just heard that Finland won Ireland in the Nation's League football!> will get covid masks with their late terrier pictured on top.

Finnish Blossa company develops annual Christmas gluhweins ('glögi' in Finnish; 'glögg' in Swedish) which are popular here. We also make white gluhwein from white wine, apple juice and spices. Eggnog is popular, too - and all sorts of Christmas ales.
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I have this image in my head of Christmas in Helsinki - lots of snow, reindeer, jingling bells, music, woolly hats and big scarves. Please tell me I'm right!:laugh:
 
It's lovely to see everyone getting into the Christmas spirit. The world needs positive thoughts, love and happiness right now. This forum is a great place to be at the moment - it certainly brings me many smiles every day. I would like to propose that we hold some sort of virtual Christmas celebration, some other way to spread the smiles amongst us, bearing in mind most of us will be facing a very different Christmas, some even alone. I don't know how we would do it, there are time zones, distances, possible privacy concerns that may stand in the way, but if enough of you are up for it, please let me know, and I will set up a new thread to share ideas.
 
epicuric said:
It's lovely to see everyone getting into the Christmas spirit. The world needs positive thoughts, love and happiness right now. This forum is a great place to be at the moment - it certainly brings me many smiles every day. I would like to propose that we hold some sort of virtual Christmas celebration, some other way to spread the smiles amongst us, bearing in mind most of us will be facing a very different Christmas, some even alone. I don't know how we would do it, there are time zones, distances, possible privacy concerns that may stand in the way, but if enough of you are up for it, please let me know, and I will set up a new thread to share ideas.
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Bah... Humbug. :headshake:

CD
 
epicuric said:
I have this image in my head of Christmas in Helsinki - lots of snow, reindeer, jingling bells, music, woolly hats and big scarves. Please tell me I'm right!:laugh:
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Yeah, you're (almost) right. The last time we had snow on Christmas was maybe three or four years ago (and we live ~100 km north of Helsinki). I have seen a few reindeers in Lapland when I was little. Some Lappish and Sami people have reindeer herds wondering around endless fjeld areas and tightly packed Santa Claus Centers in the North. We do eat air-dried reindeer and reindeer stew every now and then. Woolly hats and big scarves are a must in Jan-Feb when the temperature may reach -30°C. Usually the weather is pretty much from +3 to -7 in the winter thanks to climate change. As for bells... I hear a lorn pea jingling inside my head all the time. Does that count?
 
TastyReuben said:
Sorry about that, maybe it's blocked there? It's a Food Network page. Try this link:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.so...521d2d8f-001f-5cf5-9506-e704a22a7eeb.amp.html


It's Christmas, so...um, YEAH!
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Thanks TR but it still doesn't work. This is what you get when you live in the backwater.
 
Hemulen said:
View attachment 48366

Thanks TR but it still doesn't work. This is what you get when you live in the backwater.
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Get a VPN service. Not only do you get online anonymity, but you can log on through different countries. For example, you can log on through a US VPN server, and web sites will think you are in the US. I have one called NORD.

CD
 
epicuric said:
I have this image in my head of Christmas in Helsinki - lots of snow, reindeer, jingling bells, music, woolly hats and big scarves. Please tell me I'm right!:laugh:
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I probably mentioned this last Christmas, but in 1992, we went from the UK to Sweden to pick up a car at the Volvo factory. On the train ride from London to Harwich, a young Swedish woman, a student, was going home for the holidays. I say young, she was probably five years younger than me.

We got to talking about Christmas and stuff like that, and she was shocked to find out that Christmas in the US wasn't exactly like what she saw in all the Disney movies, etc.

Hemulen said:
View attachment 48366

Thanks TR but it still doesn't work. This is what you get when you live in the backwater.
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Well, I guess I'll just have to post it here as a recipe. I'll do that later today, but that just means you have to make it. :)
 
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