Need to tread lightly here .. but I can't ignore a pop culture trend! C'mon inside to find out more!
Read this quickie caption first, and then you can peruse my write-up afterwards!
Yes, I know many African-American families will call recipes "receipts" but it didn't look right in the caption, and for those that didn't know, I didn't want to confuse them in any way.
There's been a thing the last few years about potato salad and how the south has the best potato salad. It's been brought up a few times on Saturday Night Live, and some other pop culture programs, so when I saw this picture, for some reason, it popped into my mind. And no, Karen, there should NOT be raisins in potato salad, nor curry nor peas. Peas are more for pasta salad, and I don't like them there either!
It's funny, because I looked up potato salad recipes, and most of them jive well with my families version, containing mayo, mustard, paprika and perhaps hard boiled eggs along with the potatoes. I wonder if this was some recipe in a magazine in the 30's or 40's for Miracle Whip .. or just poor people's adaptations that were handed down generation to generation (my family was the working class factory poor in Canada until they migrated down to this area in the late 1890's - early 1900's) for special occasions.
Anyway, I tried hard not to stereotype too much, other than many ethnicities do celebrate days off from work, AND weddings in spectacular fashion .. and that was what I was going for. Maybe a spice of cultural appropriation, but in a nice way. Anything more, I wouldn't cop to because .. someday soon I'd like to try Black Potato Salad .. if I can ever get an invite. I know I'll never get a receipt for it!
Hope everyone is enjoying cookouts this summer. What special food stuffs do your friends and family make for those special occasions? Love to hear about it below! And do talk about the caption too!
And since I mentioned it above, here's one of the SNL sketches .. Black Jeopardy.
I think that it was this sketch that really brought it out into the open.
I feel seen! :D
ReplyDeleteHello there! And your blog is Bimbofiction? Hope to see some more posts there! Love reading bimbofication stories, both M->Bimbo and F->Bimbo.
DeleteEeenteresting! I wonder what my family did for potato salad, I wasn't a fan so no idea about the recipe. The concept of competing recipes has never (though really ought to have) occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for celebration food... Not sure my family has such a tradition. Best I can say is that we do buffet meals and there are cooked prawns with homemade sauce (salad cream, tobasco sauce, paprika); small sausage rolls, pineapple and cheese onnastick; silver skin onions and red cheese onnastick... Yeah, working class to middle class in the 70s-80s, can you tell?
To me, it is always so interesting to be invited to someone else's cookouts, as I get to see the 'standards' where Aunt Lucille always bring the cocktail weinies in BBQ sauce, while Uncle Carl brings the baked beans, while Granny Pauline makes the ambrosia.
DeleteThanks for telling us about some of the things your family finds comforting to see at a get together.
Nice cap Dee! While the ‘best potato salad’ might be a African-American thing, the idea of a family recipe staying in the family is a theme that, I believe, crosses all cultural barriers.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I find it difficult to take on any kind of cultural things that aren’t part of my own cultures. As for family special occasions, it depends on the occasion. Most of these traditions are generations old but some, like Easter, have changed in the last few years. New Years Day has become prime rib (with a side of black eyed peas!). Easter is cooking on the grill (steaks, burgers, chicken…). Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day are all grilling days but each has their own unique side dishes and deserts (July 4th celebrating the red white and blue with cherry torte and blueberry cheesecake). Thanksgiving has a list of around 30 side dishes that we pick from each year but always includes the turkey, stuffing/dressing, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Christmas eve is all about that cheesy potato soup, while Christmas day is generally ham.
Sadly, as my generation takes over more and more, we’re losing these traditions. My aunt and my mom were the cooks and none of us ‘kids’ ever picked up cooking. I imagine in a few years we’ll be down to the tradition of ordering doordash from particular restaurants on particular holidays.
I want to eat at your family gatherings! For mine, the problem became that the older generation really didn't want to give up control of the meal preps, etc .. even as the kids / grandkids grew up, so we also lost some of the old time dishes that used to be available. I am going to ask my aunt soon about her French Stuffing recipe, as it's pretty much gorton / creton but without the old fashioned leaf lard as a binder. Not sure if she used Crisco or something else (I've heard that some people now use mashed potatoes so we don't all die from hardened arteries!
DeleteWe've adapted as time goes on, as I now make an actual cranberry sauce, as opposed to the time honored tradition of opening a can 3 minutes before the Thanksgiving meal is served. I'll also make homemade Mac and Cheese for Christmas.
And yes, as I mentioned above, I try to tread lightly when it comes to cultural things, unless I'm leaning into the "clueless white guy" trope, where everything is still fair game! I sort of was walking that line, though I was hoping that it'd be a bit more than just that.
Thanks Dee I got a hankering for potato salad now. I love the caption and the vids.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I want some potato salad too now. Maybe someone will make some for the Father's Day cookout!
DeleteGlad you enjoyed it!
Hi Dee....it's been a while since I had the chance to leave a note here....
ReplyDeleteMy parents were terrible cooks....just awful...as a kid I thanked god for salt and ketchup which were always on the table no matter what horror they dished up to us!!!!
By the way....salt was pretty much the only "spice" that was available in our house....
All that aside....my wife's mother is a wonderful cook!!!! even old age hasn't slowed her down....and I've learned a lot of things from her....
And yes....she makes a killer potato salad...and the funny thing about it is that she absolutely hates potato salad!!!
On another note we've been house hunting for the last couple of weeks....we've seen a couple that we liked but nothing that says home to us yet....and now her bosses are talking about returning to the office a couple of days a week and that derails all our plans....
We'll see what happens....but I loved the cap....
Kisses
Kaaren
Thought you already had a place and were moving, which was why you weren't around. Hope you'll be able to figure out the whole "where to live" aspect of your lives soon enough.
DeleteThat's funny that she makes something that delicious even though she hates it! I have found that the secret to the potato salad is knowing exactly when to remove the potatoes from the boiling water and stop any further cooking.
Glad you enjoyed the caption! Stay tuned, as my 2,000 post is coming out in a few days!