tavie.com

Every year around Thanksgiving time, Tante Joan starts asking us to help her plan what theme we'll be doing for our Christmas dinner. This year she and Don came over and had Thanksgiving with us-- they just left, TJ and my mom off to Barcelona-- and we had a hell of a time trying to figure out what theme to do this year. Last year we did a Colonial American Christmas with ham (ick) and lemon pie and stuff. The year before it was a Scandinavian Christmas, with glog and salmon-y things. This year we couldn't stop arguing-- Mexican? Haven't we done that already? Carribbean? New Orleans? And then someone-- hey, it was me!-- jokingly suggested we just have pastrami sandwiches, pickles and slaw. And everyone got very excited and started talking at once-- why not? So we're doing a New York Jewish Christmas. Brisket, kasha varnishkas, matzoh ball soup, egg creams, Cel-Ray, Baby Jesus with a little yarmulke, gingerbread menorahs... the hard part is integrating some nice light vegetable dishes into the whole affair. The Jews aren't particularly big on unpickled vegetables. I think I'll ask Gina to make those baked carrots that I love.

My dad started pouting and Kirsten and I pinched his cheeks and called him a meshugene and told him to stop putting on such a sour punim.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 2:45 PM | shower me with attention