Traditions again...

There's a bit of New Orleans tradition in Mr. Bingle. I don't know about other areas but being a kid in New Orleans meant seeing Mr. Bingle along with getting your picture taken with Santa Claus. He was created for department store, Maison Blanche, which is now Dillard's.

There's a bio and older sales fliers here. They used to do Breakfast with Bingle which basically was a sales tactic to get parents to shop at the Maison Blanche. Kids got a puppet show and a biscuit or muffin or something, and the parents got... holiday headaches maybe? I always associated Mr. Bingle with Mr. Bill. I mean they were from the same time, same town, they both had a white face, with blue eyes and a red nose... they could definitely pass for brothers.

Anyway, my kids won't or don't have any kind of tradition like that. Outside the family, that they participate in… Unless you count the Christmas parade, and coming from New Orleans, I have seen better. Well, I guess we'll just learn to live with it, though I now realize what a culture rich childhood I really had.

So to everybody out there, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

The Immortal Cookie Recipe

Ok so I've been talking to my baker wife about the ultimate cookie recipe. Well, it turns out that this recipe is in my mother's head. Yeah, I know, I'm setting up my wife to fail, also it may not be so immortal after all. What I tasted as a kid and what I taste now is two completely different things.

But that's not to say that my childhood was somehow wrong. I still think my mother's sugar cookie recipe is good, in fact I'd go so far as to list it in the top 3. I think having a little piece of your childhood again easily makes something more decadent. But for my wife tasting said cookie for the first time, not so much.

I was going to post the recipe here, but it turns out my mother is writing a cookbook, and she does not want to give anything away. I will say that these cookies are thin, squished by a glass with colored sugar, they do not travel well at all. But they are good. Crisp, not too sweet, and with a hint of vanilla... I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.

I plan on making these and setting them out for Santa. It's like a win-win, isn't it?

What is a Mirliton?

So I thought about things that make "home", home on the holidays. I can really only come up with one answer, gastronomically anyway. Mirliton Dressing. Nobody I know even can guess what a mirliton is (it's a sort of squash). But that is what makes home unlike anyplace else. And food is to a person that comes from my part of the world, love.

Back when I was a kid, my aunt Emily used to have family get-togethers at her house, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and 4th of July. she would have everyone over for a feast, plus... she had a pool. She was awesome and was also the most well to do of any of us.

Come Christmas or Thanksgiving we couldn't wait to go to aunt Emily's house. There I would see Uncle Buddy, my grandmother's brother. And his girlfriend Gracie. Every year like clockwork she would tell the same stories you heard dozens of times but nobody seemed to care. My aunt Janet had these two overgrown black poodles and one year I remember my cousin jumping in the pool because it was the only time that I ever saw a dog, not swim, he just sank, at the deep end. Janet lives up in Indiana now.

Or aunt Carol and uncle Frank, to big too talk about really. Carol did have some kind of voodoo shop or whatever, my mother said she never wanted to cross that woman. June and Phil (the one who died recently) would be there too. Along with countless cousins. But I don't know any of these people now. I mean I know them, but I never really had a conversation with any of them besides the standard stuff.

So back to the Mirliton Dressing… It is a got to have at my house, and I hope with my children, they will continue the tradition. Here is the recipe that my family has adopted, it’s not traditional, but it is what it is, what I mean is everybody has their own version, here's mine (adapted for SC or GA or pretty much anywhere that's not New Orleans)

MIRLITON DRESSING

4 medium mirlitons (look for chayote, they have them at Wal-Mart)
1 onion, chopped
1 pound of Sage Sausage (get it in the breakfast section of your grocer’s fridge)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Cup fresh parsley
1 ½ Tsp Sage
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 bag of Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Mix (or a loaf of good French bread)
1 lb. of fresh shrimp, peeled and diced (optional some people hate shrimp)
Cajun seasoning to taste I like Tony Chachere’s
butter

Preheat your oven to 350°. Boil, cool, peel, and cube the mirlitons. Reserve the mirliton boiling water. Sauté the onion, green onion, parsley, garlic, and celery until soft. Add the shrimp and cook about one minute . Add the mirlitons, Cajun seasoning, and stuffing mix. Stir well. Use a little of the water from cooking the mirlitons to moisten if necessary. Place the mixture in a greased 9 x 13 x 2-inch casserole. Dot with a little butter. Bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

That's pretty much it. Now to convert my children... hehehe hahahaaaaa...