The kitchen on erev Shabbat, when I was a child, contained the best of smells. Though we weren't Orthodox we did have the traditional meals; chicken and chicken soup on Friday night, with challah and wine and rice or other delicious sides.
And sometimes, on those late Friday afternoons, I would come home from school and hear a crackling from the kitchen and I knew what was cooking...
Chicken fat, chicken skin and onion; the Jewish version of pork rinds. Gribnes. This coat your arteries with an inch of fat treat was a favorite among all of us children and we would fight for the pieces. Just a little piece, that's all anyone could get---there were four of us and I think only one chicken, and most of the skin stayed on the chicken; my father, for he is the one who made this dish, would use the tush and the bits and pieces from the back and from the neck. I can't remember the last time I ate it; or why my father stopped making it.
Now I pull off all the skin from the chicken, try and get rid of as much of the fat as I can--I can't imagine leaving it on. It is the only way my family will eat chicken; my kids can't stand the taste of chicken with the skin still on. I think the idea of gribnes would make them puke.
Odd how things change. Odd how we change.
What has dropped out of your life?
Posted by Rachel Ann at October 1, 2004 01:39 PMWhen my mom died, all the holidays went. My mother used to have everyone in creation over for just about every holiday. Christmas Eve bites now in comparison. We tried to keep it up for a couple of years, but it petered out because it just wasn't the same without her. Plus neither my brother nor myself lived around their house, so we couldn't really do as good a job. But we went home every year so Dad wouldn't be alone.
Now my husband, son and I all go to my aunt's house for dinner, and that's about it. Dad is 81, has a gf, lives 3 hours away and we go to their place for a weekend before the holidays. Can't go during, with a kid, you gotta be home for Santa ;) He's 12 and that's over with now, we are even thinking of going to Europe this year.
My dad used to eat chicken fat on a big chunk of challah and call it a snack. He drooled over it!
Yuck!
Why isn't life simple any more ??!! simple pleasures..simple lives..simple people..simplicity has dropped out..
Posted by: pincushion at October 3, 2004 04:46 PMNo need to get too extreme in reducing fats. If you don't eat enough chlorestoral (spelling) your body will produce lots more. Relax and enjoy.
Posted by: meanderings at October 3, 2004 10:35 PM