Mom at an Anti-apartheid Rally in the 1970s. That’s her in the yellow shirt holding up the Remember Soweto Placard.
As far back as I can remember, on holidays like Labor Day my mother would organize these “get togethers”/barbecues/parties/potlucks at our home in Croton with plenty of really good food. Our family provided the chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs to cook on the monstrous brick grill my dad made in the yard. The picnics often included as many as thirty or more people who came and went from noon until flyer fly dark set in. Good food, music, and people kept people coming back to these 1970s gatherings. My mother loved to cook and she loved to listen to the music of Aretha, Bill Withers, Maria Makeba, and Hugh Masekela among others. She also loved being around her family and people from the “mother land,” as she would say. Mom belonged to an organization called Friends of Africa (FOA) that exposed me at an early age to the Anti-apartheid movement. As a result of FOA our Labor Day gatherings included family and extended family; many of them Africans who came to attend U. S. colleges and universities. On 55 Batten Road, in Croton, African and African Americans mixed and mingled over barbecued chicken, macaroni salad (recipe below), corn bread, rice pudding, peach cobbler and pecan pie (recipe below). The conversations ranged from food and cooking explanations and comparisons, to Muhammad Ali, to family and racial politics in United States and Africa. These multiethnic barbecues, the music, and conversations with people from Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, and Sierra Leon are among my most cherished food memories of my youth. My cousin has one planned this coming Saturday. I will take photos and report back to you. Please share your family picnic memories.
Fred’s Macaroni Salad Recipe:
2 cans tuna fish
1 box elbow macaroni
½ to 1 cup each of diced celery, green and red peppers, carrots, and onions.
½ to 1 cup sweet pickle relish.
1 cup mayonnaise (I use soy or canola based mayonnaise)
2 diced hard boiled eggs are optional
Add salt, pepper, fresh parsley, and other favorite seasonings.
Here’s a family recipe one of my Marist students shared with me.
Aunt Nancy’s Pecan Pie Recipe (with my suggested substitutes):
3 eggs slightly beaten (or egg substitute)
1 cup sugar
1 cup Karo (light) syrup
2 tbsp melted butter (substitute a vegan margarine, there are some great ones out there)
1 tsp vanilla
1 & ¼ cup pecan halves
Stir list ingredients together, and then mix in pecans. Pour into 9 inch pie crust and bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate before serving.
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