Opus 2014-312: Changing Traditions, part 5 of ?: Christmas Bugs

Food at Christmas is always an adventure.

Flash back 50 years:  I was a teenager and we were going to my grandmother’s on Christmas Eve.  It was an annual event with all her family in the area.  I don’t remember enjoying it much but is was a command performance.  One year my brother and I came across a section of a store that had some exotic Christmas candies.  They specialized in chocolate covered insects of different types.  Since we wanted to expand the horizons of our aunts, uncles and cousins, we bought a selection and when we had gone over the river and through the woods, made our contribution to the dessert table.  The only part we left out was telling people what they were eating.  That came later and a good time was had by all, or at least by my brother and I.  In all fairness, we had tried them ourselves.

Flash back 20 years:  I had the passing of the torch:  My children had been listening to the folly of my youth.  About that time they discovered an on line site that specialized in candied insects.  The pattern was repeated.  They have an aunt who always finds an excuse not to eat if they are in the area.

Maybe there is a reason my children are not invited to Christmas parties.

Oh, well.  Our children today still bring variety to the table.  Part of their tradition is to go out and sample cheeses and buy a selection for our Christmas and New Year’s dinners.  They get cheese, fruit, crackers and the food that has become a centerpiece.  No, not insects, pecans.  It is amazing how pecans enhance the flavor if an unusual cheese.  Try it if you never have.

I wait with anticipation to see what exotic morsels will grace the table this year.

Merry Christmas.

To be continued...

homo unius libri