I was kindly invited out for Easter supper this past weekend and being that I was raised you can’t go empty handed I offered to make coleslaw, then because of my family traditions I decided to make shrimp aspic salad as well.
Now it took me about 18 years, eating my one table spoon twice a year – at Easter and Christmas – to get used to shrimp aspic, the flavours and the textures, but I’ve grown to love it over time.
People tend to turn their nose up at it when you tell them it’s base is lemon jello and tomato juice, so instantly it sounds odd. Then there’s green olives, onions, cucumbers, and celery in there… and somehow, it is absolutely delicious with turkey.
It’s a recipe that my granny always made and my mom continues to make because my dad absolutely loves it, and everyone else in the family has developed a taste for it now too. But, headed off to this family’s house for supper I wasn’t sure what their reactions would be. One disliked it, but decided it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, another one liked the taste but didn’t care for the texture – although she did have seconds, and the other three all ate it.
For one person, however, I brought up some memories as it was once her dad’s favourite salad. I think it was one of those recipes that people once made when jello salads were the trendy thing to make. A “grandma” or “granny” salad as one of the dinner goers said.
So, that was kind of fun, sharing something that we always eat, which isn’t too popular and people invited to the Running household typically give it a funny look although they’ll try it, but finding out it was something that their family used to have as well was a nice surprise.
It’s always kind of fun learning about other people’s traditions and what they do for their holidays.
I remember spending Christmas in Australia and although here turkey is the must have, there we enjoyed jumbo prawns for our Christmas dinner. Although cooking a turkey with all the stuffing and extras would have warmed the house a little bit too much considering their Christmas is actually held during their summer, since their seasons are the inverse of ours being that they’re in the southern hemisphere.
