Folks, While I am working on the Begley & Bolling - Bowling family lines of Kentucky, and all those related surnames, I collected some data about how our early families that lived in the rural KY mountains, and some in almost poverty, compared to our life styles in 2006, found it interesting how these families tried to share and spend their Christmas Day. Not every family could put out on their table all the below foods, but, seems a lot of families tried to put most of these foods on their tables from the 1790s into the 1920s. These families did not have Electricity in Kentucky mountains. Everything sure sounds like good eating to me, and of course, in the populated areas of the Northeast USA the ocean Oysters were the highlight on their dinner tables. Yes, Virginia residents used Virginia cured hams! Menu of Christmas: Christmas: Holiday home brewed Egg Nog, Kentucky sugar / smoke cured Ham, beaten Biscuits, Corn Pudding, Chicken and Oyster Pie, Pumpkin Chips, Cucumber Pickles, Potatoes and Turnips, Boiled Onions and dressed Celery, or other salad greens with Apple Sauce, Mincemeat Pie, Filbert Pudding, Honey Flummery, Plum Pudding, Pound Cake, Coffee, Walnuts, large pitchers of sweet cider". Sometimes, Corn Bread placed into a large glass of buttermilk was a preferred treat. Jellies and Jams and ripe fruits and nuts, with sweet Cider or syrup water of different sorts, a wine completes the dessert. Biscuit and Jelly sandwich could also be served as dessert, or pastery puffs, and, Hot Cranberry Muffins. > > > HAPPY HOLIDAYS! JOHN in CA

Dear John in CA, Just to add to your interesting list of Christmas foods, these are some of the things my grandmother, Birdie Sizemore 1890-1976, from the Redbird-Phillips Fork area of Leslie County would cook for the Christmas holiday season: Chicken and dumplings with hand rolled biscuits would be the main dish, with shucky beans and potatoes. She or my mother would make a wonderful dried apple stack cake and sometimes a vinegar stack cake made in the same way. She made a delicious gingerbread, hand rolled as done for the biscuits. She made very big, probably half an iron skillet in size, dried fried apple pies which she called "mules ears". Oh, what I would give to taste one of those now! But my favorite, as a child, was the sugar cookies and spice cookies she made and cut out in the shape of stars and bells. This was probably the only two shapes of cookie cutters my mother and grandmother had and I still make these cookies in the stars and bells shapes every Christmas in rememberance of them. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes, Ruby G. Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: <RLTJPS@aol.com> To: <KYLESLIE@rootsweb.com>; <BOWLING@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 11:52 AM Subject: [KYLESLIE] Christmas Foods late 1880s - early 1900s > Folks, While I am working on the Begley & Bolling - Bowling family lines of > Kentucky, and all those related surnames, I collected some data about how our > early families that lived in the rural KY mountains, and some in almost > poverty, compared to our life styles in 2006, found it interesting how these > families tried to share and spend their Christmas Day. > > Not every family could put out on their table all the below foods, but, > seems a lot of families tried to put most of these foods on their tables from the > 1790s into the 1920s. > These families did not have Electricity in Kentucky mountains. > > Everything sure sounds like good eating to me, and of course, in the > populated areas of the Northeast USA the ocean Oysters were the highlight on their > dinner tables. Yes, Virginia residents used Virginia cured hams! > > Menu of Christmas: > > Christmas: Holiday home brewed Egg Nog, Kentucky sugar / smoke cured Ham, > beaten Biscuits, Corn Pudding, Chicken and Oyster Pie, Pumpkin Chips, Cucumber > Pickles, Potatoes and Turnips, Boiled Onions and dressed Celery, or other > salad greens with Apple Sauce, Mincemeat Pie, Filbert Pudding, Honey Flummery, > Plum Pudding, Pound Cake, Coffee, Walnuts, large pitchers of sweet cider". > Sometimes, Corn Bread placed into a large glass of buttermilk was a preferred > treat. > Jellies and Jams and ripe fruits and nuts, with sweet Cider or syrup water > of different sorts, a wine completes the dessert. Biscuit and Jelly sandwich > could also be served as dessert, or pastery puffs, and, Hot Cranberry Muffins. > > > > > HAPPY HOLIDAYS! > JOHN in CA > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to KYLESLIE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >