What I did today

I only remembered the name phonetically, but fortunately that was good enough for google. Crostoli.

Here is a link with a photo: www.marcellinaincucina.com/crostoli-recipe/

Her recipe has more ingredients, but basically they are fried noodle dough and my family could not tell any difference between the fried wonton wrappers and the more complex ones. They really are good.

I bought a pizzelle iron at a yard sale, but have never made them.

Maybe they do the Christmas pageants differently, today, but it was not a good experience for me when I was growing up. Because I was Jewish and would not participate in these programs, I was bullied and harassed not just by other students, but by teachers also. One teacher gave an "easy" test on the holiday, which I failed as I did not know the details of the holiday. The teacher refused to remove the grade, even at the request of the principal, and my Mom had to go to the school board to get it removed. It would seem more inclusive to give a seasonal concert and pre-vacation party and more appropriate leave religious pageants to be put on by church youth programs. I don't mind kids learning about different religions, if done in a respectful way, but the proselytizing that goes on in some public schools is not fair to children.

Growing up when we did was quite different than today, at least in my area. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, a city of immigrants divided by country of origin and linked by religion. I attended a Catholic grade school. We were Polish Catholics and went to church with Irish and Italian Catholics but only socialized within our ethnic groups. My (Irish) mom told me a story about when she and my dad were dating, they both worked at General Mills, one of the girls came up to mom and told her to stick with her own kind, meaning get an Irish boyfriend instead of Polish. Now my Catholic grandchildren go to a school that celebrates both Catholic and Jewish holidays and holy days. They are as likely to celebrate Hannukah with their friends as they are to celebrate Christmas. They recognize each other's differences and accept the person instead of discriminating against those differences. We also have Ashkenazi Jews (from Poland) in our family, something that makes it even more difficult for me to understand discrimination against any one group, especially by other Poles.

On the bright side of Christmas, I made my acting debut back in 1956 starring as Joseph in the school Christmas play!

Yesterday I got to quick soaking pinto beans, boil 5 minutes, then let sit. We went to town during the sit time. People everywhere, you'd think there's a blizzard coming...and there is! In Walmart saw the cooler of hams with a Clearance sign. $1/lb. People were grabbing them like there's no tomorrow. The fancier hams, spiraled and ones with sauce packs were $1.50/lb. But obviously people prefer the plain ones. Called Dad, he said get him one, so we did, and one for us. Decided to drop it off to them on the way home so I wouldn't have to babysit it til Sunday.

Got home and cooked the beans for 30 minutes, then put 18 pints in the pressure canner. 4 lbs of dry beans sure make alot! Stacked them in the canner. Went for a short walk while the beans were pre-cooking. Cold but no wind so it was bearable. While the pressure canner was doing it's thing, I cut up that 10 lb ham into slices and put into small packages, then to the freezer. The bone will be used for ham/potato soup.

Today I'm canning garbanzo beans, only 2 lbs worth because that's all the pint jars I have left. Went to the junk shop yesterday and was lucky to find 9 at $.25 each. Tomorrow I'll be doing a mega batch of veggie soup. That goes in quart jars.

Growing up in a Catholic school, we didn't do Christmas concerts except in church.   My son went to public school and they always had the Christmas concert and I loved going to them.  I love looking back at those photos.  That's terrible gardendmpls,

Wow…I went to a Catholic school and there were several Jewish families who attended. It was a very good school.. They did not participate in the “religion” classes (and we thought they were lucky.
I don’t remember pagents w much more than songs and music. My teacher must have been a progressive because it’s where Carole shared the dreidel games with us.
There were other teachers who should never have been teachers. I’m sorry that you experienced that.
I went to public high school and loved it.

I went to public schools but went to Catechism classes in the 50s. As an elementary school kid I was brought to tears when the nuns taught us that anyone not Catholic couldn't go to heaven. I was so upset that my Jewish and Protestant friends were going to go to hell. And I refused to proselytize for their salvation. Needless to say, by the time I was old enough to make my own decisions I was out of the church. And this was not small town USA. This was Los Angeles. It was a different era and at least we have made some progress now in 2022, though there is still more improvement needed.


If I had to describe it in one word: fear