WEEK ONE NEW YEARS MEMORIES

New Years Day was a nonevent for our family.  We went to Church, being Catholic it was required. 

My earliest memory was somewhere in the early 50's looking at the Sunday comic papers and there was a cartoon with the depiction of the Old Father Time and a young New Year.   I remember asking what did that mean.

I do remember that I was sitting in the living room and it was ablaze with light.   I should do  a search and see what day New Years Day was in the early fifties and find exactly what year it was.  My thought is it was in the early fifties because I was able to read at that time.

My mother always made the traditional sauerkraut and pork.   What she did was to cook the pork roast or kielbasa in the roasting pot and smother it with sauerkraut and cook it to death.  Then we would have mashed potatoes and not an ounce of gravy, but they would put the sour sauerkraut juice on the mashed potatoes.  Boy did I hate that.

Many years later when Chuck and I were dating, his mother would cook a roast pork and cook the sauerkraut separately and make the gravy with the drippings from the roast.  That was Nirvana for me.   Why did my mother not do that?  I have yet to figure it out.

Today, thanks to Lois, I cook my pork separately and makes mashed potatoes and gravy.  The sauerkraut is drained and then I add raisins, a chopped up red apple, a few pearl onions and a few tablespoons of brown sugar.   You drain and rinse the sauerkraut and mix all the ingredients then cook it at 350F for 30 minutes.   It is not overly sour and quite tasty.  I will add a vegetable and cranberry sauce.   Very good.

I must add an addendum to this post.   I did a search and the New Years of January 1, 1950 the day fell on a Sunday.  I would have been 4 1/2.   My question is now, was I able to read????  I guess I was not in school, but I do remember that New Years Day