Pathetic Christmas Dinners

[not Cereal]

ok, so i am SOO poor that after spending money on christmas presents i have $0 in the bank and $3.73 in my pocket. ugg. payday aint till jan 1 (although earlier because of the holiday, probably tuesday). so tonight for dinner i cooked tuna hotdish and beans. and green olives. and iced tea. and ya know what? it was GOOD. i am happy to eat that kind of food even on christmas. really makes ya think, because even though relatively i had a crappy dinner for christmas a lot of people didnt even eat THAT good in fact many probably had nothing. it may sound like i am being a liberal here, a bleeding heart if you will. well in reality i am pretty hardcore conservative and think you should keep what you earn and dont expect handouts without a good reason. so maybe an "old hardcore conservative" (haha i'm 29) can show some compassion and feel happy that i had tuna hotdish for christmas dinner. maybe i'll make it a christmas tradition and cook tuna hotdish every christmas (right, like the family would put up with THAT twice it is to laugh) or at some tater-tots to spice things up. i have no idea what the point of my rambling is, other than be thankful for what ya got, even if its tuna hotdish. merry christmas! maybe later i might post a NACHO thread, we'll see how well the outing to the bar goes with friends :)

[Jotown]

[quote]i have no idea what the point of my rambling is, other than be thankful for what ya got, even if its tuna hotdish.[/quote]That my friend is the true meaning of Christmas. Mmmmmmm.......tuna hotdish...... :D

[Zweite Version]

Back in Austria, we never had a real fancy Christmas dinner out of respect for my grandfather who usually comes over to eat. He is a WWII veteran, a POW by the Russians, so he spent one miserable Christmas in a POW camp, nothing to eat, cold, saw his friend die, etc... He used to bore us every Christmas with his story how they made ornaments out aluminum foil on Christmas Eve. He always got sentimental when we had a fancy dinner, so we kept it simple for him (usually Bratwurst and potato salad and spicy mustard) Here in America I had to change my tradition a little bit (my wife, who is American, would'nt put up with Bratwurst) so I made a Beef roast. But I agree with Coaster and Jotown, a simple dinner is all you need, bleeding heart or not, liberal or conservative, there are millions of people in this world who don't get to eat today (again).

[Tedster]

Amen! I second that! And, if it makes you feel better, Coastman...I've been kinda sick today and didn't feel like eating anything.

[Kooky Mogessi]

***THIS MAY BE CONSIDERED NASTY BY SOME PEOPLE*** If anyone needs some cheering up one of my dads friends called and said his 2 sons woke up this morning and one of them threw up on the other. Then the vomit covered one puked. That went on all day.

[Botch.]

Merry Christmas Coaster and everyone else. My sustenance was that way for one summer; I was attending three college summer classes, and ate spaghetti Monday thru Thursday (couldn't afford sauce), drove home (1 hour) Thursday night and worked a construction job on Friday, Mom's cooking Friday night and Saturday, then drove back on Sunday and could actually afford one Big Mac on sunday too! Most of us here on this board can afford to eat better than many people in this world and we should be thankful for that. Hope 2003 is a better year for everyone! :thu:

[joegerardi]

A simple Christmas meal because you spent money on gifts? I assume that was for your family. Sounds like a great Christmas. You said your family was there, so that's all that matters. Mine was the opposite: I had a huge Christmas meal of Smoked Turkey, sauteed Mushrooms, Peas with Pearl Onions, biscuits, and Godiva's Belgian Dark Chocolate ice cream for dessert. however I spent it alone. Since my knee surgery the day before Thanksgiving, and the resultant 40% loss of use of it since, I haven't been able to travel, so I did this out of respect to my kids, whom I always cooked a big meal for on Christmas. They weren't there, except in spirit. Of course, I'm never gonna figure out what to do with the rest of that 9-pound Turkey sitting in my fridge! :D

[phaeton]

Coaster.. You know, it's pretty damn cool that you can look at it like that. I know some folks that would be whining about such a christmas dinner till new years, probably. To kinda go along with your situation, my Christmas dinner was getting invited over to a friend's parent's house. Truth be told i don't have a really high opinion of her parents and wasn't looking forward to it, but you know how these things go. For `dinner' there was all this fattening fingerfood- stuff like lunchmeat rolled up with cream cheese, miniature reuben sandwiches on melba, mini pigs n cheese in a blanket, and desert was all this icecream, and cookies and cake and 5-layer jello/creamcheese/fruit/icecream/pretzel something or other. I'm one of those health-nut people, and as a general rule a very small amount of junk food is about all i can stomach. In other words, there was all this stuff there, but nothing i could really eat. After everything was done and over with, and we all said our goodbyes and Merry Commercial Holidays... I drove home in the snow, cold, starving, tired. I was also broke- i had to spend my last $5 because someone siphoned my gas tank. When i got home, first thing i did was make myself a nice, big 10" skillet of Betty Crocker Instant Hash Browns (a special low-fat method of course!)..... And damn... hot, crunchy, starchy, filling.... str8 up goodness. With a stomach full of that, it was no problem blissfully drifting off to sleep in a warm bed. Yeah... i know what you're talking about. Sometimes it's the little things that are the best, and it can really drag you down to think that there are some people that can't afford the daily luxury of a heated apartment, a soft bed, and a hot, heavy mass of something in thier stomach. Merry Christmas, Coaster. :)

[linwood]

Guppy fin soup and a glass of Tea steam.

[not Cereal]

hey thanks for all the replies! i am still not sure what the point of my post was, other than to share personal feelings. seems to have worked, because many shared the same type of things i was going for. we DID make NACHOS! after going out for drinks, and i even broke open some spanish wine and we drank it and about knocked ourselves out. yes there is ONE bar in fargo open on christmas. we went there, its filthy and disgusting and we drank the beer. $14 for two pitchers. yum. then NACHOS! and ham, wine, and lineys beer from monday. my buddy we went out with got a brewery kit for christmas and we plan on making some good beer to drink, although i am a total novice at it. hey! its the day after christmas!

[The Studio Pet-Rock]

I'm in the process of making nachos. It seems to be a good idea lately... My Christmas dinner was Spagetti for one. Nobody else around today. Total solitude.... and I couldn't have been happier. :D

[Wewus432]

You lucky Petrick. One year I'd like to spend the whole month of December away from [i]all this[/i] madness. Or maybe we could all agree to celebrate Christmas every [b]other[/b] year, the damn thing comes around too often. Yeah right, dream on Wewus.

[The Bear Jew]

Fellas... I wish I could have had a quiet, one person holiday. Instead, I drove in the snow two days in a row so I could eat bad food with people I don't like. Wish I had me one of them tuna dinners.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

I like this thread. Here's a study in contrast...on Christmas Eve, my wife, son and I went to my Mom's place. She served (I'm not kidding here) a roast beef that cost $170! What the HELL? I mean, it was really, really good. It melted in my mouth. But I spent only slightly more than that on some of the larger gifts I purchased this holiday season. Last night, on Christmas, we'd been snacking for most of the day, and just blew off dinner entirely. I got hungry at some point and made a Cup-o-Soup type of ramen noodles...cost $0.33 and was good. I think that being a happy person is much more about your attitude toward the things that really matter than being about your possessions, be they nice cars, nice houses, nice toys or nice food. - Jeff

[Anifa]

[quote]Originally posted by CMDN: [b]Fellas... I wish I could have had a quiet, one person holiday. Instead, I drove in the snow two days in a row so I could eat bad food with people I don't like. Wish I had me one of them tuna dinners.[/b][/quote]Yep, gotta admit; surroundings make ALL the difference in the world about how good the food tastes. Usually my step-mom makes a huge spread of food with turkey, dressing, trimmings, and all the pastries, and goodies, and EVERYBODY comes... it's usually miserable. This year she fixed Lasagna and, for the most part, just an average every day dinner with a few desserts... A few of the loudmouths decided not to come, and it was the best Christmas I've had in years. It wasn't at all about the food... It's all in the spirit of Christmas.

[Dak Lander]

One year, I was young & out of the loop, family wise. No place to go, nothing to do & broke as flat as grandma's chest. I had, in the words of the song; Ketchup soup, homemade crackers & coolaid.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

[quote]Originally posted by Happy New Bearger: [b]I had, in the words of the song; Ketchup soup, homemade crackers & coolaid.[/b][/quote]Ever have a Wish Sandwich? That's when you put two pieces of bread together and [i]wish[/i] you had some baloney in the middle! :D I've lived on Top Ramen for weeks. Actually, I've been [i]happy[/i] to get that Top Ramen...it was a nice break from the bag of potatoes I'd been eating the week before! You know you're hurting when you appreciate getting some salt or something to put on the potatoes and consider it a luxury. - Jeff

[Paul Berolzheimer]

I had a pretty special X-mas eve... I grew up Jewish & now I'm pretty agnostic, but we always do Hannukah and Xmas, it's fun for the kids. This year, a good friend of ours came over with great pastries, My wife made some great food, we had a nice early dinner & opened presents & then I drove down to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion(where the LA Phil performs) and performed in a piece with the Dance company I work with, which went great & was very well recieved. Then hanging out in the dressing room with my musician friends & a bunch of crazy, beautiful dancers, & eventually back home to my wonderful wife. There are big difficulties in my life, but this one night I really can't complain about.