Dumpling Day

I went to Buffalo this weekend to visit my grandparents and participate in Dumpling Day, which is just like it sounds. It's a day of contradictions, really. When my grandfather was little, there were too many kids and not enough money, so these cheap-and-easy dumplings were necessary. Now all the kids are grandparents themselves, and there's no real reason to make the dumplings anymore, except for the fact that it is A Tradition. In fact, no one even likes the dumplings! Every single person there had an opinion that ranged from "if you put enough gravy on it it's not so bad" to "I hate those damn dumplings". There's no recipe for the dumplings; you just throw together grated potatoes, flour, and chunks of white bread until you get some semblance of a dough, but there were prolonged disagreements about which side of the cheese grater was the "right" side and how big the chunks of bread should be.

Anyway, it was a delightful day, very our-family, and the dumplings actually were pretty good! With gravy, of course.   

Comments

[liliales]

That looks like tons of fun and a great tradition you should carry on.

But I really love dumplings! All kinds of dumplings! Is it just that none of you bothers to make them so that you would really like them?

[Alex]

We do make "real" dumplings occasionally! Not in my immediate family so much, but my grandmother definitely does.

It may be worth mentioning that my great-grandma was also a notoriously poor cook, in addition to the stretched-for-money thing. :) There was talk about adding salt to the actual dough, but that was Not How We Do It.

[liliales]

This is probably something I should learn how to do. Project!