(This is day two of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories…Holiday Foods)
Ever since I was wee child my family had a tradition. After all the stockings were emptied and the presents unwrapped, we’d sit down for Christmas breakfast. This included bacon, eggs cooked in several ways, toast, and because of my Mom’s Portuguese roots, linguinca.
The linguica could only be certain brands. Each has it’s own flavor and certain ones were not popular amongst the kin. Santos was the brand of choice. Family tragedy shut them down, so that family tradition has ended. We still get the linguica, but it’s not the same. Note that I am now a vegetarian, but I was never a fan of linguica. It was a little too much for me! So, I was the breakfast outsider. LOL
The linguica takes forever to cook. So, the pot would start boiling even before we got up from bed. And that was early considering we were really awake and just waiting for it not to be “too early” to get up.
After the presents, my Mom would start in on everyone’s individual order. I’m not really sure how she did it considering there were 5 kids plus any stragglers who had come over after their own Christmas morning festivities.
We still have Christmas breakfast. Only now their are 14 of us. My Mom and some of my sibling crowd the kitchen and get everything cooked. It seems their are frying pans everywhere, toast flying from every counter, and plates being handed back and forth.
The table is crowded with food and family. We someone get everyone fed and still have time for the kids (and some adults) to rip into a new toy. Christmas morning wouldn’t be the same without all the clutter of torn wrapping paper and dirty breakfast dishes.
Linguica – I grew up on it too in a Portuguese family from Massachusetts. I don’t think I realized that there were families (non-Portuguese) who had never heard of linguica until I hit my teens. Great post – did you family make meat pies too, or kale soup? Now that I’m older, I’ve dug up the recipes for these Portuguese dishes and make them for the next generation. I think I saw a reference to Azorean roots in your blog; which island? One line of my family was from Graciosa.