I think my DNA is primarily Germanic. While my mother’s family is a melting pot of largely Scottish, British, and a little German mixed in, my father’s family is, as far as I know, exclusively, German (or Pennsylvania German). And I think I am too. The older I get, the more I remind myself of my grandmother Herman, my “Grandma.” I am built like her, shorter and sturdier than the other women in my family; I think I keep house like her (neat but not immaculate and functional but not overly focused on decorating: I-have-it like-I-like-it-and-I-like-it-fine...for a long time). I am a school teacher just as she was, and I suspect my quiet sense of activism (perhaps even my quiet sense) comes from her. I recently found a black and white photograph of her (second from the right) fronting a banner advertising the United War Fund. I am proud she stood for something, and I proud that she did something.
I, thus, attribute my new fascination to making and eating relish to an ethnic hardwiring for pickling vegetables. This week I canned 15 half pints of Dixie Relish, a concoction of cabbage, sweet and green pickles, and the usual vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, and celery seed.
Did you know you can do a lot of things with relish? Put it in potato salad, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, and my daughter tells me it is quite tasty in tuna salad. You can serve it with hamburgers, hot dogs, and as a side with any meat. I like it with turkey wraps. I also read that it is good mixed in with meatloaf or meatball mixtures or stirred into yogurt for dip or mayonnaise for sandwich spread. Additionally, it is good for tarter sauce or thousand island dressing. Who knew there were so many uses for relish, simply pickled vegetables.
I never ate relish before, never fully “got” the notion of the relish tray or the Pennsylvania Dutch propensity to put out Chow Chow or some other pickled delight with a meal. But tastes do change….
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