Pickled Herring - Friend or Foe?

On Saturday afternoon, we gained two more members of the family. Two little girls from church that were going to stay over night. They're so sweet and we love them. But they're moving next week. darn. So anyway, their mom was going to her last company Christmas party and we got the girls! We were also invited to a friends house for Christmas caroling, dinner and treats. Cool!

Since by the time we got there, the weather conditions were in a blizzard state, caroling outdoors became canceled. So we hung out inside, watched the jazz band competition recording, talked and the kids ran all over their house with other kids.

We did Christmas caroling in their living room for just the group that showed up. WONDERFUL! Found out that out of the 25 or so singing, about 20 were altos... WONDERFUL! I almost like the alto tune better anyway on most of the songs... I'm weird that way.

Then soup supper and treats! As I was dishing myself up, I came across a dessert looking thing. Purple-y whipped cream layered type concoction. It looked super yummy but I was confused as to what might be in there. Looked like cabbage mixed in with the purple-y stuff. As I dished up "just a little", the man in front of me asked, Hey what is that stuff?

Um I don't know! So I took a quick taste. OH! It's NOT whipped cream. I couldn't place the flavor... but it was kind of vinegar-y. Ok. I've been to enough Lutheran potlucks as a kid and grew accustomed to mayonnaise on top of green jello with carrots mixed in. Maybe this was something like it. Maybe. The bottom layer was starting to look like hashbrowns a little. So I dished up a little more.

Back at our table, Meri had dished some up too thinking it was a dessert. She asked me to try it first. I did again and this time was able to pinpoint the unique flavor. It's Pickled Herring!!

I LOOOOOOVE Pickled Herring!!! As a kid, my dad and I would load up on the stuff at the salad bar at our local Bonanza restaurant. YUM!! No one else really did. Meri has followed in my footsteps and loves it too. No one else in my family does. Maybe Ryan, but he wasn't there.

As soon as Meri heard me tell her what the purple stuff was, she took the rest of mine and dug in. I did get to finish "a very disappointed" Maddy's helping. Found out that one of the guests was from Ukraine and this was a specialty from there!

We (minus Maddy) made it home that night driving about 7 miles an hour the whole 6 miles. The blizzard had gotten so bad, that 99% of the road was in white-out condition... The girls and our two little guests prayed out loud, then sang more Christmas songs. Seriously the visibility was about 10 feet at best.Robb hadn't been able to go, so when we told him about the purple dish, he sounded disgusted with it. He said there was an old saying...

"Give a man fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for his whole life. Give a man pickled herring and he'll puke his guts out and most likely die!"

Silly man!

Meri and the two girls camped out next to the Christmas tree that night. The next morning, very early, I got a cell call from Meri... from the living room... She didn't feel well and her stomach hurt. I told her to come on up to our room where she promptly ran in the bathroom and threw up.

She was miserable and was positive she was dying! We kept her upstairs so the girls wouldn't catch whatever it was. Got her a barf buddy bucket, some clean damp washcloths and later, when she begged a few crackers and sips of water... which she promptly threw up. Poor kid.

Robb stayed home from church with her and I went with the two girls and Maddy. After Sunday school, Maddy was looking pretty pale and said that she'd been swallowing vomit all during bible study. Oh dear...

Yep - We came home.

Robb was convinced it was the pickled herring. I'm tending to think that flu was running rampant in the schools, which I found out later WAS! And Maddy just needed 4 hours of sleep because she stayed up til 2am at a friends that previous night and she'd overdone it on Christmas cookies and snacks. Which she probably had.

But Robb hates pickled herring so he's sticking with his old saying.