And I thought, this year, if you like, we could invent our own holiday For example . . . Thanksgiving has a turkey . . . maybe we could have a mole as our holiday's mascot. Moles are cute and harmless. Why aren't they extinct? The other night Kimmi rescued a mole in our backyard. Homer, our cat, wanted to "play" with him until he was dead. I looked at the little mole and thought, "mole, you are so little and slump-shouldered, slow and you can't, it seems, defend yourself. Are you blind, too? Jiminy crickets!" We could celebrate the mole. For its dumb luck and reproductive capabilities. Happy Mole Day! We could make our traditional mole t-shirt,* recreating the honored tradition of "drawing the mole," a tradition done every Mole Day morning, after the first cup of tea or joe. Cap'n Crunch Cereal with Crunchberries could be the traditional breakfast for Mole Day — just a suggestion. And so on.
So, late afternoon we headed on over. Eventually we were joined by two other couples (Cassidy and Zoe, Ryan and Seren) and sat down to the giant pot-luck dinner, which included: sushi, frittata, ceviche, the aforementioned ropa vieja with rice, mashed potatoes, cheese and crackers, and other crunchy, salty snacks. And later, dessert was pumpkin mousse with Cointreau cookies.
We were also treated to a surprise dish, from Sam's childhood in Georgia:
That's iceberg lettuce, with a dollop of mayonnaise, a canned pear half, cheddar cheese, and a cherry on top. After much discussion of what it is called, and what it should be called, we settled on Brendetta — combining Sam's mom's name with vendetta to add that connotation of danger.
The traditional mole day drawings were displayed on the refrigerator.
Making use of the resources of Sam's new pottery studio in the garage, there was also the sculpting of artwork — some of it mole-ish — to be fired this week. There are no photos, sadly, due to the other Mole Day tradition of getting the guys who have never played Xbox and putting controllers in their hand and having them run into walls instead of shooting the monsters like they're supposed to.
Mole Day wrapped up early in the evening, so we continued on to Stacy and Jim's. Their Thanksgiving involves all sorts of special treats from Stacy's job as head chef at a catering company. We arrived after they had finished dinner (but in time to pick at the leftover turkey) and joined the group for some wonderful desserts.
The day-after-Thanksgiving hike has been called due to gray, overcast skies and lingering cough.
* The making of the traditional t-shirt was subsequently rejected as way, way too much effort.
8 comments:
Expected a chocolate / chili pepper feast (it is New Mexico after all) and got instead a recurring rodent ritual - imagine our surprise!
What does mole taste like anyways ?
The traditional mole day song ?
http://abeefsandwich.typepad.com/a_beef_sandwich_w_sweet_a/files/no_ones_gay_for_moleman.mp3
Andy, with a job, a wife & 2 daughters how do you find time for gay molemman?
OK, a few things to clairfy:
1. There actually was chocolate and chile; Monica made chocolate/chile cookies that were hostess gifts. Somehow, they never quite got opened while we were there.
2. Mole's aren't rodents; they're related to anteaters. I found that out doing my research for the Mole Day drawing. That, and they're homely little creatures, especially the Star-nosed Mole.
3. Moles don't like jokes about how they taste, especially around their day. However, the answer is, oddly enough, turkey.
4. There's always time for gay moleman.
fyi in my most recent visit to China, I wanted to eat snake. Supposedly, it keeps you warm in the winter according to the Chinese. However, locals I was with were afraid of snakes so we went for dumplings. I am told it takes like fish. My number two choice was dog but it is illegal in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I'm told it taste like lamb, which sounds good to me. No one offered mole.
Just goes to show how easy it is to make a mountain...
Oh my. I was sitting at the table describing a lettuce, pear, mayo, cheese, cherry dish my mom used to serve me when I was growing up in- you guessed it, Georgia. I Googled, and there it was in all its culinary glory. Where, oh where did this recipe originate?!?
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