Some Rutabega Silliness

Growing up in my house, every year, my dad had one big job on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He'd start by going to the store and buying up basically every rutabega they had. (Generally, that was not that many, since they don't really taste that great and aren't big sellers!) :)

On the day of the holiday, my dad spends most of the morning laboring over the rutabegas. He painstakingly & meticulously peels them (nightmare task -- they are really hard!). . . then chops them (also not easy) . . . then puts them in a giant pot to boil away for 20-30 minutes under his keen supervision, and then he mashes them up like the rutabega-loving connaisseur he is!

After all that Herculean effort, we generally have enough rutabega to feed a small army. Once Dad's masterpiece is put on the table, everyone in my family eats roughly 25% of a teaspoon full, and after the dinner, we bag and freeze the leftovers. They really are a delightful orange and give some much-needed color to the freezer, where they remain, largely untouched! Just before Christmas each year, we have the ritual Throwing-Out-of-the-Thanksgiving-Rutabega-Left-Overs. And then, some time into the new year, the same happens to the Christmas ones. I know this is wasteful and may not sound as funny as it is to us, but trust me -- the family rutabega rituals are one of the best parts of the season! We pretty much tease my dad about it all year long, which is a lot of fun.

So, this year, since my sister will be with me, I clearly must have rutabegas! However, in the spirit of not being wasteful, I figured that I'd just get a small number of them -- say, 4 or 5 -- so that we wouldn't have a lot of left overs. Since I live in NYC, I do a lot of my grocery shopping on-line and have it delivered. So, I put in my order and . . lo & behold. . . 5 rutabegas were in my order. Five MASSIVE freaking mutant rutabegas!! They are the biggest ones I've ever seen in my life!!

That's a NORMAL SIZED apple. . . !!

I took the above photo and sent it around to my whole family, which resulted in everyone basically laughing their heads off and sending me suggestions about what to do with the surplus! I got a few alternative ideas as well . . and sent the following around to the family on Monday . .

Who knew?! Rutabegas make an attractive and SUBSTANTIAL holiday centerpiece
Their surprising weight also makes them excellent doorstops!

. . . And paperweights

Not to mention that they really are fantastic posture-Improvement Devices! (Tough to get good photo when fearful of ginormous root vegetable falling and smashing toes. . ) :)

Um, anyone need any rutabegas? :)