This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)
Food brings us together, but it can also be a source of tension at family gatherings -- especially at the holidays.
This week on The Sporkful, listeners call in to share stories about making peace with their in-laws (or not!) at the dinner table.
First up, Erin in Brooklyn (below, on her wedding day with her brother and cousins) calls in to talk about her former in-laws who objected to her vegan diet SO MUCH that they broke off ALL relations with her and her now ex-husband.
"I wasn’t the right person for their son," she says. "What you choose to eat can be a big deal."
Eventually Erin's marriage ended -- though not only because of her vegan diet. Listen in to the full episode to hear how that experience changed the way Erin eats and what she looks for in a romantic partner.
Later in the show, we hear from Emma in Brooklyn. She had never celebrated Christmas -- until she married into a Christian family in rural Pennsylvania (below).
"[They] had never met a Jew until I came to visit," she says. "I had a hard time feeling like I fit in…with this family."
Emma (below right, with her wife Angie) struggled to find common ground with her new in-laws -- until she decided to make them latkes on Christmas Day.
"You know in those movies where all the zombies come over the hill?" she says. "That’s what it was like when I started to make these latkes. Family just rushed toward me."
Did Emma's Hanukkah latkes save Christmas? Listen in to the full episode to hear how things turned out for Emma and her in-laws.
This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)
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Music in this episode from BWN Music:
- "Clear As Day" by Erick Anderson
- "Steady" by Cullen Fitzpatrick
- "On The Floor" by Cullen Fitzpatrick
Photos: courtesy of Emma B.; courtesy of Erin I.; FlickrCC/slgckgc; FlickrCC/Kelly Garbato
