Gypsy Potatoes
At a Gypsy funeral, a table is kept stocked with food and replenished during the wake, which lasts all day and night, usually for three days, with the open casket not far away.
Once the funeral party arrives at the cemetery, mourners set food and drink on the casket as it is lowered in the ground and spill wine in the grave as it is filled in.
Some tribes spread a tablecloth on the ground next to the newly covered grave and picnic on cold meats and cheeses; others wait until they return to the home of the deceased.
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 2 pounds Red Bliss or other red-skinned potatoes, peeled and sliced
* 2 tablespoons caraway seeds
* 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature (1/2 stick)
* Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pour oil into a roasting pan and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Spread potatoes over the bottom of the pan. Return to oven and roast, uncovered, for1 hour, until the potatoes are crisp on the outside and tender inside. A few times during the baking, shake the pan to toss the potatoes so they brown evenly.
Add caraway seeds and butter and mix well to melt the butter and coat the potatoes with the seeds. Season with salt and pepper to taste. -- From "Death Warmed Over" by Lisa Rogak