Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m watching the parade, a custom since my childhood. I remember sitting on the rug in front of the TV eating snacks. We always had tangerines, M&M’s and mixed nuts in the shell. The nuts were in a bowl, and we had silver crackers and silver picks to pull the nuts out of the shells. The walnuts took some strength. I loved the Brazil nuts. I have a bowl just like the old one. It is wooden and has holes to put the picks and the cracker. I fill the bowl with nuts every year and put it on the dining room table. I keep a bowl of M&M’s here in the den. They don’t last long. All I’m missing are the tangerines.

I still can remember how wonderful the house smelled of turkey. When I close my eyes, I can see my mother in the kitchen getting dinner ready. She’d stand at the counter and peel potatoes, lots of potatoes, and fill pots with the canned veggies, the peas, the asparagus, the corn and the green beans. The stove was small and every burner was filled. The turkey was on the rack at the bottom of the oven. The other rack had been removed to fit the turkey. We always had a big turkey, all the better for leftovers. We’d eat in the kitchen. The house had no dining room. The table and chairs were crammed against the wall. They didn’t fit all of us. My mother ate at the counter. My father carved at the kitchen counter. He was an adept carver. He was the fastest eater. He had a football game to watch. My mother and I cleared the table and washed the dishes and pots and pans. We didn’t have a dishwasher until much later.

Once everything was cleared we brought out the desserts. My father always had a piece of apple pie with a slice of cheddar on the top. I went for the lemon meringue.

The turkey lasted for days. First, we had a repeat dinner then we progressed to open turkey sandwiches covered in gravy and surrounded by veggies. Next came cold turkey sandwiches piled with stuffing and cranberry sauce. I loved those. I’d toast the bread and slather it with mayo. My father picked the turkey clean. He had talent for that. We’d have turkey salad sandwiches and, for the final meal, turkey soup, rich tasting from the carcass boiling for a while.

I’ll eat my turkey dinner around 2 or 3. It has everything including clam chowder and shrimp for the first courses. All the veggies are there, and there is plenty of gravy. I even have a roll. Apple crisp is the dessert. I have to admit, though, I’m missing the lemon meringue pie. Having that for dessert would be perfection.

This entry was posted on November 27, 2025 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.