brining the friggin turkey...

[wesw]

just me and holly and randa for dinner this year....

a far cry from the old days at mom mom s house....

20 people, kids table..., the works....

but first we ate at my avatar s house, my great grandmother s, at 1 pm.

she was the real deal. everything from scratch and everything more delicious than anything you had ever tasted. all by herself, in her 90 s on one stove, she made a masterpiece.

a masterpiece every sunday really, but on thanks giving it was ALL there......

son is going to Carolina, mom doesn t feel like coming out, sister has her own plans.

still it s nice. I hope holly cooks. last year she did great, it was her first time cooking thanksgiving. I usually cooked it when we were at home.

she bought all the crap without consulting me on anything, so I assume that she has a plan.


happy thanksgiving everyone!

wes

[dales]

Thanks, wes.

All my best to you and yours!

[wesw]

you re welcome , dale, and thank you too.

[Bicycle Bill]

she was the real deal. everything from scratch and everything more delicious than anything you had ever tasted. all by herself, in her 90 s on one stove, she made a masterpiece.

I'm sure your great-grandmother did a wonderful job and it was as good as you say, but you never knew what my own (late) mother was capable of producing for a Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us .... plus turning out two birthday cakes and special birthday meals during that same general time period (both my dad's birthday and my own birthday fell within the week that contains Thanksgiving as well) ... on a single gas range and oven.

Then getting ready to do Christmas baking ... sugar cookies, sandbakkels, rosettes, pfeffernusse, rum balls, springerle ... you name it, she'd do it.

So don't you be dissin' my mother, even unintentionally, or you are going to have yourself a serious throwdown on your hands.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Thanksgiving is extra special to me because I was born right before it and made my first extended family appearance as a newborn at Thanksgiving dinner 1970.

At that time and for the first half dozen years of my life, my grandparents owned turkey farms in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and the week leading up to Thanksgiving was a whirlwind for my grandmother, who cooked hundreds of turkeys, pies, stuffings, casseroles, rolls, and cranberry sauces. Fancy ladies all over the area served my grandmother's cooking (often passed off as their own) for a couple of decades 'round these parts.

My grandmother made everything so delectable that I can't begin to describe how fabulous her cooking was. Her oyster sausage stuffing was to die for, her gravy amazing.

I can make a to die for flaky pie crust just like her; it's one of the best things she ever taught me.

The family pitched in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, and I'm told as a toddler I was famous for tearfully chasing headless turkeys. I have no recollection of that, but it's possibly why I'm a freak.


Happy Thanksgiving!

[Burning Petard]

Could you possibly share an approximate recipe for the oyster sausage stuffing?

snailgate

[BoSoxGal]

I can ask my uncle if he kept her recipe box; if he did he might be willing to let me have it. Sucks when your grandma dies and you're 3000 miles away and your unsentimental uncle gets first shot at her stuff; he sold her sewing machine despite it having been promised to me since I was a pre-teen.

As for the stuffing recipe, she may have it written down, she might not have. My gram was one of those gifted cooks - a chef, really - who made amazing concoctions from instinct more than anything else. She'd probably made that recipe a hundred times since being taught by her own grandmother, and was doing it rote by the time I was a kid.

[dales]

It's probably on line somewhere.

[dales]

now here's how to cook the gobbler...