November is here and Thanksgiving is so close I can smell the turkey roasting. Except, this year I'll be in Cancun Mexico for a wedding instead of chowing down on my favorite pumpkin pie and whipped cream. I know, poor little me. Boo hoo.
Anyway, I thought I'd talk about one of my special Thanksgiving memories. After more than fifty years it's hard to pick one Thanksgiving memory out of so many wonderful ones, but I got a chuckle thinking about this one and thought I'd share it with you.
My brothers, all four of them, were hunters. Pheasant, duck, quail, goose. You name it. If it had a season they shot it. One day, just before Thanksgiving, my brother Mark came in with two big geese. Now geese in the wild aren't like the ones that live here in the city and beg for bread crumbs in the park. Bagging a goose takes skill and luck and Mark had TWO.
Thanksgiving was at our house that year and Mom decided to cook the geese instead of the usual turkey. I admit they smelled good as they roasted throughout the morning. When everyone was assembled at the table, my mother brought them in. My brother Mark watched with pride as his trophies came to the table. After cautioning everyone to watch out for buckshot, mom carved them up.
My grandpa, as the oldest, got the first piece. He took a bite and nearly pulled his dentures out. After mulling his mouthful for a while, he gulped and looked at Mark. "You didn't shoot these.""But I did," Mark insisted. By this time we were all trying to eat the tougher-than-boot-leather birds and not having much success.
"Nope," said Grandpa, pushing his meat to the side of the plate. "This one died of old age when your gunshot scared him to death."We all laughed but I did feel bad for Mark and my mom. Thank goodness there was plenty of side dishes to go around and plenty of pumpkin pie to fill us up. No one when away hungry, but goose was never on the menu at our house again.
I invite you to share a less than perfect Thanksgiving memory. I'm sure you've had one or two.
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The meal I remember the most was going to my husband's aunt's house and eating her pumpkin pie. This was a woman who served three meats, seven vegetables and five desserts for meals, including boiled custard. She knew how to cook...or at least we thought she did!
ReplyDeleteWe thought the pumpkin pie looked a little funny and then we took a bite. She hadn't put ANY spice of any kind in it. No pumpkin pie spice mix, no cinnamon, no nutmeg, no cloves, no allspice. Pumpkin pie NEEDS it to be edible. I just remember covering mine with cool whip to help it go down.
Oh, I am in the middle of An Amish Christmas and am very thankful for it! Great read and am loving the mystery.
Peace, Julie
The first time I made Thanksgiving dinner (think college; air force boyfriend) I went bebopping off to the store and thought "Oh, look at the wonderful green, firm lettuce!"
ReplyDeleteYup, long story short. Then boyfriend wanted to know why I was serving him cabbage as a salad.
I remember a Thanksgiving when I had my in-laws over and that was the time our oven decided to go out. Nothing worse than a half cooked turkey. Like you, Pat, I was glad we had a lot of side dishes.
ReplyDeleteI remember one Thanksgiving when we lived in a gated community that had a guard house with a guard. Poor guy was working on Thanksgiving, so my hubby (sweet guy that he is) offered to bring him some of our Thanksgiving dinner. So when we dished up our plates, hubby took the guard a little bit of everything, including the pumpkin pie. As is the case every year, we were all too full to have pie right after dinner. So later that evening, we served the pie. I took one bite. It was awful, and I realized I had forgotten to put in the sugar. Then we all wondered what the guard thought of the pie. When my husband asked, the guard claimed that it was good. Either his taste buds were overwhelmed by the rest of my wonderful cooking :) or he was too polite to say anything bad about his free meal.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your story, Pat! ~ Our family meals have gone well, but one year (when my kiddos were little) we were leaving my Parents' house Thanksgiving night. While loading our car to return home, I'd forgotten I had set the big pot with the leftover green beans on my trunk. As soon as my husband backed our car out of their driveway, we heard a loud crash! The pot had slid off into the street, dumping green beans onto the pavement. The most embarrassing part was that some neighbors were visiting with relatives across the street, and when that pot crashed in the street they all stopped talking to see what had happened. (But I still use that same pot to this day, LOL). ~ Blessings, Patti Jo
ReplyDeleteWhat great funny stories! The first time I did Thanksgiving all by myself (my inlaws came here), the turkey didn't get done all the way through. I was horrified when I cut into it while everyone was seated at the table. I had to go ahead and slice and then microwave it! They were all kind, but I was so embarrassed--and grossed out! :)
ReplyDeleteI remember when my mother tried a new way to cook turkey. She cooked it in a grocery sack. My husband just gave me a look like, "She's your mother." Of course the next year, he made an apple pie and killed my mother's oven.
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