I have many fond memories of Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was the sort of thing that would make Norman Rockwell smile. It was always a big family affair with anywhere from 30 to 50 aunts, uncles, and cousins there. It was always very predictable and that is what made it so great, traditions that built over time. Here is how it usually happened...
We would drive from our home and count the cars on the roughly 40 minute ride through the canyon. The record was probably around 350 or so. I could be way off on that. It has been a long time. That may not sound like a lot, but it was definitely much heavier traffic than we usually saw. Dinner was planned for 1:00, so we got there a little early to help with the final fixings and setting the table. I remember lessons on where the forks and glasses go and which way the knife blade points. There was a long table in the living room with white table cloths, Grandma's china, and center pieces of
cornucopias full of plastic fruit and little pilgrim and turkey candles that were never burned but used year after year. As the family grew the table became T shaped and later a kiddie table was added in the kitchen dining area.
The menu at Grandma's house never seemed to vary.
- Turkey
- mashed potatoes. I usually skipped this in favor of extra stuffing.
- gravy
- stuffing
- cranberry jello salad sitting on a little leaf of iceberg lettuce. The year I made the "cranberry" jello salad without any cranberries is another story.
- creamed onions, my absolute favorite
- green beans from Grandma's garden sprinkled with bacon. She was amazing. The beans were picked to be the perfect size to fit into a pint jar and thin enough to be tender and yummy.
- little dishes with dill pickles, sweet pickles, and mustard pickles. I have yet to eat a mustard pickle. They just scare me a little.
- Aunt Janet's homemade rolls sprinkles with mace and sugar
- yam-n-apples, Yams with apples in a sweet butter sauce.
- relish trays with carrots, celery stuffed with pimento cream cheese, and olives perfect for fingers.
It seems like I'm forgetting something, I just can't think of what it might be right now.
During the afternoon there were games including croquet if the weather was good. Sometimes it was warm and sunny, other years it was so snowy the road through the canyon was closed. In later years the games involved football, conversation, and sometimes naps.
Pies came out around 3:00. Pumpkin and mincemeat, raisins, pears, orange juice, spices. Yummy. There was whipped cream and dip for the mincemeat, the same butter sauce used for the yams. As a little boy my brother just wanted the whipped cream.
For dinner we had sandwiches with the leftovers, more veggies, and a salad including orange jello, cool whip, and cottage cheese, and grandma's cookies.
What a great day.
Now we spend Thanksgiving with my hubby's family. It is quite a different experience. Both great, but very different.
Dinner is at 5:00 or 5:30 or so after a more leisurely day of cooking and baking. It is a much smaller group and obviously much quieter. This year there were 7 adults and 4 kids.
The menu has it's similarities in the traditional items, but it is quite different. The turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, and creamed onions are nominally the same, but still different. The cranberry sauce is made with real fresh cranberries. The veggies are Brussels sprouts. Not a mustard pickle to be seen. I made the rolls and topped them with mace and sugar just for old time sake. After dinner we had pumpkin and chocolate hazelnut pies.
It was a good day overall. Good food, good family. Buddy boy went home by 6:30, he had been up since 5:00. As he says, "It has been a long long day."
In the spirit of home made gifts this year, here is a little game that is fun for the pre-school set. In the cookie game you collect ingredient cards until you get enough for your recipe. Just watch out for the rotten egg.
