Thanksgiving means Peanuts

Last night, I watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Show on PSB. I have fond memories of this enjoyable cartoon about manipulating friends inviting themselves over for the festive celebration. Charlie Brown was not able to deny them the meal as he complained to Linus, “I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.” But with Snoopy and Woodstock’s assistance, Charlie served a meal of buttered toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks and jelly beans to his friends.

Peppermint Patti called Charlie Brown’s dinner bad, “Thanksgiving means turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes.” I remember watching Mama bake and baste a turkey for hours. I always thought there must be an easier way and I have tried many of them, proving that there is no easy way to make this traditional meal. Determined to prepare the perfect turkey, my son and I have soaked birds in brine icey baths overnight, stuffed butter between the skin and body, or inserted citrus fruits and herbs in the carcass. No one knew the difference nor appreciated the effort. Turkey is always dry, it’s a fact of life. Wine helps – not for the bird – but it can ease the stress and does wonders for your thankfulness.

Experience has taught me that it is not a disaster to cook a frozen turkey and it is pretty harmless to be ignorant of the fact that the body cavity may contain things that should be removed and tossed in the garbage can. To avoid any situation that requires sticking my hand up a frozen bird’s butt early in the morning, I now buy turkey breast – no rummaging up the bird, no neck bones and no giblets!!! Alas, no Norman Rockwell moment either.

The first year I planned on having a turkey breast, I did not know how many people one breast would serve, so I bought three just to be sure there was enough meat. I put all three in a roasting pan and baked them. Each time I opened the oven, in order to let the heat out, they reminded me of the Three Stooges. I started calling them Moe, Larry, and Curley. Moe would have been plenty for our family and Larry and Curley had to be adopted and sent home as sandwich meat with family members.

Preparation for the cornbread dressing begins on Wednesday with what my grandmother called “making a pone of cornbread.” The true southern way to do this is with a cast iron skillet and use buttermilk in the batter – a recipe that is acceptable, but not at all necessary. What can you do with the remaining buttermilk before Christmas? I use the cast iron skillet but White Lily makes cornmeal that contains powdered buttermilk, all that is required is to add whole milk, eggs and butter. The recipe is on the bag of cornmeal, but I substitute melted butter in place of the vegetable oil.

By definition, a Southerner does not do stuffing, we do cornbread dressing, one of my favorite dishes. It varies as much as the cook, all are unique. One can even put oysters in the dressing if you are willing to ruin the meal with Cajun Voodoo. Assembly of the dressing is a Thanksgiving morning event that occurs prior to the beginning of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Cook 2 cups of chopped celery (de-stringed) and 1 large diced onion in butter until translucent. Add the vegetables to crumbled cornbread along with 2 cups of Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing mix. Add about 6 cups of chicken stock and stir the mixture. Add parsley flakes, poultry seasoning, paprika and salt and pepper. Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees in a large baking dish for an hour or more until the middle is firmly set.

I do not like gravy, especially if made with something called a giblet. To make gravy, I use a can of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup, dilute with a soup can of chicken stock. Add a chopped boiled egg and pepper and some crumbled turkey meat. If the giblets were collected and retained, put some in the gravy and simmer for a while. Call it giblet gravy if you think a traditional name improves the flavor.

Dressing is always served with cranberry sauce. I have made cranberry molds and bought fancy prepared cranberry sauces but I always go back to the canned concoction, ridge marks and all. I’m not going to eat it anyway, so who cares. I prefer vodka with my cranberries, which provides me with another reason to be thankful on Thanksgiving.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken wrote in Newsweek today that “gratitude is the key to happiness.” Fortunately, we are given a day set aside for thankfulness of our many blessings. Even though our celebration foundation – Mayflowers, pilgrims, and Native Americans – are the farthest thing from our minds, we still gather for the meal. Traditions are sacred and we maintain them so the memories of our past can come alive again. We mark a time to ease into the joyous seasons of Advent and Christmas recalling our family members no longer present and remembering their time with us. Charlie Brown was determined to share a meal with his friends and we too are proud to keep our traditions alive another year. Families change over time and that’s to be expected, we go from happy to sad in a moment’s notice, we get angry but forget, we are wronged but forgive; we still gather as we should and share a meal. We may not have it all together but together we have it all. Happy Thanksgiving!