Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Memories Associated with Turkey and Cake

Beloved, the Pilot, the Cook on Fifth Street, and Sister
Thanksgiving 1968

Beloved and I had been dating for only twelve weeks when Thanksgiving rolled around and it didn't look like he would be having a turkey dinner.

When he was born in New Mexico, his two half brothers were already in high school. Early in his life they both left for college and the military. His parents were both hard-working career people, originally from the South where eating pork and ham was preferable to poultry. As a result of these facts, my mother-in-law was often too tired to prepare an involved Thanksgiving Day dinner, and turkey did not especially inspire her anyway.

It came out in one of our early dating conversations that while Beloved's family did not make a big deal out of the holiday, mine did. I asked my mother for permission and invited Beloved to have Thanksgiving Dinner with us. He was already pretty smitten with me (just stating the facts here, you understand), and that, combined with the thought of a hearty family meal, well, he of course accepted the invitation. That was the first of many Thanksgiving meals we have shared together.

Little did I know at the time that three years after our first Thanksgiving Day, we would be married, my parents would move out of state, and I would prepare my very first Thanksgiving turkey in our newlywed apartment for the two of us plus my recently-widowed father-in-law.

I didn't know much about cooking a turkey other than casual observation of my mother over the years. But if one can read a recipe, this can be done.

I've not had to do all of the cooking every year since then, by any means, but I've done my share. There was a year I remember in particular when we visited Gray Beard (before he had gray in his beard) and Blondie (who has always been blond) for Thanksgiving in Albuquerque. She prepared most of the dinner with the exception of the guest of honor, asking if I'd take care of him.

inserting herbs under the turkey skin

So, it has been well-established that this family has turkey for Thanksgiving.

Then there is the matter of dessert, which oddly enough, gets a little complicated. Beloved's birthday is in the same time frame as Thanksgiving, even falling on the same day every few years.

We have always had cake for his birthday and then his favorite pecan pie for Thanksgiving, along with other pies, too, depending on the number of diners at our table. It's a dessert-dense time.

No, I don't make the pies. Pie Crust Construction and I have never been able to make friends (in spite of my ability to read the recipe).

This year is like most of the others. We are having birthday cake on Wednesday and turkey with pecan pie and more servings of cake on the following day. I will need to have my low calorie green smoothies twice a day for a while to make up for this high dessert intake!

There is one more memory I want to share before I sign off for today.

Beloved in 1969

My man is a pretty smart fellow. Not much gets past him, but after we had been dating a little over a year, I was able to pull off a surprise birthday party for him. We were both in college by then. He was to make the 45-minute drive over to my campus to take me out to dinner but his buddies asked him to stop by their apartment en route.

He had no idea I would be waiting there and we would all shout out "SURPRISE!" when he came in the door. It made for a great memory, and yes, we had leftover [store bought] cake to share with our respective families for Thanksgiving that year.