Do people actually eat like this on Thanksgiving? Is this just some Rockwellian myth?
My mom was the sweetest, most wonderful person you'd ever hope to meet. Kind, compassionate, friendly....I was fortunate to be able to call this wonderful lady my "Mom". She had many talents, but cooking was NOT one of them. I think her culinary goal was to just feed us something that would keep us alive until her next cooking attempt. As bro and I made it to adulthood, I guess she was a success. In her defense, she was never taught by her mom to cook because her mom never learned how to cook, either. It seems my great grandparents were well off and had a live-in cook / housekeeper / nanny who handled all those plebeian chores.
I was grown and married before I ever knew Thanskgiving meals didn't come from Wyatt's cafeteria in a box.
The family story was that mom tried to cook our traditional Thanksgiving meal a couple of times before the rest of the family took a vote and asked her to just stop. Instead they showed her a flyer that came in the mail advertising a complete Thanksgiving feast pre-cooked. "Just call BR-549 and reserve yours now!"
For a little more than 3-times what it would cost for her to buy the ingredients and cook it herself, mom could just drive to Wyatt's cafeteria and pay the nice lady a tidy sum and in exchange take home a "Bird In A Box", complete with all the trimmings. Whoa! Sometimes, just to mess with us, she'd bring home a "Honey Ham In A Box". We never complained because, either way, it was better than her well-intentioned kitchen efforts.
Now here we are many Birds In A Box later, and tomorrow we're going to Kelly's sister's house for Thanksgiving. She's a wonderful, if nontraditional, cook. No Big Bird, dressing and all that. Nope, we're having a Mexican Thanksgiving meal. We're taking avocados, tortillas, "crusty" bread, and a Tres Leche cake. I'm sure it will be fantastic, but I'll confess, it just won't feel right sitting down to a fancy holiday meal that didn't come in a box.
Ah...the good 'ol days!
Hope you have a great one. :)
S
