It is hard to believe that in just a few days Thanksgiving will be upon us. In recent years Thanksgiving has become like a springboard for Christmas and for shopping. Even now more and more stores are staying open on Thanksgiving day to give shoppers a chance to get ahead of the bigger shopping day that follows on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a big holiday for some and not such a big celebration for others. Big extended families will gather and pull out the card table and folding chairs and set up tv trays all over the house to make room for all of the company. Couples will quietly bake a chicken, a turkey just too much for two. Some will stand in-line serving others. It's a day of joy for some, and day of sorrow for others.
I never quite know how to feel about Thanksgiving when it rolls around every year. I have fond memories of gathering at my grandparents with cousins, aunts, uncles, great grandparents, and an occasional odd guest or two. It was usually a madhouse. Times change though and the house won't be as crowded, but there will still be family celebrating with memories of past Thanksgivings and thoughts on future turkey days.
I have a bit of apprehension though when the day gets closer. For a time of being thankful of all that we each hold dear, it has also been a time of year that there has been sadness with not so pleasant memories. For all the good things associated with the holidays I have become a bit superstitious, waiting for the bad news to drop. At times it seems as if life tries to even out the happiness of the celebration with sobering reminders that moments are fleeting, as well as people.
Some years, in fact most years, Thanksgiving has become synonymous with having the flu. Someone always seems to be suffering from the affliction and passes the bug to someone else and they in turn pass it on, til you aren't sure by the week-end if you have caught the flu, or if it was food poisoning from the turkey and it's leftovers.
I am feeling pretty good and haven't caught the flu yet - knock wood. This year I am in charge of the dinner and I will be cooking the turkey. In fact I even have one turkey and one turkey breast already bought from awhile ago. I have to admit I haven't cooked that many turkeys. I do know some of the basics about not letting the turkey thaw on the counter, and that you can thaw a partially frozen turkey in cold running water. I have taken the precaution to get those disposable plastic cooking bags to cook it in, and I have even gone so far as to take the frozen turkey out of the freezer in preparation for Thursday.
I couldn't help but stare at my little frozen turkey though and secretly wish I was Martha Stewart. Martha would make a beautiful turkey, she wouldn't use plastic cooking bags. She would have a golden brown turkey cooked under a wine-soaked cheesecloth and basted with a honey-butter-sage-mango sauce....(okay maybe not the mango part of it). Martha knows everything about turkeys. Martha would be able to tell me,... that after spying the expiration date on my turkey,... whether or not a year old frozen turkey is safe to cook....and eat....
....I guess time does pass quicker than we realize....so I checked the other turkey in the freezer for it's expiration date.
Maybe we will just have ham this year.
