As much as one might love it, or leave it, the time is almost upon us to head over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for the holidays. Thanksgiving will be here in just a week’s time, perhaps not even that long depending on when this is being read. Christmas will quickly follow.
I’m ready for some good ole turkey and dressing with some tangy cranberry sauce and English peas. Top of the line comfort food on my list is served at Thanksgiving.
I try to mimic my mother’s dressing recipe and usually come pretty close, but never spot on. I expect the difference is a broth from simmering a greasy hen for hours on end. The convenience of a couple of boxes of Swansons just isn’t the same.
We make cornbread dressing and I expect my bread isn’t up to par to what hers was for the first 58 years of my life either. I’m not much of a cornbread eater so I’m not much of a cornbread connoisseur when it comes to cooking it. I do, however, love it when it has soaked up a big bowl of broth, has a huge helping of chopped green onions floating around in it, and gets baked gently into a cornbread custard in the oven. Then it is no longer cornbread, it is dressing.
I think mom used to throw all her stale bread, biscuits, rolls and anything else laying around into her dressing bowl as well, but since there was no real recipe, and she is no longer with us to direct the pot, we just have to rely on taste before cooking and try to season it appropriately.
My daughter still says Nanny’s was better than mine and that is something I can live with. Coming in second best to your late mom ain’t so bad.
We’ll be loading our turkey and dressing into the back of the pickup truck next week and hauling it up to Starkville for the Egg Bowl. We’ve been doing that every other year for a while now and it is a pretty cool way to spend the holiday surrounded by a bunch of old and new friends beneath a tailgate tent where the feasting is fine.
This hasn’t been the best season for Mississippi State football, and the coach was even fired Monday, less than a year into the job. Not in his defense, but kind of in his defense, he was hired under extremely unusual circumstances following the untimely death of then head coach Mike Leach last December. This team was built around Leach’s style and Zach Arnette, just couldn’t mold them into his style, if he even has one.
That said, I’m not looking for any kind of Thanksgiving miracles on the playing field so we’ll just hang out under that tent and eat turkey rather than eat crow.
When it comes to eating, my little family of three tried to throw down the gauntlet over the weekend on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We were in Biloxi/Gulfport for an engagement party and decided to go down early for little family time.
It seems all we did was try a plate of this, and that, and the other from a variety of restaurants from Gulfport to Ocean Springs and back. And, that was before the engagement party on Saturday night.
In addition I loaded up on 55 pounds of fresh shrimp right off the boat early Sunday morning to drag back home. By then we were dragging ourselves having indulged way too much in rich food and late night socializing.
Family trips are few and far between these days, it seems, with everyone’s hectic schedules, so when the time does present itself, we’re going to take advantage of it, and make the most of it, even if it means a long drive home, a couple of hours of bagging and freezing shrimp, and a really hard time getting out of bed on Monday morning.
I suppose there is no better time than the present to start acclimating ourselves since the holidays are basically upon us. The turkey will be in the oven soon and the dressing pan will follow right behind. I’m game to get started...I guess.
I’ve already seen Christmas lights in yards — there is a huge display over on Conehatta Prospect Road worth a drive. I’ve also seen a couple of Christmas trees shining brightly in living room windows, and buggy, after buggy, after buggy of holiday wares rolling across the parking lots of the local discount stores.
So, buckle up and join me on the ride. You know, the one over the river and through the woods...
