**NOTE: This is my Thanksgiving post that would not post! LOL! **
Well, it’s getting to be that time of the year again. You know the time I’m talking about, the busy time. LOL! And, I’m feeling a little nostalgic. It started a few weeks ago, when I craved a piece of my mother-in-law’s friendship cake. She always made it during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and I’m pretty sure back in those days, I could eat the whole cake all by myself. Only dreaming of a piece adds ten extra pounds these days!
My mother-in-law is gone now, and during get-togethers, everyone is calling the other person to see if anyone has the recipe in question written down. Very few times have any of us been successful in locating the desired paper.
Brena, my daughter, texted me today looking for my mother-in-law’s famous noodle recipe. I’m not kidding! She would take dollar packs of Raman noodles, add a tremendous amount of Velvetta, and probably some butter because she used butter in EVERYTHING! My children would have much rather had that to eat than for me to take them out to any fancy smancy restaurant.
My mother-in-law also made what my children declared was “killer punch.” Punch isn’t my thing. It was green, foamy, and slimy to my taste buds. But Brena and Devan could survive solely on that for up to three days after Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of my sister-in-laws has been able to recreate that one pretty close, or so I’m told. I don’t touch it. LOL!
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mama would spend hours pampering a bourbon pound cake. (Hope I don’t get churched for mentioning bourbon in a Christian blog! HAHA) One year, she decided to replace the bourbon with rum for some reason. I lie you not, that cake was so moist it was dripping rum! I was afraid to let my kiddos even eat a piece.
And then there was my great-aunt, Gertrude. Everyone called her Gertie. She made an old-timey apple stack cake using apples from the trees in their yard. I have no idea how many stacks (layers) were on the cake. It looked like there were fifty or so! They were wafer-thin, and then on top she had these drops of what I always said were drops of Karo syrup. Turns out it wasn’t syrup. But don’t ask me what it was because I have no idea!
I guess I’m feeling all nostalgic because I’m hosting more and more of these get-togethers, and I’m finding myself excited but also panicked. I bought my first real turkey a few days ago. Yes, you’re reading this right. I’m sure the lady who helped me in line at Ingles is still telling her friends about the crazy middle-aged lady who asked her what the difference was between the turkey she had in her buggy and the turkey I had in mine. I think she thought I was being funny at first, but then she realized turkey buying was uncharted waters for me! She answered that she had a whole turkey, and I had just a turkey breast. She said if I was going to make gravy, I needed a whole turkey. Make gravy! I was just going to buy a jar at Ingles. Surely they sell jars of gravy. Long story short: she talked me right into putting my turkey breast back and getting a whole turkey.
I’ve already wrestled that big boy four times now, just getting him from the store to my freezer. I told Tim I was afraid it was going to break down the freezer in my refrigerator because it was so heavy. I have no idea what to do next with this bird. I guess between now and the time to serve it, I’ll watch a few YouTube videos, and hopefully Tim and I can figure out how to cook it. I’ve always been responsible for bringing ham. How simple is that! I get the spiral one that’s already cooked, and all I really have to do is heat it!
I’m not really one to follow a recipe. It takes focus to follow step by step, and I just don’t have the patience to do that! Ya’ll pray for us and think about us on Turkey Day. My family may be eating the most delicious meal they’ve ever eaten, or it might turn out like Ellen Griswold’s in Christmas Vacation and go up in a big puff of smoke.
Out of all of these recipes I’ve rambled about, there is only one that was ever written down and recorded, and that was my mama’s bourbon pound cake. My sister has made one every year since our mom passed almost twenty years ago, and hers is good… but it’s just not like mama’s.
Heaven help my family if they ever think I’m going to make the bourbon pound cake. My sister says it takes about 5 hours of a whole lot of love and pampering. That’s five hours of focus I don’t have in me. I’ll start cutting this corner and that corner, and in 15-20 minutes, I’m done with that. Throw that sucker in the oven, and whatever it will be will be.
Even though we have Mom’s recipe step by step, there’s just something missing. And, I wonder if there really is something missing or if it’s someone. A few summers back, Bridget had a book club in town that I helped her with. The book contained several Appalachian recipes. One of the ladies in the club pointed out that the way food is prepared can change its taste. I get that! But she wasn’t talking about cooks like me who take shortcuts based on focus. She was talking about how people who make things out of love make things that just taste better.
Turkey Day will be different this year for many families as seats will be empty and hearts will be tender for the first time. And then there will be seats that have been empty for a while.
Whether it’s recent or it’s been a while, the void still exists. So, today, as the chaos ensues and rages, I want to be grateful for the ones I’m with. Grateful for a chance to celebrate and enjoy a meal together. I want to make memories while I can and enjoy all my family, friends, and the fellowship God allows me to have.
And, I don’t want to forget to pass along those recipes! Especially the most important recipe I can ever document and share with my family now and well into the future. It’s a simple recipe, really; it’s the recipe of God and how He saved me. It’s a recipe that doesn’t require many expensive ingredients or focus on putting them together in the correct order. It’s a recipe that will allow me to see Him one day and thank Him for life, the family, the extended family, and friends He gave me here on earth. It’s a recipe that will let me see all these people and spend eternity with them in Heaven.
The recipe has one condition: believe in Him. I’ll only get to see these folks in Heaven if they believe in God. So, in the end, it’s not about the perfect turkey or ham, the decadent desserts, or the creamiest corn and ‘taters; the most important part of today and any day is to leave the recipe tells my family and friends about God.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Psalm 100:4-5, which says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”