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November 24, 2004 |
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Aah Thanksgiving. By consensus tomorrow’s celebration is rated number one among the holiday’s populating our year. Not that Turkey Day is the perfect. Thanksgiving does indeed have some problem areas where it just doesn’t measure up to the competition. Like the parade tomorrow morning. Watching a bunch of New Yorkers stand and shiver doesn’t come close to providing the viewing enjoyment one finds with New Year’s Day and the Pasadena Rose Parade. However tomorrow’s Macy’s telecast is indeed the perfect New York City parade. For Manhattan-ites, used to blather put forth on a daily basis by Howard Stern, Don Imus and the two Empire State Senators, residents of the five boroughs are perfectly comfortable with a procession featuring one gigantic gasbag after another. When it comes to football, Thanksgiving has regressed. The Detroit Lions used to battle the Green Bay Packers year after year in the frozen dirt of Briggs Stadium. Now the annual Thanksgiving game has been moved to Detroit’s indoor dome where there is no mud, little blood and an absence of Packers, as the NFL schedulers have dictated a different team each year will receive a Turkey Day victory in the Motor City. So with minimal TV offerings, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving promises to be a day where one can sit back and enjoy food and family. Not to aggravate the restaurant industry, but Thanksgiving meals are best prepared and consumed at home, not eaten out. Mrs. “You know Who” just looked over my shoulder as the previous sentence was typed and remarked, “Easy for you to say Mr. Don’t cook, clean or wash, just eat and snooze.” And her point is? Thanksgiving is best enjoyed amid the delightful odors of turkey and dressing in the oven, mashed potatoes with a hint of garlic, gravy, harvest corn, Swedish Rye bread, string beans with zippy sauce, cranberry salad, fresh baked rolls, escalloped oysters, pumpkin pie and leftovers. Leftovers, the ying and yang, best and worst, high and low of Thanksgiving. Come Friday, the day after, one can anticipate a slice of refrigerator cold pumpkin pie and mashed potato pancakes for breakfast. Later in the day, it’s time to sprawl in front of the tube and cheer either the Buffs or the Huskers while devouring the ultimate leftover sandwich. Thick slices of turkey breast topped with stuffing and cranberries tucked between two slices of Swedish rye slathered with mayonnaise and a cold glass of milk on the side. This, friends, is the good life of leftovers. But, after the mashies are gone and all the other leftovers consigned to the garbage disposal the dark side takes over and the turkey carcass in the ‘fridge takes on a life of its own. For the next week, it is day after day of sitting down to the evening repast and staring at another helping of what you thought was finished off yesterday. Don’t even think of passing on the evening “some kind of turkey” entrée or it will be on your plate the next day for lunch. Sort of leftover left over. As the week moves along you progress, or regress, from turkey in saffron crème sauce to turkey scaloppini marsala to Mongolian turkey and broccoli stir-fry followed by mooshu turkey. You know the end is finally in sight when a hopeful inquiry, “What’s for dinner tonight, pork chops?” brings the response, “No we’re having turkey tetrazzini. Tetrazzini is an Italian word meaning the final day of turkey penance. Which is a very good thing. Because there’s only 24 days ‘til Christmas. We’re having turkey. |
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