for the love of turkey

A rite of passage for the married man - carving up a turkey in your own house with the in-laws present for holiday dinner.

 

Alvy Singer to Annie Hall:
"What did you do, grow up in a Norman Rockwell painting?"

One of my favorite lines in the movie Annie Hall.  I did not grow up in a Noman Rockwell painting which is probably why the holidays were and are so awkward for me. 

I don't have a lot of memories of the big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners growing up - some vague recollections of nice plates and gold plated silverware coming out every so often.  But not the organized dinners involving "kiddie tables" (or "auxiliary table" as I like to call it because I'm really too old to be sitting at the "kiddie table") because the dining room table is maxed out like my wife's family is used to.  In fact, until we started dating years ago, I hadn't really been at a regular Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. 

Thanksgiving as a young adult was at the Denny's in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  It was at college for freshman and sophomore years.  It would be me with my books and the Thanksgiving feast that consisted of:

- pressed turkey
- powdered "mashed" potatoes and gravy
- cranberry sauce out of a can (still my favorite side dish to this very day!)
- frozen dinner roll and the individually wrapped pat of butter
- foodservice stuffing
- cigarette smoke wafting over from the Denny's Lounge (do they even have those anymore?)

All this for the low price of about $7 and I didn't have to do the dishes!

I love the food served at Thanksgiving and Christmas - even if my association with it is more from Norman Rockwell paintings instead of actually being a participant at these dinners growing up.

But without fail, over the years, I've grown to love the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners we share as an immediate and extended family.  Even though it wasn't a part of my growing up, I'm grateful that the daily evening meal as a family and the large scale extended family meals have become normative for my kids.

What touched off some of these memories for me in college was probably lunch today.  There's a cafe near my office and they publish their menus for the whole week.  I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't looking forward to today's Thanksgiving lunch - served in the very festive cardboard to go container...