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recipes |
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Thanksgiving Turkey |
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When I was a child, every year my family would travel from our farming community in upstate New York to my grandmother’s home in suburban New Jersey to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with all the relatives on my mother’s side of the family. In those days the drive took seven hours, highlighted by a stop at Steve’s Diner in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania, a rare chance for my two brothers and I to eat out and order whatever we want. Every year when we arrived, my grandmother would have ham and french fried potatoes waiting for us in the oven, and peas in a saucepan on the stove. We got to drink coke or 7-Up (another rare treat) as the adults relaxed over whiskey sours. On the next day, Thanksgiving, arrival of aunts, uncles and cousins added to the sense of festivity until there were nine cousins dressed in their best clothes playing in and around the three storey house and yard. The cousins competed in a "Name the Turkey" contest, sponsored by my grandmother. (I won one year with the name Romeo.) The Macy’s Thanksgiving parade was on television in the morning–no one actually sat down and watched it, but it was in the background as part of the day. At about noon, California onion dip and Chicken in a Biskit crackers appeared, accompanied by soft drinks for the kids with whiskey sours and Manhattans for the adults. At some point, the Macy’s parade gave way to the annual Thanksgiving football game on television. Dinner was served at about three in the afternoon, sometimes with the help of a maid. By this time, most people weren’t very hungry, but the meal was part of the day. The stuffed turkey was always accompanied by mashed potatoes and gravy, turnips, creamed onions, stringbeans in mushroom soup sauce covered with French fried onion rings, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Dessert was mince pies, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and pecan pies, followed by coffee and little glasses of crème de menthe for those who could find the space. Bowls of nuts, fruit and M&M’s were also on the table. No one could manage to eat again until the next day. On the Friday after Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday), my parents, brothers and I would take the bus into Manhattan, about 30 minutes away, usually to go the Museum of Natural History. If we took the subway, there was always a worry that one of the children would be left behind when the doors closed, so we were always very careful to stay close to our parents. We sometimes had the excitement of eating lunch in an Automat, where individual items of food were displayed behind small glass doors. When money was inserted into a slot, the door opened and the sandwich, dessert, whatever could be taken out. On Saturday we would go Christmas shopping in big department stores in New Jersey. On Sunday, we would return home. It was always sad to leave my grandmother alone again, but she had a friend named Ethel Wooley whom she would visit. Ethel’s family would leave on the same day, so she and Ethel would console each other. Return home was always anticlimactic, but reassuring at the same time. These five days were my father’s sole annual vacation. As a dairy farmer, it was hard for him to find someone else to do the milking, so he seldom could take time off. Though my grandmother has passed on, and the cousins have spread throughout the U.S. (and the rest of the world), those who live in the Northeast continue the tradition, meeting at my uncle’s in Delaware (a small state near New Jersey) every year. |
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Ingredients |
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1 very large turkey (9 to 11 kilos) 1 cup minced onion 3 cups chopped celery (stalks and leaves) 1 cups butter 13 cups soft bread cubes 1 tsp. salt 2 tsp. crushed dried sage leaves 1 tsp. thyme leaves 1 tsp. pepper |
In a large skillet, cook and stir onion and celery in butter until onion is tender. Stir in about 1/3 of the bread cubes. Turn into a deep bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss. Stuff the turkey just before roasting. Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. Place turkey on rack in open shallow roasting pan. Brush with oil. Cook for 6 to 7 hours. Gravy can be made from the dripping. |
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