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Gobble till ya wobble
Ahh October! The 2022 County Marathon is in the books! The 2022 Studio Tour has been hung up for another year. Thanksgiving is on the horizon. My, my, my, how time flies when we’re having fun. We are having fun, right? I do love me a bit of Thanksgiving weekend. I no longer have a lot of fussy or elaborate expectations for holidays, especially for Thanksgiving. October weather makes me want to slow things down a bit. I love to celebrate the good times, but I’ve become very comfortable with a minimum of fuss. Family, friends, good food, a few bevvies, lots of catching-up and maybe a bit of music. I love that moment when a spontaneous Mom and Daughter dance party breaks out in the kitchen. Or when one of the kids puts a glass of wine in my hand and reminds me how much more delicious a meal is when cooked with wine. I love when someone says they can’t eat another bite, but seem to have room for a dessert or two. Sometimes, there is a need for a “kids’ table” because the big table wasn’t big enough. Sometimes the kids’ table is all we need. Oftentimes the coffee table does the trick if the “gathering is small”. There’s always a neighbourhood walk after dinner to make room for more pie and maybe a splash of something else.
I’m at a point in my life where putting a celebratory meal together isn’t as intimidating or as complicated as it once was, say half a century ago. In fifty-plus years of cooking for our family I’ve learned how to cook a roast beast without losing my cool. I also know it’s imperative to have back-up ingredients on-hand when one of the systems fail. And believe me, there is always a system failure when you’re cooking for a crowd. I always have sneaky secret assists onhand for dinner preparation disasters. Y’all know what I mean! Personally, I always have back-up gravy, the kind that comes in a little envelope. Oh, yes I do. I always have back-up stuffing, the kind that comes in a red box. I always have back-up mashed potatoes, the kind that comes flaked in a box. I’m do not shy away from buying an apple or a pumpkin pie and a spritzy can of foosh, aka whipped cream, in an aerosol can. When the oldest kid was little he used to call it “foosh” because that’s the noise it makes when you “foosh” it on your pie. The word “foosh” stuck like the cranberry sauce, on the stove top. And speaking of cranberry sauce, I love freshly made cranberry sauce but I don’t need to have a keg of leftover cranberry sauce lurking in the fridge. If push comes to shove, I will buy a can of gelatinous berry gloop and use the leftover slurry (and there will be a leftover slurry) in muffins if I remember to use it before it becomes a science project.
If you know me, and let’s face it 90 per cent of you really don’t, I’ve cooked all kinds of big meals from scratch including baking the pies, baking the dinner rolls, roasting the beast, mashing the taters, baking the squash, schnitzing the apples, popping the bubbly and origami-ing the linen napkins. At the end of any one of those fussy celebration days I dealt with a tension headache, I was close to tears and had a bit of a grunt-on about family gatherings and everyone who showed up. Long ago I decided a celebration meal wasn’t just for the guests, it was for me too. That was the day the game plan changed. The list of invitees has changed. The days of dread leading up to a holiday are just about gone. And I am very thank-filled for what our family and friends mean to me. I am thankful that, as a young family, we landed here, in the County, in 1972. It took a bit of getting used to, but I finally got the hang of it. I am thankful all of our children and their children are now living in Ontario! I am thankful for all of the people who bring variety and colour to my life. I am thankful for the simplicity and for the complexity of life in the County.
I wish all of you a thanks-filled Thanksgiving. “Gobble till ya wobble!”
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