Turkey Redux
Nope, I’m not talking about Thanksgiving meal leftovers. I’ll tell you what I’m talking about in a minute.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year for reasons you’ll find out if you haven’t already been around this small cog for awhile. Definitely better than Christmas.
This year, however, it’s just going to be my wife, the dogs, and I. No other family at all. I can’t even remember the last time we didn’t have at least one other family member with us. Despite that, except for a slightly smaller Turkey, we are still going all out on the festivities. So instead of just rehashing all the reasons I love Thanksgiving (and because I am lazy), I’m going to re-post the first Thanksgiving piece I wrote on this blog. Oh yeah, one of the previous reasons has become obsolete due to circumstances beyond my control. I’m sure you’ll figure out which one. Just replace it with, let’s say, iced tea. Wow, this was an easy post to write. Here you go…
Thanksgiving is hands down
my favorite holiday. What’s not to like? There is food, alcohol, and football. Those right there are three out of the four basic things needed to make this small cog a happy boy. The fourth one is sex, but really, sex is pretty much off the table after stuffing myself into a food coma.
Oh yea, and being thankful for things. Of course, I am thankful for my family who is spread all across North America. From Virginia to Florida to Texas to Iowa to Alberta to British Columbia. I’m also thankful for some of the fond memories I had as a child celebrating Thanksgiving. We would load up and drive over to my Nanny and Papaw’s place where all the cousins, some of which I hadn’t seen all year, would play outside until it was time to eat. Then we’d chow down on turkey, ham, deviled eggs, and dressing/stuffing.
In the south most families ate dressing. Dressing, for those who haven’t heard of it, is a cornbread based dish that is cooked externally from the turkey. Stuffing is wheat bread based and, as the name implies, cooked in the turkey. It was sacrilege in my family to even mention stuffing, much less show a preference for it. I stuck to those guns for most of my life until I met my wife, who is Canadian. They do stuffing, and our first Thanksgiving 
together she tied me down and stuffed some of that stuffing down my gullet. I’ve been addicted to it ever since. She makes THE BEST stuffing in the world. I now have family members that won’t even talk to me because I crossed over to the stuffing dark side.
Then there was dessert. We had the traditional pumpkin and pecan pie but my favorite as a kid (along with all my cousins) were my Nanny’s individual chocolate pies. She baked them in muffin tins with a flaky crust, chocolate filling, and a fluffy meringue topping. It was like biting in to a fluffy cloud filled with dark pleasure. So good.
A few years ago I documented our Thanksgiving on Facebook with a pictorial play by play. Check it out.
Before
After
Way after!
I caught hell the first time for posting this. Probably going to catch even more now. If you think I would have learned by now then you must be new here.
One of our more recent Thanksgiving traditions is to repeatedly review the below video throughout the week. We discovered this gem several years ago while watching a special on game shows funniest moments. Next to screaming goats, it is one of my favorite videos, and it makes me chuckle every time I watch it. Most apropos for this time of the year.
One other thing I am thankful for this year. Getting to know some fellow bloggers who have made me feel most welcome to the community. Whether you prefer stuffing, dressing, or neither, I hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Turkey Turkey Day!
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this year no matter how you chose to celebrate it, or if you chose not to do so at all. I won’t be bumping into you on Black Friday unless I see you in the woods, because the dogs and I are going to #optoutside again this year.
17 thoughts on “Turkey Redux”
The stuffing/dressing controversy is interesting. While we stuff, my mother always used the terms interchangeably when I was growing up. I had no idea it was a choice … no less a reason to disown family members. Consider me schooled.
That being said, we’re heading over to a Friendsgiving this year. No family, no drama. Just gluttony and fun. Hope you and yours enjoy the day!
I don’t think I’ve ever had drama on Thanksgiving. Now Christmas is another story. Enjoy your drama free gluttony and fun day!
Stuffing and dressing were distinct in our family tradition. I always ate stuffing, and always refused dressing because that’s where the giblets were hidden. If you want to lose your appetite, google “turkey stuffing” as I did and viola, the Tryptotrouser Turkey Print Ball Hammock Boxer Briefs is top of the list of results, on sale for Black Friday! (Rivergirl, you could turn them into a blog post. You’re welcome.)
I googled it and all I got was boxes of Stove Top. Very disappointing.
I googled it and saw it! That is definitely sufficient to reduce my gastrointestinal desires to absolute zero.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of dressing. People in my family like to take the stuffing and spread it on bread like jam. 🤮
I think it’s prominently a southern thing. I have to admit, I’ve made a leftover turkey and stuffing sandwich on more than one occasion.
In the debate between stuffing and dressing I don’t take sides. Wait a minute! Sides are all I take! Give me some of that stuffing. And some dressing. And those sweet potatoes. Don’t bogart those olives either. And that turkey.
Basically I’ll just give thanks for good food and plenty of it.
Christopher recently posted…Butter Me Up.
Ha! Nice word play there. While I prefer my wife’s stuffing, I’ll still take dressing too. My late grandmother made a mean dressing. You forgot the deviled eggs!
I’m not sure what exactly we had when I was a kid. I think we had dressing that was made in the turkey, so stuffing dressing? All I know is, when I was a kid the stuff gave me a headache if I even smelled it, and I definitely couldn’t eat it. After a long time, I finally decided to try some one year and I’ve been hooked on it ever since. Thanks for learning me the difference between the two, I was today years old learning that.
Happy to pass on the knowledge. One day I may tell the story of the one year my family decided to have catfish for Thanksgiving instead of the turkey and dressing. It does not have a happy ending.
As a Canadian who has already gorged on the turkey and stuffing weeks ago, I say if it is delicious, you can call it anything you like. Happy turkey day to all my friends south of the border. May your belly and your birds be stuffed and your footballs full of air. #deflategateisreal
Nice throw back to the #deflategate. My bird was stuffed and my belly full but my team spirit was deflated after that embarrassing performance by my team. For years my Canadian mother-in-law would come down to celebrate with us so she could get two Thanksgivings.
Ah, I’m still all about those things!
And, honestly, I can’t believe you’d give up football for iced tea. 😉
Thanksgiving (and often Xmas) are all about Me and Mrs C (and her mother who lives with us), even though I’m from a big family. It just sort of became that over the years, and we just always look forward to it now.
So, Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the new tradition!
I’d give up my left nut before I gave up football! Hope you had a great one!
Very enjoyable post 🙂 And for the record I camp with the people who thought dressing and stuffing were/are the same thing. I make mine with a little sausage and bake it outside the bird. My mom says the advantage of this is that the bird cooks faster if it is not stuffed, meaning you might not have to get up at 3am to put it in the oven. 🙂
Thank you for the comment! It does take longer to bake inside the bird but in my opinion it taste so much better because the bird juices are infusing it.