Now that we’ve thrown out those rotting pumpkins, we’re ready to embrace fall and cooler weather. Since we can’t smell burning leaves, we’ll have to settle for their remembered fragrance. I can’t describe it, but those of us who grew up smelling it would recognize it even today in a heartbeat.
Last year at this time, my husband and I, ever the Foodies, were busy planning our Thanksgiving feast with watering mouths and rumbling stomachs. The gourmet chef in the house, my husband subscribes to Bon Appetit, Eating Well, Martha Stewart Living and Southern Living. (With all that “living” we should make it to the next century.)
And, of course, all these publications wanted to teach us how to whip up an interesting, exotic Thanksgiving meal.
One author wrote that he loved squeezing 25 people into his West Village apartment and cooking everything from scratch. Most of his dishes had an Asian flair, and sounded delicious, but not for THANKSGIVING. Call me Old School, but since I only eat this meal once a year, I wanted it to taste like THANKSGIVING.
Stanley Tucci suggested beginning the meal with a martini. Believe me, if I started with a martini, the meal would never happen. He also insisted we bring out the good china. Hmmm. I’m wondering if he would fly off the pages to hand wash the stuff afterward.
Both articles were part of a feature entitled “Thanksgiving Simplified.” It didn’t sound simple to me. In fact, the thought of 25 people crammed into a small space, eating food that was all made from scratch sounded exhausting. And that’s before the dishwashing starts!
Another magazine showed pretty place settings with clever napkin-folding instructions for each, similar to the one shown. Probably not a good investment of time for someone who can barely cram a letter into an envelope. A sidebar offered pearl-embellished napkin rings at the modest sum of $27 for a set of four. A leaf-patterned design cost only $12 for each ring. Let’s see . . . $12 times 25 people. Maybe a second mortgage would be in order.
A feature titled “A Story of Love and Pie” caught my eye until I realized there was not a single Pumpkin Pie recipe in it, but there was a reassuring paragraph asking, “Does Lattice Make You Nervous?”
We (the royal WE, since my husband does most of the cooking) stuck to our Old School recipes used for years and enjoyed every mouthful.
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