We got a lot of pottery bowls as wedding gifts. At the time it seemed a little ridiculous. Who needs all these bowls? Somebody who is having people over for Thanksgiving, obviously. Not sure how so many wedding guests got the memo on the having other people over for Thanksgiving thing, but word seems to have gotten out. Now there is a dish that is specifically reserved for the cranberry dressing which we got from Sam and Ann Scoville.
Not that they have ever been to our house for Thanksgiving. Or been invited for that matter. In the beginning, it was Mama and my Sweet Lady and some random friends. My Sweet Lady and I had only been dating a month or six weeks, but things were moving fast enough to introduce her around. Plus this was the first time that Mama had been in town for a long while. We were close, and then really close, and then not so close, and I wanted to be close again, so I was glad she had come.
It was to be the first time I had ever cooked a turkey, and the thing was still frozen. After Wednesday dinner, at which I misspelled my Sweet Lady’s name on the to go box, we trundled over to the old Wal-Mart just past the tunnel to get a sink stopper. That way the bird could sit in water overnight to thaw, a plan which worked out pretty well. The thing still had to be cooked, however, which could take all morning.
And did, in fact, take all morning. But here is the thing: if all you have to do is cook a turkey and you can’t really go anywhere because you have to cook a turkey, you wind up just sitting and talking. That’s what Mama and I did. All morning, sitting and talking. My Sweet Lady had a couple of stops to make that day, so she was in and out. I remember the other friends having a good time and laughing a lot, but I remember most those 4 or so hours Mama and I spent drinking coffee and getting to know each other again.
So now we don’t eat the turkey anymore, and of course Mama is gone. We do have the bowls which don’t get used a whole lot outside of Thanksgiving. We also did a lot of cooking today. Stuffed squash is not turkey, but it does take some time and several steps to prepare. That’s how it came to be that my Sweet Lady and I spent the better part of the day cooking, hanging out, and talking about whatever. After the fall we have had, it is nice to have the time get to know each other again.