It's All in the Stuffing

It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving: Time to gather around table and stuff yourself.   

Stuffing:  is there a more talked about subject surrounding the entire meal of Thanksgiving?  Every family has its traditions: Cornbread, Oyster, Giblet, Sausage and many other varieties.

My own family recipe began; well I can’t exactly remember when it began.  I just remember being a small girl, with my Dad tearing up toasted bread and chopping onion till my eyes watered.  We would make a huge mess and goof around making my Mother roll her eyes and tell us we were “too loud”.

 Daddy and I were always too loud while making stuffing, singing goofy songs, making messes, and general  disorderly conduct in the kitchen.  As I grew older, we began to discuss loudly how the onion and celery should be chopped.  I said small.  He said large.  Somewhere during my high school years, during a particularly silly stuffing making session, a new ingredient was added to the family recipe.  Vernors Ginger Ale.

 At that time in the 70’s Vernors was not available in our part of Virginia.  My parents had brought it back from their trip to see my grandparents in Detroit as they did every October.  My brothers and I regarded it as liquid gold. We fought over every bottle. To now be pouring into the stuffing was unheard of!  Tasting the stuffing, Daddy and I realized we had created something new and wondrous. 

The extra bite of strong ginger and sweetness added a new layer of favor to our old favorite.  Something we had never thought of before.  A new tradition was born.  We continued this for years,  hoarding the Vernors away every October until finally it was distributed  in Virginia.  When my oldest daughter began to help with the making of the stuffing she would first ask “ Did you get the Vernors?”  Priorities:  The world as we know it might end if there were no Vernors to add to the stuffing.

This year marks 3 years now that we have been without my dear Dad. My daughter and I will be in Mom’s kitchen making the traditional stuffing as if my Dad were right there with us.  His name will come up many times in our conversation.  “What did he put in next?”  and “ Remember when he wanted to add carrots and we protested?”  We will talk and laugh our way through the preparation, using Daddy’s time warn recipe for a successful stuffing . 

 The Vernors will provide the sweetness, the tears will provide the salt:  All of it the stuff of memories.

May your Thanksgiving stuffing be full of good memories.

Peace.

NEPB