Welcome to another episode of Family Tree Food and Stories.

Why don't you pull up a chair to our table as we get going with

this Thanksgiving feast tradition.

It's all about what happens with turkey.

And more!

Hey, Nancy, I gotta ask you a question.

Go ahead.

we've been talking about this a lot, just you and I, about this is

the season for holidays, and we always say Halloween sort of is the gateway, and then

all of a sudden it all takes off, right?

And then you have Thanksgiving, you have Christmas, and you have New Year's.

Well, what do you think?

Do you believe that Halloween is the gateway?

I don't know.

I kind of think that, November 1st is the gateway because it's the

panic to Christmas, like all the shopping that needs to be done.

And then what happens?

Oh my God, I didn't do anything this year.

So you've got like two months to cram a year's worth of stuff in to actually

say you accomplished something,

But, what else do we do?

We eat, right?

Well, there is this great kickoff to the holiday season, and it's called

the Fat Bear Contest in Alaska.

Oh, my God, tell me more about that.

Yeah,

Well, it started out as a way that the park rangers were going to

get the, let's see, what's the name of it, uh, Katmai National Park in Alaska.

They were going to get engagement from their people, from, you know, visitors

and such, and so they decided to do a fat bear one time thing, and it caught

on, and it's like now just thousands of people show up, and what they show up to

do is watch these scrawny little bears.

Go to a particular salmon spawning place and they watch them eat

salmon and they watch them gain weight and they gain and they gain.

And it was in early October but they watch as the girth of these bears grow, grow.

And grow, and people vote on which bear should be the bear of the year.

And I, love that because that's what we become when we eat too much.

So it's the beginning of the holiday season.

I I was about to say, that's why I need like that extra fuzzy

sweater, because Thanksgiving is like the beginning of let's put on the pounds,

about, I

of course, January 1st is let's take them all off.

We've had two months to

I know.

So there you go, fat bear.

That's what I feel like.

But you know, you know how gradually you start eating a little bit more and you go

to a reception or you go to a dinner party and you're like, Oh, I'm going to be good.

I'm going to be good.

And then some scrumptious dish is put out in front of you and you just can't resist

and you're like, Oh, well, just this once.

Or buffets, Thanksgiving buffet, you have the turkey, you have the

gravy, you've got the potatoes, you've got the broccoli, you've got the, all right,

Brussels sprouts, I love Brussels sprouts, whatever goes on there, then the cake.

a Thanksgiving plate is always so small?

Yeah.

I know the layout of the food is just amazing.

People just let all their inner, inner cook, inner chef come

out at that particular time.

What's your favorite dish at

Thanksgiving?

my favorite dish, I, you know, I like Brussels sprouts,

Okay, but I have to say one of my favorites is stuffing

and it can't be stuffing made

outside of the bird.

It's got to be stuffing that's in the bird.

I know I have never died from eating stuffing inside of the bird, obviously,

because I'm still here talking.

But it is an issue, right?

Stuffing inside

Well, I guess, I guess

so.

myth?

I guess it

I guess people have gotten sick over it over the years when they

don't take the stuffing out of the bird.

But all those little nooks and crannies that get inside pulling the

stuffing out like three days later, I still eat that part because it's

so juicy and the flavors of the

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Like I said, I haven't died

Well, we need to ask Ms.

Butterball about that.

You know, Butterball has that

lady or some, some, team of people, I'm sure, but they make, it's

sort of like this picture of Mama in an apron, you know, answering

all your questions about Turkey.

I love it.

somehow you just naturally know how to cook turkey, except for

those that occasionally cook the turkey while it's still frozen and

all the gizzards are in the inside.

So I've never done, I've never done that, but sometimes it's not

quite thought as much as I need it

Yeah, you got it.

And it's hard.

You got to set that thing out.

Put it in cold water and ice water and stuff.

But, and you know, one of the interesting new traditions is that

men are cooking the turkey now.

Men are cooking, like

I think they've been cooking the turkey for a long time.

Maybe not at home, but as chefs, because the male chefs are the

ones that are so popular as girls.

Don't necessarily get the airtime that we should as far as celebrity

chefs, but, but I get it.

Yeah.

And the other thing that's happening is that there are, the, smokers.

And fried turkeys and stuff, you know.

I mean, the big egg kind of thing, you

know.

Big green

Right.

And you see all the stories about the fires and everything else.

Yeah, no fried.

My husband wanted to do a fried turkey for years and I said, no way in hell.

Are you doing a fried turkey?

Not if I can help it.

The one in the oven is just fine.

And our oven, by the way, back home in Connecticut, before we moved,

we were there for almost 30 years.

Our oven was a, a true traditional mid century oven.

it was Frigidaire made by General Motors.

And the oven didn't always quite work the same, so I always had to have the

temperature gauge in there and adjust it a little bit, but it always worked.

For some reason, that bird cooked beautifully and always had a

like, ooh, ah, when it came

Let me ask you a question about the oven.

Did you choose that kind of oven or did it come with the house

or something?

It came with the house, it was a 1950s traditional

mid century modern house.

And as much as I didn't like it initially, we just kept it.

We just never updated the house.

I wanted to have it restored and I never got there.

And our stovetop was made like a Murphy bed.

It too was General Motors, it was a Frigidaire made by General Motors.

And one year at one of our Christmas parties, a friend found a little

glass measuring cup that said Frigidaire made by General Motors.

She brought it as

How awesome.

Oh, that's so retro.

Now, let me ask you another question.

Did it have a gas stovetop or

was it electric?

no, it was all electric.

Yeah, Murphy bed, they, they literally folded up into the

Okay, well, there's all that controversy now about gas

versus electric, that gas is better.

You know, it'd be interesting to ask our folks, you know,

out there who are listening,

what do you

Well, I grew up on gas and I loved it.

I didn't like electric, but, the new home that we're building has

got one of those induction tops.

So I hear that that's better than both.

Really?

Ah, well, there you go.

Anyway, talking about cooking that turkey and all those

wonderful sides that come with it.

And there's some other new traditions out there.

Let's see here, um, People are eating like the original Pilgrims did, too.

If they don't want turkey, venison.

Venison, for instance.

Beans, hard biscuits, things like that.

Wild

Hard biscuits

I know it doesn't.

No, it doesn't.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't do that, but anyway.

Wild turkey and other game meats are kind of gaining in popularity.

So we spent one Thanksgiving in Plymouth at

You told

Plantation.

yeah, it wasn't the actual Thanksgiving day.

They do a week long celebration of Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation,

and it was really interesting because they've got the Indian side

and they've got the Pilgrim side.

And what I learned is that Thanksgiving really wasn't a Thanksgiving.

Feast or a Feast of Thanksgiving.

It was a bunch of drunken pilgrims who were shooting off shotguns, and

the warning sign that the Indians told the pilgrims that they should

shoot the guns up in the air, and we'll come running to help you if

you need in case you come in danger.

So the Indians come And there's just a bunch of drunken pilgrims

shooting guns off in the air.

Well, the Indians weren't too happy, but the Indians, it's really kind of

sad because the Indians talk about it as a day of mourning because all the

disease that the pilgrims brought with them that the Indians weren't used to.

So, it was kind of a strange experience, but I had a new appreciation for really

what went on and how those people lived.

you And I think the Indians actually lived better than the Pilgrims because

those huts and dirt floors and they were pretty tiny and gross and close

where the Indians had their large huts still on the dirt floors, but

these people really knew how to live.

And the Pilgrims were

they were displaced.

Yeah.

And they were, I think there were like 23 of them.

And then, you know, this sort of set up this kind of antagonism

that sort of went from there.

But, you know,

we'll,

Well, antagonism does happen at Thanksgiving tables still today,

that the truth?

Well we have a rule at our Thanksgiving tables.

No politics.

I'm just saying.

We're not going to go

there.

Okay.

did you know how the first turkey pardon happened?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tell us.

So, the first turkey pardoned by the president actually started with

JFK, and it was the turkey lobby party.

No pun intended.

Turkeys don't hang out at lobbies.

That actually gave a free turkey to the president's family.

And they said the deal was that they shouldn't, off with its

head, they should actually not eat the turkey, but pardon it.

So that's how the first presidential turkey pardon happened.

I love that.

You know, I would have thought that was like ancient, but it wasn't, you

know,

so

very interesting.

yeah, so that's, and then you have Black Friday, that's a tradition

that is new, and, Friendsgiving.

As our children are scattered everywhere and family is scattered, then you

become to, you come to adopting your new family, which is your friends.

I know my kids do that.

They do a Friendsgiving, and then they do the traditional Thanksgiving.

And, even, spending Thanksgiving at soup kitchens.

Bob and I did that, for a number of years in Westport, Connecticut at

the local congregational church we weren't not members of, but it was a

big tradition up there in Westport.

And so we went and we had a blast actually, it was so much fun.

And people came from all over the area, whether you were rich or poor or whatnot.

And.

What happened is everybody just sort of jumped in.

There was no particular leader.

We all knew what to do.

The turkeys were donated, the food was cooked, and when there was a

hole or a slot that needed to be filled, somebody jumped in and did it.

Now, we did this for a couple of years until Somebody decided, must

have been some local CEO, that they had to be more officially organized.

There was a leader, there was a person who managed what station you went to, you

had the name tags, and it just ruined it.

So we kind of stopped at that one and opened our doors to

friends and family at our own

home.

That's really a great story, because I think there is

that sort of modern mentality that everything has to be organized.

And maybe sometimes it's better not, you know, maybe

that's what we need.

A little like, it's like mashing up your potatoes.

You know, sometimes the lumps help,

Yeah, yeah, imperfections, you know, bringing out the inner Brene

Brown in us or something, I don't know.

Hey,

And turkey trots.

What about

turkey trots?

Did you ever do a turkey trot?

I'm an avowed non turkey trotter.

But we do have some old traditions that never die, didn't

need to take a break, Nancy.

back.

Okay, Sylvia.

Now, we mentioned turkey trots.

We'll start there.

Because turkeys, I guess, you want your turkey fat.

You don't want them running around the corner.

So, for any reasons, right?

You know, that's just not working.

But anyway, I did a turkey trot for a number of years.

And one year, it rained so hard that when I got to the end, I ran past Bob,

and then had to come around behind him.

He didn't see me.

And I tapped him on the shoulder and he said, Where did you go?

I was looking for you.

Well, I look so much like a drowned rat he didn't even recognize

Yeah.

No, I won't do that.

Yeah, I'm not gonna do that.

Hey, let me ask you about the turkey.

You know, I remember we just would go to the grocery store and they

had like these huge bins of turkeys.

Now people like order them in advance and they're like different breeds of turkeys.

There's

organic

turkeys and I mean, it's, you gotta get like reserve a turkey And

that's kind of a, a new tradition.

I just think the good old turkey is, you know, that you get in the grocery store.

I love it.

I love turkey.

Some

The frozen one.

Well, and there was a while back, there was this trend called the Triducan.

Have you ever heard of the Triducan?

Tell me about it.

Yeah.

So you take the turkey and inside the turkey, you put a duck, then a chicken,

or maybe it's the chicken and the duck.

So you're stuffing all these different poultry's.

I think you actually need to start with the capon.

So you, the capon goes inside the guts of the turkey or the chicken.

Then the chicken goes sides in the guts of the turkey then, or turkey.

Wait a second.

So I've got this confused.

So the capon, then the chicken, then the duck, then the turkey.

So it goes from teeny to large.

And now

have a big turkey.

right?

And all these bones.

Like, that's not the stuffing I'm looking for.

I want the bread, the buttery, the juicy, the onions, the

celery, the old traditional.

you know, stuffing.

But, we did it one year.

we bought one and, we bought it at Stu Leonard's in Norwalk, Connecticut.

It was the worst piece of meat I've ever had

I bet.

And those poor birds.

I don't

I know.

right?

They died for me and my experimentation of like, this is disgusting,

Yeah, and what is it called?

It's called a Treducan.

Oh dear, I'll stay away from that.

Uh, let's see what do we have going on?

We have our crazy uncle who tells the same stories every year.

my least favorite thing on the Thanksgiving table is cranberry sauce

in, that's taken right directly out of the can and dumped in a serving

dish with the ridges on it still.

The

I mean, like, ah, my dad loved it and it had to have the ridges.

don't know

You know, I actually like the canned stuff, but I'm happy the

whole cranberries, not the jelly stuff.

My dad liked the jelly stuff too, but yeah, no, I'm, I'm

not a fan of the jelly stuff.

Give me the ones with the whole cranberries and we're good.

Now we lived up in Massachusetts when I was a kid.

We moved from Long Island to Massachusetts, March of my junior

year in high school, and they have cranberry bogs up there.

Redberry what?

Cranberry Bogs.

The bogs in the fall are absolutely

gorgeous when they harvest the cranberries.

And what they do is they float them.

They, so they fill, they flood the bogs, and all the berries

will float to the top of the bogs.

And you see these gorgeous, Giant square, I'll call them fields, but they're,

they're really enclosed areas that are flooded with water and they're square,

And they come down with helicopters, with the big crates and they fill

the helicopters and now they use, I'll call them cranberry vacuums,

and they suck all the berries out and they go into these giant wood crates.

Ocean Spray is down the corner in Wareham, Massachusetts, which is a co op.

But the color is absolutely spectacular and then the helicopters put, they

put a rope around each of these giant wood boxes and they cart them off,

but it's, it's a big tradition up there and the cranberry bogs are huge.

And you would think that Massachusetts would be the biggest place

that they produce cranberries.

Not anymore.

I think Wisconsin is where they produce more cranberries than Massachusetts.

But it's beautiful.

It's absolutely a

stunning sight to see.

If anybody gets a chance to do it, I highly recommend putting on your

bucket list a trip to Massachusetts, finding out when the cranberries

are going to be harvested.

It's worth, it's worth an

Yeah.

Uh, one other tradition I wanted to mention in my

family are November birthdays.

Tons of them.

I hit on twice Christmas presents and birthday presents all in the same two

month period on top of everything else.

All I can say is March must have been a really fertile month in

my family.

was born in March, so.

If you do the backwards thing, I think I'm right about that.

That, and as a kid, I gotta say.

I remember my Papa was a minister in Eastern Kentucky, and he

would go on and on in the prayer.

And that's wonderful, right?

I mean, we should be very grateful for what we have.

But I remember as a kid, and maybe even a little bit as an adult, can we just eat

this wonderful food before it gets cold?

So anyway.

it's a good tradition that,

you know, you're

And taking naps, right?

You know, too much turkey, trip to fan, and football, and everything else.

But even still,

Yeah, so anyway, the holiday season is upon us and we

have so much to be grateful for.

We should just all, you know, all, all of the folks out there and everything.

I mean, it's just.

Wow, the kitchen memories and all of those things, Nancy, they're so wonderful.

Everything is there, you know, I remember the cheese ball

incident with my sister in law.

You know, we left to go shopping that day and there was a cheese ball of

gourmet cheeses sitting on the table.

And we came home, it was gone.

and we said, What got the, well, your German Shepherd got.

Our German Shepherd was there with her.

And we said, Patty, Why didn't you take the cheese ball away from the dog?

I ain't messing with any German Shepherd.

He can have anything he wants.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

So these incidents, these wonderful moments.

We cherish them.

there's so much strife in the world that just stopping for

a moment to take a breath and do something as simple as cooking a turkey.

And having it for days and leftovers, for days on end, thinking, if I

can ever get rid of this damn bird,

know, but it's all good stuff.

Or lumpy mashed potatoes, I'll take it.

Absolutely.

Is there anything that you don't like about your Thanksgiving meal?

Um, I would not like Brussels sprouts.

Sorry.

I don't like sweet potatoes with those little marshmallows.

I think that's

That's un American.

Shame on you.

But all in all, it's wonderful memories.

And I remember peanut butter fudge.

That's the peanut butter fudge season from my mother in law.

She would have the best stuff and she would hide it every year and tell us

that she didn't have time to make it.

And everybody knew it was somewhere in the house.

So anyway, it's the grand, a grand scheme that, you know, made her happy.

And ultimately we ate the peanut butter fudge and made us happy.

I can't replicate that recipe.

I don't know how she did it.

don't know

Yeah, well, that's something you're going to have to

I know, maybe I'll just have to make some.

I think so.

Hey Sylvia, before we go, let's talk about mashed potatoes, because you

are a fan of mashed potatoes, and I have a really funny mashed potato

Well, I have some disastrous messages.

You know, they're harder to make than it looks.

You think they're easy, just potatoes, butter, milk, blah, blah, blah.

But I've had some disastrous ones, and I know there's some real science.

Yeah,

it was

sticky.

Yeah, sticky.

like lumpy mashed potatoes.

Yeah, I, I don't mind those, but these were sticky and,

eh, so anyway, what's your story?

What'd you do?

So I actually have two stories.

When, I was single before I met my husband, I was living in what

my parents call the commune.

It was a large house in Western Connecticut and I

didn't want to live alone.

So we, there were like eight of us in this giant house and we all

shared, you know, had our own rooms.

And then the kitchen was the congregating area.

Well, I grew up on Box mashed potatoes.

It was the days of Campbell's soup, right?

Oh, no.

You know, the flakes and whatnot.

I didn't know what mashed potatoes were, like how you make them, but the

landlady, there were the, I'll call her the house mother, made mashed potatoes.

She used the cooked potatoes, cut them up, drained them really well, put in

a lot of butter, Some full fat milk.

she added garlic, fresh chopped garlic, not the chopped garlic

that you get in the jar.

And mayonnaise, a big lump of mayonnaise.

So today I make my mashed potatoes that way and everybody says they're

fabulous.

But when, yep, but when I had dinner over at my husband's house or My boyfriend's

house, now husband, for the first time, he said, let's make mashed potatoes.

And he made a great roast chicken.

That was one of the, the ingredients that I needed in a boyfriend.

He had to cook.

He had to know how to do his own laundry.

That were the two

Yeah.

that.

But he said, let's make mashed potatoes.

And I said, okay.

So I opened the cupboard and I said, where's the box?

And he looked at me like, what do you mean,

he, he probably was ready to back out, you know,

I know that might've been the end of the relationship

right there, but he hung in.

He showed me how to make the first mashed

And the roll of butter in Thanksgiving.

The butter industry must love that holiday.

I mean, like,

whole sticks.

In everything.

you put the butter underneath the skin of the turkey,

you chop it up.

I learned that from Martha Stewart, watching her,

not in person on

TV.

Well, one more thing too, we talked about, Sabina, before we started, I was

sharing a recipe that my mother in law had for me when we first got married.

And it wasn't that we were necessarily, gourmet cooks, or she was not a gourmet

cook, but she always put bacon, loads of bacon draped over the top of the turkey

and said, you will never burn a turkey, if you put bacon on top of your turkey.

And to this day, I do that.

And at Christmas time, we do a big Christmas party and always invite friends.

And I always have the turkey draped in bacon and it's always the juiciest.

That and brining is something

I learned to do

Yeah.

Well, I have a brining story and that my son and I dropped the brine.

I mean, just like spilled it out on the floor trying to

get the turkey ready one year.

But anyway, that's my brine story.

But anyway, I'll be at your house then.

Because anything with bacon on it is my friend.

dear.

You just be sure and, uh, put out the welcome mat, okay?

Well, the welcome mat will be out.

And as they say, every good story ends with a little grace

and a little Thanksgiving.

And our grace is kind of kid like.

So here's what it goes.

It used to be like Rub a dub dub, now pass the grub.

Well, this one is Rub a dub dub.

Thanks for joining our club at Family Tree Food and Stories.

We'll see you soon.

And we'll hear you soon.

and keep eating!

Of course.

Goodbye.