Thanksgiving Traditions

It was a strange Thanksgiving for our family. I think everyone was worn out by a rather grueling Fall schedule which culminated on the Sunday before Thanksgiving with the State Gymnastics Championship for my daughter where she placed 7th all-around in her age-group. She had a great first competitive gymnastics season, placing 1st all-around in the North Sectional Championships.

She went into the State meet expecting to win and was extremely disappointed by finishing seventh. The Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving both my son and daughter were sick with the stomach flu; they were feeling better on Wednesday. Aimee felt well enough to go to gymnastics practice on Wednesday night. We shopped for Thanksgiving dinner food on Wednesday and Chuck made potatoes au gratin on Wednesday night while I stayed at the gym for four hours with Aimee. After an hour and a half drive home (fifteen miles on the LA freeway on the evening before Thanksgiving), I had a stomach-ache and went to bed without eating, hoping I’d feel better in the morning because I had to get up and marathon cook.

Okay, so I woke up feeling terrible. I won't go into the gory details but suffice it to say that it was the stomach flu. Strangely enough Chuck and I were both sick at the same time and neither of us were up to getting the turkey stuffed and in the oven. The kids were kind of amazed, "What no Thanksgiving dinner?, But it's Thanksgiving! My son Eric offered to do the cooking but I knew that despite his good intentions he would get stuck and need me to come help, and the thought of oyster stuffing, well you know.
We told them to fend for themselves, there was frozen pizza in the freezer, or heat up some potatoes au gratin and have some pumpkin pie.

The kids survived, we both felt well enough on Friday to cook and so we had Thanksgiving dinner a day late. I was really happy that I hadn't invited anyone to eat with us so no one was disappointed but our family and they got over it.

This brings me to the title of the post which is Thanksgiving traditions. Being sick on Thanksgiving is not one of our traditions thank God and I don't intend starting it now. But we do have a traditional New Orleans menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I wanted to share it here. I grew up in the suburbs of New Orlean and this is what I normally cook for Thanksgiving dinner:

Oyster stuffing
Turkey
Jambalaya
Potatoes au Gratin
Broccoli Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Gravy
Salad
Homemade Bread or Dinner rolls

After dinner is over I pick the meat off the Turkey carcass and boil it for several hours to make the stock for gumbo. The day after Thanksgiving we have gumbo. I've been working for many years to try to duplicate my mother's recipe which I was didn't get from her before she passed away when I was 21. I still don't have it down but I am close.

I read an article in the local newspaper a couple weeks ago about the displaced children from New Orleans in schools in Los Angeles. When asked what they missed most about New Orleans almost every one of them mentioned the food and especially gumbo! It's that good!

I always encourage young adults I know to get their mother's traditional recipes while they have them available; learn how to make those special dishes. I wish I had. But like I said, I am getting close after 20 some years of trying.