Dum-di-dum! The winner of an e-copy of VERMONT ESCAPE is commenter is Helena Fairfax. Let me know what format you’d like to receive the book, Helena. Thanks for all the comments. I had such a good time, we’ll have to do this more often.
I know, I know, Thanksgiving is past. We all sat around our tables exactly one week ago today stuffing our faces. I didn’t want to interrupt your family time (for all in the US who celebrate) with a blog post, but I do want to talk Turkey with you because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And I feel it gets a bit short changed as Christmas has crept backwards to right before Halloween!
All I need for the perfect Thanksgiving dinner is turkey (like the one above), dressing, and cranberry sauce. Everyone raves about my husband’s moist, delectable turkey! My father generously let DH take on the job when we first married. Some day we expect one of the sons-in-law to take it over from DH. I make the dressing and the fresh cranberry sauce. Both are now as good as my mother’s were, if I do say so myself. 
All the other foods that cram themselves onto our table the end of November are there because someone else needs them or wants to make them. More about this later. (Called a tease. 
)
I’ve never written a strictly holiday book, but I should probably take a stab at it. Holidays play a big role in VERMONT ESCAPE, my first published book. At one point, my heroine compares a Fourth of July in Woodstock, VT to celebrations in Texas. They are similar in fireworks displays, but they take place in such different temperatures they could be on different planets!
Then there’s a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Woodstock Inn (www.woodstockinn.com) (Friends took us to dinner here on our first visit to New England. I’m so grateful.). The heroine shares the meal with her grown children who’ve come for a visit. Christmas dinner is celebrated at the home of the hero’s mother with all the family and friends gathered around. And of course, beautiful, soft, quiet flakes of snow fall gently from the grey skies. The scent of fireplaces and fresh pine greenery fill the air. Just lovely. Sigh.
TRUTH BE TOLD, my second book coming out Spring/Summer 2014, is set in Fort Worth. The majority of the story takes place during the two weeks between Christmas and New Year’s. (But it’s not a Christmas story.) Except for one year in Austin, I’ve lived all of my married life in Fort Worth. We’ve had snow on Christmas Eve only two times, and it’s always gone by mid-afternoon. 
But I love snow and since it’s my book, I made it snow on Christmas Eve. I had great fun writing those scenes. 
Now I mentioned a teaser above. Every family member has a food they must eat to make it a memorable Thanksgiving meal. Both sons-in-law think we need to have mac and cheese! What’s with that? We’ve already got dressing (Not the cornbread kind. Please!) with chestnuts that are the hardest thing in the world to peel. None of the different ways I’ve tried for shelling are very efficient. But my parents put chestnuts in the dressing, and I think they need to be there. Although this year we didn’t have any because I ruined a pot when I got busy editing, and the water boiled out. Big stinky mess! YUK!
Sweet potatoes are a must. Back in the day, a great aunt made those. Now my older daughter makes it, using a recipe from my mother’s Georgia niece. Somebody else insists we have mashed potatoes. By my count now we’ve got four starches! Yikes. Plus rolls! Mother never served a special meal without rolls!
She always made coleslaw, too. I think this was her effort to have something to counteract all the starches. LOL However, we make it with real mayo, and add a bit of sugar, a tad of S & P, a couple of drops of vinegar, and a drop or so of milk to get the right consistency. Oh, and celery seeds. Notice I gave no measurements for this. She just threw it all together in a mayo jar, shook, and tasted, so that’s what I do.
Another great aunt always brought sausage balls and “Christmas munch” as snacks before the meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our older daughter has taken up making sure we have those. DH is very grateful! Our younger daughter makes fake sausage balls because she doesn’t eat meat. Actually, they are pretty darn tasty. She also brings Auntie’s corn casserole made with cream cheese! She remembers me making green bean casserole when they were little, so she’s taken over responsibility for this dish, too. And the rolls!
And finally, we get to dessert! Pumpkin Pie, of course. My mother’s was the best. This became my job when she was no longer able to cook. It’s funny. I follow the exact recipe, and I say just what she always did. “I don’t think this is as good as last year’s.” We have high expectations for pumpkin pie in my family. LOL (This year’s table.) 
And then the year arrived when all the older family had passed on but one great aunt. Both girls were going to their in-laws for Thanksgiving. The first time we’d be without them. DH and I drove over to Dallas and took Auntie to her favorite cafeteria. The food was good, and I discovered lots of people eat out that day. Who knew? Good friends asked us to join them and their family when we returned. It was lovely. My friend had recently redone her dining room. She had a fantastic table that easily sat fourteen. You could’ve expected to see photographs of the room in one of the home decorating magazines. Perfect setting, great friends, and good food, but it wasn’t “our “food.
And that’s why we serve so many different items at Thanksgiving. Everyone needs to eat for this one holiday whatever it is that tells them they are loved and with family—however that family is defined.
What are the three things you must have for it to be the perfect Thanksgiving meal? (If not for Thanksgiving, a similar holiday meal.) Do you eat in the middle of the day or in the evening? How do you work our sharing with the in-laws?
(Wild turnkey in our back yard a few years ago. DH took picture to prove he wasn’t making this up. He did not end up on our table!)
Anyone who comments has a chance to win an e-copy of VERMONT ESCAPE! Leave your email as marsha at marsharwest dot com. Love to hear from you.