Eager To Keep Going

We sat down to eat Thanksgiving Dinner at 5:30 p.m.

My mother (with help from numerous hands) had prepared:

• A honey-glazed baked ham
• A giant-sized roast turkey with herb stuffing
• Two large-sized roast chickens with herb stuffing
• Oyster-herb stuffing, baked separately
• Homemade butter noodles
• Mashed potatoes
• Candied sweet potatoes
• Whipped sweet potatoes, with pineapple
• Fresh green beans, with almonds
• Shoepeg white corn
• Fresh baby carrots
• Fresh parsnips
• Brussels sprouts
• Red cabbage baked in cream and butter
• Fresh cranberries in light syrup
• Cranberry-orange relish
• Cranberry-tangerine-cream cheese-nut salad
• Homemade dinner rolls
• A relish tray of Amish pickles
• Pumpkin pie
• Pumpkin-custard pie
• Pecan pie
• Cranberry-walnut pie
• Sour cream-raisin-brandy pie

The Amish pickles were the only items not made in my mother’s kitchen. My mother orders Amish pickles year-round through the mail, liking always to keep some on hand.

Everyone ate only a tablespoon of everything. Nevertheless, when it came time for dessert, everyone had already had enough to eat. As a consequence, everyone ate one tiny sliver of pie, and called it a day.

Leftovers (including leftover Dutch Chowder, which we had for lunch) will carry us through the rest of the weekend.

When we eat Thanksgiving leftovers, we reheat nothing. We eat everything cold. As a general rule, cooked food tastes better chilled than reheated, and is not as prone to dry out.

The kids enjoyed their Thanksgiving Dinner.

The dog enjoyed his Thanksgiving Dinner.

And we enjoyed ours, too.

(Of course, the dog was cheated out of turkey, as dogs cannot be fed turkey. He was, nonetheless, quite happy with his chicken and ham—and he was the only one in the household eager to keep going when it came time for dessert.)