Latest / Family Tree Food Stories / 12 Surprising Thanksgiving Traditions to Know about, Learn and Try

Transcript

12 Surprising Thanksgiving Traditions to Know about, Learn and Try · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:00
  Nancy May: Welcome to another episode of Family Tree Food and Stories.
• 0:03
  Why don't you pull up a chair to our table as we get going with
• 0:06
  this Thanksgiving feast tradition.
• 0:09
  It's all about what happens with turkey.
• 0:13
  Sylvia Lovely: And more!
• 0:14
  Hey, Nancy, I gotta ask you a question.
• 0:17
  Nancy May: Go ahead.
• 0:18
  Sylvia Lovely: we've been talking about this a lot, just you and I, about this is
• 0:22
  the season for holidays, and we always say Halloween sort of is the gateway, and then
• 0:26
  all of a sudden it all takes off, right?
• 0:28
  And then you have Thanksgiving, you have Christmas, and you have New Year's.
• 0:31
  Well, what do you think?
• 0:33
  Do you believe that Halloween is the gateway?
• 0:36
  Nancy May: I don't know.
• 0:37
  I kind of think that, November 1st is the gateway because it's the
• 0:41
  panic to Christmas, like all the shopping that needs to be done.
• 0:44
  And then what happens?
• 0:45
  Oh my God, I didn't do anything this year.
• 0:47
  So you've got like two months to cram a year's worth of stuff in to actually
• 0:51
  say you accomplished something,
• 0:53
  Sylvia Lovely: But, what else do we do?
• 0:54
  We eat, right?
• 0:56
  Well, there is this great kickoff to the holiday season, and it's called
• 1:01
  the Fat Bear Contest in Alaska.
• 1:04
  Nancy May: Oh, my God, tell me more about that.
• 1:06
  Yeah,
• 1:07
  Sylvia Lovely: Well, it started out as a way that the park rangers were going to
• 1:10
  get the, let's see, what's the name of it, uh, Katmai National Park in Alaska.
• 1:14
  They were going to get engagement from their people, from, you know, visitors
• 1:18
  and such, and so they decided to do a fat bear one time thing, and it caught
• 1:23
  on, and it's like now just thousands of people show up, and what they show up to
• 1:28
  do is watch these scrawny little bears.
• 1:31
  Go to a particular salmon spawning place and they watch them eat
• 1:36
  salmon and they watch them gain weight and they gain and they gain.
• 1:41
  And it was in early October but they watch as the girth of these bears grow, grow.
• 1:47
  And grow, and people vote on which bear should be the bear of the year.
• 1:53
  And I, love that because that's what we become when we eat too much.
• 1:57
  So it's the beginning of the holiday season.
• 2:00
  Nancy May: I I was about to say, that's why I need like that extra fuzzy
• 2:03
  sweater, because Thanksgiving is like the beginning of let's put on the pounds,
• 2:09
  Sylvia Lovely: about, I
• 2:11
  Nancy May: of course, January 1st is let's take them all off.
• 2:14
  We've had two months to
• 2:15
  Sylvia Lovely: I know.
• 2:16
  So there you go, fat bear.
• 2:17
  That's what I feel like.
• 2:18
  But you know, you know how gradually you start eating a little bit more and you go
• 2:23
  to a reception or you go to a dinner party and you're like, Oh, I'm going to be good.
• 2:27
  I'm going to be good.
• 2:27
  And then some scrumptious dish is put out in front of you and you just can't resist
• 2:32
  and you're like, Oh, well, just this once.
• 2:35
  Nancy May: Or buffets, Thanksgiving buffet, you have the turkey, you have the
• 2:39
  gravy, you've got the potatoes, you've got the broccoli, you've got the, all right,
• 2:43
  Brussels sprouts, I love Brussels sprouts, whatever goes on there, then the cake.
• 2:46
  a Thanksgiving plate is always so small?
• 2:48
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 2:51
  I know the layout of the food is just amazing.
• 2:54
  People just let all their inner, inner cook, inner chef come
• 2:57
  out at that particular time.
• 2:59
  What's your favorite dish at
• 3:00
  Thanksgiving?
• 3:01
  Nancy May: my favorite dish, I, you know, I like Brussels sprouts,
• 3:04
  Okay, but I have to say one of my favorites is stuffing
• 3:09
  and it can't be stuffing made
• 3:11
  outside of the bird.
• 3:12
  It's got to be stuffing that's in the bird.
• 3:14
  I know I have never died from eating stuffing inside of the bird, obviously,
• 3:18
  because I'm still here talking.
• 3:20
  Sylvia Lovely: But it is an issue, right?
• 3:22
  Stuffing inside
• 3:23
  Nancy May: Well, I guess, I guess
• 3:24
  so.
• 3:25
  Sylvia Lovely: myth?
• 3:26
  I guess it
• 3:27
  Nancy May: I guess people have gotten sick over it over the years when they
• 3:30
  don't take the stuffing out of the bird.
• 3:32
  But all those little nooks and crannies that get inside pulling the
• 3:35
  stuffing out like three days later, I still eat that part because it's
• 3:39
  so juicy and the flavors of the
• 3:41
  Sylvia Lovely: Oh, yeah.
• 3:42
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:42
  Nancy May: Like I said, I haven't died
• 3:44
  Sylvia Lovely: Well, we need to ask Ms.
• 3:46
  Butterball about that.
• 3:47
  You know, Butterball has that
• 3:49
  lady or some, some, team of people, I'm sure, but they make, it's
• 3:53
  sort of like this picture of Mama in an apron, you know, answering
• 3:57
  all your questions about Turkey.
• 3:59
  I love it.
• 4:01
  Nancy May: somehow you just naturally know how to cook turkey, except for
• 4:04
  those that occasionally cook the turkey while it's still frozen and
• 4:09
  all the gizzards are in the inside.
• 4:10
  So I've never done, I've never done that, but sometimes it's not
• 4:15
  quite thought as much as I need it
• 4:16
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, you got it.
• 4:17
  And it's hard.
• 4:18
  You got to set that thing out.
• 4:20
  Put it in cold water and ice water and stuff.
• 4:22
  But, and you know, one of the interesting new traditions is that
• 4:25
  men are cooking the turkey now.
• 4:27
  Men are cooking, like
• 4:29
  Nancy May: I think they've been cooking the turkey for a long time.
• 4:31
  Maybe not at home, but as chefs, because the male chefs are the
• 4:34
  ones that are so popular as girls.
• 4:37
  Don't necessarily get the airtime that we should as far as celebrity
• 4:41
  chefs, but, but I get it.
• 4:43
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 4:44
  And the other thing that's happening is that there are, the, smokers.
• 4:49
  And fried turkeys and stuff, you know.
• 4:51
  I mean, the big egg kind of thing, you
• 4:53
  know.
• 4:53
  Big green
• 4:54
  Nancy May: Right.
• 4:54
  And you see all the stories about the fires and everything else.
• 4:57
  Yeah, no fried.
• 4:58
  My husband wanted to do a fried turkey for years and I said, no way in hell.
• 5:01
  Are you doing a fried turkey?
• 5:03
  Not if I can help it.
• 5:04
  The one in the oven is just fine.
• 5:06
  And our oven, by the way, back home in Connecticut, before we moved,
• 5:09
  we were there for almost 30 years.
• 5:12
  Our oven was a, a true traditional mid century oven.
• 5:15
  it was Frigidaire made by General Motors.
• 5:18
  And the oven didn't always quite work the same, so I always had to have the
• 5:21
  temperature gauge in there and adjust it a little bit, but it always worked.
• 5:26
  For some reason, that bird cooked beautifully and always had a
• 5:30
  like, ooh, ah, when it came
• 5:32
  Sylvia Lovely: Let me ask you a question about the oven.
• 5:35
  Did you choose that kind of oven or did it come with the house
• 5:38
  or something?
• 5:39
  Nancy May: It came with the house, it was a 1950s traditional
• 5:42
  mid century modern house.
• 5:44
  And as much as I didn't like it initially, we just kept it.
• 5:47
  We just never updated the house.
• 5:49
  I wanted to have it restored and I never got there.
• 5:51
  And our stovetop was made like a Murphy bed.
• 5:54
  It too was General Motors, it was a Frigidaire made by General Motors.
• 5:58
  And one year at one of our Christmas parties, a friend found a little
• 6:02
  glass measuring cup that said Frigidaire made by General Motors.
• 6:06
  She brought it as
• 6:07
  Sylvia Lovely: How awesome.
• 6:08
  Oh, that's so retro.
• 6:10
  Now, let me ask you another question.
• 6:12
  Did it have a gas stovetop or
• 6:14
  was it electric?
• 6:15
  Nancy May: no, it was all electric.
• 6:16
  Yeah, Murphy bed, they, they literally folded up into the
• 6:20
  Sylvia Lovely: Okay, well, there's all that controversy now about gas
• 6:22
  versus electric, that gas is better.
• 6:25
  You know, it'd be interesting to ask our folks, you know,
• 6:27
  out there who are listening,
• 6:29
  what do you
• 6:30
  Nancy May: Well, I grew up on gas and I loved it.
• 6:32
  I didn't like electric, but, the new home that we're building has
• 6:35
  got one of those induction tops.
• 6:36
  So I hear that that's better than both.
• 6:39
  Sylvia Lovely: Really?
• 6:40
  Ah, well, there you go.
• 6:41
  Anyway, talking about cooking that turkey and all those
• 6:45
  wonderful sides that come with it.
• 6:47
  And there's some other new traditions out there.
• 6:50
  Let's see here, um, People are eating like the original Pilgrims did, too.
• 6:55
  If they don't want turkey, venison.
• 6:57
  Venison, for instance.
• 6:59
  Beans, hard biscuits, things like that.
• 7:02
  Wild
• 7:02
  Nancy May: Hard biscuits
• 7:03
  Sylvia Lovely: I know it doesn't.
• 7:04
  No, it doesn't.
• 7:05
  I can't imagine why you wouldn't do that, but anyway.
• 7:08
  Wild turkey and other game meats are kind of gaining in popularity.
• 7:12
  Nancy May: So we spent one Thanksgiving in Plymouth at
• 7:15
  Sylvia Lovely: You told
• 7:15
  Nancy May: Plantation.
• 7:16
  yeah, it wasn't the actual Thanksgiving day.
• 7:19
  They do a week long celebration of Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation,
• 7:23
  and it was really interesting because they've got the Indian side
• 7:26
  and they've got the Pilgrim side.
• 7:28
  And what I learned is that Thanksgiving really wasn't a Thanksgiving.
• 7:33
  Feast or a Feast of Thanksgiving.
• 7:35
  It was a bunch of drunken pilgrims who were shooting off shotguns, and
• 7:39
  the warning sign that the Indians told the pilgrims that they should
• 7:42
  shoot the guns up in the air, and we'll come running to help you if
• 7:46
  you need in case you come in danger.
• 7:48
  So the Indians come And there's just a bunch of drunken pilgrims
• 7:52
  shooting guns off in the air.
• 7:53
  Well, the Indians weren't too happy, but the Indians, it's really kind of
• 7:58
  sad because the Indians talk about it as a day of mourning because all the
• 8:02
  disease that the pilgrims brought with them that the Indians weren't used to.
• 8:05
  So, it was kind of a strange experience, but I had a new appreciation for really
• 8:11
  what went on and how those people lived.
• 8:13
  you And I think the Indians actually lived better than the Pilgrims because
• 8:17
  those huts and dirt floors and they were pretty tiny and gross and close
• 8:23
  where the Indians had their large huts still on the dirt floors, but
• 8:28
  these people really knew how to live.
• 8:30
  And the Pilgrims were
• 8:33
  Sylvia Lovely: they were displaced.
• 8:34
  Yeah.
• 8:34
  And they were, I think there were like 23 of them.
• 8:36
  And then, you know, this sort of set up this kind of antagonism
• 8:40
  that sort of went from there.
• 8:42
  But, you know,
• 8:43
  we'll,
• 8:44
  Nancy May: Well, antagonism does happen at Thanksgiving tables still today,
• 8:47
  Sylvia Lovely: that the truth?
• 8:50
  Well we have a rule at our Thanksgiving tables.
• 8:53
  No politics.
• 8:54
  I'm just saying.
• 8:55
  We're not going to go
• 8:56
  there.
• 8:56
  Okay.
• 8:58
  Nancy May: did you know how the first turkey pardon happened?
• 9:02
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 9:03
  Yeah.
• 9:03
  Tell us.
• 9:04
  Nancy May: So, the first turkey pardoned by the president actually started with
• 9:08
  JFK, and it was the turkey lobby party.
• 9:12
  No pun intended.
• 9:14
  Turkeys don't hang out at lobbies.
• 9:16
  That actually gave a free turkey to the president's family.
• 9:19
  And they said the deal was that they shouldn't, off with its
• 9:22
  head, they should actually not eat the turkey, but pardon it.
• 9:26
  So that's how the first presidential turkey pardon happened.
• 9:30
  Sylvia Lovely: I love that.
• 9:30
  You know, I would have thought that was like ancient, but it wasn't, you
• 9:33
  know,
• 9:34
  so
• 9:35
  very interesting.
• 9:36
  yeah, so that's, and then you have Black Friday, that's a tradition
• 9:39
  that is new, and, Friendsgiving.
• 9:41
  As our children are scattered everywhere and family is scattered, then you
• 9:44
  become to, you come to adopting your new family, which is your friends.
• 9:49
  I know my kids do that.
• 9:50
  They do a Friendsgiving, and then they do the traditional Thanksgiving.
• 9:53
  Nancy May: And, even, spending Thanksgiving at soup kitchens.
• 9:57
  Bob and I did that, for a number of years in Westport, Connecticut at
• 10:00
  the local congregational church we weren't not members of, but it was a
• 10:03
  big tradition up there in Westport.
• 10:05
  And so we went and we had a blast actually, it was so much fun.
• 10:10
  And people came from all over the area, whether you were rich or poor or whatnot.
• 10:15
  And.
• 10:16
  What happened is everybody just sort of jumped in.
• 10:19
  There was no particular leader.
• 10:21
  We all knew what to do.
• 10:22
  The turkeys were donated, the food was cooked, and when there was a
• 10:26
  hole or a slot that needed to be filled, somebody jumped in and did it.
• 10:29
  Now, we did this for a couple of years until Somebody decided, must
• 10:34
  have been some local CEO, that they had to be more officially organized.
• 10:38
  There was a leader, there was a person who managed what station you went to, you
• 10:43
  had the name tags, and it just ruined it.
• 10:47
  So we kind of stopped at that one and opened our doors to
• 10:50
  friends and family at our own
• 10:52
  home.
• 10:54
  Sylvia Lovely: That's really a great story, because I think there is
• 10:56
  that sort of modern mentality that everything has to be organized.
• 11:00
  And maybe sometimes it's better not, you know, maybe
• 11:04
  that's what we need.
• 11:04
  Nancy May: A little like, it's like mashing up your potatoes.
• 11:07
  You know, sometimes the lumps help,
• 11:09
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, yeah, imperfections, you know, bringing out the inner Brene
• 11:13
  Brown in us or something, I don't know.
• 11:16
  Hey,
• 11:16
  Nancy May: And turkey trots.
• 11:17
  What about
• 11:18
  turkey trots?
• 11:18
  Did you ever do a turkey trot?
• 11:20
  Sylvia Lovely: I'm an avowed non turkey trotter.
• 11:22
  But we do have some old traditions that never die, didn't
• 11:25
  need to take a break, Nancy.
• 11:28
  Nancy May: back.
• 11:35
  Okay, Sylvia.
• 11:36
  Now, we mentioned turkey trots.
• 11:38
  We'll start there.
• 11:39
  Because turkeys, I guess, you want your turkey fat.
• 11:43
  You don't want them running around the corner.
• 11:44
  So, for any reasons, right?
• 11:46
  You know, that's just not working.
• 11:47
  But anyway, I did a turkey trot for a number of years.
• 11:50
  And one year, it rained so hard that when I got to the end, I ran past Bob,
• 11:56
  and then had to come around behind him.
• 11:57
  He didn't see me.
• 11:58
  And I tapped him on the shoulder and he said, Where did you go?
• 12:02
  I was looking for you.
• 12:03
  Well, I look so much like a drowned rat he didn't even recognize
• 12:06
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 12:09
  No, I won't do that.
• 12:10
  Yeah, I'm not gonna do that.
• 12:11
  Hey, let me ask you about the turkey.
• 12:13
  You know, I remember we just would go to the grocery store and they
• 12:15
  had like these huge bins of turkeys.
• 12:18
  Now people like order them in advance and they're like different breeds of turkeys.
• 12:22
  There's
• 12:22
  organic
• 12:23
  turkeys and I mean, it's, you gotta get like reserve a turkey And
• 12:27
  that's kind of a, a new tradition.
• 12:29
  I just think the good old turkey is, you know, that you get in the grocery store.
• 12:33
  I love it.
• 12:33
  I love turkey.
• 12:34
  Some
• 12:35
  Nancy May: The frozen one.
• 12:36
  Well, and there was a while back, there was this trend called the Triducan.
• 12:40
  Have you ever heard of the Triducan?
• 12:42
  Sylvia Lovely: Tell me about it.
• 12:43
  Nancy May: Yeah.
• 12:43
  So you take the turkey and inside the turkey, you put a duck, then a chicken,
• 12:49
  or maybe it's the chicken and the duck.
• 12:51
  So you're stuffing all these different poultry's.
• 12:53
  I think you actually need to start with the capon.
• 12:55
  So you, the capon goes inside the guts of the turkey or the chicken.
• 13:00
  Then the chicken goes sides in the guts of the turkey then, or turkey.
• 13:04
  Wait a second.
• 13:05
  So I've got this confused.
• 13:07
  So the capon, then the chicken, then the duck, then the turkey.
• 13:12
  So it goes from teeny to large.
• 13:15
  And now
• 13:15
  Sylvia Lovely: have a big turkey.
• 13:17
  Nancy May: right?
• 13:17
  And all these bones.
• 13:18
  Like, that's not the stuffing I'm looking for.
• 13:20
  I want the bread, the buttery, the juicy, the onions, the
• 13:23
  celery, the old traditional.
• 13:25
  you know, stuffing.
• 13:26
  But, we did it one year.
• 13:28
  we bought one and, we bought it at Stu Leonard's in Norwalk, Connecticut.
• 13:32
  It was the worst piece of meat I've ever had
• 13:34
  Sylvia Lovely: I bet.
• 13:37
  And those poor birds.
• 13:38
  I don't
• 13:39
  Nancy May: I know.
• 13:39
  right?
• 13:40
  They died for me and my experimentation of like, this is disgusting,
• 13:45
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, and what is it called?
• 13:46
  Nancy May: It's called a Treducan.
• 13:48
  Sylvia Lovely: Oh dear, I'll stay away from that.
• 13:50
  Uh, let's see what do we have going on?
• 13:52
  We have our crazy uncle who tells the same stories every year.
• 13:55
  my least favorite thing on the Thanksgiving table is cranberry sauce
• 14:00
  in, that's taken right directly out of the can and dumped in a serving
• 14:04
  dish with the ridges on it still.
• 14:06
  Nancy May: The
• 14:06
  Sylvia Lovely: I mean, like, ah, my dad loved it and it had to have the ridges.
• 14:12
  don't know
• 14:12
  Nancy May: You know, I actually like the canned stuff, but I'm happy the
• 14:15
  whole cranberries, not the jelly stuff.
• 14:16
  My dad liked the jelly stuff too, but yeah, no, I'm, I'm
• 14:20
  not a fan of the jelly stuff.
• 14:21
  Give me the ones with the whole cranberries and we're good.
• 14:23
  Now we lived up in Massachusetts when I was a kid.
• 14:27
  We moved from Long Island to Massachusetts, March of my junior
• 14:29
  year in high school, and they have cranberry bogs up there.
• 14:33
  Sylvia Lovely: Redberry what?
• 14:33
  Nancy May: Cranberry Bogs.
• 14:35
  The bogs in the fall are absolutely
• 14:37
  gorgeous when they harvest the cranberries.
• 14:41
  And what they do is they float them.
• 14:43
  They, so they fill, they flood the bogs, and all the berries
• 14:46
  will float to the top of the bogs.
• 14:48
  And you see these gorgeous, Giant square, I'll call them fields, but they're,
• 14:53
  they're really enclosed areas that are flooded with water and they're square,
• 14:59
  And they come down with helicopters, with the big crates and they fill
• 15:02
  the helicopters and now they use, I'll call them cranberry vacuums,
• 15:07
  and they suck all the berries out and they go into these giant wood crates.
• 15:10
  Ocean Spray is down the corner in Wareham, Massachusetts, which is a co op.
• 15:15
  But the color is absolutely spectacular and then the helicopters put, they
• 15:20
  put a rope around each of these giant wood boxes and they cart them off,
• 15:25
  but it's, it's a big tradition up there and the cranberry bogs are huge.
• 15:30
  And you would think that Massachusetts would be the biggest place
• 15:33
  that they produce cranberries.
• 15:35
  Not anymore.
• 15:36
  I think Wisconsin is where they produce more cranberries than Massachusetts.
• 15:41
  But it's beautiful.
• 15:42
  It's absolutely a
• 15:43
  stunning sight to see.
• 15:44
  If anybody gets a chance to do it, I highly recommend putting on your
• 15:48
  bucket list a trip to Massachusetts, finding out when the cranberries
• 15:52
  are going to be harvested.
• 15:54
  It's worth, it's worth an
• 15:55
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 15:56
  Uh, one other tradition I wanted to mention in my
• 15:59
  family are November birthdays.
• 16:01
  Tons of them.
• 16:02
  I hit on twice Christmas presents and birthday presents all in the same two
• 16:07
  month period on top of everything else.
• 16:10
  All I can say is March must have been a really fertile month in
• 16:15
  my family.
• 16:16
  Nancy May: was born in March, so.
• 16:18
  Sylvia Lovely: If you do the backwards thing, I think I'm right about that.
• 16:21
  That, and as a kid, I gotta say.
• 16:23
  I remember my Papa was a minister in Eastern Kentucky, and he
• 16:29
  would go on and on in the prayer.
• 16:32
  And that's wonderful, right?
• 16:33
  I mean, we should be very grateful for what we have.
• 16:36
  But I remember as a kid, and maybe even a little bit as an adult, can we just eat
• 16:40
  this wonderful food before it gets cold?
• 16:43
  So anyway.
• 16:44
  it's a good tradition that,
• 16:46
  you know, you're
• 16:47
  Nancy May: And taking naps, right?
• 16:48
  You know, too much turkey, trip to fan, and football, and everything else.
• 16:53
  But even still,
• 16:54
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, so anyway, the holiday season is upon us and we
• 16:59
  have so much to be grateful for.
• 17:01
  We should just all, you know, all, all of the folks out there and everything.
• 17:05
  I mean, it's just.
• 17:06
  Wow, the kitchen memories and all of those things, Nancy, they're so wonderful.
• 17:11
  Everything is there, you know, I remember the cheese ball
• 17:15
  incident with my sister in law.
• 17:17
  You know, we left to go shopping that day and there was a cheese ball of
• 17:20
  gourmet cheeses sitting on the table.
• 17:22
  And we came home, it was gone.
• 17:24
  and we said, What got the, well, your German Shepherd got.
• 17:28
  Our German Shepherd was there with her.
• 17:30
  And we said, Patty, Why didn't you take the cheese ball away from the dog?
• 17:35
  I ain't messing with any German Shepherd.
• 17:37
  He can have anything he wants.
• 17:39
  Ha, ha, ha, ha.
• 17:40
  So these incidents, these wonderful moments.
• 17:43
  We cherish them.
• 17:44
  Nancy May: there's so much strife in the world that just stopping for
• 17:47
  a moment to take a breath and do something as simple as cooking a turkey.
• 17:53
  And having it for days and leftovers, for days on end, thinking, if I
• 17:58
  can ever get rid of this damn bird,
• 18:00
  Sylvia Lovely: know, but it's all good stuff.
• 18:01
  Or lumpy mashed potatoes, I'll take it.
• 18:05
  Nancy May: Absolutely.
• 18:06
  Is there anything that you don't like about your Thanksgiving meal?
• 18:09
  Sylvia Lovely: Um, I would not like Brussels sprouts.
• 18:14
  Sorry.
• 18:15
  Nancy May: I don't like sweet potatoes with those little marshmallows.
• 18:18
  I think that's
• 18:18
  Sylvia Lovely: That's un American.
• 18:20
  Shame on you.
• 18:22
  But all in all, it's wonderful memories.
• 18:24
  And I remember peanut butter fudge.
• 18:26
  That's the peanut butter fudge season from my mother in law.
• 18:29
  She would have the best stuff and she would hide it every year and tell us
• 18:33
  that she didn't have time to make it.
• 18:35
  And everybody knew it was somewhere in the house.
• 18:37
  So anyway, it's the grand, a grand scheme that, you know, made her happy.
• 18:42
  And ultimately we ate the peanut butter fudge and made us happy.
• 18:45
  I can't replicate that recipe.
• 18:46
  I don't know how she did it.
• 18:48
  don't know
• 18:49
  Nancy May: Yeah, well, that's something you're going to have to
• 18:51
  Sylvia Lovely: I know, maybe I'll just have to make some.
• 18:53
  Nancy May: I think so.
• 18:54
  Hey Sylvia, before we go, let's talk about mashed potatoes, because you
• 18:59
  are a fan of mashed potatoes, and I have a really funny mashed potato
• 19:02
  Sylvia Lovely: Well, I have some disastrous messages.
• 19:04
  You know, they're harder to make than it looks.
• 19:08
  You think they're easy, just potatoes, butter, milk, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:12
  But I've had some disastrous ones, and I know there's some real science.
• 19:16
  Yeah,
• 19:16
  it was
• 19:16
  sticky.
• 19:17
  Yeah, sticky.
• 19:18
  Nancy May: like lumpy mashed potatoes.
• 19:19
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I, I don't mind those, but these were sticky and,
• 19:22
  eh, so anyway, what's your story?
• 19:23
  What'd you do?
• 19:25
  Nancy May: So I actually have two stories.
• 19:27
  When, I was single before I met my husband, I was living in what
• 19:30
  my parents call the commune.
• 19:32
  It was a large house in Western Connecticut and I
• 19:35
  didn't want to live alone.
• 19:36
  So we, there were like eight of us in this giant house and we all
• 19:39
  shared, you know, had our own rooms.
• 19:41
  And then the kitchen was the congregating area.
• 19:43
  Well, I grew up on Box mashed potatoes.
• 19:46
  It was the days of Campbell's soup, right?
• 19:49
  Sylvia Lovely: Oh, no.
• 19:50
  Nancy May: You know, the flakes and whatnot.
• 19:52
  I didn't know what mashed potatoes were, like how you make them, but the
• 19:55
  landlady, there were the, I'll call her the house mother, made mashed potatoes.
• 19:59
  She used the cooked potatoes, cut them up, drained them really well, put in
• 20:03
  a lot of butter, Some full fat milk.
• 20:06
  she added garlic, fresh chopped garlic, not the chopped garlic
• 20:10
  that you get in the jar.
• 20:12
  And mayonnaise, a big lump of mayonnaise.
• 20:15
  So today I make my mashed potatoes that way and everybody says they're
• 20:19
  fabulous.
• 20:20
  But when, yep, but when I had dinner over at my husband's house or My boyfriend's
• 20:26
  house, now husband, for the first time, he said, let's make mashed potatoes.
• 20:29
  And he made a great roast chicken.
• 20:31
  That was one of the, the ingredients that I needed in a boyfriend.
• 20:35
  He had to cook.
• 20:37
  He had to know how to do his own laundry.
• 20:40
  That were the two
• 20:41
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 20:42
  that.
• 20:42
  Nancy May: But he said, let's make mashed potatoes.
• 20:44
  And I said, okay.
• 20:45
  So I opened the cupboard and I said, where's the box?
• 20:48
  And he looked at me like, what do you mean,
• 20:50
  Sylvia Lovely: he, he probably was ready to back out, you know,
• 20:53
  Nancy May: I know that might've been the end of the relationship
• 20:56
  right there, but he hung in.
• 20:58
  He showed me how to make the first mashed
• 21:00
  Sylvia Lovely: And the roll of butter in Thanksgiving.
• 21:03
  The butter industry must love that holiday.
• 21:05
  I mean, like,
• 21:06
  whole sticks.
• 21:07
  In everything.
• 21:08
  Nancy May: you put the butter underneath the skin of the turkey,
• 21:10
  you chop it up.
• 21:12
  I learned that from Martha Stewart, watching her,
• 21:15
  not in person on
• 21:16
  TV.
• 21:17
  Well, one more thing too, we talked about, Sabina, before we started, I was
• 21:21
  sharing a recipe that my mother in law had for me when we first got married.
• 21:26
  And it wasn't that we were necessarily, gourmet cooks, or she was not a gourmet
• 21:31
  cook, but she always put bacon, loads of bacon draped over the top of the turkey
• 21:36
  and said, you will never burn a turkey, if you put bacon on top of your turkey.
• 21:41
  And to this day, I do that.
• 21:43
  And at Christmas time, we do a big Christmas party and always invite friends.
• 21:47
  And I always have the turkey draped in bacon and it's always the juiciest.
• 21:51
  That and brining is something
• 21:53
  I learned to do
• 21:53
  Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
• 21:54
  Well, I have a brining story and that my son and I dropped the brine.
• 21:57
  I mean, just like spilled it out on the floor trying to
• 22:00
  get the turkey ready one year.
• 22:01
  But anyway, that's my brine story.
• 22:03
  But anyway, I'll be at your house then.
• 22:05
  Because anything with bacon on it is my friend.
• 22:09
  dear.
• 22:09
  You just be sure and, uh, put out the welcome mat, okay?
• 22:13
  Nancy May: Well, the welcome mat will be out.
• 22:15
  And as they say, every good story ends with a little grace
• 22:18
  and a little Thanksgiving.
• 22:20
  And our grace is kind of kid like.
• 22:23
  So here's what it goes.
• 22:25
  It used to be like Rub a dub dub, now pass the grub.
• 22:27
  Well, this one is Rub a dub dub.
• 22:29
  Thanks for joining our club at Family Tree Food and Stories.
• 22:32
  We'll see you soon.
• 22:33
  And we'll hear you soon.
• 22:35
  and keep eating!
• 22:36
  Sylvia Lovely: Of course.
• 22:37
  Goodbye.