Turkey, Dressing, and Sweet potato Pie. Oh My!
With just a few day left before Christmas, my mind has taken a stroll through Christmas’ past. I can remember sitting around the table with my mother preparing food for the big day. No microwave in sight, neither was there a food processor unless I was counted as one. I can remember sitting at the Formica table with the big crock bowel cutting up ingredients for the stuffing. On the stove would be a pot with turkey parts like the neck , liver, and gizzard cooking with onions, celery, and spices to make the broth to put in the dressing. No canned stuff was available back then for my mom.
Oh boy was the smell of cornbread from scratch baking in the oven good. Once the cornbread was done we would take a break and eat warm cornbread with country fresh buttermilk. That is a treat you would have to have grown up on. Let me tell you, cold butter milk so thick it coats the glass with the hot cornbread is a treat not to be missed.
Each year my Grandfather would raise us a turkey in his back yard or once he got too sick to venture too far from the house, it was raised in the basement. I remember the last one was thirty pounds! No joke! That sucker was so big I thought it would take my mom on in a battle to her death!! Since this was the days before the turkey roasting bags you would have to baste that bad boy and everytime you opened the oven the smell would make your mouth water.
No self respecting southern family would have Xmas with out fresh greens. Kale, Mustard, Collard take your pick. Today they are a chore but back then it was a major task. Here was a job young girls learned to do early in life. Picking the greens and washing them five or six times was rewarded once they were cooked in the big pot with a ham bone or ham hocks. YUM! YUM!
My little maternal Grandmother often cooked the sweet potato pies. I can still see her in her apron with her long braids wrapped around her head. This pie could bring on a heart attack just thinking about all that went in it. Fresh real cream butter and sugar. The crust was so flaky that is would melt in your mouth!
This is only a few things I’ll talk about here but believe me the table would be filled with great dishes so wonderful and tasty but it palled in comparison to the fun we had sitting around the table making food for the family. The smell, the noise, and feelings can never be forgotten.