Practice on a Few

Cooking all day.  Really.  I started early. Indeed.  I started yesterday.  I got up and made some coffee, and considered what I had to do.  I had already boiled and skinned the yams.  I needed to chill the bird, after I salted it and oiled it.  I figured I could do all this by putting things outside, on the porch.  It’s cold.  There are no bugs in November.

Start chopping.  First chop apples and oranges, for the Syd Barrett-conflicted tastes to juice up the bird. Stuff them inside.  The spring onions need to be halved, to get them ready for the peas.  Take the shelled peas now out of the bag and pour them into a bowl.  Now chop up all the bread and create cubes for stuffing.  These can be baked in the oven until they are crispy.  The acorn squash too, will need time, precious time, later, so we may as well put them now into the oven, with a bit of water, so they don’t burn.  You can add maple syrup to them when they're further along.  For now just make sure they’re cooked soft. 

Somewhere between my tongue and my mind is a Thanksgiving “taste” that guides me.  I don’t follow any recipes.  I don’t look for any ideas from anyone else’s book or blog.  I just want something that tastes like youth.  That tastes like the narrow confines of my maternal grandmother’s palate.  I imagine a taste and think to bake the Brussel Sprouts this year, instead of stir-frying them.  I practice on a few and it is as I imagined.  I like the taste.

The day evaporates quickly.  It is clear that most of the things on my list of to-dos that I’d imagined could be worked on in parallel, will never happen.  I try to bold the things that are most critical.  Driving out to the market for last minute items I take a phone call.  I can’t walk into the ATM because the mechanized voice is unconscionably loud.  So I stand outside, exploring what we could do to get around a staffing impasse for a client.  But I’m burning up time.  I shouldn’t have taken this call.  Finally I announce that it’s about to get loud and I get the cash I came for.  In the car now, driving, talking, and trying to be patient, as he explains the different options with great detail.  I try to summarize quickly but we both know it’s rushed.  He’s in Australia.  I’ve got to get a bird in the oven, I explain.  Oh. Right.  Thanksgiving.  Yes, I’ve a bunch of people coming over.

Thursday, 11/23/17