LEFTOVERS BE UNTO THEE

Earlier in the week I had put up a notice that Leon Thompson had sent out regarding what to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers and included an account of leftovers at our house some 40+ years ago when I emailed him. I had hoped some of you would have sent in your accounts and suggestions from Fairfax for the article that was to be in today's St. Albans Messenger. Below is Leon's Article, however also besides this article in the paper are some recipes as well.

Leftovers be unto thee

Time-honored strategies in post-Thanksgiving days

By LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writer

ST. ALBANS –– So you peered inside your refrigerator Friday and grimaced when you learned the Thanksgiving Leftovers Fairy did not visit your home, swipe your Tupperware-stored turkey, and leave a dollar under your pillow.

What to do with all that carnage?

Julie Benay might have a solution.

“This topic (Thanksgiving leftovers) always makes me smile, because of the late, great Dee Dee Jameson, my mother,” said Benay, associate principal for Swanton schools.

“She had this old car that barely ran,” Benay remembered, “and until she gave it to the Good News Garage, she always used it as a back-up refrigerator for the Thanksgiving leftovers.

“She would wrap up the turkey, stuffing, etc. and put them on the back seat of the car in the garage of our Jericho farmhouse.”

For the record: It was a Toyota.

True, not everyone has a jalopy that doubles as an icebox. But you would be hard-pressed to find a household on the last Friday of November that doesn’t give its microwave a good workout cooling those Thanksgiving’s remains.

Leftovers are as much a part of Thanksgiving tradition as The Today Show’s Matt, Katie and Al donning earmuffs on Times Square. Unless, of course, this year, you are Charlie Moore.

Last Sunday, Moore’s wife, Sheri, broke her wrist, which meant Charlie, regional vice president for RailAmerica, was on Thanksgiving dinner duty for the first time.

Moore rushed a call into local grocery stores to inquire about take-out. Too late. No more orders, and no luck.

His hope was that everyone would say, “Charlie, this turkey is excellent, and you did a great job with the pumpkin pie.” He had his doubts.

“If that does happen,” he said earlier this week, “I’m sure they will just be trying to be nice.”

The next stop for Moore’s first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner was the garbage disposal.

“Leftovers?” he said. “You must be kidding. Sorry, but the garbage disposal will be the best place.”

At least it didn’t go hungry.

Here is how other local residents responded when the Messenger asked how they handle Thanksgiving leftovers:

•“What leftovers?” asked Donna Corrigan, BFA-St. Albans school director, followed by a reference to her son. “Have you seen Andy? He's 6 feet tall and eating us out of house and home!”

•“With teenagers still in the house, those few scraps that escape being eaten on Thanksgiving Day seldom make it through the weekend,” agreed Larry Kempton, Highgate town administrator. “Tupperware is really useful.”

•Rep. Alan Parent, R-St. Albans City, and his large, French-Canadian family traditionally spend Thanksgiving Day together. This year, there was one addition: Parent’s relatively new bride.

“The trick with leftovers is to get your hands on some if you attend a Thanksgiving feast at someone else’s house,” Parent explained. “In the past, I could give my aunts or Mom the old bachelor routine. That worked well for many years.

“I'll have to retool this strategy, with this being my first Thanksgiving as a married man. It will be especially difficult with them knowing that my new wife is such a good cook.”

•“Thanksgiving at our house is always a lot of fun, especially now that the kids are older, and a lot of their friends come over,” said Rep. Carolyn Branagan, R-Georgia. “I love to cook, and we usually have 20 to 30 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Other assorted friends come in and out the rest of the weekend.

“The most interesting food we have, I suppose, is the cranberry relish. Made from an old recipe involving my mom 's 65-year-old, hand-powered food grinder, the relish calls for apples, oranges, white sugar and lots of fresh cranberry. It is delicious.

“I always make about a gallon of it for Thanksgiving, but only about half is used on Turkey Day. I put the rest in the refrigerator in a glass jar, and it ferments during the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Believe me, it is really tasty on Christmas Day!

“About the other leftovers: They are not usually a problem, since my children have friends that stop in all weekend. In fact, by Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend, I always figure on making a casserole or lasagna to feed them.

“Have you ever watched a 20-year-old man eat? It's non-stop, especially if the food is homemade.”

•Fairfax resident and historian Henry Raymond and his wife, Maryann, have been married 45-plus years. In the early stages of their blissful relationship, they were hosts for Thanksgiving dinner.

“Maryann did an excellent job of fixing all the traditional items, and getting suggestions from her mom when she needed them,” Henry recalled. “At the dinner, I took on the prime responsibility of carving the turkey – pretty much a massacre, but everyone praised me for the excellent job I did.

“After I finished, I took the carcass, wrapped it in the aluminum foil and threw it in the trash can.”

Big no-no. Raymond felt his mother-in-law’s piercing eyes as she retrieved the carcass for her famous soup, which was some of the best Raymond ever ate. His mother-in-law died in 1986.

“Since that time, with guilt feelings I might add, the turkey carcass has always been thrown away after carving,” Raymond said, “mainly because none of us know how to make that delicious turkey soup.”

•Jenn Russell, of St. Albans City, usually spends Thanksgiving in rotation among relatives’ homes, so someone always tries to pawn their leftovers onto her and her husband, Pete.

“I don't eat leftovers, unless it's desert,” she said, “but the people we visit always become experts on what we will eat or what we won't, so I take it and keep my mouth shut. It comes home and gets refrigerated and, unless it's a desert, I don’t touch it.”

•Not all Thanksgiving leftovers are edible or fleeting, as is evident from a unique anecdote provided by Jennifer Savage, Northwestern Medical Center community relations specialist.

Years ago, while Savage’s older siblings Craig and Lynn were in college out West, her parents – feeling a touch of empty-nest syndrome – invited two St. Michael’s College students to their home for Thanksgiving.

The young men were Russian and seemed to understand just one English word: “Yes.” That made dinner conversation minimal.

“Please pass the peas,” Savage’s mother asked.

“Yes,” one of the Russians replied.

She never got the peas.

After dinner, Savage’s father braved slick road conditions and brought the Russians back to St. Michael’s. When he returned, Savage and her sister Michele laughed with their parents about how the only word the students knew was “yes.”

A few weeks later, Savage’s mother – still the target of merciless jokes about her English-challenged Thanksgiving guests – opened a Christmas card and exclaimed, “How beautiful!”

Then she laughed. Hard. Tears streamed down her face. She passed the card to her daughters.

The Russian students had sent Savage’s family a gorgeous Christmas card decorated with an idyllic holiday scene – a warm fireplace, stockings hung with care, and presents under a tall, glowing tree.

Across the top of the card, scribed in magnificent gold lettering, were the words, “To my darling hubby, at Christmas …”

“Our Thanksgiving leftover turned out to be rolling laughter that spread straight from Thanksgiving, well into the New Year, and beyond,” Savage said.

Not even Charlie Moore could cook that up.