Cooking With My Dad (and the rest of the gang)

Thanks to a communal effort, our Thanksgiving feast was a resounding success. It took a bit of time to get into our groove this year, as my Dad needed to adjust himself to having me in his compact NYC city kitchen. Plus, I started things off on the wrong track when I removed a loaf of his rising bread from the cutting board to chop celery and onions for the stuffing. But once it was clear that his loaf of bread suffered no injuries and was safe and sound in the hot oven, we were side by side again preparing the meal.

This year, my oldest son volunteered to help me make the stuffing, probably because he wanted to snatch a few tastes of his favorite part of the meal. And I’ll take any help I can get in the kitchen, especially when it’s someone from the next generation, as we need to pass the torch of tradition.

There’s no real need to go into detail of our preparations, since I’m pretty sure I’ve written loads on the topic already in past Thanksgiving blogs and history did repeat. But I can assure you it was great fun with a plentitude of memorable moments. Like when I seasoned my Dad’s hands with an ever too generous amount of olive oil, salt and herbs and watched him give his turkey a better full body, deep tissue massage than I’ve ever received. And of course there were the nut versus no nut jokes in our stuffing like there always are.

All in all, it was another delightful Thanksgiving; a bustling day cooking, eating and feeling full, from the meal and satisfying moments together. Of course, I am sad to report that we didn’t have a whole lot of leftovers this years since we traveled by public transport. But I’m looking forward to Thursday, when my parents will tote several quarts of turkey stock over for our Thanksgiving soup, which will allow us to savor the last bit of Thanksgiving 2011.

Turkey Vegetable Soup w/ Alphabets
3 quarts turkey stock
1 medium onion, diced
1 large zucchini (diced)
1 large yellow squash (diced)
4 peeled and chopped carrots in rounds
3 celery stocks diced
2 cups cubed turkey
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. Fresh chopped parsley
1 ½ cups cooked & drained alphabet noodles
Kosher salt to taste

Sauté the vegetables in olive oil. Add stock, let come to a boil and turn down heat to a simmer until carrots are slightly tender. Add pre-cooked alphabets, turkey & parsley. Let cool and transfer to containers and freeze.