Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thanksgiving Stuffing Remembered

[WARNING: Do not read if the mention of a certain fast food establishment resembling a pale fortress induces in your person a response of the "Harold and Kumar" variety...which probably does not include readers of this blog. Whew! I'm off the hook!]

All the healthy alternative recipes for holiday favorites I'm seeing online (yeah!) made me remember a Thanksgiving dish of the most opposite kind....

My Mr. Handsome-and-Handy was born and raised in Michigan, and like about 47.5% of the state's population, migrated to California in his 20s, as did his brother. (Which actually works out to more like 33.3%, if his family is any indication of the trend. This also explains all the Red Wings jerseys we used to see at San Jose Sharks hockey games, and maybe why my dad was always partial to UCLA even though he never went to college there...but I digress.)

Anyhow, his relatives send little poignant reminders of home every now and then: pictures of the snow piling up in his college town of Houghton, Red Wings apparel...and banners...and newspaper clippings, links to the "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas" song, and the like.

One year, one of his sisters sent us a newspaper ad. It featured coupons for White Castle hamburgers (the frozen food case ones...which is kind of baffling: why would anyone in the Midwest buy the frozen ones when you can get the real thing?). It also featured a recipe for White Castle Turkey Stuffing.

"This is CLASSIC!" I exclaimed. "We'll have to take this ad to your brother's Thanksgiving get-together."
"Why just the ad?" queried my husband.

Why indeed. While more bankrupt than Enron nutritionally (or perhaps this...Velveeta AND White Castles???), it tasted pretty good. The frozen White Castles don't have mustard or pickles on them, so it's just meat, white bread, and tiny minced onions, not exactly novel ingredients for stuffing. Oysters in stuffing, on the other hand...what's up with that?

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