My Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and outside of watching football games, the best thing about the day is the food. I guess if you add in spending time with friends and family that's good too. Thanksgiving dinner growing up was an absolute event. Primarily because I got to sit with all of the grown up guys and watch football and then eat WAY more food than what could fit in my little belly only to fall asleep shortly after. The scene after dinner in front of the TV after dinner was always classic. Just picture 10 men, maybe a couple of women, all asleep within 30 minutes of the last bite of pumpkin pie. Tryptophan is a wonderful thing.

6. Turkey: I love turkey but there is no way that I could put this higher on the list. If cooked too long, you have to drink a gallon of water just to wash it down. But if cooked right, mmmmmmmmmm. And the sleep that follows it is always well received.

5. Mashed potatoes and gravy: The best mashed potatoes is the kind with chunks of potato still in it. Oh, and with the skin also. And my family made the best gravy. I'm not sure who was in charge of the gravy but I miss it now that I'm not there. Great stuff.

4. Rolls: Sure there are starchy and full fatty butter, but I could not get enough of the rolls. And it had to be the right kind of rolls. Only the brown and serve rolls will do. I was sent this year to buy the provisions for the meal and while looking through all of the different kinds of rolls the store had to offer, the brown and serve kind were the only ones I saw.

3. Stuffing: I could absolutely eat my weight in stuffing. It's only too bad it's inappropriate to carry 3 plates through the buffet line at dinner because I would so fill one of those plates with stuffing. And when you top it off with just a little bit of gravy, mmmmmmmm mmmmmm yum!

2. Pumpkin Pie: For the first 10 years of my life, I was sure that there was only 1 kind of pie and my family made it only for me. It was generally understood that one of the many pumpkin pies brought to dinner was mine. Only mine. As long as you keep you grubby little fingers away from it, everything will be OK.

1. Noodles: Words cannot properly describe my love affair with my family's noodles. Not every family makes noodles for Thanksgiving dinner and not every outsider that comes to our dinner appreciates our noodles. But for those within the family, a Thanksgiving diner would not be complete without the noodles. It only makes an appearance on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm sure that it might lose some of it's luster if it came out more often but thank the good Lord it doesn't. And now that I am away from my family, I don't get the noodles as often as I would like. I tried to get my wife to make it but she simply doesn't understand the love affair my family has with them. So for anyone in my family that might read this, grab about 4 lbs of noodles at dinner, freeze them, and mail them to me. If you love me, you will respect my wish (I don't really expect you to send it, although it would be awfully cool).