You are what you bring - Thanksgiving with my husband’s family
Posted on November 17, 2008 in I Need A Lint Roller for These Warm Fuzzies by DM
Thanksgiving these past few years has been a chance for me to marvel at how much I’ve moved up the “acceptance scale” in my husband’s family. Since we’ve been married, we have always gone to Thanksgiving at either his mother’s house or, more recently, his sister Gloria’s house. This year the meal is being held at his sister Susan’s home.
Apparently I did not make a very good first impression all those years ago in the culinary department, because for a long time it was simply my responsibility to bring “the vegetable tray.” Now let me just say that I really like Steve’s family, and that I really love spending Thanksgiving with them. But let’s be honest: a careful kindergartener could bring the vegetable tray - you just chop up some celery and carrots (or buy them pre-chopped if you are without proper cutlery) open a can of olives, and set it out in a partitioned dish with some AE Dill dip for pre-meal snacking.
I was never sure why everyone was so afraid of my cooking. Perhaps it was because of my relative youth among the women of Steve’s family - I am a few years younger than his youngest sister. Perhaps it was the fleeting nature of his past relationships - I am not his first wife (”good old number four,” as his cousin Martin calls me), so maybe they just didn’t think I’d stick around that long. Perhaps they just were not aware I knew how to read a measuring cup, despite Steve’s well-fed appearance.
At any rate, after several years of this I surprised them all in 1998 by becoming a Pampered Chef kitchen consultant, and my sister-in-law Gloria generously offered to host a “kitchen show” in her home - probably out of morbid curiosity. Using my handy-dandy PC kitchen tools, I prepared two simple recipes in front of all three sisters plus Mom and several other guests.
The demo went very well, and had an unintended consequence: much to my amazement, a few weeks later I was invited to bring a baked side dish in addition to the vegetable tray at Thanksgiving. I had successfully moved them off the bubble, and since that time I’ve continued to bring either green bean casserole or scalloped corn. This year, I’m bringing the casserole plus a couple of desserts.
There’s even talk that next year, Steve and I might actually host the meal - a leap made possible by virtue of our new and larger house.
It’s good to have a goal.
Image of 1958 Pepsi ad snagged at www.decodog.com.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
Add your comments here!
-
Get Updates!
-- OR --
