This is unedited and needs more detail
Writers group 10/23/2024
Set a story set in a kitchen.
Thanksgiving morning. Turkey is in the oven. The familiar aroma is starting to seep out and make the house smell like a holiday. For some reason, we always have pretty much the same meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not sure how that started but no one complains. Maybe it started because turkeys are on sale during Thanksgiving so my parents would buy two. I wish I could ask them, but sadly, they have both passed. So many questions I wished I had asked them (side note—this could make a great writing prompt).
Casey is in the yellow room watching the parade. Traditions are important around here at holiday time.
Gene is puttering about. In the kitchen one minute and outside the next minute, doing who knows what. He is the main cook all year round but I do have specialties. I am stirring up one of those specialties right now. I have my favorite heavy, blue pot and my large wooden spoon that has a small crack in the bowl part but I still love it. It’s helped me create so many savory and sweet dishes over the years.
I’m standing at the stove stirring some fresh cranberries into the haphazardly measured sugar and water to make my famous cranberry sauce. If you didn’t know how easy it was to make, you may think that it takes a complicated recipe to make it. That’s why so many people buy the canned cranberry sauce. At least that’s what I used to think. Now I know that some people just prefer the canned jellied sauce that slide out of the can into a dish and makes that slurping sound that only cranberry sauce can make.
I’m stirring away, waiting for the water, sugar and cranberries to come back to a boil. I have the house phone next to me. I turn down the heat on the burner as it comes to a boil and then reach for the phone as it has started to ring. Pretty much on cue. It’s my dad. He and mom live in Florida now and will come up to Vermont for Christmas but they spend Thanksgiving down there.
“Sue, hi, Happy Thanksgiving.” We talk for a few minutes while I continue to constantly stir the berries that a slowly softening and popping and now the aroma in the kitchen is taken over by the luscious smell of cooking cranberries.
And then he says, as he does every single Thanksgivning since they moved down there. “How do you make the cranberry sauce? I forget. How much water, and sugar? Do the cranberries have to be room temp or can I put them in the water straight from the freezer?” Then he continues. I can’t read the recipe on the bag. The writing is too small.”
I know he knows the recipe. And I know he knows I know he knows the recipe. It’s a tradition that started back when mom stopped cooking much and Dad had to take over. That first year he really didn’t know how to make the sauce and the writing on the bag IS small. So I talked it through with him and it came out satisfactory, he claimed. The next year I was kinda surprised when he called me. It truly is an easy recipe. The next year I wasn’t so surprised when he called. And the year after. This went on until 2015 when Mom and Dad had health issues and they both moved into assisted living in Florida.
Each year I stand at the stove with the same pot and spoon, stirring away, thinking about Dad and Mom, and our family and our traditions. The sauce is done now. It’s cooling in the glass dish shaped like a chicken that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas one year. I’m just realizing now that it’s probably meant for gravy. Why had I never realized that before? But every Thanksgiving and Christmas it holds my special cranberry sauce and sits on the table in a place of honor.
Recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12 ounce bag of cranberries
Bring water and sugar to a boil in pan. Add cranberries and bring back to a boil and gently boil for 10 minutes. Stirring frequently (although I stir continuously). I also take the back of my wooden spoon and ‘help’ the cranberries pop by pressing them against the side of the pan. I love the popping sound!
And always, always lick the spoon and the spatula! So good!
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| My favorite pot and wooden spoon |
