Ep 30: Thanksgiving at the Cottage
Growing up, our Thanksgiving was truly unique, and in this episode, I'm sharing memorable Thanksgiving traditions at "the cottage". Whether cooking for 40-60 people (or really just washing the dishes), and eating in shifts, we'll talk about Kluski noodles, baked corn, and Aunt Margie's cheesecake, and how these traditions shaped my perspective on family holidays.
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Well, Hey there and happy start to the holidays, man. It is fast and furious right now. And I wanted to give you just a little shorty episode this week. With something that is kind of special and unique in my upbringing and super food related. But what I wanted to talk about this week were Thanksgiving traditions. And if you let listen last week, You heard, you know, all of the recommendations and things like that, but I had a truly, truly unique. Thanksgiving that I never realized was unique. And was interested. Until I was grown and flown. You see what I was growing up. We always went to the cottage. And I want you to put that in air quotes because it's just what we always called it. And it was a four room cabin in Appalachia and Huntington county, PA, and yes, I want it to look up. That was indeed part of Appalachia. And it was a cabin that my great grandfather had built. He had lived in town with my great grandmother and my grandma and her nine siblings. I think. And had built this little cottage out. Just a few miles out of town and it became a gathering place for our family. One of my great uncles had purchased it from him. And it's where we always went. I never knew a Thanksgiving. When we didn't go to the cottage. Whether be darned, whether it was snowing and it snowed a lot more back then on Thanksgiving or whatever it was, you knew that if it was Thanksgiving, Wednesday night when dad got home from work, we were hitting the PA turnpike and then going up and down the scary mountains to get there. Now the cottage had running water. Uh, but it did have an outhouse and I've always made the joke that someday my memoir is going to be called. There's always porn in the outhouse. It was a different time. So. As part of this. Ritual. It was always my grandmother and her sisters making Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. Now, when I say everyone, I want you to picture. Not a joke, 40. To 60 people for dinner. Every year. There was not enough room. For all of us. And if there were 40 to 60 people, there were at least a dozen dogs running around in and out the door as a pack up and down the mountains. It was a crazy time. And what they did, I've only just recently realized was such a miracle. Because they would get up. Crazy early. And when I say crazy early, I remember 4:00 AM. We would all be sleeping. And there weren't nearly enough beds. The grownups, the parents got the beds. The kids slept on a sleeping bag on the floor. Well, we were resilient. We were kids. It was fine, but I mean, as a teenager, I would sleep on the floor. Whoa. So they would get up and start cooking at 4:00 AM. And I want you to picture. The house, stress, the hair and a net, the slippers, the shuffling around, and they would make dinner. On a four burner electric stove tucked in a corner. And we never ran out of food. It was a truly, truly special experience. We would all sit in. My grandfather would make a fire in the fireplace while things were happening. Everybody would be responsible for bringing them dessert. And as people would arrive when Thanksgiving day, because a lot of people wouldn't sleep at the cottage there wasn't. There wasn't tons of space. They would arrive on Thanksgiving day and there would always be a big table. Or sometimes too, that would be on the front porch or maybe the side porch. That had all the desserts on it. And every family that would come would deposit their dessert on the table. And as kids, we knew we were forbidden to touch it, but boy, Could you snitch a cookie right there. And I re. I remember the best thing ever was amped Margie's cheesecake. Now aunt Margie has long since passed and aunt Margie was fabulous. She was a blonde. We didn't have many of those. In the family. She was spunky. She was fun. And she made the most electable cheesecake I've ever had. In my life, I always was so thrilled to hear she'd be joining us because I knew aunt Margie's cheesecake would make an appearance. Now. We had so many people that we would have to eat in shifts. And typically the kids. And I'm going to say that the whole way up until it ended. The kids being 25 or 30. We would end up eating first shift and this might sound like, Ooh, we had it made. Absolutely not. We did not because then my dad and the uncles would be lurking over us, shouting at us. Mostly playful manner to hurry up so they could have their turn. It was a little stressful. But we had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods and this is where I think Thanksgiving gets so, so interesting. Because growing up in south central Pennsylvania, we had that big influence from the mountains. We had the influence from, uh, Pennsylvania, Dutch country around Lancaster. I grew up just about 45 minutes from there. So as my husband likes to say, we have sauce on everything. And to this day, it kind of holds true because Thanksgiving is about the traditions that your family has. This is. Not the time. As I said last week to mess around with trying to make something really new and funky. Nobody wants it. So they started hiring the ladies who lived in town to roast our turkeys for us. And they would roast the turkeys. And they would have one of those. They're very old fashioned. It's like a tabletop roaster. It's electric. They would have that and it would be filled with Turkey to keep it more. So we'd have that. And then they'd start making all the sides. Of course, the mashed potatoes. And as someone asked me today, Because we always had noodles. The noodles. Are definitely a Pennsylvania thing. And if you're listening from PA. I really want you to jump in and, uh, leave a comment, go to Facebook or Instagram. And leave a comment on this because noodles were our thing. We do Kluski noodles. It's a thin egg noodle then in width, but a little thicker. And then the traditional egg noodles that you get, it's more like a little strip of noodle and those are cooked in Turkey broth. You don't drain them. So the starch from the noodle thickens the broth a little bit. It's, it's pretty terrific. And then we put in loads of black pepper. Well, I put in a lot more black pepper than they always stayed, but I like to give it a little more bite to balance out the creaminess and the umami from the Turkey flavor, but we would have the Turkey and there were always some form of sweet potatoes. Which I never touched. There was a baked corn, huge deal in our family and baked oysters. And the baked oysters were simply shucked oysters that you got in a jar. Layered with crushed saltines. And butter. And how was that? And I remember my aunt, Diane, who's one of my very favorite people. Uh, she was showing me how to make it once I'm like, this is all it is. And she's like, that's it. But it took. Years for me to be able to help cook the meal. When I was growing up, I had a little bit of an interesting cooking, but that was absolutely not my job there. They. Didn't want me at all. I was completely unwelcomed when it came to the cooking. So I moved to New York city. And I went to culinary school and they still wouldn't let me. It was so funny as thing. But once I started personal cheffing I would always just have a creep full of stuff. In the back of my car, I carried a toolbox that had all of my knives and sharpeners and spoons and cups, ancestors. Every tool you could want for the kitchen. And then I had a crate that had in cornstarch and Wondra. And if you don't know what Wondra is, it's not too late to pick up a canister at the grocery store. It's a super, super fine flour that won't clump when you add it into a sauce or gravy. So it's a great way to thicken something without having to go through the whole buerre manie. Which is a combination of equal parts, fat and flour. Or cornstarch, slurry or roux it's kind of a nice little cheat when you're trying to make your sauce a little bit thicker. I still remember my hero moment. When they were having trouble with the gravy. And I said, I have wonder in the car. And I ran out and got. And they were all so happy. It was a lovely, lovely thing. It was all so basic, but it was all so special. None of the plates matched and they were the melamine plates. The silverware, we always had plenty, but none of it matched. The glasses didn't match. There was never alcohol. Never. I grew up in a dry house in a dry family. There was never alcohol that I saw. Maybe that's the better way to put it. But it was such a special place because we were tucked in a little valley. And. Radio signal. Couldn't reach there. There was no television. There was no telephone. And this was of course way before cell phones. So when you were there, you were there. You were present and you were. In the middle of everything that was happening. And just with these people. And looking back, I, I never knew. That football on Thanksgiving. What's a thing. Because there was no television, right. I didn't know about the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Until I was in college. And son of a gun. If I didn't end up living half a block from where they were blowing up balloons. It was so small. It was such a small, intimate, intense little world. And every time when I do Thanksgiving. And I am. A more, the merrier sorta girl. I am a. You have a friend, bring them. You have someone who doesn't have somewhere to go. Bring them. We'll always find space at our table. And it's so different, not to mean that they weren't welcoming. It was just that the family was so big that it, I don't think it ever occurred to anyone that there would be other people there. I grew up in a very, the family is who we celebrate with. And now. I work really hard to have opened up the world because I love to have people who I don't know very well. Join us for any holiday. I think it's really fun. And I always really loved my time at the cottage except for washing dishes, because you know, there are always people who are going to avoid the dishes and it was my generation's job. Once we were in like middle school, once we were out of elementary school. To wash the dishes and there was no dishwasher. We were doing everything by hand for all these people. And it was a lot of work, but we did it because we knew we were going to be in big trouble. If we didn't. I just think, looking back. It was such a special and interesting time. And so different from what I've heard from a lot of people. But if you have a really interesting and unique take to your Thanksgiving dinner, I would. Love to have it. And I'll share some on Instagram or in Facebook. If you want to send me a message. And you can find me on Instagram at the Empty Nest Kitchen, or you can find me on Facebook at Empty Nest Kitchen. I would love to share your stories. And to hear what made your Thanksgiving so special then? And maybe what makes it so special now? So. Try soKluskisky noodles, put them on top of your mashed potatoes. It's just how we do it. Carbs on carbs. And have the most wonderful Thanksgiving. I can't wait to share who my guest is with you next week. And as always. If you want to leave a review, that would be amazing. You can do it right through empty Nest Kitchen dot com. Or on your favorite podcast player, apple podcasts, Spotify, so on and so forth. And if you're already starting to Twitch about all of this holiday eating. You know, menopause meal plans is the way to go with easy tasty, satisfying dinners that you're going to be able to make, to help manage. You're perimenopause and menopausal symptoms. So check those out and had the most wonderful Thanksgiving. I'll see you in the kitchen.
