Published: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 5:36 PM ??? Updated: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 5:36 PM
I?t is not easy planning a Thanksgiving dinner for 50 people.
But Diane Nations of Satsuma doesn’t mind.
Using e-mail, she organized the menu, asking everyone to make a side dish or dessert to bring to an aunt’s house in Malbis for the holiday feast that will feature two turkeys and one ham.
A nurse coming off four days of 12-hour shifts at Springhill Medical Center, Nations was one of many local cooks braving the crowded grocery store aisles Wednesday.
Some were buying the makings of the whole Thanksgiving meal, while others had just a few ingredients left to get.
Nations loaded sweet potatoes for a casserole, cocoa and confectioners sugar for a Mississippi mud pie and cabbage for her mom’s special coleslaw recipe into her cart at the Saraland Food World.
“I am thankful for my family,” said Nations, whose husband Stan, three grown children and six grandchildren are among the 50 — ages 6 months to 82 — she’ll spend today with. “We’re very close.”
Meanwhile, at the Publix in Fairhope, Candice Thagard and her mother, Susan Conville, joked that they would need two buggies. “We are loading up,” Thagard said. “We’re ready.” ?
Thagard of Fairhope said she started her holiday prep work last week when she made a trial run of the chicken and cornbread dressing she’ll serve today. “The dressing is major,” she said.
Instead of baking it in the oven, she’s preparing the side dish in a slow cooker for at least 15 family members, who will gather at her home for turkey, ham and sweet potato casserole.
By 11 a.m. Wednesday, the parking lot at the Winn-Dixie in midtown Mobile was packed. Some shoppers were picking up a last-minute turkey, hoping it would have time to thaw. Others were perusing the aisles for particular ingredients — fried onions for a green bean casserole, or whipped cream for fruit salad.
Maxine Taylor had already done most of her shopping a couple of days earlier, but came back to the store “for just a few extras.” She picked out some pecan pies, soft drinks, sweet potatoes and eggnog. She’s expecting to see most of her six children and 15 grandchildren sometime during the day.
“I’m just cooking for everybody,” she said.
Yolanda Perry, who works as a housekeeper at Mobile Infirmary, said she starts preparing her Thanksgiving feast at least two days before her family gathers at her home for the meal. That’s just what she was doing Tuesday at Cain’s B&H Food Store off Halls Mill Road in Mobile.
Scratching items off a grocery list, Perry nudged a buggy brimming with bags of turnips and 10-pound tubs of pork chitterlings.
Known for its bountiful selection of freshly picked greens, customers go to Cain’s from all over to buy the Southern staples. During the holidays, shoppers purchase up to four truckloads of the Loxley-raised greens a week, a manager said.
To prepare her greens, Perry said she first boils neck bones with a blend of spices, plus oil and sugar.
“Then I clean the greens three or four times to get out the sand,” she said. “Then I get them simmering.”
(This report was written by Press-Register Staff Reporters Casandra Andrews and Rena Havner Phillips.)
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