Don't forget the mushrooms

For me, Thanksgiving dinner is all about the stuffing.

Don't get me wrong. Turkey is downright delicious. Cranberry sauce is tart and delightful. Mashed potatoes make me weak at the knees. Pumpkin pie is a foreign concept at our house.

But stuffing and gravy are what brings the entire meal together - specifically my father's stuffing.

Until this year, I never quite knew all that goes in to my dad's stuffing, so I called him to "talk turkey." Of course, by asking I got myself involuntarily signed up to help him when he makes it this Thursday so I can "observe the process." I am actually looking forward to it. It's better than dishwashing duty.

The recipe is a not-so-secret family secret. Dad says it's a German-style stuffing, a mixture of recipes his mother pulled together over the years. Basically it's pork sausage, stuffing mix, celery, onion, mushrooms, thyme and sage.

Oh, and ground up turkey gizzards, giblets, liver and heart.

"Wait you mean I've been eating turkey heart and organs every year?" I asked.

"They're so ground up and spread out, you'd never even know," Dad said.

Well, I do now ...

I think I knew he used all those parts in the meal somehow, but I didn't realize they were ground up and stuffed in my favorite dish. But I guess the turkey really wasn't using them anymore.

One thing about my dad's stuffing is that it's good with or without the mushrooms. I know because he forgets to put them in almost every year.

"Yeah, I forget the mushrooms two out of every three years," Dad said.

When I was 13, it became my informal job to remind Dad to add the mushrooms. That was the first time he prepared Thanksgiving dinner without my mother there to help. She had her own turkey dinner to make at the nursing home kitchen where she had just started working. So Dad asked me to remind him to put in the mushrooms. I opened the cans, drained them and set them on the kitchen table so he'd be sure to see them.

It didn't help.

He stuffed the bird, put in in the oven and then exclaimed, "Oh no!" I ran in from the kitchen and sure enough, saw my cans of mushrooms sitting on the countertop untouched.

Oh well. Moments like that create fun memories and that's what Thanksgiving is really all about anyway: food and family and fun.

But you can be certain that I'll be ready to remind my dad to remember the mushrooms this Thursday.

Teri Cadeau is the Budgeteer's staff writer.