Nov 27, 2014 3 min read

While the rest of you are putting away the last of the good dishes and wondering if it’s too early to have a big plate of leftover stuffing, I am still in preparation mode. We’ll have two Thanksgiving gatherings this year: the one yesterday that my sister hosted and for which I contributed only store-bought pies and the one that we are hosting tomorrow.

It’s a my-side-of-the-family and his-side-of-the-family thing, with relatives traveling from Virginia to be here Saturday. My family will come, too, which presents a problem.

How much turkey is too much turkey? And is there even such a thing as too much of Mom’s stuffing?

We don’t think so. As I’ve described on this page before, my mother’s stuffing is singular in its unusual deliciousness. The bread and onions and celery and walnuts are put through a grinder, then fried with butter and then baked. My kids start asking for it around the Fourth of July, and it has never failed to hit its mark. When I presented the idea of the Thanksgiving two-parter to my parents a few weeks ago, I asked if they would be willing to make the stuffing for two dinners – about 50 servings’ worth, not counting leftovers – and being good sports and always up for a good session of grinding onions until they cry, they said yes.

No, we never get tired of the stuffing. The turkey is another matter, though. Once that crispy flap of skin over the neck is gone (snarfed up by whoever is carving), I lose my enthusiasm for the bird.

“Lasagna!” my Patrick said. Those of us who had turkey Thursday may not want it again. And so he will make two big pans of lasagna, and we’ll serve salad and bread.

But his brothers may not have had turkey yet, so we’ll have one of those, too, with the stuffing and the gravy and the rest of it. It’s the way the first Thanksgiving feast may have played out, if the settlers had come to the new world carrying tomato seeds, pasta noodles and recipes from Naples.

And so, as you read this today, my Thanksgiving work is just starting. I’ll be going to get the groceries soon, and while the rest of you are buying your Christmas gifts, my house will still be on Thanksgiving time. I like to think of it as my way of pushing back at the way our country allows Christmas to trample on Thanksgiving.

Christmas at my house will have to wait a few more days. You will be thinking holly and Santa Claus today, but I’m still thinking turkey.

Oh, and my sweet parents will be thinking stuffing. My Dad has always been the bread and onion grinder, and my mom the fryer. Two turkeys are a lot to stuff. But two Thanksgivings are worth it.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.