Turkey a la Morneau

"There are a lot of unspoken rules on Thanksgiving . . . We're supposed to be thankful and eat a lot and drink a lot and be nice to each other. Teenagers are supposed to stop being sullen. Matriarchs are supposed to make a perfect turkey and some man is supposed to know how to carve it."



Susan Phillips Cohen, a social worker, relies on ritual and tradition to establish the tenor of her table. They will use the family china and make beloved dishes from childhood. That way guests can be reminded of the rules that go along with the holiday. "Rituals are what help you get over difficult times, and they keep a lid on things. . . ." (New York Times, 11.22.06)

Hey, we didn't need to keep a lid on things at our house today. It was just the four of us and it was heaven. Slept late, children worked out at the JCC, husband and I made a killer vegetarian stuffing for the V in our house (fruit, nuts, cornbread), and a not-bad anti-vegetarian stuffing for the preteen in the house (stale Wonder and Swanson's chix broth). We rented a movie from Blockbuster. I made my traditional chess pie.

"The origin of the name, Chess Pie, is uncertain, but there are plenty of guesses and a bit of folklore surrounding the name. The most probable explanation is that since the English lemon curd pie filling is very close to lemon chess pie, and they believe the word 'chess' is an Americanization of the English word 'cheese,' referring to curd pie. Basically the Chess Pie is a cheese-less cheesecake. Another explanation suggests that the word is “chest,” pronounced with a drawl and used to describe these pies baked with so much sugar they could be stored in a pie chest rather than refrigerated." (© copyright 2004 by Linda Stradley)


But I like the other story: A country wife made a pie out of whatever she could find in her pantry for her husband, who had been out working the land all day. She served it after dinner and after he devoured much of half the pie he said, "That is the BEST pie I have ever had. Best pie I've ever had." And he got up and hugged and kissed her all over. He asked, "What IS that pie?" And she said, "Aw shucks, it's nothing, it's 'jes pie'."

"We don't keep too many traditions in our house," I heard my daughter say to someone recently. We tend to do whatever suits us each year. Two years ago we rented cabins at the Lake Maria State Park and cooked up a traditional Thanksgiving meal over the fire. Last year we rented the entire "Courthouse Inn" in Guttenburg, Iowa, and played Thanksgiving Olympics (with prizes) out on some family land along the Mississippi River.

Now that Dr. Morneau, hero of Northlanders everywhere, has just been named AL MVP, I'm going to take his advice on all future family holidays:

"If you can stay back, you can wait an extra split-second longer, and then you become more relaxed, and that's when you gain confidence."

Think about it. Just when your in-laws start in an impossible conversation you can think of the Doctor, take a breath, wait a minute, and just relax. Just as your patience wears thin when you're the only one in the kitchen crazily finishing up that last half-hour of the traditional meal (how many pots can you stir at once?), you just wait that extra split-second, pour a glass of wine, and gain some confidence.

Of course, Morneau was referring to his batting woes of early 2006. Hitting coach Joe Vavra taught him a simple lesson, "Stay back."

Justin says, "I said, 'Let's try to do the same thing over and over. And then the same thing tomorrow.' And I did the same thing the next day, and ate the same things, and kept with the same routine." From the Star Tribune: "Morneau learned to stay back, and his lifestyle became laid back. He and his roomie Mauer would sleep late, eat Jimmy John's subs and knock the ball over the park."



Looks like we have our new post-Thanksgiving tradition set, too, don't you? He forgot to mention the pie, but I think that's a given.