Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for November 22, 2009

As an Aussie, all my perspectives of Thanksgiving are gleaned from TV sitcoms. I thought all mothers slaved over a hot stove all day for this … or is that old fashioned?

Many mothers still slave over the hot stove but many have given up the old ways in favor of healthier, more enlightened ways of eating. I used to be one of the former but now (living in California) try to bring balance and use updated versions of the old standards. It’s still good and we don’t gain 5 # in one day!

How hard it is on a man. I have to wake up at 5, put my foots on her butt, push hard, and say “Get the bird in the oven woman!” It may take me up to 5 minutes to get back to sleep.

I like my turkey deep fried.

Unfortunately most (if not all) of the cooking and clean up still falls on the woman while the men do nothing but eat and watch football. Some traditions need to change.

We share the work pretty equally around here. They work at digesting while we work at burning off the calories by cleaning up….. :)

MIL’s house is traditional- the women do all the tons of work: decorating, cooking tons of items from scratch, and cleaning up for up to 50 people. They also entertain, take the pictures, and watch the kids. The men sit around and talk. Even if many of the women “don’t work” (with 3-10 kids, how is it not work?), that doesn’t sit well with me. The food is good though. My parents, it’s instant and non-fat for 3 people (my mother is still the cook/cleaner even when she worked and my father did not) and honestly, I don’t think there’s much of a point. I like it when everyone works together or divvies the work up, so everyone can play.

I did that Thanksgiving from scratch thing once. It took two days, they spent 5 minutes eating it. I didn’t get so much as a “thank you” and no one bothered to help with dishes.

Anyone wonder why I make Turkeyloaf now?

I don’t go as all out as my mom did, but I do make some special, traditional dishes and add one of my kids’ favorites as a treat.

Last year & again this year, my father in law is taking the entire family out to dinner on Thanksgiving. While I do appreciate his thoughtfulness & generosity, it just isn’t the same as staying home & cooking for the enitre tribe.

My husband is a sweetie & he’s the one who gets up super early & prepares the turkey to stick in the oven. I get up shortly afterwards, to start in on the rest. Both of my sisters in law also pitch in,e ven tho’ my kitchen is practically non-existent & there’s no room for 2 people at one time, let alone 3 or more. Anyway, i’d rather do all the cooking at home than go out to eat on T’giving.

My husband is the one in the kitchen…the gender stereotypes of men as lazy, crotch-scratching gits is as much out of date as the slaving-over-the-stove woman. (Which means…yep, I’m the one in front of the TV scratching myself.)

Haha, Macushlalondra, not at my house! Those who do the cooking get out of the cleaning. So the guys get to wash the pans if they want a yummy dinner. Haha. But really we divide up all the work. Anybody caught not doing something gets set chopping veggie sticks or such. And our food is mostly home made, organic and such we still have some good old fashioned not good for you stuff cause hey, we’re thankful to be lucky enough to HAVE it.

Usually ckcsmum, to minimize some of the slaving the day of, we make some of the stuff like the pies and such the day before. My family has to home make a lot of stuff cause of food allergies but as more and more companies come out with healthy options even that’s getting easier. I’m cheating on the rolls this year, I’m using some of those oven-ready-Rhodes rolls, no slaving there. The turkey goes in a basting roster bag (I LOVE THOSE THINGS!) which does all the work for you (no pulling the bird out every hour and basting the dang thing!) and when the little timer button pops up, it’s done. The stuffing is Stove Top (much to my brother’s chagrin but he’s not here to make his fantastic from scratch stuffing so he doesn’t get to comment I say!). Pies and the cranberry salad get made the day before and they’re easy, so there’s just the veggie sticks or salad left. Oh, and we’re as bad as Cathy’s mom-in-law, instant mashed potatoes. (GASP!) And since my birthday usually falls a day or two before T-day (sometimes it falls on or after), if I get a new dvd, we’ll grab that and go watch a movie after dinner and just enjoy being together. Though since my two year old niece is with us this year, the after dinner movie will probably be something to do with The Wiggles, ;)

I’m curious, what holidays you guys have there. Someone told me Australians have Thanksgiving but it’s nothing like American thanks giving. For one thing, isn’t it summer for you right now? lol

Thanks, everyone for the fantastic comments. It’s been a treat to read, especially Kaytebb’s - most enlightening. To my knowledge there is no such thing as Thanksgiving in Australia, unless it’s celebrated by ex-pat Americans, but I’ve never heard of anyone here doing it. We have the usual hols and celebrations; Easter, Christmas, Valentines, St Pat’s Day to name a few. Our Australia Day is probably like your July 4th, ANZAC Day is maybe like Veteran’s Day, we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday in June. Curiously, Halloween has started to really take off here. In the last few years I’ve been visited by maybe one or two kids asking for treats. This year I had about 35! What a shock. I ran out of candy so quickly I had to scrounge around the house to find other treats to give out. I dressed as a demon zombie. Lots of fun! It’s nearly summer here. The weather today was a record high for November, 40 degrees celsius. Too hot for turkey dinners. Ironically, a lot of Aussies still go for the full baked turkey dinner for Christmas Day when it is always a hot day. Today’s non-traditionalists go for cold ham, turkey and salad, but it’s not the same as my childhood memories of sweating and pigging out till your buttons burst!

I remember Thanksgiving as a child. My mom would start the turkey cooking the day before and us kids would always help out with the cooking… and especially the clean up afterward.

Pies were baked a day or two ahead of time. There was a lot of other prep work done ahead too.

As my mom got older, we started using instant mashed potatoes, but the real thing was always better tasting. We never used stove top stuffing though. My mom always made her own from scratch.

I’m from Kansas and my dad started something about oh 25 years or so ago with turkeys. True my mom would get up early when we where kids and put the turkey in the oven then dad bought a smoker and put the turkey in it add some hickory and it taste great and you don’t have to baste. Since then we have been putting our turkey in the smoker since. Some use a turkey fryer but I would be little nevers or that you have to be carefull I think you have to turn off the burners and have the fryer in open area due to catching buildings on fire. Smoking turkeys you still need an open area. I will be using real potatoes for mashing and sweetpotatoes without mashmallows using a crumb topping with pecons.