UPDATE: Ballard's Old South Cornbread Mix recipe is now found in the Martha White brand. Woohoo!!
And so passes one of the strangest Thanksgiving Days I have ever had and in many ways, oddly enough, the best. I never would have guessed it would have turned out that way when we were trying to prepare for it.
We decided early on that we would obviously have to keep it simple and guessed that we could manage a turkey, some canned vegetables, my homemade fudge, and maybe - just maybe our oyster stuffing -- a family tradition! The turkey was easy enough -- and totally possible since our oven was spared the flood water... and canned corn and cranberry sauce is plentiful after all of the food donations. The fudge ingredients were non-stressful -- although remembering at the last minute that I no longer had any brownie pans added a bit of intrigue to the candy-making process... Ah but the stuffing was nearly the death of me.
Recipe for Post-Hurricane Katrina Oyster Stuffing
(2) boxes of half-opened stale Ballard's Old South Cornbread Mix found on back shelf of pantry after an exhaustive search of all available grocery stores in town (as well as a few searches on the internet) come up empty.
(3) bunches of green onions
(4) stalks fresh celery
(1) bunch fresh parsley
(1) quart of fresh shucked oysters packed in Pass Christian, MS sometime during the last quarter century -- but hopefully not since Hurricane Katrina because you aren't totally sure that the gulf oyster supply is all that edible just yet... They taste better when you search every grocery store and seafood shop that happens to still be standing several times before screaming in joy when you find what's probably the last jar of oysters for the next 40 miles.
(1) dash of garlic powder, salt, and pepper
(1) bag of turkey giblets from frozen turkey
Strain oysters to check for shells - retain water they are packed in. Boil giblets in 4 cups of water for one hour. Add oysters and boil just until ends curl -- do not overcook oysters! Remove oysters and giblets -- retain stock water in separate container.. since you have no spare pots and pans -- empty out the tea pitcher and use that (mental note - soak tea pitcher for a long time before making new iced tea.) Chop celery, parsley, and green onions -- fry in 1 tbsp oil until celery is tender. While this is frying - prepare stale cornbread according to the instructions on the box. Panic wildly when recalling that you no longer have cake pans or an extra cast iron skillet for making cornbread. Dig through one of the trash piles in garage and recover two cake pans. Wash thoroughly and allow to dry. Sand heavy rust with fine sand paper until surface is smooth. Test surface with water. Realize that pans are rusted through. Send husband out for aluminum foil to line pans. Bake cornbread mix according to times listed on box. Panic again when cornbread does not rise. Add cornbread to large bowl or roasting pan and crumble by hand. If stale, unrisen, poorly baked cornbread is too hard to crumble by hand - chop with large knife (if available) as if you are psychotic until it forms manageable lumps. By now your celery mixture should be slightly burned. Right. Add oysters and giblets to mixture (be sure you forget to chop them before putting them into the frying pan! Then burn your fingers repeatedly while picking out each individual oyster and giblet, chopping them, and returning them to the pan.) and fry for five minutes. Add stock water to mixture. Simmer for 20 minutes - adding a dash of salt, pepper, and garlic powder (or season to taste). Pour mixture over cornbread and mix well. Voila!
With the stuffing out of the way -- I went on to tackle the other preparations. I thought I'd spruce up the table a bit. Our little round kitchen table used to be the place where we put extra desserts at Thanksgiving.. This year - it had to make a fine dinner table. I found my favorite dark green holiday table cloth and spread it out only to find that the 400 washes after the storm couldn't help the patches discolored by salt water. A centerpiece would cover it -- but I didn't have any of those. A quick trip to a neighbor's trash pile and I was able to find two small green wreaths and some loose gold-leafed pine cones. Another neighbor had been kind enough to give us a Christmas wreath she was throwing out a couple days before -- so I hung that on the wall between the two plastic-wrapped kitchen windows.
I admit that I found it depressing until the boys walked into the kitchen and gasped and hopped around saying "Wow, Mom! You decorated in here! It's so pretty!" Ah... Not so bad.
The next morning the turkey baked without a hitch and the fudge was a big hit with everyone. My mother came over bright and early bearing her famous potato salad and some store-bought apple pies and cookies and other goodies. We prayed and ate and laughed while Christmas music played from the Yahoo! Launch website. The dog and the kittens had their share of turkey and the kids played all day. What more could we ask for? It was pleasant and relaxed and genuine. We all went to bed last night with full tummies and a few less worries.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. God bless us all.
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