Bread of Life

In our family we have many traditions of which one of my favorites is cornbread dressing (stuffing) at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It all started with my mother and was passed on to each of us girls. You know, that secret recipe, that special ingredient that makes it taste like no one else's. There's nothing as good to me as my mother's cornbread dressing.

Over the years when I have not been able to make it home for the holidays I have attempted to make my mother's dressing. It never seems to taste quite the same. I wonder if it's just the fact that my mother's hands are in the mix that makes it taste so good or maybe, just the fact of being at home. Nothing beats being home for the holidays.

I remember my very first Christmas away from home. I had moved to N. Carolina to be with my first husband while he served our country in the Army. We were just two lonely kids very far away from home. I wanted to make it a special holiday, so I invited another couple over for Christmas dinner. Of course, when I was growing up, my older sister was the one who loved to cook. I took care of our animals and did the yard work. What housework I did was not home cooking. I never really learned what went into making a holiday meal. But hey, when you're young...how hard could it be?

Well, I bought a big beautiful 20 pound turkey and all the fixings for a great meal. Naturally, cornbread dressing was on the menu. Time to serve the meal came soon enough. The turkey was golden brown and the dressing with all the trimmings were placed out on my white table cloth. Prayers of thanksgiving were said and I could tell from our faces that we all were thinking of home and our mom's tables.

My husband did the honors of carving the turkey. All of a sudden blood began oozing from a leg quarter. The turkey was raw in the middle. How could that be? I had cooked it for about an hour. It was golden brown on the outside. I had no idea it would take more time to cook that big bird. How embarrassing and disappointing.
"Oh well, we still had dressing", I sheepishly grinned. The only small problem with that...it was bright green. Yes, you guessed it. I had put way too much Sage and Poultry seasoning into the mix. It wasn't fit to eat.

I was almost in tears. The meal was ruined. Canned cranberry sauce and canned green beans absolutely do not make a great holiday meal by themselves. We ended up eating turkey lunch meat sandwiches with our cranberry sauce and laughing about the whole thing while remembering our Christmas dinners in the past and missing home.

I have since learned how to make my mom's special dressing and I buy a turkey pop up timer to tell me when the turkey is done. You know, it still does not taste as good as my mother's.

John 6:35 (NJV)" and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."

I wish for all of you a blessed holiday season.