The Feast

Next up, our first Thanksgiving. For those that don’t know, Kyle is a student at Jackson State University and part-time employee at Best Buy. Working at Best Buy means he must face the dreaded Black Friday madness. He had to report to work at 2 AM Friday morning after Thanksgiving for crowd control in the parking lot, and work until 3 PM that afternoon in his regular home theater department. Craziness I tell you! So we did the unthinkable and didn’t go anywhere to be with our families, who all live an hour and a half away, for the holiday. We actually relaxed for a change! I got up Thanksgiving Day and cooked breakfast and a huge lunch which we ate on for days! Breakfast was homemade blueberry muffins, courtesy of Paula Deen. She says, “They’re the best damn blueberry muffins you’ll ever eat!” So far, I totally agree!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
½ cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
¾ cup whole milk
1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup granulated brown sugar or white sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and the ½ cup of sugar. In another bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk and blend well. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and, with a spatula, stir until just combined. Do not beat or over-mix; it’s okay if there are lumps in the batter. Gently fold blueberries into batter. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven. Sprinkle tops of muffins with the granulated brown or white sugar and return muffins to oven to bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes, until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.

Lunch was a massive spread of ham, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, peas, fried green tomatoes, homemade wheat bread, pecan pie, and sweet potato pie. The ham we bought and the sweet potato pie was given to us by my Grandmother and Grandaddy, but the rest was made right there in our kitchen! We also had summer sausage, cheese, and crackers to snack on while I cooked. It was delicious! I will tell you part of me felt rather guilty cooking that huge meal for just the two of us. There are so many people out there that don’t have the luxury of a home-cooked meal or the luxury of a meal period. God bless the food banks, soup kitchens, and churches all over this great country that do their part to take care of the needy. While it doesn’t make up for our lack of compassion for those that did without this holiday season, I will tell you we didn’t waste a drop of that food. We ate it for nearly a week until every bit of it was gone!