I was walking to Sissy Tunnell’s third grade class at Bruce Elementary last week to learn about the marvelous book they made for this Thanksgiving when BES Principal Jeff Patton and I began talking about how much we were looking forward to this week’s feast.
Mr. Patton was expressing how the traditional turkey and dressing so connected to the Thanksgiving holiday is his absolute most favorite meal. He took it to the point of saying if he had to pick his last meal, that would be it.
I didn’t disagree, but threw in the caveat that it had to be my mother Lana McNeece’s Thanksgiving meal.
It only comes around twice a year – Thanksgiving and Christmas – but I think about it year-round.
Joel McNeece
The star of the show at my mom’s house in Raymond on this most thankful holiday is her dressing, which she makes in vast quantities because it’s so in demand. I’ve eaten a lot of different versions of dressing in my years, but no one has come close to my mom’s.
The dressing by itself is something you can’t stop eating, but when you cover it with her giblet gravy and some cranberry, it’s a recipe for gorging no one could take offense to.
I’ve been blessed to receive some of the best home style cooking known to man in my life.
My late grandmothers, Dimple Ferguson of Utica and Thelma McNeece of Raymond were Hall of Famers in the kitchen, and mentors to my mother.
Mammaw Ferguson made a dish called hamburger pie that to this day remains the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Within the past year my mother found the recipe, which we didn’t even know existed. I followed every direction to a T, but mine came out nothing like Mammaw’s.
Mammaw McNeece didn’t cook anything fancy, but made everything taste incredible. As a little kid, I would get excited about Mammaw McNeece’s green beans, GREEN BEANS. I don’t know how you make green beans so good that a little kid chooses them over anything sweet, but my Mammaw did it.
My mom, however, has climbed to the top of that cooking mountain. Her fried chicken, potato salad, pecan pie – don’t get me started on the pecan pies – and her dressing are tastes I can conjure up in mind at any second.
This Thursday we’ll have the traditional family feast at their Raymond home of turkey, hen, a giant sweet potato casserole, my Aunt Liz’s English pea salad, pecan, chocolate and possibly a pumpkin pie.
There’ll be some assorted vegetables from the garden, plenty of snacks for throughout the day and sometimes a surprise entry like a roast or some ribs.
But everybody at my house will be lining up for the best dressing they’ve ever tasted and are ever going to taste. And I, being the oldest son and perhaps because I live the farthest away, will be sent home with a container full that she thinks
I’ll be eating on throughout the weekend. Truth is, I’ll empty that dish by Friday night. It’s simply that good.
Email Joel McNeece at joelmcneece@gmail.com & follow him on Twitter @joelmcneece