Thanksgiving 2005 - More Food Than Stephen Can Shake a Stick At...


So, for the first time in his life, Stephen experienced the wonder that is an American Thanksgiving. Yes indeed, the stuff of TV and movie legend, brought right to his life.

Oddly enough, it was not a Midwesterner that our fair Stephen had fallen for. And thus it came to pass that Stephen experienced Thanksgiving on the Bayou... Replete with an entire turkey deep-fried in peanut oil, injected with Cajun Seasonings, and the entire surface suitable for classification as "Premium Croute" was the Bayou Thanksgiving experience.

Upon seeing a pot filled with enough 425-degree peanut oil to consume an entire 13 pound turkey alight over the enchanting blue dancing flames of the seasonal propane burner, Stephen could only remark "My Dad would give anything to see this..." And to think, that was just the 'Very BTNEP Thanksgiving' with Joni's work associates. The family feeds were yet to come! First, there was the big Blanchard Family Thanksgiving, this year hosted at Roland and Stephanie's house on the bank of Bayou Lafourche. This meal, replete with all the Cajun trimmings (rice dressing, turkey, gumbo, rice and gravy, salad, green beans, yams, and assorted desserts) followed by football viewing on TV and accompanied by booze all the way around was just the sort of cultural experience that Stephen had only imagined.

Then, there was the "Very Mediterranean Thanksgiving" supper at the Rathles, which included more booze, mullohekah (no, I really don't know how to spell it right...) stuffed grape leaves and other bits of Med-Love and followed by playing with the young of the clan and more TV.