Thanksgiving and Xmas are the king of holidays in my world. Without fail, sometime in this next month, I'll get emotional over the smell of Thanksgiving dinner wafting from the kitchen, the sight of a robotic store display in a New York department store, the twinkling of white lights twined through bare branches of city trees, or the airing of the Charlie Brown Thankgiving Special or the stop-motion Rudolph/Frosty television specials.
I haven't strayed too far from tradition, but one of these years I'd like to try a turducken, a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. It sounds ridiculous and gluttonous, like the purest of comfort foods, and isn't that part of what the holidays are all about? What better to fill the emotional holes in one's life and to relieve the vulnerabilities which Xmas and Thanksgiving expose than to stuff one's belly? I've also never had a Christmas goose, and it seems to be a canonical Xmas dinner in literature and film. I have no idea if a goose is tasty, but the words "Christmas goose" just sound cozy.
I draw the line at tofurkey, though. It was served in the company cafeteria this week to address the vegetarians and vegans among us. Tofurkey looks like smooth, round slices of Gouda cheese that been dipped in soy sauce. Even Google questions the choice of tofurkey: if you type in tofurkey in Google, the first line reads:
Did you mean: turkey