My Very Own Guilty Thanksgiving Food Indulgence

Traditional food, eaten appreciatively over good conversation with family and friends. What could be better? I'm thankful, oh yes I am.

Favorite guilty Thanksgiving food indulgence (and don't read this if you have a sensitive stomach): furtively skimming off the carmelized top "skin" of the butter and fat drippings that collect at the bottom of the turkey pan, each time I baste the turkey (every 15 minutes, baby). Oh, the joy that the intense flavor of all that chewy brown buttery FAT gives me...I just can't even quite describe how happy it makes my mouth. Along the same lines, my other favorite is eating the bits of stuffing that have fallen out of the turkey's neck cavity into the butter/drippings, as well as sneaking bits of nicely browned (but not crispy) turkey skin while it's being carved. Really, it's all about the butter and rendered poultry fat combo. It's hardwired into my genetics, I swear. (Mmmm schmaltz...)

And yeah, the turkey itself is always yummy, and so are the garlic yams, and the creative salad my mom always makes, not to mention the truly delicious and satisfying stuffing (best from inside the turkey, but also good from the extra casserole dish, and both even better with some more fat, uh, I mean some gravy liberally applied over it) and the pumpkin pie and mom's funky yet tasty persimmon pudding (both with lots of hand-whipped cream on top). But ooo, there's something that just gets me every single year about that butter/fat combo. Of course I know it's "bad" for me, a zillion artery-clogging calories per taste, but really, in the bigger picture, who cares? It's only once a year. And I'm thankful for that too.