Once again, perception and reality hit the children where it hurts. In the stomach. Last year, they begged, pleaded, teased, assured, reassured me that they wanted the Thanksgiving stuffing EXACTLY like Grandmas.
In plain English, I told them that meant putting giblets in the mix. I provided clear and accurate verbal pictures of just exactly where they are located in the raw, and made numerous references as to where we would find them once the turkey thawed out. I described in painful detail how they would look and feel. I might have well been speaking Turkish.
Sure enough, when I pulled them out of the bird, painful howls, fainting spells and gut wrenching cries flew at me from three directions. (I have three kids.) “You’re not putting those anywhere but in the garbage, are you?†“That is disgusting!†“I’m not eating any stuffing if you put that stuff in there.†This last child doesn’t eat stuffing anyway so I took that comment with a grain of salt.
They had insisted. The giblets got voted in and they served their term. It’s the American way.
This year, I am planning to follow the same drill, only this time I am not telling anyone about my seasonal preferences. It’s my own version of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
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“My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.†~ Phyllis Diller
8 responses so far ↓
1 SharkMan » Gradma’s Dirty Little Secret // Nov 21, 2007 at 1:29 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptGradma’s Dirty Little Secret Posted by Mary on 21 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Family, Life Observations, Moms [IMG giblets] Once again, perception and reality hit the children where it hurts. In the stomach. Last year, they begged, pleaded, teased, assured, reassured me that they wanted the Thanksgiving stuffing EXACTLY like Grandmas. In plain English, I told them that meant putting giblets in the mix. I provided clear and accurate verbal pictures of just exactly where they are located in the raw, [...]
2 Angelawd // Nov 21, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Oh, the drama surrounding our cooking. My girls demanded to know every single ingredient in their dinner before choosing to eat it. They learned how to make themselves peanut butter sandwiches very young. But now that First Born is on her own, she eats just about anything.
You’ve very brave even to display the giblets.
3 Karen Vogel // Nov 21, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I always throw them out and then I feel guilty about it. I used to save chicken livers in my freezer, thinking I’d get enough to make chopped liver; never happened.
4 Dr. Bad Ass // Nov 21, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Gotta love the giblets!
You’re tagged for the 7 things meme — see my blog for the details.
http://www.badassturtle.blogspot.com
5 Keli // Nov 21, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Oh my goodness! I hope you had smelling salts handy. My dogs enjoy the gourmet taste of giblets. And I never cook in front of my children. I always do it behind their backs, lest they ask too many questions.
6 robert bourne // Nov 22, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I like Keli’s idea cook behind their backs…I imagine I have eaten many things that if I had of known the origin I might have thought twice before inhaling..I still would have inhaled but there would have been second thoughts….:):):)
7 Melinda // Nov 22, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I would be running too… no giblets in my stuffing, there’s already enough “stuff” in there.
8 Rebecca // Nov 23, 2007 at 2:39 pm
My grandma used to make her stuffing with all the giblets. When my mom got the recipe from her she omitted them from her version. The thought grosses me out.