It’s Thanksgiving. Again.

It’s that time of year when we go all Norman Rockwell.  We get out the good china, the colorfultablecloths, the pretty glasses.  Gourds andautumn leaves decorate our houses.  Familiesdo their best to get together and we deeply miss the ones who can’t be withus. 

And then there’s the food.  Always too much but always appreciated.  We resurrect our old family recipes.  Year after year, out of respect for our heritage, we re-create the good ones.  And, sometimes, the not-so-good ones.

And so it was last week that my relatively small food contribution to this year's dinner was discussed.

The family knows that my grandmother put lard in everything she cooked.  It was yummy but we can’t go there anymore.   My mother was big on adding generous dollops of rum to nearly everything that left the kitchen.  That, too, was yummy but best not to go there either.  For those reasons, the recipe collection from my past is slim and iffy, at best.

Thus, I’ve always relied on my friends to share their simpleand always delicious favorites.  Thisyear, I offered to bring Mrs. Willard’s Zucchini Casserole to our table.  Surely, I remembered the recipe from ourrecent downsizing and deeply purged move. Didn’t I?

Where might it be?  Myrecipe box?  Nope, not there.  Maybe it’s in one of the few cookbooks Ibrought with me?  Not there either.  Panic swells up.  If I pitched that,  what else went out by mistake?

Aha, my memory said. Maybe I stuck it in my old…really old…Joy of Cooking.  Surely I brought thatwith me.  But not so fast.  It’s nowhere to be seen.  And I can’t exactly Google “Mrs. Willard’sZucchini Casserole”.

Then memory did me another small favor.  That old…..really old…..Joy of Cooking has nobacking.  It just looks like an old stackof papers.  Take another peek. 

And there it was.  Oneold friend embracing another.  Mrs.Willard will be with us, after all.  Ofcourse, there’s still that little matter of proper preparation but I think I’llbe okay.  Mrs. Willard understood my kitchenlimitations.  Good friend that she was.

And a happy Thanksgiving to all.