Thanksgiving Cooking Life Lessons

So Andrew's long time friend Wil asked us over to his annual Thanksgiving party last night. Wil makes the turkey and asks other people to bring the side dishes. Andrew told him that we would come and bring the cornbread dressing and a pumpkin pie. Wil said that was great since there were going to be over 25 people there. I was excited to make my mom's cornbread dressing recipe. It starts with homemade from scratch cornbread, bacon cooked until crispy then chopped and added to crumbled cornbread, onions, apples, pecans, celery, and cranberries for some color and sweetness. It is something I grew up loving to make with my mom and loving to eat at the holidays. It brings back all kinds of warm memories and I am trying to perfect it so that one day I can make it as good as she does. It also makes a lot in a batch, so perfect for a large party. I made the dressing last year for the Thanksgiving and it was a wild success.

Since the party was on Sunday night, I got up early Saturday morning and chopped everything, baked the cornbread....Andrew cooked the bacon for me and helped by walking June during the cooking process since she was her usual early morning self and was beginning to get underfoot. The batch turned out great and Andrew thought it was better than the batch I made last year. I let it sit overnight and re-warmed before the party. This made it taste even better as the flavors were able to soak into one another. I even put it in t his lovely dish we got for our wedding and was so proud of the presentation.

So we get to the party and what do I see?! This HUGE aluminum pan full of Stovetop cornbread dressing! It was as big as my batch if not bigger. I could totally tell it was from a box, but still knew it would be in competition with my homemade, from scratch, trying to do it as good as my mom's, dressing. I asked Wil if he knew I was bringing cornbread dressing, and he was like....yeah. Well...I don't think he meant to, but he placed my dressing on the opposite side of the kitchen away from the meat, and the Stovetop directly next to the meat! I think you can guess what happened....NO ONE ate my dressing! I mean me and Andrew did, but that was a small dent into the huge batch I made for the assumable hungry for my dressing 25 people that Wil told me to cook for. It hurt...I was offended and also appalled that these people could eat from a box dressing when there was some on the other side of the kitchen with fresh apples and toasted pecans! Andrew called me out and asked if the situation was bringing out pride in my heart....and I agreed that it was pride. But still....come on people!

We left with our beautiful dish full of dressing, and it made me think about my motives in cooking. Is it to be esteemed the best cook in the room...to earn favor from others? Or do I cook because I enjoy it and out of service to my family and others? I think it is a combination for me honestly. I do love it and enjoy the smells and feelings associated with cooking. However, I do need to check my heart at times and repent for the ugliness that comes out when an expectation is not met. I pray that I could be truly serving others in cooking and that my heart could be pure and content in cooking for the joy of cooking (no pun intended).

I asked my mother-in-law if I could bring my dressing to her Thanksgiving table since there is so much left and it freezes very easily. We will see what she has planned...I hope it will not go to waste:)