November 19 2023
November 19, 2023
# 1631
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COVER: circa 1945: A little girl sits at a table laden with dishes on Thanksgiving, watching anxiously as a man carves the turkey.
American Stock Archive / Getty Images
As Americans sit down to supper this Thanksgiving, the centerpiece of their celebratory dinners will, most likely, be a turkey. Why exactly the Turkey has been the star of “Turkey Day” since at least the mid-19th century is a matter of much debate, particularly given the consensus amongst historians that the Pilgrims and the Native Americans probably didn’t focus on the bird at the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621.
Some give credit for the turkey’s preeminence to Sarah Joseph Hale, the “Godmother of Thanksgiving,” whose accounts of early New England celebrations emphasized a roast turkey and eventually became the model for the festivities adopted by the rest of the country after Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863. Others credit the bird’s existing role in English celebratory feasts and the fact that its large size made it a practical item for such affairs. Others still believe it is because the turkey’s position as the most American of feathered creatures—Benjamin Franklin, after all, thought it a much more “respectable bird” than the Bald Eagle—makes it a fitting entrée for one of the most American of holidays.
Adult male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) strutting at Deer Island Open Space Preserve near Novato, Marin County, California
© Frank Schulenburg
Slow Roast Turkey/Chicken
Take the turkey/chicken from the refrigerator and set it in the oven.
Set the oven to 200* and set your timer to 1 hour per pound.
When the bird is done, turn the oven to 475-500 and cook the bird for another 15 minutes.
Remove the bird from the oven and let it sit for 30 minutes.
It’s ready to eat.
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But the recipe doesn’t mention gravy.
The slow-roast method of cooking does not produce gravy.
The idea of the slow roast is to ensure that the poultry juices stay inside the bird. Cooking the turkey at 350* forces the juices out of the bird and into the roasting pan and makes for a tougher, less tasty bird. Recapturing the juices we roast out is why we make gravy.
Slow-roasting cooks save the turkey carcass, bones, and unused parts [the head, feet, etc.] and make a stock. The stock is reduced until the turkey flavor is intense. Then it’s thickened with a roux, and frozen for the next time they roast a turkey.
For that first bird, when you have no gravy sitting in your freezer, think out of the box. The slow-roasted bird is so tender and juicy, and the turkey flavor is so intense, that salt and pepper is all you really need.
And there’s no mention of stuffing.
Perceptive.
Nor is there any mention of Pumpkin Pie or Cranberry Sauce.
Happy Thanksgiving, Turkey Lovers.
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Commentary
One of the great moments of my year.
5pm
A text message: are you available now? Am getting us tickets to a dance recital at Emerson. For 6.00pm, tonight. Are you coming?
I am.
Off I go to meet dear Lex at 10 Boylston Place.
What an extraordinary event. Fifty or so young people engaged in an eruption of sound and movement that would inspire awe in any observer.
This amazing female whose presence demands attention was my partner for this wonderful event.
How inspiring.
How prideful that such a young person would indulge my presence.
And even introduce me to her friends w/o regard to my age.
Got to love Lex.
The energy of these young people is contagious.
As they ran past me, I said aloud, “They’re babies!”
Community Supported Agriculture
In an effort to eat healthier, to support local farms, and to deepen our connection to nature, Will and I signed up for a membership at a nearby CSA (community supported agriculture) program.
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Kat’s Gen Z Corner
Every week, I walk six blocks to a local church to pick up a box of various produce grown in an update farm. You never know what veggies you’ll get, which keeps you on your toes, makes cooking fun, and enhances your education about local products. It also keeps you in line with the seasons and foods that best match your digestive system during various times of the year. (At grocery stores, for contrast, you can buy seasonal veggies and fruits year round, even if they are far from their peak flavor.)
These programs are quite special for many reasons, one being the opportunity to provide local farms economic safety nets each year, guaranteeing them a certain level of income no matter how their harvest performs any given season. (This fall, for instance, it’s rained almost every weekend in New York and really harmed many farms’ income from seasonal apple pickers.)
Our new CSA membership grants us access to the freshest foods, which are rarely a guarantee at grocery stores, even the most health conscious ones. Now we don’t have to fight the obscene lines at the Sunday Upper West Side farmers market, and it forces us to consume our healthy share of veggies each week, which are easy to skip as 20-something’s with busy schedules and heavy carb consumers.
Unfortunately the season is ending next week, so we only had a few boxes to try before winter’s arrival. But these past couple of weeks gave us a peak into a more sustainable and intentional way of selecting our groceries, of living, and we look forward to picking it back up in June.
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Tucker’s Corner
I’m in a holding pattern when it comes to new movies this week. Nothing at the theater is pulling me in so instead I decided to write about David Fincher’s films. Turns out I’ve got a lot of thoughts I never put down on paper. I realize this probably isn’t of general interest but if anyone is curious you follow the link below to read about the films that comprise the first half of Fincher’s career.
These are some of my favorite films and it was a nice exercise to think about why. Read more here
Write
I wasn’t planning on it but finishing Conflicted became an obsession and on Tuesday, 11/14/2023 I did.
Love the way it turned out.
Coming up: Marketing two books: Do You Believe in Magic and Conflicted.
Flyer from the Boston Public Library
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Ralph’s Corner
Touch of Magic
Dom,
I tried to write our piece twice and had to throw it away. I just finished a third piece sort of a memorial of Joe Cheezelo. I only had a superficial relationship with Joe and I always in awe of him. My experience of some people is that this experience sticks with me like a blessing from God. Hopefully, we can be successfully in recreate all the magic that was given us in growing up in the North End so that we can share it with others and have that magic live in them. I will complete the piece Monday night. I can not tell you the joy on the new found joy in our relationship I have.
All my love and Support
“Anecdote of the Jar“
I placed a jar in Tennessee And round it was upon a hill It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill The wilderness rose up to it And sprawled around no longer wild The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a point in the air It took dominion everywhere The jar was grey and bare It did not give of bird or bush Like nothing else in Tennessee
Wallace Stevens
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Cheez was a looming presence for all of us growing up in the North End. We learned to resist the authority of church and state but the Cheez was an authority we could not refuse. Joseph Cheezelo was in the navy in World War Two. He fought in the South Pacific in the Navy. He was walking down a beach on an island that was taken from the Japanese when a door of a landing craft crashed down upon him. The sand saved his life but not his eye.
Strangely I always felt that Cheez was stronger and better because he lost that eye. He seemed to me to have the presence of a powerful cyclops. Cheez bought a building in the North End where he created residence for him and his family. On the first floor where there was a store. Cheez transformed the store into a Club which was named not to hard to figure out Cheez’s Club. This was his business his whole life. I do not think Cheez ever worked for anyone in his life. I always felt he was too big for any job. There was many avenues of illegalities that Cheez used to make is money. He ran a card game taking a Vig off ever hand. In the North End there were many characters and none of us had character and we did not care as well. Running a card game in the North End was like being a Lion tamer in a circus. One had to be fearless. You had to generate those two virtues of toughness and flexibility and the ability to have the gift of gab. Cheez possessed them both. I never was alarmed watching his games. I knew that Cheez would handle anything that came up. He seemed to posses the magical ability that whoever was his adversary he could become bigger. Cheez had a bar in the club and after hours joint as well as gambling and a flex of televisions that his betters and friends would watch their games.
Cheez’s Club gave an expanded residence and the comrade for all of us. Cheez was a member of the Greatest Generation that won over the Great Depression and fascism which gave this country “ a new birth of freedom” We were right after him as baby boomers. Cheez always elicited awe and terror from me. When we did meet, he would look right threw me and my blood ran cold. I felt Cheez possessed a certain kind of sense for potential threats. Once his scan proved negative, Cheez would say, “How you doing kid?” in his classic deep gravel voice. I knew that the etiquette of the North End he did not have to say hi. I was a screwed up kid and he had a position of power and respect in our community. But he always said, “ How you doing kid.” I always experienced that Cheez cared about me and he meant every breath he took.
I am friends of Anthony The Bomb Bertucico. The bomb had a personal relationship with Cheeze they were related and lived close together. One hot summer day, I meet the Bomb on our beloved streets. Anthony told me the he had a friend that was not a North Ender who committed suicide. I did not remember anyone in the North End who committed suicide. I guess if one in the North wanted to kill himself there were plenty of people that would do it for him. You did not have to do kill yourself yourself. I remember that Anthony would tell me of his friend and how close they were. Anthony looked distraught and kinda lost. I felt com-pulsed to ask Anthony if he wanted to go for a walk and talk about it. It was impossible to be alone in the North End which was wonderful but did not give for personal and intimate conversations between two men.
We decided to go for a walk to Government Center and where ever we went from their. As we walked Anthony revealed how mutually nurturing his relationship was with his friend who committed suicide. I could imagine his pain lose and sense of personal betray. How could someone you loved and you loved them kill all the potential for possibility and nurturing that you had for one another in one shot? “You know I talked to the Cheez about this.”, said Anthony. I did not want to question Anthony so as to even appear to judge him or try to fix him. I gave Anthony the gift of silence. I found that silenced brought up what needed to be brought up. “I told Cheezalo about my friend killing himself and Cheez said, “ First of all I am sorry for you and your friend. Secondly, if their was one bowl of raviolis in the world I would not kill myself. I might get it.”
This was decades and decades ago. I remember this as if Saint Francis of Assisi gave me a blessing. This story of Cheez pops in my experience comes and visits me once and a while. When this past experience visited me, I seem to be in some kind of state of grace full of being alive. When I think of Cheez I am awed by the possibility of who we can be and think My God, the incredible humanity of this man. “Myths are specific accounts of gods or super human beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstance in a time that is unspecific but which is existing apart from ordinary human experience.” I often wondered why did we invent myths? What did myths provide for us? I think maybe maybe at least in one sense myths are the projection of the magic of what is possible for us as human beings and maybe myths are a way of not taking responsibility for the Beings we are like projecting our virtues on another? “
Anecdote of Joseph Cheezelo”
Joe Cheez took his stand in the North End
As if he stood upon a hill Cheez made the North End all around him alive
We in the North End rose to meet Cheez
And we sprawled all around him a little more free
He was tall like a beacon in the air
He took dominion everywhere Joseph had the courage to be who he is
And the kindness that enabled us to be who we are
Cheez did not care about outside authority
He knew as King Lear knew “ There thou mightiest behold the great image of authority ;
a dog is obeyed in office.”
Like nothing else in the North End.
Dedicated to Joseph Cheezalo
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Seize the day. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing. – from Dead Poets Society
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Six Word Novels
"Empty nest, full hearts, memories linger."
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts, including links.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
text to 617.852.7192
This from partner and co-publisher of “Do You Believe in Magic”
Dom,
Thanks for that poignant interview with Frank. Lucille and I have had the pleasure of being in Frank’s company and generosity several times in the past few years. He is as genuine, interesting and insightful as your interview portrays.
Gratefully,
Victor
This from my daughter Kat,
Dad,
I don't subscribe to too many newsletters outside of yours, but I thought I'd share another one that feels like a breath of fresh air or the beauty of reading poetry. Skip to after the first photo — the first 1/5 are her advertisements.
I love how personally and beautifully she writes about how she's relating to the world. I feel like I can take refuge in this newsletter.
Love you
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