Can I really eat too much turkey?

Too much turkey means lying around the house moaning and groaning after the big meal of the holiday. I have news for you. Turkey isn't the only meat that has an ingredient that makes you drowsy. Chicken and beef have it too, according to a report I heard in the media recently. I guess a lot of us would have to look the ingredient up - trepto-something - in a dietary manual.

It seems many of us eat Thanksgiving dinner at different times of the day. Typically, my family usually sit down at the holiday dinner table about 2 p.m. Some families eat earlier, some later. This year I will dine at my niece's home about 3:30 p.m.

Some families have dinner at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. or even later in the evening.

So why do we always run the Turkey Trot or play the Turkey Bowl tag football games in the morning? That's the way it's always been. It seems to me eating the meal, resting and then working the meal off makes more sense. But I guess because we all eat at different times of the day, the morning is the only time to run and play. Well, that is if you aren't the cook. The cook starts early in the day cleaning out the big bird, making the dressing and stuffing the bird before putting it in the oven for the day.

Then, there's pies to bake, side dishes to prepare and "oh, my gosh," potatoes to peel and yams to candy up and the list goes on as far as you want to take it.

Holiday meals are a real chore and a mound of dishes to deal with after it's over. Just ask any respectable kitchen mom or dad.

My dad stayed as far away from the kitchen as possible. Mom pretty much did it all with some help from the girls. I usually was out of the house on a horseback ride if the weather was good.

I came back in time to help with the relish dish, set the table and mash the potatoes - the last minute stuff.

But, for me, the best part of Thanksgiving dinner was stealing the stuffing before it was scooped from the bird. The heart and other parts most people turn their noses up to were always up for grabs, although mom used them in the gravy when at all possible. Traditionally at my childhood home, the forks would fly when the turkey came out of the oven that last time. The vultures came from every point in the house to sneak a forkful of something. After all, they had to make sure it was edible. That was the story and everyone stuck to it.

It seems the more time flies by and the older we get the less interest we have in the kitchen. I tend to shortcut Thanksgiving dinner, the few times that I've prepared it myself. Turkey is good, stuffing stays forever, a good bean casserole is much less work and cranberry sauce comes in a can making it easy. My mom cooked whole cranberries into a delectable side dish. Not me, I'll use whole berry or smooth canned sauce versions any day.

Potatoes are essential. That means gravy. Candied sweet potatoes or yams complete any holiday meal whether it's ham or turkey or prime rib.

The relish dish is probably another component for a full-fledged Thanksgiving Day meal, but if you snack on it when the table is set, you'll have less room for the better stuff that follows.

Somehow the rules never apply. The cook can threaten all he or she wants, but Thanksgiving Day is special. We never follow all the rules.

After all, it's only one day a year, other than Christmas Day when those stay-out-of-the-kitchen rules don't apply either.

If you are going out on the town to eat the holiday meal, just try and sneak all the early snacking in a restaurant kitchen. That's what you'll miss if you go up town to dinner, you know. The chef would never allow you to test the turkey dressing before it came from the turkey. Commercial chefs probably don't even put it in the turkey.

For me, there's nothing like a home-cooked Thanksgiving Day dinner. So we must not rile the cook too much. This is the same person who could easily go on strike and suggest a change of plans - like dining out, for instance.