Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's Thanksgiving day and the staff of NC Stage are at their respective holiday things. Much like last year and the year before. What's different this year is that we are in rehearsal for a show that opens tomorrow night. The cast of Live From WVL Radio Theatre: It's A Wonderful Life has been rehearsing for the past few weeks and opens tomorrow, Friday November 27th and runs till December 20th. Today is their day off and then we're back for a dress rehearsal Friday afternoon with the opening performance that night.

So I was realizing that our folks in the cast don't get to travel anywhere this Thanksgiving. To some, that might be a blessing. To others, a hardship. But it made me start thinking about traditions. And certainly It's A Wonderful Life makes me think about traditions around the holidays too.

So I asked the cast and crew of our production of IAWL if they would share some holiday food traditions that have had a lasting impact on them. Here's what they sent.

Kathryn Temple, playing Mary Hatch and others:

Butter Mints! There are Butter Families and there are Margarine Families. Whole Milk and 2% Skim families. The kids from the latter try desperately to trade lunches with the kids from former, usually with little or no luck. I was from a Margarine/ Skim Milk / Whole-Wheat/ No-Sugar-Cereal Family whose mother had sworn off cooking early and passed the apron off to my father. So, it was nothing short of a Christmas miracle when my mom busted out a list of four ingredients that at no other time of the year could be found in our kitchen:

Butter
Powdered Sugar
Mint Extract
Green Food Coloring

She blended the exotic ingredients and I stood at her side, barely eye-level with the countertop. She rolled out the ice green confection and I methodically pressed a shot glass into the dough, cutting out quarter-sized mints. She carefully lifted the mints onto waxed paper, and then layered them into gift tins.

This was what Christmas was all about. There was butter in our kitchen. And powdered sugar. In the same place. These were no ordinary communion wafers. This was a holy time, no doubt, and I let those buttery discs melt in my mouth and stain my tongue bright green.


Tiffany Cade, playing Violet Bick, Ma Bailey and Zuzu Bailey and others

When I was a little girl I always dreamed of having a Thanksgiving Dinner just like they do in the movies. You know, everyone well dressed, table nicely set with festive cheer and warm candlelight. It is after all Thanksgiving Dinner. Well, I'm not sure how my family missed the boat on that one, but missed it they did. Ours was more like Thanksgiving Breakfast. Oh we had turkey, and green bean casserole alright; we just ate it at 10am. And I'm not even exaggerating! For generations all the women in my family would begin cooking at 5am, by 10am they were "starving." I tried to convince them that it was an easy fix; just eat a good breakfast and don't start cooking till noon. That idea never quite seemed to catch on. Being the late sleeper that I am, I often missed it all together; waking to find uncles and cousins with food coma setting in, snoring away. By 2pm everyone would be making their way back home. So depressing, I thought. My family does realize it's Thanksgiving Dinner, right?

I haven't spent a single Holiday with my family since I moved away from home in 1993. I love my family dearly, but I choose to go home during other times of the year. I decided I couldn't participate in one more Thanksgiving Breakfast. I'm thrilled to say that my parents are coming to Asheville for Thanksgiving and to see IAWL. For the first time in their lives, they will finally experience a real Thanksgiving Dinner!!!! I'm hoping they'll enjoy it so much that they'll go back home to Louisiana and spread the "tradition!" I love you Mom & Dad! Thanks for all the wonderful stories that you've given me.

PS My 2 favorite Holiday dishes that I can't live without:
Grandma's Mac & Cheese (from scratch and the kind you bake)
Green bean casserole (also from scratch, with real fried onions)


Willie Repoley, playing George Bailey, Harry Bailey and a few others.

Fried dough. Have you ever had this? I’m not kidding. You make a simple dough, let it rise, punch it down, and then pinch off a small amount, form a roughly hand-shaped lump, and drop it in a pan of hot oil. Flip it over when it starts to get all golden brown, and cook the other side.
Now, this is actually fairly common in a number of cultures, I think, but the Italian angle is what was handed down in my family: top the fried dough with red sauce (homemade, of course), dried oregano, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. It is related to a pizza, but the dough—golden, fluffy, slightly chewy—is quite different, and the particular combination of ingredients is not quite like anything else in the world. And earlier this year, I came into possession of my great grandmother Maria’s ladle, so we’ll be making the sauce with the same spoon she used to make sauce back when she and my great grandfather immigrated to this country in 1911.
(What I’m not sure I should admit to is that for the past, oh, twenty years, the family has gathered every year around the making and eating of fried dough, accompanied by the annual viewing of Ernest Saves Christmas. Really. This is a great movie. Maybe I’ll adapt it for a radio play next year if our It’s A Wonderful Life sells poorly.)

Michael MacCauley, playing Clarence the Angel, Bert, Mr. Potter, and others

Mashed potatoes. Sounds simple, I know, but they are part of the trio that is Thanksgiving. My mom made them for years, but now, many years later, I have added my own special touch. I am also from a family that is 100% Irish, so potatoes are mandatory, in whatever form they may appear.

The number of potatoes may vary, depending on how many people there are to serve.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Cut potatoes into quarters, and boil for 20 to 25 minutes. Leave skins on. After draining, add 1 stick of butter and milk to desired consistency.
Preheat oven to 450Take 1 clove of garlic covered in olive oil, heat in oven until lightly golden brown, (approximately 20 to 25 minutes). Remove from oven and garlic will easily squeeze out from the skin. Smash, crush, blend garlic into a paste and add to mashed potaoes. Vampires beware!