The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

We live in an amazing world. You can almost buy anything you want from far away and it will be shipped to you ASAP and be of a great quality. I am talking about everything from clothing, to food, to shoes, and even cotton socks, if you find you need cotton socks.

With me it is cooking. I used to be able to lay a complete turkey dinner out on the table just by doing it the morning of the dinner.

I can’t do it anymore. Old age has set in and I find I do less and less of what I used to do.

Matter of fact this fall, I did a practice turkey just to see if I could get done what I used to do in a day. I made dressing, stuffed the turkey, made a wonderful basting sauce, roasted the bird, made gravy and that was all I could do.

No desserts, no green bean casserole, no sweet potatoes and no mashed potatoes either.

I did put out a whole platter of black olives, green olives, green onions and very good pickles. That seemed to make up for a lot!

But then one night I was in my favorite recliner in front of the fireplace drinking a glass of brandy and looking at a food catalog I had not seen before.

In it, among thousands of very good looking things to eat, they had various sides to go with your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. They were pricy and not for the faint of heart but you got two two pound cartons of frozen food. In my case I can use one two pound carton for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. I got a green bean casserole, southern sweet potatoes and a mashed potato casserole. I am already hoping to have some of the mashed potato casserole left over as I can make a Christmas turkey shepherd’s pie for that season.

I just hope they taste as good as they look. People will think old Robby still has it when truth be told, my get up and go had got up and went!

There will be more to this story. You will get chapter two after Thanksgiving.