By Elaine Viets
This Friday, I will celebrate a favorite holiday. Many Americans know it as Black Friday, possibly the biggest holiday shopping day of the year. They’ll line up in the cold to get buy bargains the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Not me. I’ll risk frostbite in my own home. You’ll find me in front of the open fridge, eating leftovers on Feasting Friday.
No matter how good Thanksgiving dinner is, the leftovers are even better the next day. A sandwich made from cold sliced turkey topped with cranberry sauce is worth celebrating. The flavor grows richer when I reheat giblet gravy and I can pick out the icky bits without being rude. Even cold lima beans in cheese sauce taste better the second time around, with the green limas embedded in the golden cheese like jewels.
I’ve learned to appreciate fine food. I like my veggies crisp, green and steamed most of the year. But at Thanksgiving, I long for mushy green beans in Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup with crispy canned onion rings on top.
I appreciate heart-healthy whole grain artisan bread. At Thanksgiving I stuff myself with pillowy Parker House rolls.
I eat clever mandarin orange and cranberry relishes the rest of the rest. At Thanksgiving, I like my cranberries out of the can.
And if there’s any pie left, I am doubly thankful on Feasting Friday. I slather leftover pumpkin pie with whipped cream like a porn star. Forget mincemeat pie. That’s raisins with a makeover.
Thanksgiving with family and friends is fun. I like crowding around a table extended to the last leaf and loaded with mashed potato mountains with cascades of melted butter, sweet potatoes glazed with brown sugar, and roast turkey with crisp skin. Real turkey, not processed junk that tastes like warm Kleenex.
On Thanksgiving Day, surrounded by friends and family, I am grateful for what I have. The day after Thanksgiving, I give thanks that my loved ones are safely home.
On Feasting Friday, there’s no holiday in my heart. Now it’s a celebration in my stomach. I quietly open the ziplock bags and plastic containers to get to the meat of things.
I don’t have to worry about dropping Grandma’s wineglasses or chipping the heirloom china. They’ve been washed and put away. I can’t spill anything on the white tablecloth. It’s in the laundry.
By Saturday, that green bean casserole will taste like something scraped off the side of an aquarium. The carved-up turkey carcass will look like an escapee from an autopsy.
On Feasting Friday, I relax, enjoy and reflect. I give thanks for the friends who provided this feast and their generous gift of leftovers. I’m grateful I’m not standing in a checkout line. I eat and be merry, for tomorrow I will diet.
I also remember this important Feasting Friday nutrition fact: If you eat standing up, the calories slide off.
Happy Thanksgiving, TLCers. How will you celebrate Feasting Friday? What’s your favorite leftover?




