holidays

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Family Traditions

Every family has its holiday traditions. It’s part of what makes the season so special.  In my wife’s family, one of their traditions is the dressing that goes along with the turkey on Thanksgiving.  Now some people prefer to cook their dressing inside the cavity of the bird, but at that point, I guess it technically becomes stuffing.

The recipe for this special Thanksgiving side dish has been passed down from generation to generation.  As you can see from the well-worn recipe card below, this dish is officially called ‘Mothers Dressing’.  The mother in the title is technically my wife’s maternal grandmother Marilyn.  This was the dressing she served and passed down to my wife’s mother Nancy many years ago.

This year, the making of Mothers Dressing will be handled by my wife, Susan, and my sister-in-law, Alisan. It’s the one job they never wanted at Thanksgiving. And that’s not because they don’t love this dressing. The making of the dressing was always handled by their mother who we lost unexpectedly back in May.

This year, it looks like Mothers Dressing will take on a whole new meaning for the family. It will be tough giving thanks this year, but at least we still have each other and some wonderful memories.

This one’s for you, Nancy…

 

Mother’s Dressing

12 cups cubed bread (dried)
Melt 1 cup butter in a skillet
Brown 3/4 cup chopped onion and 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
2 teaspoons of salt
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
Add poultry seasoning to taste

To moisten the dressing, add broth or water as needed

Use regular white bread, purchase bread a few days in advance, and leave out to dry

(Makes 3 quarts for a 12 lb turkey)

Kevin Mason's Holiday Playlist

Holidays On The Hi-Fi Playlist

After a lengthy career in radio, I honestly have a love/hate relationship with Christmas music. I played a LOT of it over the years, and in all honesty most of the songs I played lacked something. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out what that something was. I tried to blame it on the fact that I played ‘Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” waaaaaaay too many times, but that wasn’t it at all.

Then back in 2003 or 2004 when I was involved in running the legendary WAKR radio in Akron (the station where Alan Freed actually coined the term Rock N’ Roll) and there I finally realized what the problem was. The music I loved during the holidays was truly the good ole songs. Today they’re called Christmas standards, but back when I was growing up Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Perry Como were everywhere during the holiday season. In the mid 2000’s WAKR was catering to an older audience and playing those standards during the holidays and memories came flooding back.

Last year in my spare time I sat down during the holidays and attempted to create the ultimate Christmas playlist. I wanted to create a list of songs that you could play during a holiday party and even during Christmas Dinner. So this year my gift to you is a playlist I call Holidays On The Hi-Fi. And thanks to Bop.fm you can enjoy these songs no matter where you listen to music online. Happy Holidays!

Doughnuts

The PERFECT Holiday Gift

If you have a gadget guy or girl on you holiday list and still don’t know what to get them, I have found the perfect gift…. It blends the best of today’s technology…the iPod, with the best of yesterday’s technology (?)…the Boom Box…. I introduce the iPod Ghettoblaster… Goin' Old School You can find them at a variety of retailers (both online and traditional)… or you can buy one directly from Lasonic.