For a homey dessert, Dad would tear up a slice of bread and tuck the chunks into a glass of milk. Mom said that the first time he did this after they were married, she was afraid she hadn’t fed him enough. No, it was a treat from his childhood.
It never caught on with the rest of us.
Dad also enjoyed bread and gravy, maybe at the end of a meal. Sis Gloria and I did adopt that one, just a slice of bread with gravy over it.
Bread stuffing
Stuffing for turkey is mostly bread. We never had it at home, probably because Mom never roasted a turkey. That was Aunt Betty’s specialty for the Neal clan get-togethers. Someone must have made bread stuffing because I always slathered both the turkey and dressing with gravy.
On *my first Thanksgiving away from home (Iowa), we lived in a ten-foot wide trailer when my Favorite Guy was stationed in Idaho. I roasted my very first turkey there. November 23,1967, I recorded in my diary that it “did much for my cooking morale.” I’d also made a pumpkin pie and cranberry salad, served on our Melmac dishes. No stuffing mentioned, but I added that to the Thanksgiving menu in later years.
One year Guy said that I could skip the dressing, that he didn’t need any. But by then it was a must for me, especially with a dollop of gravy. And leftovers the next day, with turkey and gravy. Bliss!
Well, a couple of decades ago I had to give up gluten. I don’t have Celiac Disease but eating anything with gluten makes me so sick. I tried gluten-free stuffing, but GF bread is not something you look forward to. The stuffing was awful. So, no more stuffing.
It dawned on me that stuffing is just dressed up bread and gravy. It’s no wonder I liked it.
Scalloped Chicken
Come to think of it, the Scalloped Chicken recipe served by the Dexter Presbyterian for Memorial Day dinners was the ultimate savory bread and gravy concoction. Have a look at the recipe here and see if you don’t agree.
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*Guy’s first Thanksgiving away from home was spent in Air Traffic Control Tech School in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Bread and gravy is hard to beat. Biscuits and gravy is impossible to beat. The other thing we enjoyed was sopping up the leftover salad dressing (simple oil, vinegar and lemon juice) with bread at the end of dinner.
My Favorite Guy often orders biscuits and gravy. I don’t remember having biscuits at home but enjoyed your memory of sopping leftover salad dressing!
My husband loves to cook the turkey for Thanksgiving and he makes the most delicious stuffing. Sometimes, we have turkey other times of the year as well. In our house, all the children and grandchildren cannot get enough gravy on everything…the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, all of it. My youngest son loves biscuits and gravy! I make gravy with other meals as well. (Not all the time!) My family loves gravy with meatloaf!
Oh, you’re my kind of family! I cannot have gluten, so whatever gravy I can have isn’t as much fun, but gravy is wonderful on about anything but dessert, huh!
My dad likes these things too. I’ve never like stuffing or bread and gravy.
Thank you, Robbie. Not liking them will keep you more slim!
God, I remember doing that. A little bread with milk. I haven’t’ done that since I was kid! Thanks for the blast from the past.
Thanks, Rich!
I remember my mom blaming all the bread and gravy he ate when he taught at at St. Andrew’s School for Boys that caused him to lose his slim physique. I love bread and gravy, too.
Bread and gravy will do that. Thank you, Liz.
You’re welcome, Joy.
“Stuffing is just dressed up bread and gravy”…right, Joy! I loved these memories and the photo of you, too! An impressive meal and a gorgeous pic!
Your thoughts about bread, gravy, stuffing reminded me of one of my dad’s friends – Ray. He grew up in a very large family where there wasn’t quite enough food to go around. Ray would add gravy to any chocolate cake crumbs he could scrounge up when he helped his mom clean up the kitchen. He called it his “special dessert”. For years, my dad would give Ray a huge chocolate cake for his birthday and make sure he had a side of “sauce”…preferably beef gravy. Oh my! 💝
Oh my, is right! I thought gravy would improve anything EXCEPT dessert! What fun, Vicki!
Ray was a character, Joy! I hadn’t thought about him for years and years. Grateful to you for prompting the memory! xo! 💝
Ah, the memories, Joy. Bread and gravy was a favorite as a kid. I used to make bread stuffing, but the family turned against it since it was way too calorific. So now we order the feast and everyone can eat what they like, and I didn’t have to fuss over it.
We’ve had to moderate things as well, John. Thank you.
Very interesting memories, Joy. We lived in a 10-foot-wide trailer for a couple of years while I was going to college in Illinois, majoring in music. According to WebMD, “Some people experience adverse reactions and health risks when eating foods containing gluten.”
After living in dorm rooms, I enjoyed the 10-wide! A gastro doc had me take all sorts of ‘oscopies and pronounced me celiac-free. He told me to get back to writing and that I might like to visit with a counselor! My cousin, a realtor, said she bet I was “gluten intolerant” and to look it up. There were all my symptoms! I haven’t had gluten since (except for a couple of times I was unaware–one was BBQ sauce!) and that’s been 20 years ago. I sure wonder why the gastroenterologist didn’t at least suggest that!
Yes, Joy, the 10-wide was good for us for a couple of years, then we bought a small house on a concrete base, where we lived until we moved to Michigan in 1980.
Good for you, Tim!
With 3 brothers, I think when cash was “a bit low”, we would have bread and gravy for a quick supper, maybe from leftovers, and with a canned jar of vegetables on the side. If we boys were still hungry, we could pop corn grown in the garden. Also, toast and warm milk, with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon, were not just for breakfast. I bought an 8×50’ trailer between my junior and senior year at Iowa State U. Loan arranged with Russell Horn at the Dexter Bank. 2 roommates paid rent more than my monthly payment my junior year. Connie and I were married May 1966, so she could go east to Quantico, VA with me for my USMC basic training. After graduation in May 1967, the trailer was moved to Chandler, AZ, near Williams AFB for 53 weeks of USAF pilot training. I was one of 3 Marines among 83 total students in our class (69-A). 51 graduated with wings. Sold the trailer and we went east with baby, Teresa, to Cherry Point MCAS, my first Marine assignment.
Bob, you could just copy and paste your comment to start your memoir! Or add to what you already have written. Your daughters and grandkids would be so grateful!
I’m a little behind in reading this, but it reminded me of two things. One was that my maternal grandfather often ate as a bedtime snack a huge glass of buttermilk into which he would crumble up cold cornbread left over from an earlier meal. (There always seemed to be cornbread at their meals every day.) Another was the dressing (we never called it stuffing because it never got into the turkey, only into us) my mother used to make. She cooked and crumbled up sausage, a little bit of finely diced onion, and celery (among other ingredients I no longer recall) in it. One year, after Mother was killed by a drunk driver, Daddy tried to replicate her Thanksgiving meal for the gathered family, but he used HOT sausage. Not too many people went back for seconds, but I love it to this day. However, it’s something that my wife will cook only at Thanksgiving or Christmas and only when there is a large crowd to eat it–if everyone will take a little, and then I can eat a few warmed-up leftovers the next several days.
Buttermilk, huh. (Grandma Leora was a buttermilk fan.) Cornbread would work, wouldn’t it. Some folks make stuffing from cornbread. Ours never made it into the turkey either, but when I called it dressing, someone said that dressing is only for salad!
Yeah, I remember the bread and gravy! Yum!
Yes, yum! Thanks, Dawn.
You’ve made my mouth water for stuffing and gravy-and I guess you could throw some turkey on it. I can’t eat gluten either for the same reason-it’s too inflammatory. They’ve messed with the wheat too much. I used to make open-faced stuffing sandwiches covered in gravy! 🙂
Yes, Nancy, they changed our wheat! I actually get sick from even a tablespoon of BBQ sauce that has gluten in it. (I found out the hard way, not looking for it in BBQ sauce.)
I read all ingredient labels until I remembered what not to buy. Then it was divulged how horrible seed oil is and that wiped out more of what I used to think was okay. 🤪
I know what you mean, Nancy. Frustrating!