STUFFING AND A CAR

"And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:" (Luke 10:8)

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, today, December 1, 2011, would have been my father's 89th birthday...not his 90th as I had mistakenly thought. Last week, Boston radio talk show host Doug Meehan had people calling in with their favorite turkey recipes and favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal. After many calls, a gentleman caller came on and said he was surprised no one had yet called about "French meat stuffing".

"French meat stuffing?!" Meehan asked, and commented that he'd never heard of it.

Well, actually it's French CANADIAN meat stuffing. I have absolutely heard of it because my father prepared it each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey dinners. It was his mother's recipe. The meat stuffing is very common in homes of French heritage in Quebec. In fact, it's not only used to stuff turkeys, but is also often baked into meat pies. The meat pie is the traditional New Year's Day meal of the French Canadian family.

There are ALL SORTS of variations on French Canadian meat stuffing, but just about however you make it, it is delicious. My father actually had an electric meat grinder, and would "re-grind" the already "ground beef" and sausage meat. Of course, you don't HAVE to do that! It all depends on how much you want to make, but I'd say you've got to get at least two pounds of ground beef. You also need to buy some of that sausage meat that's sold in the refrigerated section in those packages wrapped in plastic wrap. You know, like "Jimmy Dean's pure pork sausage"...stuff like that. You've got to use at least one of those packages. DON'T buy Italian hot sausage or anything like that. I also don't recommend spicy barbecue or even smoked. Just get mild pork sausage meat. My father liked to use Pepperidge Farm stuffing. It doesn't HAVE to be Pepperidge Farm. You can use Stove Top or some other brand. You mix up in a big bowl the ground beef, the sausage meat, and the stuffing mix. My parents also usually added cut up celery pieces. I THINK you can use onion, too, although I'd prefer it without onion. AND, you can make up a small batch of mashed potatoes and mix in some mashed potatoes with it. My parents used to like to do that. But IF you do use the mashed potatoes, don't "go crazy" with them. A little goes a long way. Otherwise, too much mashed potatoes can make it too bland and not meaty enough. ALSO, my father also always added Bells Seasoning to give it more of that "stuffing flavor". I'll tell you what, if you make meat stuffing like that even once, you'll never want to go back to "regular bread stuffing".

Now, to cars, my father owned all sorts of cars during his life. Today, I'm talking about the Volkswagens. He loved Volkswagens and owned a bunch of them. I think his first was a blue 1963. He owned a tan 1966. He owned a red 1968. He owned a light blue 1970 automatic transmission Beetle, which he hated. (Dad was a big stick shift guy!) Then he owned an orange standard shift 1974 Super Beetle for many years. My kids remember that from when they were very little. Ever see those Disney "Herbie" movies. It was his "Herbie" car!

In October of 1989, he bought a brand new 1989 blue 2-door Volkswagen Rabbit. It was an automatic, because my Mom insisted on that, and he gave in. After each of my parents died in the summer of 2000, I inherited that car. I drove it until February of 2010. At that point there was SO much wrong with it that I took it off the road. I sold it to a young man who is really "into" Volkswagens...fixing them up, restoring them, etc. He picked it up with a big flatbed truck and has big plans for it.

I never saw the car around after that, and I have sometimes wondered what happened to it. It's ironic then that TODAY on my father's birthday I saw what appeared to be that Volkswagen (or one just like it) on Route 20 in the Grafton area heading east. I saw the same car again on Route 9 east in the Westboro area. Was it THAT car? I don't know but I know my Dad would have gotten a kick out of seeing it!