Thanksgiving and your hippocampus

My memories of Thanksgiving past have always had deep connections with food. Just remembering my mom’s moist and sagey cornbread dressing is like pushing play on a video recording. I can see my mother’s pies lined up, and my grandparents sitting across from me at our table in the old house, where we lived on the outskirts of Longview in 1959. I could sense Mom’s excitement about Granny and Grandpa’s visit in their old truck, all the way from Odessa. Even though the moment was never recorded with a device, I can recall a bit of the happy event any time I taste or smell ground sage used in preparing dressing.

If this happens to you, it’s your hippocampus at work! According to a Southern Living article that I recently flipped through while downsizing a closet, the hippocampus is a part of the brain that’s critical to memory. It has strong connections to the parts of our brain important to emotion and our sense of smell. So, if holiday aromas like sage and cinnamon, or a scented candle take you straight to your memory’s vault, then you know your hippocampus is healthy and functioning well.

Pies were a part of my mother’s tradition, just as she carried on her own mother’s traditions. I plan to make pumpkin, pecan, and either buttermilk or vinegar pies for my hungry bunch that’s coming; also one or two meringue pies such as coconut or lemon, a Texas chocolate sheet cake, peanut butter fudge and some cookies. Side dishes will be corn casserole and a skillet of sweet potatoes. I say that, because the only way I can make candied sweet potatoes turn out right is to do the final candy-ing step in an iron skillet, which then goes straight to the table. Now, if there is a ham, there will also be mashed potatoes for the red-eye gravy. If we have a turkey, we must have dressing. And, there enters my annual plight.

Try as I might, I cannot reproduce my mother’s dressing, even using her handwritten recipe. The correct amount of liquid needed for moisture, as well as just the right touch of sage for taste, must be sensed, I suppose. Truthfully, Mother would make chicken and dressing a few times a year, so she stayed in practice. I usually prepare dressing only at Thanksgiving, so that may be a factor. Whether up to my mother’s standard or not, it seems my table has become the one the kids and grandkids will form their memories at. At least 20 have said they will be coming for the Thanksgiving weekend, so I’m writing this column in advance. For each of them, I want their memories to be as fully aromatic and happy as a human hippocampus can hold.

Holiday nostalgia created by good food prepared by loving hands is something you and I most likely share. Recipes are something else we can share, especially here. I invite your treasured family recipes, especially those that include a good memory associated with it.

As we head toward the new year, let’s think on the good of sharing within this column. I’d love to receive a memory, a story, or a recipe from you. Email me at enola@ ssnewstelegram.com. or send it by postal mail to 1428 South Broadway St., Sulphur Springs, Texas, 75482.

Blessings!