That’s a quote from Mary Ann Esposito of ‘Ciao Italia’. It’s true.

I remember a few years back when my parents were going out of town for Thanksgiving. We decided to forego the big family dinner – “every man for himself” – and I thought that I was going to get a break and simply enjoy the parades and football games. WRONG!

A friend showed up on my door the day before and handed me a fresh turkey – and said that he’d buy anything else for a traditional dinner if I would do the cooking. You know that I said “yes” – sigh.

I had most of the ingredients on hand for everything but the stuffing – my favorite part! I sent him off to get croutons, breakfast sausage, and celery. He came back with garlicky SALAD croutons, mild ITALIAN sausage, and forgot the celery…

It’s usually easier to laugh than cry – so I made an Italian flavored stuffing! To substitute for the celery I used ribs from romaine lettuce. In homage to tradition, I DID use a lot of sage…

While not at all “like Mother used to make”, it was definitely an okay result. He loved it. And HE did the dishes while I watched the game

So let’s not worry about minor mistakes in the kitchen. With the exception of burning or over salting, there isn’t much that can’t be remedied if you keep your kewl.