Beef, it's what's for dinner ...

[Mikej]

And never mind the fact that Dad always got the crappiest parts of the chicken and the turkey and we kids got the best parts. He "claimed" that he enjoyed that stuff. I think he just didn't want to waste anything. We kids got the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks. Dear Ol' Dad got the butts, backs, and necks. We still laugh about that...

Not so funny, really! Dad always ate the neck, gizzard, liver and heart from the Thanks Giving turkey. At some point Dad gave in and shared the giblets with me. Boy I loves me turkey giblets. They were always well cooked with onion, garlic, celery and spices because mom boiled them for an hour or more and used the broth to make the stuffing. Stuffing wasn't stuffed in the turkey at our house, but in a dish heated in the oven with the turkey. Ever since I moved out of the house, MY Thanksgiving meal consists of the neck and giblets. All that meat is for sandwiches, and eventually turkey enchiladas. Have made soup with the carcass and left over meat, but I don't care to eat it that much anymore. All that meat on the carcass is the best meat on the bird! Your Dad knew what the best parts of a turkey were!

 

[billdeserthills]

Yes, my dad and mum grew up poor. Mom was in grade school and junior high through the Great Depression and Dad was born during it and lived through it as a young kid. So they both knew what it was like to be poor. And they both decided that they didn't want to stay poor, and they would provide more for their kids than what they got as kids.

Bringing this discussion back to my own youth now, we had steak every week, as previously mentioned. The neighbor kid, Paul Erickson, would come over to our house on "steak night" after we had finished eating but before my dad threw the scraps to the dog. Paul wanted to eat the fat. He would claim that on nights when they had steak at his house, his parents ate the steaks and he and his siblings all got hot dogs. Privately, my parents were aghast, and Dad remarked to us one night, "We all eat the same thing at this table, or we don't eat at all." I carried that wisdom into my own household when I got older.

And never mind the fact that Dad always got the crappiest parts of the chicken and the turkey and we kids got the best parts. He "claimed" that he enjoyed that stuff. I think he just didn't want to waste anything. We kids got the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks. Dear Ol' Dad got the butts, backs, and necks. We still laugh about that...

I remember Granny cracking & sucking marrow outta chicken bones, thinking it was disgusting--she always said, "you kids don't know what good is"