What I did with our thanksgiving left-overs

[Heddi]

Thanksgiving is generally just my Husband and I, especially since we live on the west coast, and all of our families live on the East Coast.

So being traditionalists, we bought a big ol 13lb turkey, treated it good and cooked it well.

But we only eat white meat.

So after we stuffed ourselves with meat, and potatoes, and stuffing, and pie, we went to clean up.

There sat a nearly complete turkey---only missing the breast.

What to do with all this leftover food?

Without thinking twice, we got some paper plates, and loaded all the still steaming meat onto the plate (both dark meat that was still on the bird, as well as some of the breast, since we'd never eat it all anyways).

We put the plates in a paper bag and threw in a can of green beans.

We got in the car and drove down to the Drauvis Street overpass, where an elderly homeless man stands every day.

We drove down there, but he wasn't on his regular corner. It was about 4:30 pm and I was sad that we missed him. I wanted him to have some semblance of a thanksgiving dinner.

We drove around to the 7-11, got a newspaper and a soda, and started to drive back home.

As we were at teh stoplight, I saw the old man standing on a different corner, holding his sign that he always has, asking for change, or anything because every little bit helps.

We motioned him over to the car and handed him the bag of turkey meat, green beans, and a few napkins.

We said "Here. We wanted you to have a thanksgiving dinner."

He took the bag and said thank you many times. You could smell the turkey through the bag, and feel the heat. We told him that the meat was still warm and wasn't nasty butt meat (didn't use the term butt-meat though). He smiled and said "thank you. thank you. God Bless. Have a happy thanksgiving."

The light turned green, and we drove away as he was opening the bag, putting a peice of still-warm turkey meat in his mouth.

I'm 27 years old and for the first time in my life, I realized the true meaning of thanksgiving. I gave thanks for the first time in my life. True, honest to goodness thanks.

This isn't a thread to make me feel-good. I felt good handing him the bag of food.

This isn't a thread to get a pat on the back. His thanks and smiles were all the pats I needed.

This is a thread to think about what you waste and what others would be happy getting. Every other year, we've thrown away perfectly good dark meat--we're not going to eat it....no one else will either.

So before you ditch your left-overs, remember there are people out there that would love to have them.

Happy thanksgiving, everybody :)

[corarose]

1. You have such a kind heart

Every year when we had money my Mom would buy tons of meat and we would end up tossing so much of it out because we only had 4 people in the family plus the Dogs and Cat's.

I bet our Dogs ate better then the homeless and that made me feel so bad. After moving back to the City area of Chicago I didn't know that there are homeless children along with parents living outside in the streets of Chicago.

I use to take my food that I cooked at Culinary College and hand it to them on my way home but we moved and I don't pass the same people any more.
The area that I am in now I have to keep my fingers crossed that I get home in one piece.