Cooking is an important tradition when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. What is cooked – but most importantly HOW it is cooked – makes a dish either a family favorite or a family fear (depending on WHO cooks it)…LOL! In all dishes that are cooked for Thanksgiving, preparation is key. One food I do not know how to cook is turkey (my husband takes care of that). Our local, well-known cook and business owner, Betty Campbell, makes it seem as if cooking a turkey is as easy as it comes. When I asked Betty how to properly cook a turkey, the following steps rolled off her tongue without hesitation. “FIRST, wash and clean the turkey really good and pat it dry. SECOND, make a seasoning that you would like to inject the turkey with. I use creole seasoning, apple juice, and brown sugar. THIRD, inject all parts of the turkey with the seasoning AND let it set for 3-4 days. NEXT, put the trio (diced bell pepper, onion and celery) in the fat part of the neck, between the legs of the turkey, and all around the roaster or whatever pan the turkey will be cooked in. FINALLY, with the oven on 275°, slow-cook the turkey 3½ hours according to size; the bigger the turkey is, the longer it should cook.”
Betty’s years of expertise and love for cooking qualified her to answer the above-asked question. She has been cooking since 1990; she started on Jefferson Street and even cooked at the Country Club for 10 years. She grew up with a mother and sisters who loved cooking, so it was instilled in her. Now, Betty is the proud owner of Betty’s Place, and people from all around are blessed to eat some of her amazing food Mondays through Saturdays. Turkey is not the only traditional food that she and her family enjoy on Thanksgiving though. Other foods include ham, dressing, sweet potato casserole (or potato pone as the older generations call it), greens, lasagna, chitterlings, purple-hull peas with okra, and cornbread rolls among other foods. Just listening to her talk about it made me hungry and my mouth water. When I asked Betty what she was most thankful for this year, she gracefully stated, “I am thankful to be alive and in better health now than I was this time last year.” With so many people leaving this world on a daily basis, being on top of the ground and not having the ground on top of you is definitely a blessing within itself and something to brag about.
One other thing Betty wants people to do not only during Thanksgiving, but every day, is “Always be kind. Lend a helping hand to others, and don’t boast about it.” When we do things out of the kindness of our hearts, the world does not have to know; no one should know. The true reward for doing good and being kind to others comes from God. When we serve others, it should bring our hearts joy. So, let us not only eat good during this Thanksgiving season; let’s do good, too. As Betty perfectly stated, “We all know where we have been, but none of us know where we are going.”
