Thanksgiving dinner has a new, mail-order twist. More retailers are offering all-in-one, fully prepared feasts -- shipped on dry ice or ice packs -- that require little more than reheating. Since Hickory Farms launched its holiday-geared "Create Your Own Dinner" spreads in 2003, it has seen sales for the line rise 15% a year. Niche retailers, too, are playing holiday caterers: California-based Diamond Organics sends dinners with organic wine, while New York's 2nd Avenue Deli says it ships about 80 kosher turkeys a year, some as far as Alaska.The writer and his colleagues proceed to taste-test the mail-order cookery, with predictably disastrous results.
Look here, y'all. I realize that with these crazed postmodern lives we lead, there isn't always a lot of time to make an elaborate production out of cooking dinner, but this is just pathetic. It's THANKSGIVING.
Given the requirements of business and personal travel that I have coming up, between now and the second week of January, 2006 I am going to be out of New York City much more often than I'm in it, but as Thanksgiving is one of those days I'm here, I'm planning on cooking a full dinner with all the trimmings, including Grandma Addie's famous cornbread dressing.
A "Thanksgiving MRE," as one of the taste-testers quipped, absolutely does not cut it, unless you are on survival rations somewhere far, far from home. Dust off your copies of "The Joy of Cooking" and get your collective asses into the kitchen, America.
A Mailable Feast (Wall St Journal Weekend via Yahoo! News)
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