Thanksgivng Head Cheese

Today (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) is traditionally a day of carry-in lunches at many companies.  Everyone pitches in to provide a snack-all-day-smorgasbord of chips, dips, casseroles, desserts. . .  Sort of a chance to warm up and stretch the bellies before the big game that is Thanksgiving. 

My traditional contribution—at least for the past few years—has been head cheese. 

What exactly is headcheese?  I honestly couldn’t tell you.  Words simply can’t describe it.  Wikipedia defines it as: 

Head cheese is not a dairy cheese, but a terrine or meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig, or less commonly a sheep or cow, [along with god only knows what else] and often set in aspic.

Meat jelly made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig.  Yum!  Not your typical Thanksgiving treat, right? 

There are a couple of reasons

I choose to give head cheese at such events (after all, it is the season of giving).  The first reason is that I actually find it disgustingly delicious.  And the second reason is seeing how it's met with such revulsion.  Definitely a conversation starter.  You get everything from "What is heck is it?" to "My grandparents used to eat that crap!"  Some have tried it in the past and will never try it again, some will be brave enough to give it a taste, most won't go near it. 

But, at the end of the Pre-Thanksgiving day banquet, people are either thankful for having tried and enjoyed it or they’re very thankful that they didn’t eat it. 

Either way, my head cheese gift is a mindful way for people to be thankful.

Today’s Haiku

Today we give thanks

Time to carve up the head cheese

                                    Happy Thanksgiving!

Carpe Diem Life
David Kuhn

CarpeDiem-Life.com