Smoked, Baked or Deep-Fried?
By Blenda Copeland and Skip Hansberger  / Staff Writers

Everyone’s got a different tradition when it comes to how his or her family gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. “The family comes together,” Rev. Kendra Jacobs, of Phenix City, said of her tradition. “My mom died of lung cancer, so my sisters and I split up the cooking. It’s a day of eating and football.” Jacobs said the specialties she enjoys making for Thanksgiving are mac’n’cheese from scratch and pound cake. And when it comes to the main course, the family eats both deep fried and baked turkey. “The fried is winning,” she said. This year she’s looking forward to spending time with her brother-in-law, who’s been in Afghanistan.
The family will have a deep-fried turkey this year. In some other families, people buy their food instead of preparing it themselves. “We go out to dinner,” said Suzy Gunnels, of Phenix City. “We like baked turkey. If I have a choice, it’s the buffet in Biloxi. But my first choice is somebody else cooking (dinner).” At Dimple Davis’ house, the best turkey isn’t baked. “We smoke it,” she said of her family’s tastes. “You don’t buy a smoked turkey or ham. Tradition! You do it yourself!” Teresa Herman also thrives on home cooking at Thanksgiving. She follows her mother’s recipe. “I bake my turkey in a brown paper bag (and baste it) with Coca-Cola, brown sugar, mustard and syrup,” she said. “And then the dogs bark for 12 hours and my husband’s begging for a piece.”
Some businesses offer options perfect for those like Gunnels, who would rather avoid the hassle. Carol Argo said her restaurant, Girlfriends, often prepares meals in advance for families who don’t want or don’t have time to cook. “We sell a lot of dressing and sometimes the whole meal, but we put it pans uncooked and they take it home and cook it,” she said. “Sometimes we even use their pans.” She said earlier in the week she got a call from somebody who wanted her to prepare a meal for just five people. “I don’t see her messing up her kitchen for just five people… but we do a lot of that with casseroles and stuff that people may not want to prepare themselves,” she said. “They just get up Thanksgiving morning and stick it in the oven and it’s like they cooked it themselves.
We don’t tell people we cooked it for them and they can take all the credit – which is fine with me.”