It’s All Gravy

Back the early 90's ( or the late 1900's as the teens say now ) when I was a newlywed, we lived in a little apartment on the second floor.  It had it's own outside entrance and I still remember counting the steps every evening when I'd return from work.

1 2 3 4 5 6...7 8 9 9  10 …and two steps to the door…11 12

We lived on a tight budget and while we had a tv and VCR, we didn't have cable TV.  This was before we all had computers and smartphones and could stream things from anyplace we happen to be.  If you weren't home to watch it, or didn't have the VCR timer set, you'd miss it.  It was as plain as that.  It was ‘must watch tv!’

My parents would record shows for us and we’d watch later on the good old VHS tape  They’d record things like Days of Our Lives, Martha Stewart Living and even the Seinfeld finale  

One winter evening for some reason I decided to see if there was anything beyond the few channels we got. CBC and CTV were the main channels with the French CBC and the parliamentary channel which no one watched.  

Then…

…It was like magic.  Beyond the snowy screen and static some images from Food Network and the W Network came through.

We still didn't have cable...but our neighbours did.  Their connection was on the same wall as our TV and our TV was picking up their coaxial signal through the wall.

I could almost hear a choir in angelic refrain.

For a few glorious weeks leading up to the holidays I was able to watch these fun and festive networks.  They'd come in particularly clear late at night and a favourite to watch was a lady whose name I think was Sara Molton.  All of her shows were instructing on how to perfect each part of a holiday meal.

I was in my early 20's and I'd never really had to be responsible for being able to make all the components of a festive gathering.  We had decided to start the tradition of having family members to our home on Christmas Eve.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes AND I had to be able to make gravy.

I wrote down all the steps from Sara's cooking show.  Her secret?  She used cornstarch as a thickener instead of flour like most do.  I have no recollection if I had a few trial runs before the big meal but I do know this method was very successful.  I still do it her way when making gravy from scratch!

Unless I'm using one of those handy clubhouse packets...

Then, just like THAT, we couldn't get the feed through the wall anymore and our tv returned to snowy static.

No more Food network.

We’ve come a long way since then.  It’ll be our 31st Anniversary this year.  I am a much better cook!  We don’t live close to family and I never have to prepare a large meal anymore.  Sometimes, late at night I still get that feeling of awe when the thought crosses my mind of  how the tv came to life for those few weeks that winter.