LONG DISTANCE LOVE

Just before Christmas, 1957, Lee's first as Mrs. Colleran, Lee decided that Christmas Eve should be made memorable. She hit upon the idea of serving Bill an Old English holiday dinner, complete with roast goose stuffed with chestnut dressing and served with creamed onions. For dessert there should be a flaming plum pudding. And naturally, there should be iced champagne to start the dinner.

The goose was delivered early on the morning of December 24th, a moment before Lee had to leave the apartment to fulfill a TV commitment. It was frozen.

Her cookbook noted that a goose of its weight would take three hours to roast. With a fond pat Lee stowed the goose in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator and tripped forth into the sunshine of a December day.

Three hours before serving time, Lee withdrew the fowl from the freezer, singed him and tried to insert the chestnut dressing. However, the giblets were frozen in the stuffing department and nothing, not ice pick, shears, or expletive would set them free.

She preheated the oven and tucked the goose inside, closing the oven door with more vigor than necessary. Next, she placed the stuffing, meatloaf fashion, in a casserole dish and congratulated herself on having outwitted the goose.

When Bill came home the table was snowy with wedding gift linen, and glistened with wedding silver. The tall red candles were lighted, the champagne was chilled, the radio was playing Christmas carols, and lee was resplendent in a red hostess gown. The Collerans clinked glasses gaily.

Catastrophe arrived with the dinner hour. When the goose was removed from the oven. Lee found that it had thawed on the surface only in three hours. The stuffing was flat and unpalatable. So they ate creamed onions and plum pudding, and hamburgers from the delicatessen.

Source: Screenland Plus TV-Land - Long Distance Love, by Fredda Dudley Balling, 3/1/60

-- by Allison