Happy day-before-Thanksgiving to you!
[NOTE: This is a slightly-edited reprint of a previous post.]
I happen to like Thanksgiving. Always have. It’s a holiday for anyone and everyone in this country—except, of course, people who hate turkey. There are quite a few of those curmudgeonly folks, but I’m happy to report I’m not one of them. Even if the turkey ends up dry and overcooked, it’s nothing that a little gravy and cranberry sauce can’t fix. And although the turkey is the centerpiece, it’s the accompaniments that make the meal.
My theory on turkeys is that they’re like children: you coax them along and just do the best you can, but as long as you don’t utterly ruin or abuse them, they have their own innate characteristics that will manifest in the end. A dry and tough bird will be a dry and tough bird despite all that draping in fat-soaked cheesecloth, a tender and tasty one will withstand a certain amount of cooking incompetence.
One year my brother and I were cooking at my parents’ house and somehow we set the oven on “broil,” an error that was only discovered an hour before the turkey was due to be done. It was one of the best turkeys ever. Another time the turkey had turned deep bluish-purple on defrosting and was so hideous and dangerous-looking it had to be abandoned. Another terrible time, that has lived in infamy ever since, my mother decided turkey was passe and that we’d have steak on Thanksgiving.
Since I like to eat, I am drawn to the fact that Thanksgiving is a food-oriented holiday with a basic obligatory theme (turkey plus seasonal autumnal food) and almost infinite variations on that theme. Sweet potatoes? Absolutely—but oh, the myriad ways to make them, some revolting, some sublime. Pie? Of course, but what kind? And what to put on it, ice cream, whipped cream, or both?
For me, there are three traditional requirements—besides the turkey, of course. There has to be at least one pecan pie, although eating it in all its sickening sweetness can put an already-sated person right over the top. The cranberry sauce has to be made from fresh cranberries (it’s easy: cranberries, water, and sugar to taste, simmered on top of the stove till mushy and a bright deep red), and lots of it (it’s good on turkey sandwiches the next day, too).
The traditional stuffing in my family is non-traditional: a large quantity of cut-up Granny Smith apples cooked in fair amount of sherry as well as a ton of butter till a bit soft; and then mixed with prunes, almonds, and one Sara Lee poundcake reduced to crumbs by crushing with the hands.
Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that has a theme that is vaguely religious—giving thanks—but has no specific religious affiliation. So it’s a holiday that unites. It’s one of the least commercial holidays as well, because it involves no presents. It’s a home-based holiday, which is good, too, except for those who don’t have relatives or friends to be with. One drawback is the terribly compressed travel time; I solve that by not usually traveling very far if I can possibly help it.
The main advantage to hosting the day is having leftovers left over. The main disadvantage to hosting the day is having leftovers left over.
I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, filled with friends and/or family of your choice, and just the right amount of leftovers!
Thanks for the good wishes. I hope everyone here has a reasonably good time sans strife.
I have been in a mixed marriage for forty five years, with my wife in the whole-berry camp. and me in the jellied. Somehow we make it work, with both on the table. Her sweet potatoes are a VEGETABLE, dammit, even though they are loaded with brown sugar, canned crushed pineapple and covered in marshmallows. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. People have hurt themselves with my dressing, not stuffing, because, “Do you realize what was in that cavity?” (I still hear my late mother’s voice asking that.) The daughter in law is hosting and doing much of the cooking, but we are bringing our share. We have to travel three easy miles, only, so different from forty years ago.
Hillary is NOT President, along with so many other blessings, for which we are seriously thankful.Happy Thanksgiving!
If all this is true, why am I hearing “Enjoy your Holiday!” so often this year? I have yet to hear somebody I don’t know say “Happy Thanksgiving”.
I feel that Thanksgiving is going the way of Christmas.
anyone else noticing this?
Mother knows best.
That’s funny. It’s a bit different for Christmas I suppose. (And which I also suppose most commenting here celebrate as a secular feast day, if not as a religious holiday)
Not only turkeys, but hams – though more seen on Easter – were common enough in decades past. I guess back in the 30’s and 40’s some people still had goose.
Sometime in the late 70’s or 80’s I remember my own mother becoming tired of “the same old same old” and branching out into other meals from the usual turkey. I recall that standing rib roasts, or beef tenderloins were her choices. For 8 to 10.
They were supposedly very expensive whatever they exactly were; and a goof would have been fatal, as there was no back-up plan that could be drafted at 5 pm on Christmas afternoon.
But as we were teens and young adults, and no longer spoiled children demanding the exact and ritualistic repetition of our previous holidays, we did not whine, but found the dining room table rather elegant with crystal and silver and china, and the bonus of your lovely girlfriend there too.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Michael F Adams Says:
👍
May everyone have a great Thanksgiving feast with family and friends. Good food, polite conversation, and good feeelings. Kids and grandkids start arriving in a few hours. It is always a good time. No TV, no video games, amusements will be cards and board games.
Happy Thanksgiving Neo, and all the others that find their way here.
Remember, the Pilgrims worked for socialism and starved thinking it was the Biblical community of the Christ.
If you work for socialism, sooner or later you will starve. Even if you are redistribution the food of others.
My turkey dinner is scheduled for Saturday evening. The Germans love the food, but it’s hard to do here. Only one store has (frozen turkeys, and the largest is about 11 1/2 lbs. The sweet potatoes are gnarled and hard to peel. The only fresh cranberries I saw were terrible looking, so I settled on some Trader Joe’s whole berry that I got at ALDI. This year I have seen no pecans. All this means I have to spend lots of time shopping and planning for substitutes. But in the end it all works and we have a great time.
Enjoy your dinner on Thanksgiving Day.
My wife was a Home Ec teacher when we met. She is a kitchen goddess. In the last two years her art has been for naught. My kidney function is declining so I’m on a low protein regimen. I will have taste of turkey, a couple of dabs of dressing, a teaspoon of cranberries, a large salad, and a small slice of pumpkin pie. It’s restrictive, but I feel better when I eat properly. So, I don’t mind that its no longer a feast for me.
Thankful is what I am. For being born in this great nation. For having the luck to meet such a wonder woman as my wife. To have a bright, enterprising daughter. To have lived in interesting times. My cup runneth over. A happy Thanksgiving to all who hang out at Neo’s place.
Happy Thanksgiving to you,
Happy Thanksgiving to you,
Happy Thanksgiving dear Ne-ooooooo,
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
It’s a shame there aren’t any real Turkey Carols.
In the late ’80’s. John Louis Anderson wrote Scandanavian Humor, and Other Myths. In it, he mentioned the suppers put on in the Fellowship Halls of Lutheran Churches, with food provided by the women of thr congregation, the Lutheran Ladies.
Hot Dishes were mainstays of the pot lucks, and he listed the names of several, including Turkey Lurkey Hoo Hah!, but, alas, he did not give the recipie for any.
One year, I decided that I would make Turkey Lurkey Hoo Hah, out of post Thanksgiving leftovers.
I started with a layer of mashed potatoes, and added a layer of stuffing, and a layer of corn pudding, ( also known as scalloped corn ), and finally, a layer of chopped light and darl meat. This is then slathered in gravy, and nuked until it glows. Oh, Golly, but that is tasty! A fine Black Friday meal, as turkey tastes better the second day!
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