Happy Thanksgiving!
This year has been rough in many ways, and the future is uncertain. But there are still many things for us to be thankful for despite all that. I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and feast – large or small – filled with family and/or friends of your choice.
Did you get up early to cook the turkey? (Me: no.) Stuffing, in or out? (I prefer in.) Jellied cranberries or whole cranberry sauce? (Whole, which I usually make myself. It’s very easy.) Marshmallows in the sweet potatoes or no marshmallows? (No, no, a thousand times no.) What kind of pie? (Pecan and apple, and pumpkin only if it’s a very special recipe.)
I’m from Indiana: Sugar Cream Pie is also on the Thanksgiving menu. (It’s a very Indiana item.)
Missouri refugee from California. Pecan cheesecake pie. No marshmallows on the sweet potatos. They have flavor to stand alone.
As a kid, my aunt’s Thanksgiving-only oyster stew was my first exposure to them. I nearly got nauseous. But now I love them – except in a stew!
Happy Thanksgiving to all from Louisville, KY where I still have friends and family.
Happy Thanksgiving Neo and commenters! Very thankful for you all. Celebrating 41 years of marriage today. This was always my favorite meal to prepare but when our oldest married in 2008 that marked the end of us hosting the occasion…now off to their in-laws, Thursday with the So. Cal kids and Friday with the No. Cal kids. Whatever is served is appreciated. I always bring the Waldorf salad. (Apples with very little mayo, whipped cream, walnuts, celery, lime zest and pomegranate…the best!)
Thanksgiving greetings to all and sundry . . . with a side vote for our family’s traditional savory (not the dessert version!) Monkeybread, first passed on to us in 1964 at Thanksgiving dinner in the Witchita Falls, Tx. home of the Farabee family. Cheers.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Turkey going in the oven at 1 p.m. Dressing on the side. No marshmallows, and also no sweet potatoes. My daughters are doing the cooking.
Hold on. I can understand the marshmallows, but aren’t sweet potatoes a “superfood”?
In any event, wishes for a very happy TG to one and all…
+Bonus:
For this writer, pessimism is simply NOT an option….
“Happy Thanksgiving 2023. We’re Going to Be OK.
“I’m not joking”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/happy-thanksgiving-were-going-to-be-just-fine
H/T Powerline blog.
Happy Thanksgiving, Neo, and to all the readers and commenters.
Gratitude and thanksgiving are key to life, whatever challenges we may endure, and yes, this has been a difficult year in many respects. But we have many blessings for which to be thankful, and this is a most wonderful holiday.
We are skipping pie this year, but my mother’s old recipes for pecan pie (nicely toasted and not too sweet) and pumpkin pie (extraordinarily smooth pumpkin custard with a perfect, subtle spicing level) get a workout at other times of the year, they are excellent.
A blessed Thanksgiving to all!
Gotta have the real deal cranberries to tart up the holiday!
Sincerest wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all.
On this Thanksgiving in particular, I’m especially thankful just to be alive. And to be able to enjoy the delicious meal Mrs. Otter has prepared for us.
One Thanksgiving I invited a friend from Argentina, who was attending college in the US, to Thanksgiving at my parents’ house in New England. (The invitation included air fare.) He declined to eat my mother’s cranberry relish- standard raw cranberries w oranges etc.- as he had never seen such a dish before.
He also declined to eat my mother’s oysters, saying that he never ate seafood. (As he lived 700 miles from the sea, that explained why at least up to then, he hadn’t been exposed to seafood.) (I had eaten some foods in Argentina, such as blood sausage, which I later didn’t seek out. But most of the new foods I sampled in Latin America were quite tasty.)
When I wrote this to his English teacher in Argentina, her reply was, “That shows he’s from an underdeveloped country.” She was a New Hampshire native who after the Peace Corps married a Peruvian who became a psychology professor in Argentina. For decades I mailed her hard cover books I had bought for a dollar at Half Price Books.
Decades later, in discussing Thanksgivings past, my sister brought up my Argentine friend who wouldn’t eat what was on the Thanksgiving plate. Remembered as was the cousin’s wife- later exwife- who refused to eat my father’s Moussaka. “I don’t eat eggplant.”
IrishOtter49!!! So glad to hear from you! Hope you’re having a great Thanksgiving!
I was going to make a Waldorf salad, but I was out of Waldorfs so I made a Torquay salad.
It’s been a year of meeting new people and trying to make friends. I’ve got two invitations to Thanksgiving today, one at 12 and one at 5, and I plan to make both. So I’m very thankful.
I agree. It’s great to be alive IrishOtter49.
I’m told these verses are at the very center of the Bible…depending on translation of course…seem appropriate for a Thanksgiving wherever you are in the world.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…” – Psalm 103:1-2
Or any of the traditional Jewish blessings…(I hope I remember correctly!)
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, you have…
– kept us alive and preserved us and enabled us to reach this season.
– brought forth bread from the earth
– created the fruit of the trees
– created the fruit of the vine
and any other gift for which you are especially thankful.
On a personal note…I feel uniquely blessed & thankful this year in spite of what at times seems a pretty wild ride “to hell in a hand basket.” Too much good surrounds me to feel otherwise.
Neo & her community, yes each of you (especially those I read through gritted teeth 😉 ) is part of the good for which I am thankful. I grieve with those who grieve & rejoice with those rejoicing and feel not one shred of “optimism,” but I am overwhelmed in hope. I trust that bigger hands than ours will ultimately craft our ending…and that’s not yet…and that ending will be more joyous & beautiful than we can imagine or conceive or even ask for.
So at the risk of repeating myself…
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…”
Blessed Thanksgiving y’all!
No Turkey for us. Just too much left over for the two of us. So this year we are having Game Hen, Wild rice using a recipe from my best friend, Asparagus, Stuffing, given to us by our neighbors, Cranberry sauce (Whole berry from a can), Pumpkin Pie and a bottle of Prosecco.
Low key
We are cloudy and cold. Snow coming in later tonight and all day tomorrow. Winter is here.
IrishOtter49, I give thanks that you are here for Thanksgiving, and for all of us, we are here, and that’s a great blessing.
I wish Neo and all her community a Happy Thanksgiving. Among the things I give thanks for this site which provides a rare oasis of rationality and civility on the Internet.
Happy Thanksgiving to Neo and all her followers.
Turkey, corn bread dressing, jellied cranberries, sweet potatoes without marshmallows, and pecan pie. My idea of a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.
At a time like this, when we are all wondering what’s next, I like these words from Max Ehrmann’s poem:
“And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”
The entire poem is here:
https://allpoetry.com/Desiderata—Words-for-Life
There is much to be thankful for. I’m thankful that Irish Otter is well enough to comment.
Happy Turkey Day, especially to IrishOtter!
Number 2 daughter joins us from Orlando for 2 days which is great so we aren’t by ourselves. Joining number 1 and 2 daughters and others in Atlanta for xmas.
Happy Thanksgiving, all! Particularly to the Otters!
Jordan, were you able to get the duck?
We made Thanksgiving the first few years after moving to Israel, then it petered out… kinda hard when it’s a work day.
Also Thanksgiving sometimes is very close after Sukkot/Tabernacles, which has a similar harvest theme.
The meat counter where I shop has 1-2 whole turkeys on display this time of year for the expats. Usually they just have thighs for shwarma.
My children know cranberries in frozen form, as smoothie ingredients, and dried in salads.
We all have a lot to be grateful for, even during war.
John Guilfoyle mentioned Jewish blessings in his comment. One of the blessings Jews say in the morning is “Blessed are You, oh Lord… who did not make me a heathen.”
I am very grateful that my parents – and America – raised me such that the atrocities we have witnessed here are unthinkable to me, and also to my sons who are serving in the IDF. I am grateful not to be such a person… or a confused enabler of evil…
I am not exactly happy that my sons have the long-denied ability to defend themselves and the Jewish people – more like a stern, iron-grey gratitude, and pride at their resolve.
Mike Plaiss, Philip Sells, and Kate:
Thank you so very much. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you all.
Happy Thanksgiving to all – we pray in gratitude for so many blessings, despite small problems.
No big Thanksgiving holiday in Slovakia, 🙁
We’ll celebrate with most kids and a grandkid & fam on Sunday.
We’ll have a duck feast.
With orange sauce, sweet & sour red cabbage, and lokshe (potato tortillas).
We get a cranberry sauce from Poland, or from Sweden in Ikea.
Plus pumpkin pie from scratch – no Libby’s here.
Thank you Dear Lord for all the blessings which You have granted us this year. And Dear Lord please help our beloved Neo to find the brilliant light of marshmallows in sweet potatoes.
Amen
First time roasting a bone-in turkey breast this year, instead of a whole turkey. It’s just my husband and me. Our older son will visit from TX next month.
No sweet potatoes at all! I do love them, but only oven baked into fries.
Sage dressing outside the turkey, then covered with gravy along with the scrumptuous mashed potatoes. Homemade rolls — heavenly and buttery soft.
Pumpkin pie (scratch) for the hubby, caramel layers for me!
Oh, and though I’m not a cranberry fan, my husband likes the jiggly can-shaped stuff!
IrishOtter49, I, too, am happy to see you commenting here!
Happy Thanksgiving to Neo and all her followers!
Barry Meislin, thank you for the link!
Ben David, how long were you in the US, and now in Israel?
And it seems that Hanukkah is just around the corner, so you have your own days to thank the Almighty.
IrishOtter49 — I came back to wish you a happy Thanksgiving and continuing prayers. I’m so glad to see your comment here. Take care.
I am reading a lot of comments from people who don’t seen to comment often. That is very good. Truly an International Comment group.
My wife and I are both under the weather so our home care aid prepared our turkey dinner which she picked up at the store yesterday. She is German so she brought her own dinner (none of this turkey stuff) and baked us a cake for desert. In spite of our troubles there is much to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
As we get older we do less and less Thanksgiving cooking from scratch and, instead, buy things like premade mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy.
Not quite as good as the hand-made real thing, but a lot less work.
@MikeK:
German? Inga? She is annoying, but we know she can cook!
Happy Thanksgiving.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving
Huge TG blessings for IrishOtter. Also pretty-huge TG blessings to everybody else in the commentariat of Althousiana (a 52nd virtual state possibly co-located with Louisiana). Also just a big God bless you to everybody within hearing: we’re so lucky to be here, still somewhat shiny-side-up, and able to appreciate one another.
Others keep talking about TG dinner treats (Monkeybread? Etc). I would be prepared to swap some recipes. Well: if my bride agrees. I understand that her recipe for cranberry relish is an ancestral secret…
In any case, thanks all and keep on trucking.
We had Thanksgiving dinner with old friends celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary, their daughter and son-in-law and 10-month-old granddaughter. A sweet day. Turkey, stuffing on the side, sweet potatoes (no marshmallows, topping of bacon, brown sugar and butter) mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Pies: crumb-topped apple, and pumpkin with a gingersnap crust, my contribution that turned out well, thank goodness, though I was nervous about it. And we were able to check in throughout the day with our own children and their children scattered around the country. So thankful for dear old friends, and family, and the lovely fun of babies, and for the blessing of peace and good health, at least for today. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in this island of sanity amidst the madness, and Irish Otter, so glad to see you here!
HTG to all.
Just spending a quiet evening with three burgers, my dog Hizi and some nostalgia movies.
Monkeybread! The basic (butter, much and more butter!): https://robservatory.com/monkey-bread-recipe-the-non-dessert-variety/
Another straightup variant:
https://saladinajar.com/recipes/bread/bread-machine-monkey-bread-inspired-by-helen-corbitt/
We heated up a precooked smoked turkey for the first time (lovely flavor and not nearly as messy), so no stuffing inside and we didn’t bother with any outside for a change. Mashed potatoes (always), peas (sometimes), cornbread and dinner rolls, cranberry jelly from a can (lazy me, but I like the jiggly stuff; have often made the whole berry with and without the oranges).
Small lunch with one of our sons & family. DiL made a new thing: apple butter pie. First make apple butter (she usually makes the butter from scratch, but this time from canned unsweetened), then make a custard filling much like pumpkin, which she also made. Very tasty and not too sweet, and probably healthier without the cup of whipped cream on top.
AesopSpouse encountered the history of marshmallows on sweet potato pie this week. Is anyone surprised that it was a PR move by the primary manufacturer? (We take our sweet potatoes “straight” when we bake them.)
https://www.tastingtable.com/1061675/the-historic-origins-of-marshmallow-topped-sweet-potatoes/
Holiday greetings to everyone, and a few particular replies because they have a personal resonance.
What John+F.+MacMichael said, for a start, and condolences to the ex-pats out in the non-TG-celebrating world.
Sharon W – happy anniversary to you and Mr. W!
sdferr – I learned to make the cinnamon-sugar monkeybread in the sixties (it was “trending” in the women’s mags at the time and my aunt taught me how), and baked it many times for the boys, but it is too sweet and rich for me now. I do sometimes buy a small bakery loaf if I find one. Thanks for the recipes, though – maybe I will do a batch for Christmas!
IrishOtter – so glad you feel well enough to keep reading along.
I have found that I “talk more” to people here than anyone IRL other than family, and miss the “conversation” if I skip a day.
Gringo – two of our sons served missions in Argentina and came back with a love of the country, and some appreciation of the cuisine. I hope their new president will be able to achieve his stated goals, although I suspect the Deep State there will do their best to thwart him.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2023/11/20/argentinas-new-president-is-probably-doomed-to-fail-but-the-path-will-be-glorious-n2166578
Ben David – blessings on your family, and prayers for the safety of your sons.
Fervent hopes that Israel will be victorious soon, and that the price will not be intolerably high (it is already too grievously high).
I see that the pro-Hamas brigades are determined to lose friends and make enemies by interrupting the holiday. It’s hard not to believe that they are mostly paid performers in some of these stunts, as well as the core of the “useful idiot” mega-marches.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12783941/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2023.html?ico=related-replace
“Around 30 protestors halted the parade along Sixth Avenue, with reports indicating some may have glued themselves to the road. The NYPD told DailyMail.com ‘several’ protestors had been taken into custody.
[About time. – AF]
Loud boos rang out from the crowd as the white jumpsuit-clad protestors poured fake blood over themselves and held up the parade for thousands, as they appeared to try and link the crisis in the Middle East to climate change, shouting: ‘Liberation for Palestine and climate.’
[????- AF]
The protests left many furious that the popular fun family event had been dragged into politics – while others commented on how the broadcast coverage appeared to purposefully avoid showing the disruption taking place.”
It seems a little macabre to be thankful that the curtain on evil has been pulled back so far that even some liberal-leaning-leftists are beginning to notice, but here we are.
@ Barry – thanks for linking Leibovitz’s post.
I also think we’re going to be fine, but there will be a lot of darkness to walk through first.
Bookworm thinks along the same lines I noted above.
She has better memes, though.
https://www.bookwormroom.com/2023/11/17/bookworm-beat-11-17-23-a-time-blessed-clarity-illustrated-edition/
Yes, times are bad, but Americans are finally seeing the hideous reality behind the left’s carefully constructed patina of virtue.
Our eyes are being filled with ugliness across the world, but it’s not all bad. For decades, conservatives have struggled against leftist policies because leftists draped themselves in “love” and “compassion.” That drapery is gone, and they stand in their unrelieved evil. That clarity may help galvanize those who have previously preferred the illusion over the dangerous reality.
https://www.bookwormroom.com/2023/11/23/this-year-im-thankful-that-things-are-going-badly/
I lost my blockquotes for the first post.
All the text is by Bookworm (Andrea Widburg).
All I can say is: Blue Bell cookies and cream!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Coming to this party late and starting with a response to Someone Else: I went to B-School at IU many moons ago and a good friend (and Indiana native) and I used to frequent a little local restaurant in Bloomington that featured cute young waitresses in snug white dresses and sugar cream pie. We went back for the pie, the cute waitresses were just a bonus.
Our stuffing was baked outside the bird as our bird is always deep fried. We left the stuffing – a store-bought mix fortified with plenty of added sausage, mushrooms, and onions – in the oven long enough to have a nice crisp crust on it. The crispness combines with my youngest daughter’s always excellent gravy very well.
My son, who fries the turkey, always makes a giblet gravy. This year he added duck to it, taken this fall on his annual sojourn to my best friend’s duck club in Pike County IL. The gravy turned out quite well.
We have both homemade cranberry sauce and three layer cranberry jello mold (an old family recipe, one of the topics of the table conversation each year is which layer was everyone’s favorite – it varies year to year).
No sweet potato casserole, our yams go into the sweet potato pie. I promise you Neo, try this and you’ll never even think about pumpkin pie again.
A glorious meal shared with the entire family, including my son’s mother-in-law and her brother-in-law who he managed to get out of Ukraine on an asylum visa. His father-in-law turns 60 in 2024 and will hopefully be at the table in 2024. He’s in the army fighting currently, and he’s becoming adept in drone warfare – some weeks ago, he took out a Russian tank with a drone. We were all very excited for him.
Again I say” Blue Bell cookies and cream!
My wife and I are both under the weather so our home care aid
==
Keeping you in mind.
Keeping you in mind.
Thanks for that.
We had Thanksgiving with neighbors on both sides. We brought the brined, roasted turkey, a recipe we’ve been using for 30 years, which two kids of the host family proclaimed the best turkey they’d ever eaten. Brining keeps even the white meat from drying out. Cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes (no mm), mashed potatoes, superb bourbon pecan and sweet potato pies from our hostess.
Mike K, a speedy recovery to both of you.
Scott, that’s a neat story! Warms my Midwestern heart. 🙂