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 can withstand a certain amount of cooking incompetence.
One year long ago 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 finished cooking. But 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 that it had to be abandoned. Another terrible time, one 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 small pieces 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!
“…curmudgeonly…”
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/daily-cartoon-112316-turkey
Happy TG!
A happy Day Before Thanksgiving to you, as well.
I’m fascinated by your family’s traditional stuffing recipe. My family had been frying turkeys for the last 20 years or so, a stuffingless tradition that ended last Thanksgiving with Mom’s threat to pour the peanut oil in the brook if we didn’t roast a turkey so she could do stuffing. Fried turkey is awesome, but she may be right on the stuffing being an essential part. Ours is nowhere near as exotic as apple and pound cake, so I’ll have to try it out sometime. Not Thursday – there is a firm ‘no experimental recipes at family holidays’ rule.
I’m the only one who thinks pecan pie is an essential pie. The rest of the family are split between pumpkin and apple, so I’ll bring my own pecan pie to be sure. Funny how there never seems to be any left over with all the insistence we don’t need the pecan. We agree on cranberry – although our recipe is a bag of cranberry plus a can of frozen OJ concentrate and a little water.
Now I’m hungry.
Thanksgiving a holiday for everyone? In a sense. But in the cocoon of liberalism, it’s a holiday to hate white people and Western Civilization.
For years I have used Jackie Olden’s recipe for cooking turkey, breast side down. It cooks more slowly and is very juicy. Now, with just the two of us in Arizona, we just cook turkey breasts and make a casserole of stuffing.
Many years ago, I blogged about an amusing incident on Thanksgiving.
It was amusing after ward but not during the experience.
Great stuffing recipe!
But we’ll eat out. No Norman Rockwell large family gathering anymore– too scattered.
Pecan pies are tough for type I diabetics; it is hard to judge how much insulin is needed to offset the enormous sugar load. Had a very thin slice once in a duck camp and 1 hr later my blood sugar was (!) 500. Never again! Never ever has it been that high in my life.
Cicero:
Pecan pie is something I like, but most in my family don’t anymore so sometimes it’s vetoed.
Probably just as well. Even for non-diabetics, it’s the opposite of a health food.
Apple, raisin, cashew dressing in our house. Granny Smith apples, golden and regular raisins, onions, celery, lots of butter and a little white bread – but that pound cake options sounds intriguing – and of course, thyme and sage. Will miss having all the boys around, but crab legs on Christmas Eve will bring ’em all in. Whatever it takes…
For us it’s a German American twist, thanks to my Dad’s family. We make it easy as possible, been doing the same one for decades! Turkey, Pepperidge Farm stuffing, right out of the bag, canned LaSeur baby peas (considered very expensive when I was growing up), mashed potatoes, usually fresh, but this year from the grocery, gravy and red cabbage. For dessert a sweet potato souffle and a pumpkin pie, but can be pecan or sweet potato. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!
I am at my daughter’s house, planning and cooking a gluten-free (for my daughter) and reasonably low-carb (for us) Thanksgiving dinner. I like new ideas and new twists on old favorites. This is fun! Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
Oh dear. Sweet potatoes, of course. Peas-and-pearl-onions, for sure. String-bean casserole, naturally. And there must also be mashed potatoes, with turkey gravy. Definitely cranberry sauce, by my preference the jellied kind where formerly, you opened the can at both ends (unfortunately no longer possible) and slid the cylinder of cranberry jelly out onto the old-fashioned cut-glass dish that was shaped for the purpose. In later years my mother also made cranberry relish, with a bit of OJ and slivers of orange peel in it.
For the stuffing, I keep importuning the Great Frog to send my Dad back down here for the day, as he was the king of stuffing-makers: bread and/or cornbread crumbs or chunks, sausage meat, very easy on the sage (but Mother was a sage freak, so the stuffing for the crop was well-seasoned therewith), chopped onion, thyme, raisins, sometimes capers. One year he made an all-meat stuffing, as above but without the bread and with some hamburger as well, and adding pistachios and quartered hard-boiled eggs. (That one, I didn’t like so much.)
And, of course, the Bird, into which the stuffing was stuffed before roasting. No, no one got sick.
But here I must ask you-all what you are thinking!!! No no no, at Thanksgiving you have pumpkin pie, well-spiced, dense, hold the ice-cream and whipped cream; and possibly mince as well, though I’ll pass.
But Pecan Pie? No. Pecan Pie is always, always the very most special of Christmas Dinner desserts. Or Hanukkah, if you don’t do Christmas. That is the Tradition! (Of course, one is perfectly welcome to make one for special occasions such as birthdays, or when overwhelmed by the urgent need for pecan pie.)
May you all have a bountiful and happy Thanksgiving, and by all means enjoy your pecan pie. Feel free to have an extra slice, to make up for the one I won’t be having.
I do love pecan pie!
Julie:
I can’t stand pumpkin pie. But it’s always around on Thanksgiving.
That’s OK, Neo. I’ll come by to give you an excuse to make, and of course to help you eat, the pecan pie. :>))
Pecan pie yum yum love pecan pie. As a boy I paid for my cub scout uniform by gathering pecans and walnuts in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Was good honest work and made me proud to be a cub scout.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!
Brussels sprouts – roasted with Olive oil, pancetta, salt. Oh my!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. And thank you for a wonderful blog!
Y’all haven’t lived until you’ve eaten cranberry sauce with jalapenos and cilantro added. And if course, CORNBREAD dressing. My mother used to make a raisen-pecan pie that wasn’t so sweet. I loved it.
That’s raisin-pecan pie.
Putting The Bird in the oven first thing in the morning, then making the usual trimmings.
On the “broil” method, and maybe why it worked so well: I start the oven at 500, then reduce in 50 degree increments every 30 minutes until we reach the “recommended” 325 for finishing and holding until everybody arrives. This works particularly well if you cook a frozen turkey, as the high heat starts the defrosting better than running at 325 for the whole time.
A crispy skin is a must, and is my favorite part (although I certainly eat my share of the meat).
I modify the green bean casserole by using Golden Mushroom soup instead of Cream of Mushroom, and beating in a bar of softened cream cheese (lite if you insist).
We like pumpkin cheesecake at our house, but won’t turn down a traditional pie.
This year we are having a pumpkin cake roll for Grand-daughter’s birthday, her request (her Daddy makes it; we taught all our boys to cook, and some are better at it than we are!)
Fresh home-made rolls from another family.
We make a cranberry relish by grinding up whole oranges with the cranberries, mixing with sugar, and letting sit in the fridge a couple of days (no cooking).
It’s actually a riff off a cranberry-orange bread recipe.
I may try the one with the OJ, Julie.
My favorite MiL holiday story involves stuffing recipes.
After we mixed up (at her direction) the dry bread crumbs, the cornbread crumbs, some diced onion, a little sausage, some sauteed mushrooms, and a couple of other things, I mentioned that my grandmother always stirred in an egg to bind the ingredients together during cooking (which was obviously our family tradition; Grandma did not include any sausage, mushrooms, or the other exotic additions).
Mom frowned gently and replied, “I don’t think so. I like a light dressing, don’t you?”
Oops – forgot to add “Happy Thanksgiving to everyone” — the Edit Function is never there when you need it.
Neo,
Most Jewish holidays, aside from a couple of fasts, have the theme: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!”
Bill M,
In the cocoon of liberalism, every day is a day to hate white people and Western Civilization.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Neo fans and to our gracious hostess.
Michael Lonie
it’s easy: cranberries, water, and sugar to taste, simmered on top of the stove till mushy and a bright deep red
Put the cranberries in the water and boil together first. Once the berries pop, THEN you add the sugar.
Nice article on the headlines at PowerLine
http://www.jeffjacoby.com/21807/we-gather-together-to-give-thanksgiving-its
“As important as the feast is to the holiday, however, it would be a travesty to reduce Thanksgiving to mere biological consumption. Langston Hughes, Norman Rockwell, and “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” couldn’t be more unalike, yet all three convey the same message. At the heart of our Thanksgiving rituals are sharing and community. The holiday’s essence isn’t expressed in the meal; it is that we gather together for the meal. We refer to Thanksgiving as “turkey day,” but a more accurate nickname would be “turkey day — with others.”
For the bird, in the end, is optional. Not so the presence of loved ones or guests. Thanksgiving on your own isn’t Thanksgiving.”