Thanksgiving
Filed under: Life
Today is Thanksgiving (here in the US). I don’t have a recipe to post today because my wife cooks both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. (Yes we both cook, but she really enjoys cooking for these occasions.) Do due medical reasons, my wife and I were not able to eat with my family this year, so it was just the two of us. Of all the holidays, it is my favorite. One reason is that they haven’t figured out how to commercialize it yet (although my wife did buy an inflatable turkey for the front yard). But I mostly love it because of the family, food and traditions. My family always gets together for a heck of a spread of food and good times. My brothers and I always have to inspect our dad’s latest project. Lots of fun playing with the nieces and nephews; playing pinochle until the late hours, and generally just having a lot of fun. (Growing up, pinochle was a serious game. My aunts and uncles and grandparents all playing. But you haven’t seen anything until you have seen a bunch of farm hands playing single deck for money.) There is also listening to the Elk hunting stories (they go every year, and I can’t remember the last time they actually got one), fishing stories and the squirrels in my dad’s walnut trees stories.
As for the food, well, where to begin? There are my mom’s cracked wheat rolls. We always give her a hard time as she only seem to make them once a year, but they are so good. And then there is her Light and creamy pumpkin pie. There are also the regular pumpkin pies, the pecan and walnut pies made by my sister in-laws. The past few years has seen the advent of very intricate and incredible turkey dishes. This year, my older brother first de-boned a turkey, then put down a layer of chicken sausage (home made of course), then a pork tenderloin, then crab and shrimp. This he then rolled up and tied. He then soaked it in a brine for a day and a half. Finally it was smoked for 13 hours until it was done. Now anything that has had that much work done to it, you know it has to be good. (As you can tell, everyone in my family cooks.)
So what makes Thanksgiving such a great holiday (besides the carb-coma nap)? I really think it’s the family and friends. It’s the fellowship and memories. I know that it is fashionable here in the US to have a dysfunctional family, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Every family has their issues, but that is what makes a family great. I know a lot of families that just love this holiday. The funny thing is, the food doesn’t even have to be good either. The foods help bring back great memories of growing up.
But the name of the holiday is Thanksgiving so what am I thankful for. Every year I am thankful for my family. Are they the Normal Rockwell picture of the perfect family? No, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I know that other countries have Thanksgiving on a different day. I hope that you have a great day of Thanksgiving with your family and make many memories to come.
Chef Mikey