A Stress Free Menu For Thanksgiving
As we go through all the recipes one more time to see if we can make improve something for this Thanksgiving’s table we are adding more stress to our already stressed lives. We go through the family recipe box to see if there is family favorite or one recipe left a family member no longer with us this year. Family recipe cookbooks are leafed to see what more we can stuff on our table this year.
I was thinking that every wants to create that perfect table yet the stories we tell are about family gatherings are the catastrophes and calamities we have encountered. I do not remember anyone ever saying, “ remember Aunt Sally’s perfect Thanksgiving two years ago.” But more often we are saying, “ remember when Aunt Sally was pulling her turkey from the oven only to notice she forgot to turn the oven on.”
There are few foods that everyone cooks on Thanksgiving but I have never seen a rulebook that says you have to serve turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. I know these foods are traditional since it is our best guess what might have been served to the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. This is the menu for every cooking magazine on what will be served this coming Thursday.
Turkeys are a native bird, which is why they were chosen as the protein for this holiday, but I am not sure anyone knows for sure what was served. It could have been venison as easily as part of the first Thanksgiving. If you want to make something else do it. Be creative and celebrate your individualaltiy.
Just remember most of us eat turkey as a whole bird once a year since it is hard to cook. Most often it turns out dry so do not beat your self over trying to create that perfect turkey. For most of us, we are just happy to get everything on the table at the same time and not forget to serve one dish left on the counter in the kitchen.
So as I write this, my butterball is defrosting in the fridge, my attempt to make the perfect moist turkey last year will be the stories people will tell about me for years to come. I used Cook’s Illustrated rating to buy my turkey. It was a fresh Aaron’s glat kosher bird. It stayed in the white plastic bag until I was ready to season it to put in the oven and noticed how many feathers still remained on the bird. There was no notation on the Cook’s Illustrated article to the fact that you would be plucking the bird before cooking. I spent a few hours plucking and had to move the time we served dinner two hours later. It was then I decided the quest for perfection was a quest and was reminded it is the journey not the destination that makes life more interesting.
Enjoy your journey this year and at Thanksgiving the destination is a group of family members so stuffed that they can’t move to help clean up in the kitchen!
Posted by Hella at 11/23/2009 9:47 AM 
Categories: More than recipes, Cooking Magazines, Stress Free Thanksgiving, Stories for your Memory Cookbook, You can change those recipes
Tags: cooking traditions family cookbooks cookbook family memory cookbooks family stories recipe box family favorite recipes recipes family traditions
Categories: More than recipes, Cooking Magazines, Stress Free Thanksgiving, Stories for your Memory Cookbook, You can change those recipes
Tags: cooking traditions family cookbooks cookbook family memory cookbooks family stories recipe box family favorite recipes recipes family traditions
while watching the evening news last night I learned that the Pilgrims were two years late for the first Thanksgiving. The first one was held in Virginia. It has been accepted by the Library of Congress as the first but not our fold lore. So stop stressing...fun fact to discuss this year!
Reply to this