Thanksgiving Open Thread

28 Comments

1. 

   on November 27, 2014 at 9:38 am

   We are having a fairly typical TG dinner, only remarkable in that we will have 5 kinds of cranberry sauce.

   • 

     Marie2 on November 27, 2014 at 10:13 am

     No such thing as bad cranberry sauce, but my favorite remains raw cranberry/orange relish.  Great with turkey and dynamite with chicken breasts in artichoke cream sauce.

     • 

       on November 27, 2014 at 12:14 pm

       Yes, my favorite as well. I modified the recipe this year by doing 2 lbs cranberry, 2 oranges, 2 cup sugar, and 1/3 of a lemon. You need to watch the lemon, as it can take over the flavor profile, but a little is nice.

       • 

         Marie2 on November 27, 2014 at 12:32 pm

         I reduce the sugar a bit to get that slightly tart taste.  While always good, the brightness quality of the cranberries does vary either by years or producers.

2. 

   Brendan Skwire on November 27, 2014 at 9:54 am

   that’s a lot of cranberries. My host is a hunter, so I’m hoping there will be some game: venison, boar, etc. I have never had wild turkey (the animal, not the liquor).

   • 

     sunmusing on November 27, 2014 at 11:03 am

     A buddy of mine sent me home with some elk burger, I am making Elk Meatloaf…to go with the Turkey…The wild turkeys have free passage across my property, and are protected critters in my rural neighborhood…they are pretty cagey animals in the wild…I have been trying to photograph them, and they don’t want to be photo’d…let alone eaten..we do have a free range domestic turkey in the oven tho…well treated, pampered, and hopefully, cooked to perfection…

3. 

   Brendan Skwire on November 27, 2014 at 10:43 am

   I am also thankful that this song came on my spotify last night, because it’s my new favorite. I am NOT thankful that youtube has done away with its old embed code, because the new format doesn’t work in BMT comments.

   • 

     BooMan on November 27, 2014 at 11:26 am

     click the button for the old embed code.

4. 

   donnah on November 27, 2014 at 10:48 am

   Our traditional Thanksgiving fare; the senior family members don’t tolerate change. There will be twelve of us here.

   So after spending an entire week cleaning house and then painting my kitchen on Monday and Tuesday, I’m busily preparing the big meal. A giant turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, fresh green beans, homemade loaves of bread, a raspberry chocolate cheesecake, brownies, and banana pudding are my responsibility. The grandmas bring apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole, and ham.

   Lordy, it’s a ton of food! But it’s a good day.

5. 

   TarheelDem on November 27, 2014 at 11:16 am

   Collard greens, boiled in just enough water, coconut oil, olive oil, black pepper, cayenne, salt to taste.

   Turnip, sweet potato, winter squash, beet savory root salad

   Turnip green, beet green, kale salad with tomatoes.

   Baked chicken in lime juice and coconut oil

   Beets marinated in balsamic vinegar and black pepper

   Roasted garlic

   Can you tell what the local organic farmers had coming in — nice local farmers market yesterday.

6. 

   MassCommons on November 27, 2014 at 11:16 am

   Thanks for the funk!  Earth Wind & Fire’s “Gratitude” is another great, funky song for Thanksgiving:  http://masscommons.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/morning-song-gratitude/

   http://masscommons.wordpress.com/

7. 

   BooMan on November 27, 2014 at 11:25 am

   The real spirit of Thanksgiving.

   • 

     Brendan Skwire on November 27, 2014 at 11:31 am

     that’s horrible.

     • 

       BooMan on November 27, 2014 at 11:42 am

       I wrote about the Good Samaritans serving The Beast back in August.

       The next day, the 60-mile trip to Córdoba by bus from Veracruz takes almost two hours.

       Outside Córdoba is the town of La Patrona, where signs of generosity abound. There, 14 volunteers — most of them family members led by the Romero Vázquez sisters alongside their mother, Doña Leonidas — form an unusual migrant organization. They are called Las Patronas, a name taken from their village with religious connotations for the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint.

       Some 19 years ago, the sisters, carrying groceries, were standing by the railroad tracks when the train passed by carrying with people they knew nothing about.

       Some shouted, “Madre [mother], give us something to eat,” recalled Rosa Romero, 47. The sisters tossed the food they had and fretted that their mother would scold them. Instead, a tradition began, one that has taken on new importance, with Mexico hardening its borders.

       For 365 days a year, the sisters, cousins, sisters-in-law and friends cook some 20 kilos of beans and rice, which is wrapped in 6 to 7 kilos of tortillas and tied to refilled bottles of water. The food is donated.

       “We didn’t know who they were, or where El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras was,” recalls Doña Leo, known affectionately by the migrants as abuelita, or grandmother. “From afar they looked like flies on a train. Now they’re part of our family.”

       Julia Ramírez has been volunteering for 15 years. Her turn to cook is Mondays.

       I just want to make sure that for that one instant, they feel the generosity of a people who pray for them because the journey is fraught with so much danger, malice.
       Julia Ramírez
       “We’re all motivated for different reasons,” she says. “I once had a Honduran show up at my house. He was wounded. He had a deep cut from jumping off The Beast. He pleaded for help. I helped him, and then he asked for a second favor: He wanted me to bless him. I said, `Dios me lo bendiga y illumine su camino. [May God bless you and illuminate your path].'”

       Julia’s eyes are watery now.

       “I don’t know whether he made it, but that experience changed me,” she says. “Who are we to judge people who just want a better life? I just want to make sure that for that one instant, they feel the generosity of a people who pray for them because the journey is fraught with so much danger, malice.”

       The train whistle sounds.

       The women jump and grab their baskets of food and water and bolt for the railroad tracks.

       The Beast, headed for the volcanoes of Puebla and the Valley of Mexico, passes by, empty of men, women or children.

       The women put the food away, convinced The Beast will fill up again, sooner than later.

8. 

   Brendan Skwire on November 27, 2014 at 11:32 am

   Songs about edible birds.

   • 

     Brendan Skwire on November 27, 2014 at 11:33 am

     Glenn Miller’s version

9. 

   clearskies on November 27, 2014 at 11:55 am

   Still early here in sou cal, I’m about to get into it. I’ve had the turkey brining overnight, and have bread dough rising on the counter. I have to start peeling apples for the pie, and browning French bread crumbs for the dressing. Thanksgiving is always a busy day for me but I love cooking for family and friends.
   Happy thanksgiving to all the frog ponders!

10. 

    esquimaux on November 27, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    happy Thanksgiving brendan, booman and everyone here!

    just another Thursday around here, though i will probably not work much. My siblings are a 6-hour drive away and I’ll do that for Christmas but not usually for Thanksgiving.

    the friend i sometimes do Thanksgiving with has to work today so we’ll be cooking the turkey dinner on Sunday. Roast chicken for me today.

11. 

    on November 27, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Menu

    Appetisers
    Herring in wine
    Ajvar (serbian eggplant-red pepper sauce)
    Cheese
    Crackers

    Main

    Turkey
    Gravy
    Brussels sprouts
    German-style red cabbage
    Sweet potatoe puree
    Stuffing (bread, onions, spices, turkey sausage, cranberry)
    Cranberry Sauce
    Cranberry-Orange relish
    Cranberry-Pomegranet

    Drinks
    Ridge Zin 2008
    Some white or other
    Moscado d’Asti
    Apple cider

    • 

      on November 27, 2014 at 12:37 pm

      Today I will have a pleasant day. Tomorrow, I have rotater cuff surgery on my right shoulder, and this is going to keep me pretty hobbled for a week or 2. The requirement is a sling for 6 weeks. My wife and I will go to NYC on Dec 24, and I hope that the main problem with the rehab is done by then. Still be in the sling, though.

      • 

        The Voice In The Wilderness on November 27, 2014 at 6:20 pm

        Gppd Luck and Get Well!

12. 

    TarheelDem on November 27, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    Thanksgiving (United States)

    First National Thanksgiving Proclamation – Continental Congress – 1777 (authored by Samuel Adams)

    For as much as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success:

    It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth Day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, Independence and Peace: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth “in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

    And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.

    New York City – 1890s to 1950s:

    In New York City, people would dress up in fanciful masks and costumes and roam the streets in merry-making mobs. By the beginning of the 20th century, these mobs had morphed into “ragamuffin parades” consisting mostly of children dressed as “ragamuffins” in costumes of old and mismatched adult clothes and with deliberately smudged faces, but by the late 1950s the tradition had vanished entirely

    The Macy’s parade with its helium-filled balloons coincides with the decline of this custom.

    Finally, Detroit is still having its America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade down the full length of Woodward Avenue.

    Let that sink in for a moment.  Four years after the election of Rick Snyder and the Republican legislature that created the emergency financial manager in Detroit, a private company is producing for profit a Thanksgiving Day parade that rolls through some of the neighborhoods hit by the decisions that have occurred subsequently.

    • 

      Marie2 on November 27, 2014 at 1:43 pm

      Diminish the first US national holiday and the traditions that grew up around it over the next century or so in favor of 45 days of Christmas and a couple of weeks of Halloween.  Thanksgiving just didn’t support enough commerce and consumption of disposable and useless crap.  Starbucks no longer bothers with the fall/Thanksgiving decorations.  They skip right to Christmas in early/mid November.

13. 

    ThisMagicalEarth on November 27, 2014 at 4:57 pm

    This is hilarious. The YouTube embed code didn’t work in preview, but I can do the link.  

    After hearing neighbors’ stories of wild turkeys chasing down joggers and other residents in an Arden area neighborhood, News10 producer Duffy Kelly went out for a first-hand look.

    Wild turkey chases reporter

    Happy Thanksgiving!

14. 

    budr on November 27, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    

15. 

    boran2 on November 27, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    An 11th hour change had me running out in the snow this morning to find a turkey to cook.  I got a 5 pound fresh turkey breast that was amazingly easy to roast.  Fortunately, I had already baked desert.

16. 

    Rachel Q on November 27, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    I’m back home after a full day at a job that truly must be done 24/7/365, so no complaints.

    Happy thanksgiving to you all!

    • 

      The Voice In The Wilderness on November 28, 2014 at 11:15 am

      Thank you! And public thanks to those postal workers who volunteered to work the holiday so I didn’t have to. (Only your local office and mail carriers are off. The big mail trucks are still rolling and the machines are still sorting, but thankfully the Black Friday mailings are over. Now for the Christmas rush and seven days a week for the overtime volunteers.)