I'll be thinking of you all tomorrow. Our T-day is going to be on Friday this year, because of various travel schedules, not to mention the several people who wanted to have dinner at their in-laws AND wanted to have dinner at DD's. I'm actually pleased ~~ for once, I won't be rushing home from work to start the prep for all the veggie dishes. Five vegs this year: cream-cheese/chili corn, harvard beets, gingered carrots & pears, snap peas (a change from the spinach squares), and a broccoli/cauliflower dish that has a nutmeg/cheddar sauce. Tried this last year and it was a success. 1 big bag of baby carrots, thoroughly rinsed, and the fat ones cut in half lengthwise. Dump in big pot of lightly salted boiling water, let boil for 10 minutes. While the carrots are cooking, open and drain a can of sliced pears -- this year, I'll have to slice halves, no pre-sliced in stock at the store. Put about ½ cup of pear jelly [or pear jam or apple jelly] in a small bowl and nuke just until warm and mostly melted. Stir ½ teaspoon ground ginger OR 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger into the melted jelly. Taste jelly and add more ginger if needed (you should be able to clearly taste the ginger). Depending on how many carrots, you may need to double the gingered jelly. Drain the carrots and dump into a large bowl. Pour the gingered jelly over and stir until all carrots are coated. Fold in the pear slices. For the dinner, it does very well on a warming tray, not going mushy. Have a good day, and may all your Thanksgiving dishes be wonderful.

Our first Thanksgiving this year was the end of October, because one of my sisters would be leaving for Arizona for the winter. Then we had a smaller one yesterday, at Mom's. She is 84 now and she made the sweet potatoes, and us "kids" did everything else. My younger sister Ginny and her DH brought the turkey to fry up. I asked, "Had you done it before?" "No, but our friend Brian does it all the time." Uh-huh, do you see where I'm going here? Well they set it up next to one of Mom's flower gardens. And I mean RIGHT next to it. The garden was covered with dry oak leaves, of course. As the heated up the peanut oil, my brother-in-law came into the house and proceeded to read the instructions. (Well at least he brought them along!) "Do not cover pot while heating oil" it read. And he dashed out and uncovered the pot. To make a long story shorter, Mom was on pins and needles the whole time, and nothing happened after all. Besides, it was a small garden and bordered on all sides by sidewalk and gravel drive. Had it gone up in flames, I speculate the only loss would have been a rose. The turkey was good, and Ginny's vegan stuffing was most excellent, as was everything else. We closed the evening playing spoons and a good time was had by all. Anyone else have an "interesting" Thanksgiving? Rick

I love cooking, and I especially like cooking for the holidays. And I like to cook lots of unusual foods. A few years back, my sister and I decided to prepare a "non-traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner"! Oh that was a mistake with our family. We had all these leftovers that no one would eat. Since then we make our traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner (our version), but then on Christmas we vary our menus! Makes everyone happy that way. A few years back, I was doing reserch for an article I wrote "TURKEY DAY FOODS & HERBSOLD AND NEW". I found the research to be very interesting. If you are interested here are some facts that I discovered. "With few supplies, cold, sick and slowly starving to death, less than half of the original Pilgrims managed to survive the first winter of 1620-1621. However, with the help of the Wampanoag, the remaining Pilgrims had a bountiful 1621 fall harvest. Sometime between September 21 and November 11, 1621, the 52 Pilgrims shared their bounty with the 90 Wampanoag at a three-day harvest feast, now known as Thanksgiving. Items most likely on the menu included the following:  CORNBREAD: admired by both the English and Native Americans  ENGLISH CHEESE PIE: cheese was important to the English  VENISON: five deer were brought by the Native Americans  DUCKS & GEESE: gathered by the English  WILD TURKEY: Native Americans and English alike enjoyed this meal  STUFFING: with herbs, onions and/or oats  GARLIC AND ONIONS: staples of the diet  PUMPKIN PUDDING: there wasn't pumpkin pie at the time  INDIAN PUDDING: can be served as a warm or cold dessert  FISH: cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, and lots of eel.  SEAFOOD: clams, lobsters, mussels, and very small quantities of oysters  BIRDS: wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, and other miscellaneous waterfowl; they were also known to have occasionally eaten eagles (which "tasted like mutton" according to Winslow in 1623.)  OTHER MEAT: venison (deer), possibly some salt pork or chicken.  GRAIN: wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal; barley (mainly for beer-making).  FRUITS: raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries (these would have been dried, as none would have been in season).  VEGETABLES: small quantity of peas, squashes (including pumpkins), beans  NUTS: walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, ground nuts  HERBS and SEASONINGS: wild onions and garlic, leeks, strawberry leaves, currants, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, watercress, and flax; from England they brought seeds and probably planted radishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, and cabbage. Salt was available on the table, but pepper was used only during cooking. Olive oil in small quantities may have been brought over, although the Pilgrims had to sell most of their oil and butter before sailing, in order to stay on budget.  OTHER: maple syrup, honey; small quantities of butter, Holland cheese, and eggs." So we can always vary our Thanksgiving Day menu with some of the above foods.

I offered to host this year but our gathering is not very big. My parents usually host when my sister and her family come (every other year) but I know how much work it is. My mother does not really enjoy cooking but my father loves to. It's a lot of work as they are older now. It's not really the cooking but all the prep ahead of time and then the clean up afterward. A couple of years ago I offered to host either Thanksgiving or Christmas to lessen the stress, but for some reason, my kids prefer going to my parents' house for Christmas so that means Thanksgiving falls to me. My sister's family lives 6 hours away, so when they come, they stay for several days with my parents which means she does not make anything to bring. Since my father loves to cook, he has offered to bring two vegetable side dishes which will be some sort of Italian dishes since that is his heritage and cuisine of preference for cooking. My mom likes to bake so she will do three pies - pumpkin, pumpkin chiffon and chocolate. DH will make an apple pie as well. Our menu is what I've always thought traditional (until one year we spent Thanksgiving in Atlanta and discovered they had different traditions). We will have smoked turkey (dh will cook in his smoker), mashed potatoes, bread stuffing (dressing really b/c I won't do it in the turkey but we still call it stuffing), sweet potato casserole (not with marshmallows, mine has a pecan topping), gravy, and two vegetable side dishes from my father. We don't do rolls/bread - enough carbs already on the menu. My niece and nephew are vegetarians, so won't be eating turkey but my sister said not to worry, they will just eat the side dishes. My 18 y/o dd stopped eating meat this summer and has managed to continue to remain vegetarian her first few months away at college. She informed me though that she has decided she will eat turkey on Thanksgiving and may go back to eating poultry as she is tiring of the limited vegetarian offerings at her school. My sister and BIL also stopped eating meat, mainly to eat healthier, but don't consider themselves strict vegetarians and told my mother they will have turkey on Thanksgiving. I'm just breathing a sigh of relief that my brother is spending Thanksgiving with his inlaws b/c SIL and my niece are apparently now vegan so that would have made most of our dishes unsuitable.