What are your Thanksgiving Traditions? Do you enjoy them? Does turkey remind you of wonderful days working in the kitchen with mom? Grandma? Kids? Or do you look at that big old bird Thanksgiving eve and let out a big sigh thinking about all the work you will have to do tomorrow?
I’m all about tradition….if you’re doing it for the right reason. Just because that’s the way you’ve always done it, is not a valid reason…for anything, if you don’t enjoy it…just sayin’. If you don’t like it, give it up and start a new tradition that you can embrace and enjoy. Full-disclosure, this is how I always felt about Thanksgiving dinner: I LOVED going to my Grandparents house and seeing all my relatives. Times full of laughter and getting to know each other. The food, eh, it was fine. Here’s the thing….apart from the turkey and the crunchy onions on the green bean casserole…it’s all the same consistency. Mush! Like baby food or old folks home food. Boo! Hiss! I can hear you turkey day fans already. You’re probably thinking, “oh Dana, you just don’t know how to cook it”. Not true, I can cook it all just the way it’s supposed to be cooked and it’s still not exciting (so could my Mom, and my Grandma).
But in the name of tradition, I plodded on year after year, dancing the turkey dance. There were highlights: The best turkey I every had, we injected with cajun seasoning and deep fried. But my husband didn’t want to do all that work every year (ironic yes?), and I sure wasn’t to be trusted with a vat of smokin’ hot oil and a 20 lb bird. Then one year, while my husband was deployed, I asked my kids about Thanksgiving. Did they want turkey and all the sides or did they want to try something new. New! New! they chanted immediately. Well, it may have taken Alex longer than “immediately”, he really doesn’t do anything immediately, but he came around eventually.
And a new tradition was born. One I absolutely love! One that involves the whole family making decisions and getting involved. We choose a country/region and make a menu based on that choice. Everyone gets input, well, Jim (my husband) always wants turkey, so his input comes in after we decide on what type of cuisine we are having. Oh don’t feel sorry for him, he gets turkey every few (or five) years, and he normally enjoys what we do have. In the past, we have done Italian, Jewish, Asian (love it all, so we had a mishmash of countries), German, Portuguese, Cuban (when we lived in Tampa-that was a hot mess), Cajun, and some others I can’t recall. Tomorrow it will be Native American food. And yes, you can argue that traditional Thanksgiving is Native American, but we’re going beyond the yam. I’ll touch base tomorrow and let you know how it goes.
I love our non-traditional Thanksgiving traditions. Now that Jim and I are in Idaho and all of our sons are currently in Colorado, we are not able to get together every holiday. But planning this meal keeps us connected. We will be cooking mostly the same food, sending pictures back and forth, laughing at mishaps and critiquing the recipes. And I look forward to it, I know there will be lots of cooking work and lots of cleanup, but I don’t care because we’re all having fun and staying connected even though we are apart.
Whatever your traditions are, I hope they are a joy for you and not a burden. If they are, don’t be afraid to change the burden. You like turkey but hate cooking it….order one that’s already cooked. No one will care, and if they do, tell them they are more than welcome to take over that task :0) Whenever I tell anyone about our Thanksgiving, they say how great it is, but their family would never go for it. Are you sure? My friend Diana finally asked her family and now they have crab legs every Thanksgiving instead of turkey. Not sure about you, but I’ll take a crab leg over a turkey leg any day! If you’re ready for a change, ask your family to think about it, you might be surprised by their answer. If the answer is yes, an easy place to start would be to make traditional dishes from your ethnic background. Remember, there is no rule that says you can only have turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. Freak everyone out and have it for Easter! Holidays are about family, fun, and making new memories, don’t let the drudgery take that away from you!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Thanksgiving 2020 was a success for everyone but Jim. He has decided he doesn’t like duck. Said he would rather eat liver & onion (the lowest of the low for him) then eat duck again. Although he did love the berry wine sauce that went on top (only thing that made it palatable to him). I am fairly confident that he had duck before because Eric likes to cook it, but maybe not. The sauce was indeed Da Bomb! In fact, this sauce would be wonderful over some vanilla bean ice cream! But I liked the duck too and so did all the gang eating the same thing in Colorado, so I can only conclude it’s just him. We also had a corn pudding (thank you Shelly Barton), spaghetti squash and a mixed berry bread pudding made from the fry bread (I think it would have been better with challah or brioche though)…yum!
I hope all your meals were wonderful and yummy! Cody has already suggested Australian for next year….kangaroo? Will need some research for that one!
