Do you observe Thanksgiving?

PJSlavner said:

My favorite food for Thanksgiving is sauerkraut, which we always had as part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. For years after my mother died, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving. This year my wife and I made sauerkraut using my mother’s recipe, which she wrote down along with a bunch of her other great recipes. It was delicious, just like my mother made it. We are going to make it often now.

One personal tradition that my wife taught me over twenty years ago was to not eat any mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner, We both love mashed potatoes, but they are the absolutely worst part of Thanksgiving dinner, even though they are delicious. Everything else tastes so much better, so why eat filling mashed potatoes and limit yourself on the other food?

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Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:

Could you post your sauerkraut recipe? Or is this one locked in the family vault?

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PJSlavner said:

View attachment 423768
I am happy to share it. The black ink is my writing; it gives an option for covering if less water is added. We started with covering, but there was too much water, so we uncovered it. Make sure that you keep track of water so that it does not dry out.
I hope that you enjoy it.

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Gradine said:

Sorry to say but if mashed potatoes are the worst food at your Thanksgiving dinner than you need to step up your mashed potato game

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Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:

Wow, I can actually read that cursive! Your mother was obviously not a doctor

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PJSlavner said:

Try reading her writing if it is all in cursive. I used to have trouble reading her letters to me, especially when she switched languages in the middle of a sentence.

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Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:

Switched to which language?

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PJSlavner said:

Croatian, which I speak but have trouble reading, especially with crazy cursive writing. The sauerkraut recipe is from Croatia.

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Morrus said:

GIven that you all have Christmas dinner on Thanksgiving, what do you have for dinner on Christmas day, if not Christmas dinner? I can't imagine Christmas day without the full turkey and all trimmings. It just wouldn't be Christmas!

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• Roast turkey,
• Korean-seasoned roast pork loin with onions and apples,
• split and braised lamb breast with mushrooms,
• vegan holiday roast for the vegetarian guest roasted with carrots and potatoes,
• traditional turkey gravy,
• vegetarian mushroom gravy,
• glazed baby carrots,
• homemade cranberry sauce,
• seasoned rice,
• a big tray of traditional turkey bread stuffing,
• another big tray of French Canadian-style pork stuffing,
• a big tray of classic green bean casserole,
• a pot of seasoned rice,
• a baguette,
• mashed potatoes,
• a big tray of au gratin potatoes,
• and the turkey giblets (heart and liver) in their own dish for those who like them.

• Roast chicken with creamer potatoes and carrots
• Vegan field roast with potatoes, onions and carrots
• Beef prime rib roast with creamer potatoes and carrots
• Salad
• Saffron rice
• Raspberry turnovers for dessert.

Benjamin Olson said:

The comical thing about anti-colonial backlash aimed at Thanksgiving is that the annual holiday in the United States was actually created to give thanks for the Union winning the Battle of Gettysburg (something I for one am still thankful for) and generally to promote the idea that the future was hopeful as 1863 came to a close. And even that is just the political circumstances that allowed activist Sarah Joshepa Hale to finally succeed at her effort to have the disparate local thanksgiving harvest festivals in New England (celebrations which, despite geography, had nothing to do with Pilgrims) made into a national holiday (with her preferred menu!).

The "First Thanksgiving" with Pilgrims and Wampanoag was an actual event, but it almost certainly took place earlier in the season (during the harvest!) and only became conflated with the annual holiday later. I would presume the conflation happened in part to sell the celebration in the reintegrated Southern states and in part because of general mythmaking and desire to make a newish holiday look like an ancient tradition, but it seems it was mostly the standardization of grade school curricula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that really put the Pilgrims in the spotlight. Partly this was part of the assimilationist and national pride inculcating agenda of those curricula, but in defense of the school teachers I'll say that a simple story about sharing and survival from early in the country's history makes pedigogical sense for elementary students, whereas trying to explain to students why they should be thankful for Union war victories (long before they study the Civil War) does not.

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