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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving--America's Most Beloved Myth

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The Thanksgiving meal is my favorite meal.  My husband makes a fantastic turkey (or three—depending on the crowd) every year.  We always argue over the stuffing, and we end up with the traditional bread stuffing of my youth and the occasional rice stuffing on the side to humor those who need it.  I make the same cranberry sauce I have made every year of the kid’s lives—it is a very good cranberry sauce recipe, but that is not why I make it.  I make it because it is what we all expect.  I always make potatoes and a corn pudding.  Beyond that, anything goes.  That is the core meal, the absolute essentials.  We might have roasted winter vegetables, slow cooked onions, green bean casserole, stuffed mushrooms, Brussels sprouts with bacon, you name it.  I always serve the meal on Christmas because I Iove it so much.
Since I have moved to Iowa City, I have had many kinds of Thanksgiving dinners.  Some have been just family, others just friends, and all of them have reminded me to be thankful.  Even the Thanksgiving that my youngest son was getting chemotherapy I was thankful.  One year when the children were quite young we had a Thanksgiving dinner populated solely by adults not born in the United States—my kids told the Thanksgiving story and it was fresh for many of the people around the table.  At that meal, we all agreed.  It is the most wonderful of holidays—a full four days of secular thankfulness.   Such a brilliant holiday!

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