Thanksgiving

 My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I believe that gratitude and compassion are the two most exalted elements of the human condition. The last few years have exposed several of the baser elements, and I hope the pendulum will swing back to a more balanced position.

I began cooking Thanksgiving dinner in 1986 or 1987.  Both my mother and Mark's mom would fix Thanksgiving. And we went to both.  And our bellies hurt.  Though our travel was local, it was in opposite directions, one 30 minutes east, the other 30 minutes west.  My MIL would find new ways to cook turkey, which involved cooking it the say before, and sometimes it would not be fully cooked. My mom would get up at 5 a.m. and start cooking the massive turkey for hours and hours and hours as was the custom back then.  

Since we were the middle, I thought that it was time for us to be leverage our logistical advantage and give our respective mom's the day off.  Hence Thanksgiving at our home for the last 35 years EXCEPT that in 2016, the year and month that my father died, I opted out of Thanksgiving.  After a few months of helping my stepmom care for him, my night duties caught up with me.  I needed to retreat. Either my daughter or sister in law had dinner, and my husband and son went.

With Covid, 2020, we just had a dinner for the three of us in our household.  There were no vaccines, and I couldn't risk exposing my immune-compromised daughter or elderly father in law (last man standing of our combined parents) to the virus.  It had already claimed lives of people that we knew.

So this year, feels like a fresh start from the tenuous, tentative gatherings.  We are all vaccinated.  I received my booster on Saturday.  I think the one thing that I'm most grateful for is that there is a vaccine available.  In my county, New Kent, VA,  only 56% of the population is vaccinated.  I wear a mask to the grocery store, indeed all places.  

Our meal typically consists of the following:

• Turkey (though I did forgo turkey one year and stuffed a pork loin)
• Ham (typically country ham, but they are prohibitively expensive this year)
• Sausage and Cornbread dressing 
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Scalloped oysters:  I no longer make this as oysters are so expensive, and I don't need to spend 20 on a side dish.
• Brussels Sprouts Hash with caramelized shallots.  
• Some potato dish
• This year, I'm just doing sour cream mashed potatoes.  In the past I have made a favorite, Turnip and Potato Gratin.
• Sweet Potato Casserole (a new addition but only because my daughter makes it; it is delicious)
• Maple Pecan Chocolate Tart
• Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie
  

I also throw in some different things.  This year, I'm going to make Haricots Verts (Green beans) with Goat Cheeese and Warm Bacon Dressing.  I've not made this in about a decade or so, and did so for a dinner party.  Also an apple and kale waldorf salad.  It adds freshness to an otherwise heavy meal.

And cooking for others is a great way to show gratitude to those who are in our orbit and suffer through our exalted and baser moments in life.

Happy Thanksgiving.