Thanksgiving

It amazes me how different Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Some are incredibly simple, others, like my family, are for more "enhanced". Not good or bad, just different ways.

Our family has always been farm oriented. We've been here since the Mayflower, so we've got that agrarian blood flowing. We've also got a very long history of "make do or do without", and while we went through the Great Depression, our family rarely went without enough food and never without shelter.

We also come from a long line of good cooks! Which means Thanksgiving is a GREAT dinner!

Our one indulgence - oysters. Everything else is standard farm fare, just really good farm fare.

Turkey - trying to buy locally grown is difficult. I wouldn't tell my parents this, but hopefully in another year I'd like to be raising a couple of turkeys every year just for Thanksgiving. Besides, a great bug eater would be a good thing! Nitrogen poopers to build the soil - life would be good!

I just have to find out if the town will allow it. LOL - no biggie.

Candied sweet potatoes - easier to find locally, and again, am hoping to grow my own starting this coming year. We'll see. But - the best way to cook them for Thanksgiving - there's only one way really - slow cook them with no water, some butter and a lot of brown sugar. The sugar draws the water out of the thickly sliced potatoes, giving them a great texture that isn't tender, but isn't bad either. It's great! It can't be explained. But just try simmering some in the sugar for a couple of hours until they turn a burnt sienna color and just a little wrinkly looking. They are THE best.

Mashed potatoes - again, easy to get locally. I cook them in home made chicken stock, a little garlic. Mash them while a little dry and then reheat when the turky is resting to be cut. Add a little milk, wisk them and they're piping hot for dinner!

Peas, string beans, corn - all home grown, all cooked normally.

Cranberry sauce - it just can't be thanksgiving without it - even if we have to get them from more than 100 miles away. I'd like to put a highbush cranberry in, but it's going to be another year or two before that happens. Still, we make our own. Grind a bag of cranberries (wash, of course) with an orange - rind and all. Add about a cup of sugar and you've got some of the best cranberry sauce you'll ever want. The freshness of it beats the jelly any day. It also mixes well with any muffin recipe to make THE best cran-orange muffins you could ever hope for.

Stuffing - normal. I've heard of different ways you can make it, by baking potato bread with onions, celery and poultry seasoning. But that just seems like a lot of work when it just doesn't have to be that way. We use 0ld bread and cut it up ourselves. All of our regular breads are locally made, so I don't worry about making my own. I just buy the older bread that's on sale and cut it myself. Why spend 10-fold for a bag of pre-cubed when you can have it cut in 5 minutes?

The oysters. Ooo - the oysters. We go for native oysters, rather than imported. And we only have them at 2 holidays, so I'll take that sin. Cut them into quarters or smaller. Mix them with about an equal amount of oyster crackers. Mix in a bit of cream, a small bit of butter and bake them for about a half hour. That's it. Delish!

Home made pickles! There is nothing better than home made pickles - both sweet and dill. Dill are easier to make than sweet, but all are worth the effort.

Apple sauce - home made. From apples grown on the property. Hopefully more in 3 years! I just planted 3 more trees.

This is what Thanksgiving is about - bounty. Home made bounty.