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| Glazing the carrots |
Our table was pretty, but not elegant... though a lot fancier than the usual dining around here.
Our Thanksgiving menu is very non-traditional because of everyone's food preferences. We always have ham instead of turkey and this year I felt less guilty about it because Ella and I read that the meat at the very first Thanksgiving feast was likely goose and/or duck and/or venison, possibly swan or pigeon, but probably not turkey. I am the only one who likes cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, so we never serve them. Don't worry, I had a slice of pumpkin pie at a restaurant. And guess what, the Pilgrims had no wheat flour, so no pumpkin pie in 1621. Cranberries don't appear to have come into culinary use until about 50 years after the first Thanksgiving.
In my feeble attempt for a bit of authenticity, I made cornbread without wheat flour instead of rolls this year, knowing that maize was a staple of Native American nutrition. Let's just say the cornbread was delicious. I am holding on to this recipe and skipping the wheat flour from now on. And we made carrots, white, purple and orange, because the Pilgrims' gardens in 1621 probably included this crop and because carrots used to come in several different colors before they were turned into the quintessential orange vegetable.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Thanksgiving meal as we know it today didn't start its popularity until the mid 19th century when women's magazines and cookbooks began printing recipes for the dishes we serve now on this national holiday.
P.S. Since we had a very mild Thanksgiving Day with temps in the low 60s, we decided to break even more with tradition and make a campfire instead of watching football. Then we went another step further and busted out marshmallows to roast and leftover sparklers and glow necklaces from the Fourth of July. The kids had a blast. This might have been my favorite Thanksgiving yet.
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