Preparing the Thanksgiving Meal
Homemade Thanksgiving Apple Crisp- Yum!
When I was young, Thanksgiving Day was a big deal. The parade of balloons floating across the television screen, the holiday bread hand delivered by our neighbor for breakfast, going to see family. It was a day full of excitement- and no school. But what the day centered around was the meal. My mom would start up the stove early in the morning and would lead the meal preparation, sometimes with the help of my grandmother. From then on the kitchen was humming in expectation of the meal to come. Very familiar is the excited anticipation of when I sit down at the long, extended table, a big empty plate before me, laughing family surrounding me and steaming dishes in between. There is no better combination of aromas than those that rise from such a feast. The way the smell of mouth-watering roasted turkey mingles with the warm fragrance of cinnamon apple can bring a smile to anyone’s face. Understandably this is a meal to look forward to, with the amount of food being almost intimidating in mass, especially to a youngster who is about the same size as the turkey. The Thanksgiving meal is an ambitious undertaking, I have always admired those who can craft it, but its importance lies not so much in the quality of food, but in its ability to bring family together.
We always credit children with being able to appreciate the little, simple things in life. Well, I would like to think this applies to food as well. When I was an elementary school aged child, I loved Thanksgiving meals. But the dish I loved the most was a common and very simple one: mashed potatoes. A dish I enjoyed often, it was enjoyed especially on Thanksgiving Day. There was a lot that I – and my brothers – appreciated about it. This dish is so simple, it’s almost impossible for even my dad to burn it. It’s an easy step-by-step process; you cut the potatoes into quarters (you can peel them if you want), boil them in water and once soft, strain and mash them. For flavor and texture, you can add a little bit of milk, butter and salt. Little me loved it. The way its almost-creamy texture was made smooth by melted butter- or even smoother by delicious gravy- made for easy consumption. It made it easy to excitedly take a giant spoonful and stuff it in my mouth, turning to my younger brother, Sam, with a potato-y grin. It was often reciprocated. We liked how shapeable mashed potatoes were- it allowed us to entertain our creativity while the adults exchanged conversation. We created landscapes. The potatoes were the field that we could plow with a fork. The broccoli made for stumpy little trees and you could make a little lake with the gravy in the middle of the field. Sometimes this generated an amused “Don’t play with your food”, from our grandmother. She might sound a little stern, but you could see the love in her brown eyes as she smiled and eyed us over the rim of her glasses, and soon the potato fields would disappear by the forkful. Another addition to mashed potato’s tasty resume was its ability to disguise less adored meal items. Turkey thought a little dry was made scrumptious again when combined with potatoes and gravy. Vegetables that made us squirm, yet we were under obligation to eat “at least five bites” of were consumed undetected in mouthfuls of that white, fluffy goodness. And while I still enjoy a large serving at Thanksgiving, the peak of my infatuation with mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving was during my younger years.
Nowadays my appreciation of Thanksgiving is not quite so focused to just one dish, but rather the collection of dishes together. And oh, how well they complement each other. Sweet, buttery sweet potatoes enhance the rosemary-spiced savory flavor of the fluffy bread stuffing. The tart, juicy cranberry sauce pairs perfectly with the more mellow tasting turkey, or the soft mashed potatoes. Crispy roasted vegetables of sweet carrots, halved Brussel sprouts, and string beans, spiced with garlic salt no longer result in squirms and avoidance from my brothers and I (or at least two of us). We are reminded that it is possible for vegetables to taste good.
Thanksgiving is important to my entire family. It is important to my mom, the one who cooks most of the dishes. Most years she takes one of the days leading up to the holiday off from work to dedicate time in the kitchen to meal prep. She turns on the radio to her favorite station, has an easy snack nearby, and sets to work. The vegetables are chopped, the dull, rhythmic thudding of the knife against the cutting board filling the room. The biscuit dough is prepared to let rise and the apple crisp is oven-ready, cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. She’s very methodical and practiced in her cooking, often preparing several dishes at once, her hands never still. Often I offer to help out, and sometimes she asks for assistance. Usually I’m more of a comic relief than a good assistant. One year it took me just about forever to help chop the Brussel sprouts before they were roasted. My fine motor skills are not as attuned to cutting vegetables as hers are, as she was able to chop the carrots and beets, dice the squash and have them ready on the pan before I was halfway through chopping the sprouts. This was probably due to the fact that anytime one looked slightly different I would hold it up and ask “This one okay?” before slicing it in half and adding it to the rest. Unsurprisingly, one response was “Yes, now will you be finished with those before it’s time to eat?”. So slow was my hesitant chopping that my mom took half of the rest of the sprouts and had them cut far before I finished my half. For the record, both portions of the sprouts came out equally as tasty, however I might need a month of preparation before cooking a Thanksgiving meal on my own.
My mom was not always the lead cook on Thanksgiving. For her, Thanksgiving brings back memories of the holiday meals her mother used to cook. She reminisced, “My mother used to make a specialty apple pie every thanksgiving. She didn’t usually prepare extravagant meals, but on thanksgiving she made a damn good apple pie, with just the right mixture of Macintosh and granny smith apples.” Her mother, a full time nurse and mother of six, usually cooked simple, “steak and potato” dishes, so the aromatic Thanksgiving apple pie was always special, and enjoyed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. While my mom learned much of her cooking skills from my grandmother, a lot of her skills are self-taught. My mom herself has strayed away from the typical “steak and potatoes” meals. She likes having a variety of foods and being able to try out new recipes. This makes each Thanksgiving a little different.
Every Thanksgiving we can expect all the classic Turkey Day dishes with at least one new and different dish. This has become true especially since she and I became vegetarians. My brothers and father still enjoy their turkey, but my mom has added different vegetable based dishes to the mix to keep our taste buds happy. Her favorite is the roasted root vegetables. I could almost smell the dish in the oven as she described it, saying, “I like the different flavors melded together of the beets, sweet potato, butternut squash and white potato. I like them roasted in olive oil with some garlic and then just before they’re done I add some maple syrup. It brings an added sweetness to the dish.” This hearty addition to the plate has become a classic dish of our Thanksgiving meal, with that added sweetness causing everyone to take an extra serving. The Thanksgiving meals built by my mom may be more lavish than the ones her mother used to cook, but they will always include the fundamental turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and apple pie or crisp inspired by my grandmother.
Every Thanksgiving is a little different than those that came before, but it always has the same purpose: to enjoy good food with family. It’s not as simple as it was when I was younger and could sit in front of the TV watching the parade and dog show until the meal was ready. Now that I’m in college, Thanksgiving is kind of like a deep breath between constantly studying and the upcoming finals. I expect this year I still might do some studying on Turkey Day, but I hope it will be more relaxed. And instead of sitting on the couch watching the parade, I might be catching glimpses of the TV from the kitchen as I try to help my mom prepare the meal and set the table. I can only hope that one day the Thanksgiving meals I lead are as good as those my mom prepares. I see a lot of chopped vegetables in my future.
Recipe for Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes
For this dish you will need:
- 2 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes
- 1 stick salted butter
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Directions: Wash potatoes. Leave skin on or peel potatoes, whichever you prefer. Cut the potatoes into bitesize pieces, then allow them to boil in water until soft, approximately 15-20 minutes. Drain the water, then mash the potatoes. Then add the additional ingredients and mix until smooth or to liking. Enjoy!
Image Source: “Thanksgiving Recipe Remix: Mashed Potatoes.” Williams Sonoma Taste, Williams-Sonoma, 8 Nov. 2012, blog.williams-sonoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/finisrecipe_43565.jpg.
Parade Balloons!
Here’s a link to a cool gallery of Thanksgiving Day parade balloons we’ve seen floating across our television screens in the past. Check it out!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/macy-balloons-years-gallery-1.13136?pmSlide=1.2446687
