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In Australia, Thanksgiving occurs in late Spring, which is our campaigning season. People feel obliged to seek out and offer advice and words of comfort to those they would not normally feel a need to speak with. It is heartwarming to see the community spirit exuded - some people even take out television ads offering hopes and good wishes for the way ahead.
It all comes to a head on the day, of course, when stalls are set up to sell sausages and steak sangers, fried onion and barbecue sauce at the ready. Cakes and biscuits, coconut delight, pikelets, lamingtons and other traditional fare are donated to parents and citizens groups and sold to those attending. I typically spend the whole morning on my feet, offering literature to those in the queue, and the night is spent observing the results, often with champagne ready to hand, usually with an attendance in the quaintly named Tally Room.
Kerry Webb Explains Peter's Thanksgiving
A sanger is the local slang for a sandwich, so what you do is get two slices of (plastic) white bread, grill a steak-like object in plenty of fat, add some over-sauteed onions and a large helping of tomato sauce (ketchup) and there you are. I admit that it usually smells better than it tastes.
Pikelets are also called drop scones - an illustration is at Pikelets with jam. They're good with jam and cream, but then, what isn't?
Lamingtons are cubes of sponge cake with (maybe 3" x 2" by 2") dipped in a thin chocolate glaze and rolled in shredded coconut. They're great for fund-raising and we have "lamington drives" where hundreds of the things are made and sold to long-suffering parents, neighbours, relatives etc.
As you would expect with the strong cultural similarities and American media, the Canadian Thanksgiving dinner would look fairly similar to the American one. Turkey, pumpkin pie (or in a modern variant pumpkin cheesecake), corn, squash, potatoes etc.. I usually have an apple crumble. Tomorrow we will be serving ham and spotted dick to my English friends and their Canadian wives.
We don't have pilgrims for dinner, they don't seem to be available in our supermarkets.
[Editor's Note: Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.
We don't usually have much a big feast on Thanksgiving - too far away from the relatives and there aren't many of them left anymore, but I did make an effort with a clove studded glazed ham and yams mashed up with brown sugar and lots of spices. We had a German Riesling with it, I used the nice table cloth and we listened to "Musical Evenings with the Captain" while we dined and the dogs stared at us and sighed dramatically. They got a nice special can of stinky dog food mixed with their usual kibble (and perhaps they might have found a bit of ham too).
Four Nut Tart with Chocolate Caramel Drizzle
Brussel Sprouts, fresh off the stem
Corn with Chipotle Lime Butter, and
Mashed Potatoes to make on the spot, being ever so much better that way
Graham Bird's friend's turkey recipe....
Turkey In Dishwasher a la Ketchup Cocoa Puff Sauce
This, by the way, is a great Thanksgiving recipe because it frees up the oven for pumpkin pies.
One large turkey (20-30 lbs)
One gallon (approximately) ketchup
Giant-size box Cocoa Puffs
Wash and dry turkey. Remove and reserve nasty innards and plastic packets of unrecognizable goo. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (the turkey, I mean, not that disgusting sh*t you just pulled out of the bird). Wrap turkey carefully in aluminum foil.
Place turkey on bottom rack of electric dishwasher. DO NOT ADD SOAP OR DETERGENT. If you have one of those ancient dishwashers like mine that hooks up to the sink faucet so that the water from the dishwasher runs back into the sink, place bucket under faucet to catch, uh, drippings.
Run dishwasher twice. Be sure to use highest heat cycle AND dry cycle to avoid undercooking. Do not use "pot and pan wash", as that may shred the skin right off your turkey. Nobody likes a skinless turkey. Remove turkey from dishwasher and shake well to remove excess water.
You will notice that your turkey is kind of pasty-looking, and that the skin's texture is somewhat less crisp than you may be accustomed to. This is where the magic comes in.
Combine ketchup and Cocoa Puffs in large non-metallic bowl. Stir well, but not so well that Cocoa Puffs fully dissolve. Spread liberally on turkey. Allow to sit for at least several hours (up to 24 hours) unrefrigerated. Sauce will form a somewhat bumpy glaze.
Remember those dishwasher drippings and the disgusting things you pulled out of the bird? Well, if you're a purist, feel free to boil them together for a couple of hours and serve with turkey. Take the plastic wrap off the goo before boiling.
Personally, I prefer the canned stuff.
There are other vegetarian dishes I'd rather eat, like the side dishes we'll have on Thanksgiving at our house:
- roasted root vegetables
- sauteed greens with citrus and pine nuts
- garlic mashed potatoes
- cornbread stuffing (kept away from the bird juices to maintain its amateur status)
Who is ... "Awash in turkey, trimmings, dressing (in Georgia, it is dressing served on a platter), Splenda-encrusted ham, broccoli and cheese, and manifold desserts beyond description!"
We only had nine at our table this year. So the turkey was only 12 pounds, with mashed potatoes and gravy and dressing, and green peas and sweet potato casserole, and my sister brought turnip greens and a cranberry relish and more mashed potatoes, and we had a cooked whole cranberry dish and still have a can of jellied cranberries in the fridge, and my son and his wife brought a tossed salad and rolls and cookies, and my daughter brought two pumpkin pies and a mincemeat pie and an apple pie. Of course, wine, kids' drinks and coffee.
This year, our menu begins with oyster and cauliflower soup and includes brined turkey that will be roasted on a hickory-stoked grill; cornbread stuffing in the turkey, and three-bread stuffing cooked separately; brussels sprouts with grapes, and green beans with walnuts and lemon as our green vegetables; mashed potatoes with gravy; and both cranberry jelly (the only thing not made from scratch -- excepting, of course, the bread used for the stuffing) and cranberry relish. The meal will end with pumpkin cheesecake pie with gingersnap crust and homemade pumpkin/maple syrup ice cream.
A full and wonderful day. Took the grandparents and six squeakers downtown to the parade. Then it was across the flood plain and through the woods for dinner of nine adults and the squeakers. Turkey stuffed with carrots, onions and Penzeys' Bavarian mixture, a bone-in ham, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, pan-dripping giblet gravy, green-bean casserole, apple, pecan or pumpkin pie. Everybody else has crashed, and I am not far behind.
I'm cooking a meal for my church the Sunday before Thanksgiving, to include turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, spanakopita, penne with mushroom-tomato sauce, kolijvo, pumpkin pie, butterscotch rolls, and muffins. Cranberry sauce, olive, pickles, and relishes, along with butter, jelly, coffee, cocoa, and (this being a Presbyterian church) lemonade.
Menu: two pumpkin pies, one peach/cranberry pie, maybe an apple pie, lots of Dreamwhip, turkey, potatoes, dressing, gravy, baby peas, sweet potatoes, relishes, rolls, butter, jam, beverages - coffee, milk, wine, colas. Snacks on hand for eager eaters.
Rowen Goes to a Restaurant
For the first time in many years - in fact, now that I think of it, the first time I can recall - we had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant (visiting relatives who chose that option), albeit a very upscale conference center lodge. Contrary to my expectation, aside from the heretical version of cranberry offering, the traditional turkey-dressing-mashed potatoes-gravy was quite as tasty as 'home-made' and left only the absence of leftovers to regret. But in addition, the enormous buffet offered bottomless mimosas, mixed greens salad with smoked black pepper dressing, smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon and capers, assorted cheeses, artichoke and seabass, baked ham and sweet potatoes, oven roasted potatoes with carmelized onions, prime rib, pumpkin pie, bread and apple pudding, pecan pie, and fresh fruit parfait. After we waddled away from the table I found myself wondering if I'd ever need to eat again. It may not have been 'traditional' but boy, was it tasty!
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, red cabbage, peas and onions, wild rice, corn casserole, 3 bean salad, Waldorf salad, cranberries, bread, pumpkin pie, mince pie, and custard. Wine, milk, pop.
Sarah Scott - Menu for 20
The Hor D'oeuvres: ramake, my cousin's shrimp dip, spinach dip, Maytag blue
The Meal: Turkey, dressing (with sage, onions, apples, raisins), mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams (no marshmallows), wild rice, corn with onions, bacon, and sour cream, rolls, Waldorf salad, fruit salad, stripy jello, cranberries with orange and ginger
Dessert: mince, pumpkin, and pecan pies -- maybe a raspberry too, if we get excited
Drinks: milk, pop, Nouveau Beaujolais, champagne
Here we will have turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, green beans, sweet mashed-up yams with butter and brown sugar but NOT with marshmallows on top, whole-berry cranberry sauce - but still canned, a small dish of Waldorf salad (apples, walnuts, celery) for light relief, pumpkin pie for dessert. Plus I am attempting a small dish of sausage-apple-white bread stuffing, too, 'cause I just hankered to try it again.
And we did, and it was very good. Son Fritz did the turkey and green beans. I put together the stuffing, starting the day before, and the Waldorf. Turned out I had peeled too many apples for the stuffing, so I baked a small apple pie as well and we enjoyed tastes of both pies, after returning from the movie house where we all enjoyed Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone very much. That is, the 7.30 showing came between dinner and dessert.
Fritz picked out a lovely robust red Zinfandel (Cline, California, 1999) to drink with the meal, btw. He is a wine maven as well as a dedicated amateur chef. What a nice son to have.
Oh yes, those who disapprove of Pepperidge Farms mix (I remember them from our previous discussion) will be happy that this cornbread dressing was made with home-made cornbread, and if I do say so, it was delicious.
The true Midwestern idea of any kind of holiday dinner involves three of everything -- three desserts, three "salads" (two jello plus cranberry relish), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, creamed onions, peas and carrots, stuffing (the Midwest calls it dressing), gravy, three kinds of hot rolls with choice of butter and preserves, two kinds of olives, five or six kinds of pickles, and an enormous roasted something or other. All of this, except for the desserts, went on the table at once, just as in Jack's day. Oh, and a really thorough-going dinner would have three kinds of cranberry relish -- the slithery canned kind, the rough made-from-fresh berries kind, and the piquant cranberry orange relish.
For me, I am spending Thanksgiving very quietly with my Mom. She's over here from Seattle for the week. We're having a very small turkey, cornbread stuffing, gravy, smashed potatoes, smashed squash, hominy with bacon, green beans, fresh corn, homemade cottage cheese bread, and my traditional cheesecake, which Mum hasn't decided yet if she wants cherries or strawberries on top. Simple and traditional, for us anyway!
The fireplace is going, has been all night, the cats are flaked out, the bread is rising, the coffee's on and I am grateful and thankful that we can be here, safe and comfortable for Thanksgiving.
Appetizers: Mini quiches, blanketed sausages, mini spring rolls, etc.
Soups: Cream of Mushroom, Potato Leek, Zuchinni in light broth with garlic.
Salads: Mixed garden greens with tomato, onion, etc (for the less adventurous), Tossed wild greens and spinach, olives, onions, etc. Various dressings.
Fish: Salmon broiled with cream cheese and capers
Main: Grilled Lamb du provence, Brined Turkey, Deep Fried Turkey, Ham covered with orange slices, glazed with mustard and marmalade.
Desert: Too many pies and cakes to be recounted.
Cheese and Nuts: Again, a wide assortment.
Guests brought wines and non alcoholic drinks, we supplied spiced ciders, teas and coffees.
Here we are sailing something of a middle course (no sliced deli turkey) with real mashed potatoes and stuffing and fresh veggie side courses -- but canned cranberry sauce. (Hey, if the Pilgrims had it cans, I sure they would have served it that way too!). Dessert ... well, a mix between home-made pumpkin pie and store-bought chocolate cheesecake. No fancy dishes, just good old-fashioned hearty food with a turkey roasted until it is just about ready to fall apart at a touch.
I made a modest 14-pound turkey on Sunday, with stuffing, mashed potatoes with luscious turkey gravy, cranberry sauce (canned), asparagus, and a simple basic apple pie with fresh whipped cream. Stuffing has gotten very easy the last few years - our supermarket has a salad bar, where I can get a large variety of vegetables already cleaned and cut up, so I'm not stuck with 3/4 pound of any one leftover vegetable. I used two-day-old sourdough bread for the base, added the pre-cut vegetables, about 1/4 pound of chicken livers, and a generous amount of pine nuts.