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A Different Spin on Thanksgiving
A few years ago, I was living alone and hadn't made plans to visit my family on the east coast for Thanksgiving. I decided to invite a group of friends over and try my hand at cooking a turkey for the first time. I ended up with seven or eight people sitting elbow to elbow at my small table. Some of my guests were meeting for the first time and they quickly got to know one another over the feast. I still made everyone go around the table to say what we were thankful for (just like my family does every year). Everybody brought a side dish, which ranged from traditional cranberry sauce to Greek avgolemono soup. Every other year, I've found myself around a family table. While every Thanksgiving is fun (it's one of my favorite holidays), this one stands out in my mind because it was the least traditional — both in terms of the food and the gathering itself.
Plenty of people celebrate this traditional holiday in nontraditional ways, whether it's cooking something outside the expected turkey and potatoes or gathering with friends rather than family. One local group has made a free Thanksgiving meal for 200 people for the past 10 years now. The vegetarian Tofurky originated in Oregon and last year in 2003*, the company partnered with a Seattle soda company to make a Thanksgiving themed beverage: gravy soda.
Is there an unusual Thanksgiving that stands out in your memory? Have you ever celebrated Thanksgiving overseas, away from home or with an ad hoc group of people? Has your family ever forgone a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in favor of something different or unusual? Do you have any unconventional Thanksgiving customs — culinary or otherwise — that are a part of your meal each year?
GUESTS
- Britta Diettrich: General manager of Northwest Portland International Hostel, where she hosts Thanksgiving every year
- Leslie Veenstra: Teacher and translator, celebrated Thanksgiving in The Netherlands for six years
- Daryl Meekins: Ergonimics design engineer at Hewlett Packard, raises his own Thanksgiving turkeys
- Ivy Manning: Food writer and author of The Adaptable Feast and The Farm to Table Cookbook
- Amy Lindgren: Optician, hosts Thanksgiving for her friends every year
- Austin Campbell: Biology major and Student Body Vice President at Reed College, head cook and organizer for "Sub Free" Thanksgiving
Tagged as: food · holiday · thanksgiving
Photo credit: Pete Beaumont / Creative Commons
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Does your family still celebrate Thanksgiving? Do you do something else instead?
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Julie, if the "Seattle soda company" in your introduction above is Jones Soda (JSDA), then they have made a turkey and gravy soda for more than just a couple of years. They have done related flavoured sodas for some time now.
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You're right! I called Jones Soda just to be sure and changed the post above to reflect that they actually rolled out the gravy soda in 2003. Thanks!
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My family and friends celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas more than me. I prefer to be outdoors on these holidays contemplating peace, compassion, the Universe and 101 disturbing uses of toe jam.
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The Jones Soda Co. had a limited run of a six pack of Thanksgiving Feast Flavors in 2005. It had Turkey and Gravy, Buttered Mash Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry and Fruit Cake for desert. IT was all caffeine free, sugar free, diet soda in bottles.
We can have a post modern, reductionist, Eco- ethical feast, but it would be more dystopia than futuristic. In the Willy Wonka Factory concieved by Roald Dahl, there was a stick of gum that simulated a three course meal complete with blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream. We may be served a complete 5 course turkey dinner in the form of 5 capsules you take in sequence. (Brown for Turkey, Green for Vegetable, Yellow for potatoes etc. ) Or a dehydrated instant meal that is microwaveable. My worst scenario is glop the consistency of oatmeal and color of mud, but all wonderfully flavored as Duck L'Orange with all the trimmings.
Food is more than just organic flavoring and smell. But also heat and cold, texture, chewiness, crunchiness, snappiness, interplay with the tongue, color and presentation. Food wrapped in plastic is so plastic.
Eat real food, the kind your grandmother would recognize. Tofurkey goes right next to Oscar Meyer Lunchables or Go-Gurt: in the garbage pail.
Thanksgiving without Turkey, is like Christmas without a Christmas Tree. Or Easter without Easter Eggs. Or Halloween without Ghosts.
Thomas Jefferson thought we should eat meat, but more for flavoring and as a side dish instead of the bulk of calories. It is largely a vegetarian diet with meat accents and flourishes. It is how Chinese dishes are flavored. A little salt pork or bacon goes a long way.
You can have the pills. I'll take the drumstick.
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Drumstick.
I wish they would develop turkeys with very small white meat breasts and huge dark meat legs and thighs. It's the dark meat that I like, it has the best flavor. Imagine that bird!
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Hey, Tom! How about an engineered turkey with several drumsticks and thighs for those of us who love dark meat, and would just as soon not have to cook any of the dry white meat? I'd buy that for my holiday dinner (who says it has to be just Thanksgiving?)!
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In the Willy Wonka Factory concieved by Roald Dahl, there was a stick of gum that simulated a three course meal complete with blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream. -- jacob — Fri Nov. 19th 9:05a.m.
Unfortunately, it always went wrong at the dessert. I wonder how many Oompa-Loompas Mr. Wonka had to juice.
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You got it, Penny! I'd love to have an engineered turkey with thighs and legs sticking out all over, what a vision!
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Years ago, I was up in the Northeast US and found a book about lobsters around there, the history, fishery, and all.
At the time of the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, lobsters were so abundant that a good storm would wash them up onto the shore in great windrows and piles. And the natives taught the Pilgrims to plant a lobster with their corn seeds. I suspect that the natives ate lobsters, though I don't know if they provided lobsters at the first Thanksgiving.
Given the abundance of lobsters at the time I suggest that they are very appropriate for a Thanksgiving dinner, in case anyone wants something besides turkey.
Mmm, Maine lobster and salted butter. Yum!
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Oh, yeah..... Maine lobster for Thanksgiving would be divine!
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I spent Thanksgiving 1972 in Rome, Italy, with a group from my university. Our administrators convinced our food providers to do a turkey dinner -- with a lovely roast turkey including head paraded through the dinning room. It was quite an event.
Thanksgiving is my favorite cooking holiday. I've been the one who did the bulk of it since 1977, when I was 24 and in graduate school, cooking for the "orphans". I love the bustle of it, having anywhere from 4 to 15 at the table depending on who had nowhere else to be.
1979 we were living in southern Oregon. Three friends and a turkey made the trip from Portland on the bus to have the holiday with us.
My daughters have helped since they were small. Now in their mid-20s, there are parts they do so much better than me. One receipe we've done for years but can't find the original source anymore. And we've had vegitarians at the table for over 30 years. Just make sure there are lots of interesting things for them -- mushroom dishes are a key.
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Please, oh PLEASE post the recipie for the mushroom gravy refered to on the show that satisfies vegans and meat-eaters alike!
Thanks!
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Kwestwind, I'll see if we can get it from Ivy for you!
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Hi Kwestwind
I've posted the recipe on my blog here: http://ivysfeast.blogspot.com/2010/11/mushroom-gravy-for-everyone.html
Hope you enjoy! (If you'd like, you can even sneak some turkey drippings into one portion of the gravy for the meat eaters, keep the rest vegetarian.)
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I like Daryl Meekins attitude about his animals and food, of respect and gratitude.
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As people journey to Thanksgiving meals at other people's homes, let's all put signs on our bikes or in the windows of our cars saying what our culinary contribution is, i.e. "I'm bringing mashed potatoes!" If there is a traffic jam or bad weather and we get stuck, we can still have a potluck feast by matching ourselves up with other travelers who are bringing different dishes to share.
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Hey Holly! I like your novel idea! Somehow, I envision that being the way the first Thanksgiving dinner came together -- with everyone bringing something, and no one person or household being responsible for the whole menu.
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I'm glad your guest clarified what was meant by "Sub Free Thanksgiving." I was pondering that when I saw it, and was speculating that it meant a Thanksgiving devoid of sub sandwiches (which would be a GOOD thing!).
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I'd suggest a whole baked salmon, because in a way it is the local version of turkey for anyone who lives nearby a river. Mmm, baked with lemon slices on top and basted with a little butter (read lot of butter!). Oh my god, I'm salivating at that vision! And salt as the only spice added. Yum!
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That sounds good, Tom...I don't think I would make any significant changes to that, except maybe for tucking some sprigs of fresh dill inside and perhaps some freshly cracked pepper.
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Thanksgiving changed for us when my husband was diagnosed with celiac disease. Almost every tradition changed in a moment, because most Thanksgiving food has gluten in it. We cooked gluten-free corn bread stuffing, pie with a gluten-free crust, rice flour dinner rolls and scrapped some favorites, like green bean cassarole. But the experience made the meal so much dearer because we all focused on making his environment safe instead of normal family drama.
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My wife and I have had a teriaki roast duck since 2001. My wife hates turkey, we both like dark meat, and with the beginning of advent in the Greek Orthodox Church coming a few days afterwards, we have to get rid of meat quickly. On occassion, we've had to have some sort of baked fish because the Advent fast started ON Thanksgiving day
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What a great idea.
Goose is great too, also for dark meat and if you need to feed more people. But multiple ducks could cover multiple people too, and each be roasted with a different recipe.
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For anyone just starting out trying to cook turkeys and all the rest, I reccommend buying a Joy Of Cooking cookbook and keeping it on hand for a reference. It has sections that start out with the basics and then goes into standard sample recipes.
I'd read through the first of each section to get a basic familiarity and then check in before I start out on something. I usually do the recipe by the book the first time and then change it to suit me after that.
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As a Pagan, the"Thanksgiving" holiday typically observed in September on the Fall equinox. (Known as Mabon, or in years past "Harvest Home".) Many of the same foods and gatherings are typical.
Like many other posters, I am also a bit uncomfortable about the true history of Thanksgiving. I think today we can celebrate good food and family without ignoring the tragedies that this holiday is actually built on....
Traditionally we had to have "Cheese, Peas, and onion salad". It came from my Dad's side of the family and I have no idea why. I do know it's not really Turkey day without it. From my mom's side it was always tradition to have homemade macaroni and cheese. The dish probably weighed 30 lbs, and you probably gained that much after eating it! My boyfriend's family makes raisin creme pie, and I had never heard of that before meeting him. :)
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My folks were partners in the now-defunct "Dave's Pie Shop" down here in Eugene about 35 years ago. (It was on Willamette St. in the 1300 block.) One of the pies in the cookbook was a Raisin Cream Pie, and there were enough people that bought it that my Dad was unable to drop it from th repertoire. My Dad has since become the "De Facto Family Pie Maker" since Grandma passed away some years ago.
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I think we should appoint Tom to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for all of us TOL contributors -- he has so many delicious sounding ideas!
(Just kidding, Tom...I know it would be a lot of work!)
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Ha ha ha! Thanks for that Penny. And you're all welcome to any of those ideas. Oh, and I'd put you all to work, I'm no stay in the kitchen martyr. After all, doesn't everyone gather in the kitchen at every party?
Hmm, that would be interesting meeting all those guys like jacob, and vitalpac, wouldn't it? We'd have to make a pact to leave politics alone for the day.
I used to hunt deer, ducks, geese, and upland birds, and fish steelhead and salmon too, so I have tried many different things for Thanksgiving. And once you try one thing different, it opens the way to just about anything. I even reluctantly had tofu and found it pretty good in spite of my cynical doubts about it.
Back in the 70s, I used to buy a 20# case of 8 ounce Australian or South African Rock lobster tails and cook 'em up for Christmas dinners for my family. That was wonderful. Split, broiled and basted with butter. Who needs anything else when you've got lobster, butter, and salt? Whew!
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This does sound like a great idea! I can't promise a Thanksgiving feast, but if you'd like a TOL Contributors event I'd be happy to plan one!
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That could be fun, Sarah...but it might be problematic for those of us who don't live in PDX and don't really have much of a travel budget. (As you might surmise from my name, I live in Eugene... and LTD doesn't run any further north than Coburg.)
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Thanks for the offer, Sarah Jane, but it doesn't work for me either.
Maybe a Portland local area gathering might draw some, I've seen a lot of different names here over the years and many of them must be around you. I don't know how you might promote it, we all seem to speak our minds here on TOL, so some other reason might be needed.
Hmm, maybe a virtual Thanksgiving or other holiday, somewhat like a radio "Sims" game. People could write or call in and ..., well that is basically what this topic was about anyway, wasn't it?
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A memory - In 1973 my wife and I both graduated from college and married 2 weeks later. That Thanksginving should have been special - and was.
I was a newly minted EMT who had just got a job with Buck Ambulance company. My first day was Thanksgiving Day, substituting for other EMT's so they could each take 2 hours off to have dinner with their families.
My very first run was to an automobile accident where a drunk driver had clobbered a family on their way to dinner. There I was, a scared rooky, loading 4 injured people (a mom, dad and their 2 children) into my very crowded ambulance.
When it was my turn to take 2 hours off to have dinner with my bride and family, I was very thankful that that no one was seriously hurt in that crash and that my family were all safe and sound in Grandma's kitchen.
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I had to laugh at the gal on-air today who said she was making gluten bars! That drummed up the memory of when back in my early 20s, living on a commune/farm in southern Oregon, we had an all soy Thanksgiving meal. Soy loaf (tomatoes, soy beans, bread crumbs), soy pie (similar to pumpkin only 3 times heavier), soy fritters. Probably had a green veggie, too. Thanks for a fun show today.
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We do not celebrate thanksgiving at all.
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I've decided last year never to acknowlege Thanksgiving again. Why feast & worship a "holiday" that's been built on the un-marked mass graves of countless Native Americans???