I have to admit...that I really love Thanksgiving. No worries about buying anyone a present and whether or not it will fit them. Everyone stuffs their face, and we get to spend time with the entire family.
This year my nephew who I cherish very much has a birthday on Thanksgiving, so it will be very special.
I just love trying new recipes and different ways of cooking stuff.
My family almost always gets together during Thanksgiving holidays. The Grandkids run wild and football games are usually being watched while dinner is being assembled for a feast later in the dining room. Sometimes the group is so large that we use our living room with the table running down the middle.
Since I'm on a diet this year it will be tough to eat sensibly...but maybe I should skip dieting that day and just enjoy the feast.
I've got plenty to be thankful for in life, so I'll try to keep that in mind when the grandkids let out loud warhoops running around distracting us from the football games on TV, etc.
My rememberances of Thanksgivings go back to the early 1940's and 50's on a Kansas farm when my parents, their brothers and sisters, and our cousins used to gather at our grandparents home. Grandmother Craft or Grandmother Oxford would always say Grace before Thanksgiving dinner after the adults got all of us kids quieted down. However, fried chicken was usually the main meat dish since they were raised on the farm. We always tried to be be the one who got the wish bone, which was supposed to be a lucky thing.
Just remember Ox, there are plenty of other days in the year for dieting. Thanksgiving and Christmas are for enjoying the feast, not sitting there thinking "I wish I could have a little more turkey"
I will be working. I love when other officer's families bring in all kinds of goodies to the squad room. I have had several holidays at the PD.....been fond of all of them.
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There's no one more thankful to sit at the table, than the one who best remembers hunger's pain.
mmmm thanksgiving... Nope, I don't like to eat good food cooked with love and happiness, I don't care to see good friends and family that just dredge up old memories of the goof-ups I made the previous year. I feel meloncholy at the bright hues of the leaves on the trees. Man, I am depressed now. Thanks Cap. Can't we have thanksgiving every thursday? now I am hungry... gotta check the fridge. BRB.
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"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Benjamin Franklin
I love Thanksgiving! As Chris said, no worries about gifts and things like that. All I have to do is show up and eat. Now that I am married, for the last 4 years I have gotten to eat twice. Once at my mom's and once at the in-laws... Good times.....
Two of my favorites are actually the day after T-Day
The next morning I usually make turkey hash in gravy for breakfast: diced potatoes browned in skimmed turkey fat or butter, add chopped onions in enough time to cook them before adding diced turkey. A little salt, pepper and garlic, of course...
When the diced turkey is good and hot add enough flour to take up the turkey fat or butter, stir it around a while until the rawness is out of the flour, then add enough milk to make a very thick gravy. Top off the seasonings, simmer until it's almost solid, then run it under the broiler for a minute or two to brown the top if you want.
You should be able to spoon it or slice it, almost like quiche. But if you have too much gravy, it's good that way too. Win-win situation.
In the afternoon, I simmer the carcass and some leftover turkey in a stock pot with onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme...). Sometimes I add pasilla chiles and cilantro. When everything is falling off the bone I cool it, skim the fat for future use, stick my hands in and pull every bone I can find.
Then I heat it back up, and add salt and enough rice to make a nice turkey-rice soup. That takes less rice than you might think; be cautious. When the rice is about done I add fresh-ground black pepper and a few squeezes of lemon juice.
What doesn't get eaten right away freezes very nicely, in a few pint or quart Tupperware containers.
The skimmed fat with all that flavor in it gets used like herbed butter: stirred into pasta, or melted into a bowl to dip french rolls in as they're eaten, or used for frying eggs, or...
T-day 
