Thanksgiving is Next Week!

It’s hard to believe that we’re just seven days away from the first big meal of the holiday season. Wasn't it just summer last week? The temperatures apparently think so. But regardless, whether it’s cold outside and warm inside, or vice versa, we’ll be enjoying a meal with family and friends and talking about all the things we’re thankful for this time next week.

Celebration of Harvest

Did you know a lot of the Thanksgiving foods we eat did not start with the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims celebrated with the native Wampanoag people in 1621? For starters, it wasn’t just one meal, it was a three-day harvest celebration. The Wampanoag had practiced daily and seasonal traditions of thanks-giving for generations. Just a month ago, these first people celebrated Cranberry Day, when the tribe gathers one of the final harvests of the season – Sasumuneash, or sour berries, for food, medicines and dyes. 

Many of the Wampanoag’s traditions still live on today, but we’re especially grateful they brought gratitude to the English settlers’ table as well as corn, beans and squash. The original pumpkin pie was more like an apple pie, with slices of pumpkin and apples mixed with spices. Wild turkeys were killed and served, but they also ate venison, wildfowl, and seafood like fish and shellfish. 

The modern Thanksgiving spread came about during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln was looking for a way to try and unite our very divided country. Sarah Josepha Hale, who had been trying to resurrect Thanksgiving for years, convinced Lincoln, and he relaunched the tradition as a national holiday. 

Hale’s magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, published a Thanksgiving menu, which included roast turkey with cranberry sauce, turnips, vegetable oyster cakes, mashed potatoes, boiled ham, winter squash, sweet potato pudding, pumpkin pudding, and baked lemon soufflé. 92 years later, Campbell’s soup would introduce green bean casserole to the mix.

A Potato So Sweet

A recent survey of Americans ranked sweet potatoes as one of the least favorite Thanksgiving foods. But maybe that’s just because we’re making them wrong. Think about it. Sweet potatoes have only around 100 calories per serving but are rich in vitamins A, B and C, fiber, minerals, and antioxidants. Plus, despite their saccharine sounding name, they’re complex carbohydrates that help lower blood sugar. So, this Thanksgiving, why not try a different approach? 

When you roast sweet potatoes it brings out their natural sugars and makes them tastier and more tender than just baking them. Add a little olive oil, honey and cinnamon and you have a sweet treat a lot healthier than the typical marshmallow-covered casserole. If you’d like more of a French fry feel, toss them in the air fryer for another 2-4 minutes at 360-degrees.

Cranberry Explosion

Do you like your cranberries jellied, sauced, or au naturel? In this time of division and debate, take one argument off the table with these delicious Cranberry Brie Bites. An easy to prep and bake appetizer that mixes sweet and savory, regardless of which style of cranberry you prefer on your Thanksgiving table. Just a few ingredients and 15 minutes in the oven and you’ve got a not too heavy appetizer to whet the appetite before the main meal begins.

Squash Those Rumors

Recently, despite its long-standing Thanksgiving pedigree, the pie of pumpkin is falling out of favor as a finish to the big dinner event. Maybe we should blame the pumpkin spice lattes and the overload of pumpkin flavored, well, everything, this time of the year. At the risk of further proliferating the pumpkin mania, may we suggest an alternative to your pumpkin pie that still contains perhaps the most famous squash. 

For a dulce-sweet dessert with a little spice, make a Caramelized Orange Pumpkin Flan. This recipe uses pumpkin as a welcome flavor addition to traditional flan, with a boost of some orange zest. 

Or how about a pumpkin cheesecake? You can make a more traditional cheesecake with pumpkin, a little alcohol, maple syrup and ginger. Or you can blow their minds with a Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel. Chocolate and pumpkin pair well together and few will deny this decadent dessert. 

If you want a simpler treat with similar flavors, take a peek at this no-bake recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Icebox Cake. Chocolate graham crackers are the key to this overnight snack. Or go old school and try an Apple Pumpkin Galette to see what the original European pumpkin pie tasted like when the colonists first arrived in the Americas.

Gratitude & Giving Back

Finally, as we prepare for this day of thanks and sharing, consider your neighbors. Jesus taught us to care for the least of these, and we know so many are without this holiday season. Food pantries and soup kitchens do what they can, but they need our support, especially now. 

So many were left with limited SNAP benefits during the federal government shutdown and have relied on these churches and charities more than usual. Current food stamp recipients may have to reapply to keep benefits after November, and more may be left without benefits. 

All this to say, if you can give, please do. Food banks need your help over the holidays more than any other time of year. Avoid donating junk food, perishables that need refrigeration, baked goods and leftovers. Of course, cash is always welcome. 

Canned goods are always good, preferably with easy to open pop tops. Don’t donate expired or about to expire foods and try not to just give away the cans you wouldn’t eat yourself. Canned beans, meats (chicken, tuna, Spam, salmon, ham), vegetables, and fruit are all helpful. Stable milk and shelf staples are welcome: crackers, nuts, whole grain cereal, granola bars, pasta, peanut butter and rice. Plastic cans of applesauce and meals in a box are all great. 

For a list of food bank and pantry most wish-listed items, click here.

Come Together

In his proclamation on October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln wrote, “I recommend… [prayers to] commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” 

May that be our prayer for our community and these United States as well. We’ll be closed next Thursday and Friday so our employees can enjoy Thanksgiving with their families. To schedule any services for the beginning of the week, please give us a call!