Be thankful for your blessings

As I see it, the problem with our Thanksgiving is that it comes too soon.

The Americans don’t have theirs until November and I always think they have a lot more time to get ready for it.

And don’t bother pointing out that I could have the same amount of time if I just started earlier.

September is the last chance I have to block the oncoming winter from my mind. I don’t want to start thinking about pumpkins until Halloween, never mind spray painting leaves to make them red and gold.

And you know, I always felt we were borrowing an American tradition; a nice one to be sure, but celebrating the harvest of first crops of the Pilgrims in 1621 never really grabbed Canadians which perhaps is why the holiday is not such a big deal here as it is in the States.

Just imagine how First Nation Americans must feel about Thanksgiving.

The Wampanoag Indians who attended the first Thanksgiving had occupied the land for thousands of years and their help and hospitality were the only reasons those pitifully unprepared newcomers didn’t perish the first winter.

History says that about 90 natives and 50 English people celebrated for three days after the fall harvest. Of course, history also shows that for the natives it pretty much went downhill from there. American comedian Jon Stewart summed it up this way; “I celebrate Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invite everyone in my neighbourhood to my house, we have an enormous feast, and then I kill them and take their land.” (Not that we have anything to be proud of in how we’ve treated our indigenous people.)

Well guess what? Maybe it’s fitting that we have our Thanksgiving earlier because some historians maintain that the first Thanksgiving in North America was held by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew in Newfoundland in 1587! Others say it was on Baffin Island, but I don’t mind them.

Frobisher’s voyage was cursed with terrible weather and ice, he lost a ship due to a freak storm in July and their Thanksgiving dinner was salt beef, hard bread and mushy peas. Now I ask you, where do you think the first North American Thanksgiving was held? And it’s important to say ‘North American’ because cultures all over the world have been celebrating good crops and successful hunts and other good fortunes since the first caveman got his first moose. I mean mammoth. I mean mastodon. Whatever — they celebrated.

Of course there are American historians who say that wherever it was, it wasn’t a ‘real’ Thanksgiving, but you know what Americans are like. They’ve always been way better than us, and rightly so, at making a big deal about their history and good on ’em for that. And good on ’em for introducing the turkey to the celebration because just a big hunk of salt meat for the main course wouldn’t do it for me.

However, the salt meat tradition is the one that has endured here, in the birthplace of North American Thanksgiving.

Pity those poor Americans with their sweet potato casseroles and baked squash and Brussels sprouts gratin and oyster stuffing and no salt meat.

No wonder they don’t cook cabbage.

I do like to do something different with the vegetables for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It’s the only time the family lets me get away with it. I couldn’t get away with not having turnip and carrots but I am allowed to make glazed carrots and a mashed turnip casserole with brown sugar and a yummy topping. I wouldn’t get away with messing with the turkey (nor would I want to).

In the culinary world, methods of cooking a turkey include brining, dry rubbing, basting, roasting, grilling, smoking, deep-frying, and spatchcocking. For me and mine, anything method that doesn’t involve graving isn’t worth considering.

I roast and baste. Spatchcocking is a fancy word for butterflying and actually sounds pretty good if you could find a pan or even an oven big enough to hold a 25-pound spatchcocked turkey.

And it just doesn’t sound right.

Be thankful for your blessings. There’s nobody reading this who doesn’t have many blessings. Think about it.