Did you read Regina Schrambling's rant against Thanksgiving writing and news coverage over at Slate? We did, and we think it's hilarious (and more than a little true).
Her basic premise is that it's pointless to reinvent Thanksgiving food every year for the sake of something new to write about, all the while knowing that people will make the same old stuffing, the same old potatoes, and the same marshmallow-smothered sweet potatoes.
And yet every year the merciless grind begins again in October, as hapless food writers and editors wrack their brains for ways to make Thanksgiving "fresh."
Here's our favorite quote...
She writes:
I guess I'm a total hypocrite, though, because I do the work I'm assigned each year and then get up on Thanksgiving morning and ignore everything I wrote. I make my stuffing as usual, roast my turkey as always, whisk up the same pan gravy, peel and mash potatoes, don't get fancy with the cranberry sauce, and cook whatever green vegetable looks best at the farmers' market. If I have time this year I'll make pumpkin-thyme dinner rolls and the sweet potato-pecan pie I have baked 20 times before. It's amazing how efficient you can be without new recipes.
We do agree, actually, and we think Thanksgiving is best served by revisiting the classics: how do you cut up a turkey? How do you make gravy? What's the best pumpkin pie you've got?
There's no need to reinvent an entire American classic - although we will be skipping those marshmallow-potatoes for these sweet potatoes.
• Read the whole article here: Thanksgiving? No Thanks! - Why food writers secretly hate the November feast.
Thanksgiving is all about the familiar. If I ever came home to find a turkey roulade or basil-grilled-sweet-potato canapes on the table, I'd be devastated.
view Jonelle's profile
I know I'm in the minority, here, but I am so thoroughly bored with eating the same basic roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc., etc., that I welcome every article on how to shake things up.
view chowbella's profile
Wow, I so totally disagree about sticking with the traditional meal. We make a meal out of our favorite recipes from the previous year. We do not miss the turkey and conventional menu items at all.
This year's menu:
Finger food while we cook:
toasted cranberry walnut bread with apples and goat cheese
Starters:
Navy bean soup (made with bacon, not a ham hock)
green salad w/ balsamic dressing and shredded asiago
Entree:
Pork tenderloin medallions with rosemary and port-cherry reduction
roasted squash, onions, and green beans
mashed herbed fingerling potatoes
Finale:
sauteed pears with rum sauce and vanilla bean ice cream
Last year's menu included the same salad, garlic soup, goat cheese tart, asparagus, and molten lava cakes.
view kimg924's profile
Many years I do make the same meal my mom always made, and there's something comforting about knowing it's what my grandma and great-grandma made for their families. Nuthin' wrong with comfort food! It ties us together.
And then some years we just feel like trying something new. One year I made an entirely vegan meal and it was awesome, everyone loved it. This year I'm not hosting, which has freed me to experiment with side dishes like bacon-pecan pie (it's gooood).
view Noe's profile
As seen from outside (Spain), Thanksgiving cuts off all the creativity from American food blogs. I read a HUGE number of them, but around this date it's all about pumpkin pies and brining turkeys, and very often not much else. While this is fairly understandable, at the same time it doesn't seem to happen during other holidays (we don't have Halloween either, but there seems to be life beyond candy).
view mcalpena's profile
Yeah, I pretty much skip/ignore most magazines about home and food around the major holidays: Thanksgiving, Xmas, even Halloween and the 4th of July to some degree (oh and Valentine's). Same old stuff, re-wrapped in to look "new".
view randomname's profile
mcalpena,
Here, Thanksgiving really is about the turkey. In school as little kids we're told how that's what the pilgrims ate at the first Thanksgiving. It's tradition almost like fried food for Hannakah (my apologies to all of my Jewish friends for the butchering of that spelling). The major difference is that the fried foods are symoblic of something and the turkey is just what it's all about. The whole point of Thanksgiving is to celebrate that the Pilgrims would survive. They had food. And we're taught that that food was turkey. For a lot of us, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without turkey. So I hope you'll forgive us our obession every year. ^_^
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
I'm Canadian, and we're almost as passionate about the Thanksgiving feast as Americans are. I like returning to traditional mainstays every year and would probably be devastated if there were no turkey, stuffing, etc., but I do like to mix things up ever so slightly with one new thing every year. This year, we did most of the feast the way we always do, but for dessert I made homemade pumpkin ice cream served over warm gingerbread, with whipped cream and a maple syrup reduction. And no one seemed to mind. ;)
view TammyE's profile
I agree about maintaining the tradition. It's the only traditional food my family makes. And we only get those foods once a year so I look forward to it year round. The rest of the year I'm trying new things... that's 364 days left for being creative and that's just fine with me.
view jessekl's profile
Why is it important for us to make our traditional recipes "fresh"? We "foodies" spend all this time finding real, authentic, traditional recipes for ethnic food. Do you think your polish grandmother every week said "how am I going to make these pierogies fresh and new? How about if I add tapenade?" If she had, we wouldn't have the traditional ethnic foods we do. Why just because it's American does the authenticity and sameness not matter?
view Tazer's profile
I totally agree about the tradition. However, I do crave the new and exciting too. Now that we're traveling to have dinner with our grown kids, I don't have time to make my sausage apple stuffing. They'd rather have Stove Top because they're too lazy to make my recipe. If we don't have Pumpkin Pie & Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie, the sun will never rise again for them. Next year I'd really love to try Tammy's homemade pumpkin ice cream served over warm gingerbread, with whipped cream and a maple syrup reduction and see what they say!
view nirvana's profile