Thanksgiving Traditions: The Hidden Stories Behind Your Feast!
Thanksgiving Traditions & The Stories That Feed Us
What makes Thanksgiving more than a meal? There’s a lot more of the old and new traditions that, when combined, can make this celebration one you’ll remember for years to come.
In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely explore how food, family, and traditions shape our sense of gratitude and belonging across the generations, tables, and even time zones from how to make that traditional turkey better than ever, to the most bizarre dishes of the past decades. This episode takes you behind the scenes of how some of our favorite Thanksgiving foods reveal where we came from (in past generations), where we’ve been (think wartime rationing), and those things that have become mainstay traditions, perhaps taught to you by an in-law.
Key Take Aways:
1. Gratitude: How The Legacy of Food and Friendship Lives On: Through stories of Gloria Hardy Rice and Denny Hamilton—two unforgettable women remembered through their cooking and hospitality—you’ll see how recipes and rituals can preserve memories far beyond the kitchen.
2. Strange but True: Mid-Century “Weird Dishes” Still Make it to The Table: Ever heard of bologna cake or ham and banana casserole? Nancy and Sylvia uncover these real mid-century recipes and explore what they reveal about America’s shift from fresh to processed foods—and why some trends are making a comeback.
3. Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams: The Real Difference: You’ll finally learn what separates these two Thanksgiving staples—and discover that the sweet potato actually comes from the morning glory family, not from traditional tuber potatoes.
4. Modern Twists on Classic Thanksgiving Traditions: From Friendsgiving gatherings to global recipe swaps and even new drinks and how to brine with apple cider, and even frog eye salad, this episode offers simple ways to freshen up your Thanksgiving platters.
5. The Sensory Secrets of Gratitude: You’re encouraged to notice the details—the scent of rosemary, the crisp sound of turkey skin, the warmth of laughter. It’s the simple things that make a Thanksgiving meal and day that much more memorable.
🎧 Join Us:
This Thanksgiving, we hope you’ll grab a seat at the Family Tree Food & Stories table. Listen to a few extra shows at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com to rediscover the flavor, humor, and your own family history that makes Every Meal a Story, and Every Story a Feast!
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About Your Award-Winning Hosts: Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely are the powerhouse team behind Family Tree, Food & Stories, a member of The Food Stories Media Network, which celebrates the rich traditions and connections everyone has around food, friends, and family meals. Nancy, an award-winning business leader, author, and podcaster, and Sylvia, a visionary author, lawyer, and former CEO, combine their expertise to bring captivating stories rooted in history, heritage, and food. Together, they weave stories that blend history, tradition, and the love of food, where generations connect and share intriguing mealtime stories and kitchen foibles.
"Every Meal Has a Story and Every Story is a Feast." (tm) is a trademark of Family Tree Food & Stories podcast and the hosts.
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Transcript
Hello everybody.
Speaker:It's Nancy and Sylvia.
Speaker:Hi Sylvia.
Speaker:How you doing?
Speaker:Hello, how are you doing?
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:This is our Thanksgiving episode, and well, let's just dig into the
Speaker:plate in the Turkey, right, but even more so we've all talked about, or
Speaker:everybody talks about at Thanksgiving, how much we really need to take this
Speaker:moment to reflect on those that have made our lives richer and better, and.
Speaker:Are just good people, whether they're around the table with us or not.
Speaker:So that's the way we're opening this show with a bit of gratitude
Speaker:or a lot of gratitude and thanks, in giving back to those that have
Speaker:been so good in, in giving to us.
Speaker:So, Sylvia, , we've got a lot of passings or a number of passings to
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:talk about, which is very sad, but it's also a time to
Speaker:celebrate who these people are,
Speaker:, It's very joyful.
Speaker:this happened just a little while back in October, but , we lost, we lost a legend.
Speaker:We lost Gloria Ann Davis Hardy Rice.
Speaker:That in and itself tells stories, right?
Speaker:She was a character, and you're gonna see us posting about this because the
Speaker:Mayville newspaper ledger, , did a story on Frida, her daughter, who
Speaker:is an amazing woman as well, and we learned so much from Gloria.
Speaker:She was, she's from a different world than we.
Speaker:Probably touch not often enough, but you know, Nancy, you gotta love
Speaker:someone who the sheriff's department has issued all these tributes to her.
Speaker:I mean, that's pretty cool.
Speaker:Had a story where story In one of our episodes we talked about how the sheriff
Speaker:came by to give her a coke because she said, could you go get me one?
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:the woman was a character and, , her food story, what I love the most about her
Speaker:food story is Frida finally broke her down and she started talking about it.
Speaker:First.
Speaker:She wouldn't talk about her recipes.
Speaker:Nope, I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker:And Frida said, mom, you can't take 'em with you.
Speaker:And so then there's this great little grainy scene in an iPhone
Speaker:video where she's reaching down and you're wondering what she's doing.
Speaker:She comes back up with a cigarette again at 91 and
Speaker:she
Speaker:Starlike, right.
Speaker:And she says, it's almost like, okay, let's talk.
Speaker:I think my most fun thing about her food, Ways was, , they, she lived in
Speaker:a tiny little town, , right outside of Maysville, which wasn't unusual for
Speaker:African American people at the time.
Speaker:They had little towns outside the mainstream, and I think
Speaker:she found joy in her life.
Speaker:She made casserole.
Speaker:I remember the cabbage casserole.
Speaker:She didn't see a casserole she didn't like, and always a stick of butter.
Speaker:So she had plenty of that.
Speaker:But she was the
Speaker:wait a second.
Speaker:And she's got that in common with Julia Child
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:butter.
Speaker:and bacon.
Speaker:Gotta have it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:She was a forager though, but not for fun.
Speaker:Although I think she probably had fun with it.
Speaker:, Frida said that when Freea was growing up, she'd just go out in the yard.
Speaker:Okay, well pick that, pick that.
Speaker:, You, I'd poison myself if I did that, but she would get.
Speaker:She would forage grasses and come in and make them part of the greens that she
Speaker:would serve her family, and she knew the difference and all of that kind of thing.
Speaker:So anyway, besides that, she had 30 hats.
Speaker:That says a lot about her too.
Speaker:She's always in a hat.
Speaker:And so the passing of Gloria, in a way, Nancy, we never talked to her directly.
Speaker:She was so ill near the end that Frida protected her.
Speaker:But we talked to Frida.
Speaker:Quite frequently and we had the article, and a podcast episode where we talked
Speaker:about more than just what I just said.
Speaker:But, she was
Speaker:amazing.
Speaker:hats off.
Speaker:to Gloria and, cups up to her as well.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Oh, and then, I also wanna say another person.
Speaker:Just within that same week, Denny Hamilton, just an amazing woman,
Speaker:died unexpectedly after giving a dinner party in honor of her
Speaker:husband's 70th birthday party.
Speaker:She was known.
Speaker:For these huge dinner parties.
Speaker:I went to several of them.
Speaker:Every imaginable dish.
Speaker:She was a very successful realtor.
Speaker:And Nancy, let's just put it in perspective, she had gotten notice on
Speaker:Friday before she died on Saturday, after a big party,, that she was being
Speaker:profiled in a national realtor magazine.
Speaker:So she was gonna be like, you know, even a bigger, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Watch out Barbara Cochrane.
Speaker:You know, she's got competition.
Speaker:and her, , daughter, , said in the eulogy, she says, I would call
Speaker:mom goat, greatest of all time.
Speaker:And occasionally she'd say, now, what is that animal you're calling me?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Goat.
Speaker:Greatest of all time.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:But the one I loved was her son when he said she would host these giant
Speaker:Sunday afternoon dinners and all kinds of people would come and 50
Speaker:people would come to these dinners and I'd say to my brother, who's that?
Speaker:I don't even know who that is.
Speaker:A good way of cooking a business,
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:pun intended.
Speaker:Well, maybe pun intended.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But the most fun one of all is Meredith Plant.
Speaker:. She's a frequent contributor to us.
Speaker:In fact, I kind of take some little bit of credit here that we actually
Speaker:got Meredith going on cooking.
Speaker:Meredith is actually cooking now, and I think it was
Speaker:Woo hoo.
Speaker:Nancy's probably your inspiration more than it was mine.
Speaker:But anyway, what she does for Thanksgiving with her parents is
Speaker:they order from Cracker Barrel.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:that?
Speaker:Don't you love that?
Speaker:And they get pumpkin pie from Frisch's.
Speaker:We don't have Frisch's in town anymore, but they still have one in her town.
Speaker:And, . She says she's gonna try to talk her mother into broccoli casserole.
Speaker:I would love to be there for that.
Speaker:That is such good food.
Speaker:Broccoli Cassel.
Speaker:I love broccoli, but broccoli casserole reminds me.
Speaker:My mom used to always overcook the frozen broccoli, not the
Speaker:fresh broccoli at the time, . And yeah, I can think it was like mush.
Speaker:But anyway, I'm sure Meredith as a new cook is making
Speaker:everything absolutely delicious.
Speaker:so anyway, that's kind of fun.
Speaker:They do that every year for Thanksgiving.
Speaker:, And we're thankful for Meredith, she's been such a
Speaker:contributor and her enthusiasm.
Speaker:We've actually done a podcast with Meredith as well.
Speaker:Well, and Sylvia, I'll have to say I am thankful for you because we're relatively
Speaker:new friends and to be able to have such a, great supporter and co-host on the
Speaker:show is something that's really special.
Speaker:I've never worked with a co-host, so this is.
Speaker:This is a real treat.
Speaker:Thank you for being a friend and, , supporter.
Speaker:Well, you're a superstar.
Speaker:You are.
Speaker:I know you guys say, no, no.
Speaker:head get the size of a big old fat Turkey.
Speaker:So, speaking of turkeys, let's get on with our show about Thanksgiving and traditions
Speaker:because we can't have thanksgiving without immediately thinking tradition.
Speaker:Oh Yeah, Turkey dressing blah,
Speaker:blah.
Speaker:But what are some of the traditions that we've loved over the years?
Speaker:Of course, I don't know about you, but mashed potatoes, you
Speaker:gotta have mashed potatoes,
Speaker:gravy, Mm-hmm.,
Speaker:cranberry sauce.
Speaker:Gotta have cranberry sauce.
Speaker:Now question, this is a big question.
Speaker:Do you make your cranberry sauce or do you buy it?
Speaker:I
Speaker:would never make cranberry sauces.
Speaker:so if you buy it, this is the other big question that people ask, is it
Speaker:the jelling kind or is it the kind that's got the little chunks in it,
Speaker:I always got the can that has the little ridges.
Speaker:The little ridges, you know, and then you slice 'em up.
Speaker:Oh, so you got the jelly, you got the jelly
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My dad ate it.
Speaker:I didn't, I'm not a big cranberry person.
Speaker:Our neighbors, our neighbors, Keith and Jackie, we brought them up before,
Speaker:so , I saw them, the other week up in Connecticut while visiting.
Speaker:But Jackie makes the best cranberry sauce that sits there and sort of ripens for
Speaker:a couple of weeks, but it's very good.
Speaker:I'll have to get that recipe and share it other traditions.
Speaker:So, of course, there's the traditions of all the different spices you put
Speaker:on the Turkey, rosemary, parsley, sage, hello, Simon and Garfunkel,
Speaker:was gonna say, you
Speaker:better say it in order.
Speaker:Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Speaker:And we have, of course, beyond that, , how do you cook your Turkey?
Speaker:It's roasted basted or brined and the newer one fried.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right., And that's the one you put in the big, you can get
Speaker:one of those big eggs things or the
Speaker:Right, the, the friars where you end up hearing all the fires and the fire
Speaker:departments and everything and the ButterBall hotline.
Speaker:I think the Butter Ball hotline has to go on our list of Thanksgiving
Speaker:traditions because you know.
Speaker:I'm not sure that this is a modern day saying or not, but the
Speaker:Butterball hotline would light up or lights up like a Christmas
Speaker:tree.
Speaker:I think that's old fashioned how they used to have , the boards, I'm sure.
Speaker:Do you say that the emails light up like a Christmas tree?
Speaker:I don't know , but, , that's for another show.
Speaker:So do you also have sweet potatoes or yams at, Thanksgiving
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely do now that I love, I love
Speaker:And do you make them sweet with the maple syrup or,
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Marshmallows, pecans,, all the whole thing, , and I have tons of leftovers,
Speaker:but, , I can't help but make it.
Speaker:It is just so good.
Speaker:So , there's a whole concept or the questions, it is
Speaker:sweet potato or is it a yam?
Speaker:And are they the same thing?
Speaker:I, no, don't tell me.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:Um, I, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So a sweet potato has a smooth outer skin, and the inside flesh is sort of sweetish.
Speaker:The others are a little bit more potatoey like the yams.
Speaker:And a sweet potato can actually be orange on the inside, white
Speaker:on the inside, or even purple.
Speaker:Did you know that?
Speaker:, Well I have become an aficionado of sweet potatoes at Whole Foods
Speaker:'cause they have all kinds.
Speaker:And one of the ones I absolutely adore is Japanese and it's purple on the
Speaker:outside and it's white on the inside.
Speaker:And it is.
Speaker:it's listed as a sweet potato, not
Speaker:yes, it is in the sweet potato bin.
Speaker:So there's like three of them.
Speaker:It doesn't have the orange flesh, but , it's like an enhanced
Speaker:version of a russet potato.
Speaker:Just tastes better,
Speaker:really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look for
Speaker:' I'll have to, check it out.
Speaker:But this fascinated me, which I did not know as, as long as we're talking about
Speaker:sweet potatoes, that the sweet potato is actually from the morning glory
Speaker:family, and they were born in the USA.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, uh, my singing voice is not great, but Bruce Springsteen
Speaker:can take over for that one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Maybe that song's actually about sweet potatoes and not people
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I love sweet potatoes more than I like people.
Speaker:Some in some cases.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And gravy of course.
Speaker:What other sides do you like
Speaker:Uh, okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So you cannot have a Thanksgiving without mentioning Cream of Campbell's,
Speaker:whatever, either celery or mushroom.
Speaker:And it's mixed in with those casserole and green bean
Speaker:casserole and all of those things.
Speaker:And remember, people just stock up on celery and mushroom cream of,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cream of Disgusting.
Speaker:But you gotta have it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:it is a tradition.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, we never did the string beans, but my mom did the pearl onions.
Speaker:My dad loved the pearl onion.
Speaker:Oh, me too.
Speaker:I could just
Speaker:In the, sort of the sixties, seventies, she would buy the
Speaker:pearl onions that were frozen.
Speaker:Not, you wouldn't get them fresh and peel them.
Speaker:So that was kind of gross.
Speaker:, Again, my neighbors Jackie and Keith, I should go back there to
Speaker:get cooking lessons , from Keith.
Speaker:'cause Keith is really the cooker there.
Speaker:But he made pearl onions one year when we went over for Thanksgiving or Christmas
Speaker:that were all fresh and I will never eat creamed pearl onions, but I did.
Speaker:I couldn't get enough of them.
Speaker:They were so good.
Speaker:So yeah, Keith
Speaker:Now, , before we go forward, we're gonna talk about weird dishes because I think
Speaker:that's important, but let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back.
Speaker:Okay, we are back with some interesting and weird and
Speaker:delicious Thanksgiving traditions.
Speaker:And Sylvia, while we were on break, you were mentioning that
Speaker:you had made a tarragon chicken or Turkey for your son one year,
Speaker:It was a tarragon chicken dish because he was on a restricted salt diet for a
Speaker:while, and so I would, I would try to come up with all these dishes to make for him.
Speaker:It's when he lived in the area, he doesn't anymore, but tarragon, I guess,
Speaker:somewhat takes the place of salt.
Speaker:It just adds a lot of flavor and it had pearl onions in it and.
Speaker:Now I can find Japanese sweet potatoes, but I haven't been able to find
Speaker:pearl onions in Lexington, Kentucky.
Speaker:Other than the cocktail pearl onions, in which case you gotta
Speaker:spend a lot of time at the bar.
Speaker:Yeah, , but it was so good.
Speaker:I need to find those pearl onions again because you put it all in there and
Speaker:you baked it and it was just delicious.
Speaker:And very rarely do I make something that's like super delicious,
Speaker:so I hang my hat on that one.
Speaker:Maybe Meredith can teach you, right?
Speaker:She would try, but she'd give up.
Speaker:So, , in doing a little, digging on weird dishes, , and we're gonna
Speaker:suggest this, if you are going to somebody's house for Thanksgiving
Speaker:or better yet, if you're hosting a Thanksgiving, you might wanna suggest.
Speaker:For people who are coming over to ask them to bring something weird or different.
Speaker:It doesn't need to be anything special.
Speaker:It doesn't need to ruin your holiday meal, but it could be a dessert, it could be
Speaker:an appetizer, it could be something else.
Speaker:And here are some suggestions.
Speaker:Well, I gotta say the first one you, have talked about is bologna cake.
Speaker:I know, right?
Speaker:No way.
Speaker:That does not sound good.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:There's just things that won't happen.
Speaker:Well, let me tell you what bologna cake is.. we're talking mid-century here,
Speaker:and a lot of strange stuff happened during that day as far as combinations.
Speaker:'cause I think that our parents and our grandparents went from a. Everything
Speaker:that you got that was fresh to things that were more processed or that
Speaker:you could get in the grocery store.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So this is this transition bologna cake.
Speaker:You take layers of bologna, like the round bologna.
Speaker:I used to love bologna as a kid.
Speaker:The kind that you take the string off
Speaker:was, yeah,
Speaker:I can't eat it today, but I liked it back then.
Speaker:A
Speaker:lot of things I
Speaker:Uh, and a gas station restaurant, go get a bologna sandwich on white
Speaker:bread and there's nothing better.
Speaker:Gas station restaurants are a thing of the south.
Speaker:So if you are listening somewhere else in the country and you think that Sylvia
Speaker:has just lost it, she hasn't trust me.
Speaker:Anyway, so a bologna cake, you take a layer of bologna and you, layer your
Speaker:bologna, you know, sort of stack it like , as they were in a tube, and
Speaker:between the layers, you put cream cheese filling like you would frosting.
Speaker:Now in that cream cheese, you can put olives and pimentos or whatever you
Speaker:want to add, an extra little flavor, maybe even chives, and you stack it.
Speaker:So it's bologna cream cheese, bologna cream cheese , and then you make it like
Speaker:a cake, and then you frost it with this.
Speaker:Whipped cream cheese, and then you slice it like you would a
Speaker:cake, and that's your appetizer.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay, so hit me with ham and banana casserole.
Speaker:Now that's there.
Speaker:You're talking, now you're talking.
Speaker:That almost sounds phallic, right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thanksgiving's gone PG so this was a recipe from the
Speaker:1950s and McCall's Magazine.
Speaker:I don't even know McCall's magazines around anymore.
Speaker:Do you know?
Speaker:I, I don't think it is.
Speaker:I think it must have morphed into something else, but I do
Speaker:remember McCall's magazine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Again, a sort of mid-century modern type of thing.
Speaker:And we've got so many of the next generation that's
Speaker:into going back to retro.
Speaker:So if you are of that retro interest generation, , this is kind of weird.
Speaker:So you take some ham, a slice of ham, and you take a piece of banana and
Speaker:you wrap the ham around the banana.
Speaker:So you've got your banana and ham.
Speaker:Like I said, it's, it sounds a little PG.
Speaker:Then you line them all up in the casserole dish and you put.
Speaker:Cream sauce on top and you bake it, and there you've got your ham and banana
Speaker:so they're, they're little rolled things, so you have several of them.
Speaker:Is that what it looks
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You see, you, stack up your banana, you take ham and you wrap it around.
Speaker:You peel a banana, you wrap the ham around the banana like a
Speaker:of them, right?
Speaker:There's
Speaker:several, yeah.
Speaker:just one.
Speaker:Right, But you probably only want to eat one yourself as opposed
Speaker:to several, but I don't know.
Speaker:Well, that kind of appeals to me more than bologna cake.
Speaker:But, , the reason it does is that a lot of times these kind of sweet
Speaker:and serious like bacon on ice cream.
Speaker:Now I haven't gone that far, but,, bacon with maple syrup on it is delicious.
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:bacon with chocolate on it apparently is really good that, yeah.
Speaker:So, I mean, there are those things.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Well, you made me think of something I need to go get for Thanksgiving, which
Speaker:is,, chocolate covered potato chips.
Speaker:Nothing
Speaker:better.
Speaker:well, I'll eat the bologna cake, but you can have the ham and banana casserole.
Speaker:yuck , that one's for you!
Speaker:Yay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Now the other thing you can bring is just some weird stories to dinner.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:This can be a little tricky because not everybody wants to share a weird story.
Speaker:My cousin and my aunt and family used to create and make games
Speaker:at every dinner party that
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:I've heard of that.
Speaker:, My family and my husband's side of the family, my family had no traditions.
Speaker:I don't know what was wrong with them, but my husband's family did and.
Speaker:After dinner, you would always gather around the table, clean
Speaker:it off and play Rook, which is this game, this card game that my
Speaker:mother-in-law was vicious about it.
Speaker:You didn't wanna be her partner because she would attack you
Speaker:if you played the wrong card.
Speaker:But it was a family lore., These Rook games, they were epic.
Speaker:Well, and besides weird.
Speaker:We've got some new traditions and believe it or not, the Presidential
Speaker:Turkey, pardon, is relatively new.
Speaker:And the first official Turkey was pardoned by George HW Bush
Speaker:in 18, sorry, not in 18, in 1989.
Speaker:So that's interesting.
Speaker:I thought it was well before that, but apparently it wasn't.
Speaker:And that was a bit of a. Well.
Speaker:A marketing hook,
Speaker:It might have been, it's just that they ate the Turkey.
Speaker:right?
Speaker:They ate the Turkey before then, actually, right?
Speaker:The first president given a Turkey in 1947 and yeah, they ate it.
Speaker:Oops,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway, I must have looked in the soulful eyes and, , I gotta always remember that
Speaker:sitcom, WKRP, where as a promo they live turkeys and the guys refrain that has
Speaker:always lived on in sitcom history is, I swear, I thought turkeys could fly.
Speaker:Oh, . I haven't heard about that one.
Speaker:Well, then you also have the Highlands Turkey toss, which is
Speaker:a big thing in apparently Indiana
Speaker:where people are dressed in kilts in the Scottish flare, and they're
Speaker:seeing how far they can chuck a Turkey
Speaker:Mmm.
Speaker:and the Turkey trots.
Speaker:Have you ever been in a Turkey trot?
Speaker:No, but I'm very familiar with them.
Speaker:, They do one at the racetrack here, Keland Racetrack.
Speaker:And, there's millions of, not millions, but you know, enough to look like
Speaker:millions, , go on this Turkey trott.
Speaker:So it's a very popular one here, and usually in early November.
Speaker:Well, mid-November, this is like late November, right.
Speaker:it's just got a chill in the air, but it's not real cold yet.
Speaker:So typically you don't have snow on the ground or anything like that.
Speaker:I used to do the Turkey trot up in Southport, Connecticut early on
Speaker:Thanksgiving morning, and one year it was pouring rain and I went anyway, so
Speaker:it's cold roll dressed in our sweats, and halfway through going along the shoreline,
Speaker:there's this big old mansion that's got blaring out the theme song from Rocky.
Speaker:Oh, sweet.
Speaker:It was very cool.
Speaker:We're like, yes, we could make it.
Speaker:We're
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:down.
Speaker:so have you investigated whether there's a Turkey trot nearby that you can do
Speaker:No, my, knees are shot.
Speaker:I have no more cartilage from too many Turkey trots.
Speaker:You could walk as a trot.
Speaker:But
Speaker:I could, I could.
Speaker:I could walk it.
Speaker:I have to do that.
Speaker:No, you should do that anyway.
Speaker:Uh oh.
Speaker:And then this is a really growing in popularity thing.
Speaker:Friendsgiving
Speaker:I love that, yes.
Speaker:My, my son and daughter-in-law who live here in Lexington wouldn't miss a friend's
Speaker:giving, sometimes I think they enjoy that one more because they don't have such
Speaker:family dynamics going on as they do, and our, all our families coming together,
Speaker:And how often do you have a chance to actually sit down
Speaker:and relax with your friends?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:It's always on the go.
Speaker:But, on that one, a lot of community churches and groups also do dinner for
Speaker:the, poor or the elderly . And we used to do that for a number of years
Speaker:as well, up at the Congregational Church in Westport, Connecticut.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:It was a really just a wonderful outpouring of community people
Speaker:that worked together, strangers that just got to know one another.
Speaker:And if you haven't done that and you've got kids, you might wanna
Speaker:suggest it because I think it'll help them really appreciate where they
Speaker:are in life and how thankful they can
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:Well, you know, back to the Friendsgiving for a moment.
Speaker:, You have young people.
Speaker:These are young people.
Speaker:My kids are 30.
Speaker:40, and 41.
Speaker:And, , husband and wife.
Speaker:And so a lot of global dishes is what these young people
Speaker:are really gravitating toward.
Speaker:And you have such availability out there as you can look this up.
Speaker:And somewhere, and I can't remember the exact statistics,
Speaker:many people are going to ai.
Speaker:To get ideas for their dinners
Speaker:Oh, I've done that.
Speaker:or just social media in general.
Speaker:There's just so much out there.
Speaker:And then that of course, enables the global trends where you have very odd,
Speaker:dishes, curried something or other.
Speaker:although my husband would divorce me if I ever had any
Speaker:sign of curry in the house, but
Speaker:Ooh.
Speaker:Well, we'll just have to sneak it in
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's, he,
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:warped.
Speaker:He's warped.
Speaker:So anyway.
Speaker:We won't tell Bernie.
Speaker:Well, the pro chefs are also saying, try things a little differently.
Speaker:Ditch the Turkey.
Speaker:Talk about chocolate truffles for dessert.
Speaker:Maybe they're great with coffee and Moroccan curry chicken, or Moroccan,
Speaker:Moroccan curry Turkey with squash.
Speaker:That sounds delicious, right?
Speaker:oh yeah.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:It's too bad I can't be creative with food because Bernie,
Speaker:he has a history of ulcers.
Speaker:So, , we have to be so bland and like no onions, no curry,
Speaker:no anything That's interesting.
Speaker:And I just,
Speaker:Well, I think you send Bernie to the neighbors and you
Speaker:come down here and visit us.
Speaker:Hi, uh, I'm with you baby.
Speaker:I'm with you, yeah.
Speaker:So , the chefs had something to say about what we should do, didn't they?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They also say nothing beige.
Speaker:It seems like, brown and beige are the colors of thanksgiving,
Speaker:but think about bright lights and maybe even the color pink.
Speaker:Put some pizzazz into it jazz up your tables with your food and other things.
Speaker:So it's, you know, because guess what?
Speaker:Sweet potato pie is kind of beige.
Speaker:Turkey's kind of beige.
Speaker:Well.
Speaker:cranburry sauce is red.
Speaker:, But
Speaker:Well now today we have such opportunities to do fruit salads.
Speaker:There are so much availability of pretty colorful stuff , and it's healthy, , but
Speaker:then most of us are like me, they just wanna eat bad stuff on Thanksgiving.
Speaker:Oh, speaking of fruit salad, just one more thing.
Speaker:Talk about weird.
Speaker:, Here's a tradition that I found and I'm reading it.
Speaker:I'm thinking, this is too bizarre.
Speaker:Frog eyed salad.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Oh, isn't that,
Speaker:salad?
Speaker:oh, I'll eat it every day.
Speaker:Just joking.
Speaker:No, I don't.
Speaker:So frog eye salad.
Speaker:I was like, you have got to be kidding me.
Speaker:This is a big thing in the south.
Speaker:You should know about this one.
Speaker:But apparently frog eyed salad is whipped cream and jello and fruit, so it's like an
Speaker:ambrosia and in it has these little round.
Speaker:Pasta thingies.
Speaker:That's a technical term for pasta shape.
Speaker:and you mix the pasta and fruit and whipped cream and all that stuff.
Speaker:I'll have to find the recipe for that one, but
Speaker:there was a bunch of them, but Frog eggs salad.
Speaker:Go check it out.
Speaker:where do they hide the frog eyes, I wonder.
Speaker:Well, I think it's sort of a play on words.
Speaker:The frog eyes are those little round pearl like
Speaker:It sounds like it should be a Halloween dish and have real
Speaker:frog eyes, you know
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:let's have a little fun with it, right?
Speaker:but you also had , a chef recipe , a sugar orange latte.
Speaker:Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker:But , this is interesting 'cause I've been taught this before by my
Speaker:chef, cook your Turkey in pieces.
Speaker:It makes sure that the meat, because you know when you get a whole Turkey and
Speaker:you put it in the oven, the dark meat probably gets dry, or the breast gets dry.
Speaker:Something gets not the kind of stuff it needs, , to cook.
Speaker:Well, so , the chefs will tell you, cut it up and cook it.
Speaker:Now it seems almost sacrilegious, right?
Speaker:'cause you want a big old Turkey to sit in the middle, but.
Speaker:If you do that, then the meat can be cooked to the kind of
Speaker:temperatures that needs to be cooked to, and the meat won't be dry.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Well, I have two solutions to that and both work very well.
Speaker:One was talked to me by my mother-in-law, who I never considered to be a great cook.
Speaker:Sorry, Barbara.
Speaker:Anyway, this is what she did every year, she, layered the Turkey with bacon.
Speaker:So the entire top of the Turkey is just covered and covered in, in slices of
Speaker:bacon, and of course you t The other, and this is the best solution ever.
Speaker:We started burning turkeys many years back when it came into, into
Speaker:the realm of, Hey, this is cool.
Speaker:, I have to tell you, the best thing you could ever do is brine a Turkey and add a
Speaker:big gallon of apple cider to your brine.
Speaker:It is so good.
Speaker:You'd think it adds sweetness.
Speaker:It doesn't.
Speaker:It just adds enough of a flavor with the brine that your Turkey
Speaker:will never, ever, ever be dry,
Speaker:Well, what do you start with to with the brine?
Speaker:Oh, it's,, water.
Speaker:, It's a certain amount of kosher salt, juniper, berries.
Speaker:I had a bunch of rosemary.
Speaker:You just throw in just about any kind of spice.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:Some bay leaves and then , a gallon of the apple cider.
Speaker:And of course ice.
Speaker:Lots of ice because you're brining your Turkey literally.
Speaker:Almost 24 hours.
Speaker:You're letting it sit in cold water and ice as it
Speaker:haws.
Speaker:so I was gonna ask you a
Speaker:The Turkey is not frozen.
Speaker:, I wait till it's almost at the end, so it, we don't have to worry about
Speaker:So will you have a Turkey for your dinner?
Speaker:And then we're gonna get into Sugar Spice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I, yes, I hopefully my cousin is gonna come on out and, , we'll do Some
Speaker:traditional recipes from my mom's side of the family, so that would be kind of fun.
Speaker:But I hope she comes out.
Speaker:It'll be great.
Speaker:It'd be great to see her.
Speaker:Oh, that sounds fun.
Speaker:So,, this is something that's kind of cool.
Speaker:, Pumpkin spice latte Uhuh, that's so boring.
Speaker:This, here's how you change it up a little bit with a coffee drink.
Speaker:And this is sugar and orange latte.
Speaker:You wanna hear how to make it?
Speaker:It's quick.
Speaker:please, please.
Speaker:two ounces of brewed hot espresso.
Speaker:One ounce of brown sugar syrup, which is just putting, , brown sugar in water
Speaker:or something, and cooking, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Simple syrup.
Speaker:, Or one and one half tablespoons lightly packed.
Speaker:Brown sugar, 10 drops or one half teaspoon of orange extract.
Speaker:And then you mix all that together.
Speaker:And then you pour in 10 ounces of steamed milk.
Speaker:So you combine all that and then you pour it in and you stir, stir, stir.
Speaker:'cause apparently the extract can cause the ingredients to separate.
Speaker:And then you have this wonderful drink, this wonderful coffee drink.
Speaker:So, that could be really cool And it's easy.
Speaker:I mean, it's simple.
Speaker:Well, and that will keep you awake after you've had a little too much tryptophan
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:, So that one's kind of cool.
Speaker:Now, what you might even try to experiment with is a little rum or
Speaker:something and little whiskey in there.
Speaker:Or a little,, orange alcohol, like, you know, whatever the, whatever
Speaker:that, it's not Anis, but whatever.
Speaker:Orange liqueur.
Speaker:In there.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I gotta stay awake to do the dishes.
Speaker:hopefully you have some kind of poor sucker that's there that
Speaker:will feel obligated to do that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you've done after you've done all the cooking All the time,
Speaker:My mother-in-law was really good at that.
Speaker:Okay, so then we have guilty pleasures.
Speaker:What's your guilty pleasure?
Speaker:What do you gorge yourself on at
Speaker:Thanksgiving Dinner?
Speaker:my guilty pleasure is probably not gorging on, 'cause there's only
Speaker:so much of us stealing the crispy skin off the top of the Turkey.
Speaker:Oh, you're right.
Speaker:That is so good.
Speaker:it's so good.
Speaker:and stuffing.
Speaker:Okay, well that's mine.
Speaker:I could, well, my mother-in-law had the oyster dressing, , to die
Speaker:for, and I never got a recipe.
Speaker:She was one of those, like, Gloria, she wasn't gonna share her recipes.
Speaker:Probably never wrote 'em down, but it was so moist that I would, my ideal
Speaker:would be to get an entire plate.
Speaker:and just a tiny piece of Turkey and a tiny green beans or mashed
Speaker:potatoes or gravy or something.
Speaker:Put gravy on top of it.
Speaker:And you know how dressing or foods that are based on, um, brandish kinds
Speaker:of things expand once you eat 'em
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:and you're just like bloated, but you're
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:so happy.
Speaker:I think the secret to your mother-in-law's oyster dressing was probably that
Speaker:of Gloria's the stick of butter.
Speaker:Probably 'cause I probably don't have that ingrained in me.
Speaker:'cause I'm much more modernist than like, oh, I can't eat butter.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I can't eat
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You can
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:eat butter, not
Speaker:Well anyway, you have promised me a recipe and I will hold you to it.
Speaker:I will find a recipe for oyster dressing for you for sure,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Thanksgiving.
Speaker:In
Speaker:any case, Thanksgiving.
Speaker:Give tribute to your friends and yourself, right?
Speaker:Because after all, we have to be thankful for our own days that are
Speaker:here on this earth, and the ability to share that with friends and family.
Speaker:So drink up, eat up, and celebrate.
Speaker:And, and love one another, please.
Speaker:That's all we have.
Speaker:take care.
Speaker:We'll see you later.
Speaker:Bye-bye.
