Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday! First of all, it is a time to gather your family around the table, even if the reality doesn’t always match the vision; it still creates a Norman Rockwell moment! Second, you get to eat great food! Everyone brings out his or her best and favorite recipes at Thanksgiving and it really is the christening of the holiday season. But most important we really do push the pause button, collectively, and look inside our hearts and meditate on what we are thankful for. 

Thanksgiving took on a deeper meaning to me as an adult when I home schooled my 5 children and we read the story of Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, together. He became the perfect tutor to teach the Pilgrims how to live off the land in Massachusetts and fish, hunt and plant corn, after their first winter of near complete starvation. One Thanksgiving our first course was 3 kernels of corn, to remind us of our many blessings. 

I can’t think of Thanksgiving and not remember my father. He was a self-made man, hard working and taught me the value of faithfulness and integrity. Our Mother took us to church every Sunday where we learned catechism and the prayers that we could recite from memory, the incantations necessary to beseech favor while candles were lit and incense was burned. But on Thanksgiving, standing at the head of the table in his Camel blazer, with carving tools in hand, my Dad would offer a prayer of Thanksgiving. It was always simple, but straight from the heart. “Thank you for my family, for which I am eternally grateful.” It was his yearly display of emotion, and I hung on every word. 

My husband has carried on the role of the turkey carver over the years, including stuffer and roaster. Having been a vegetarian for over 3 decades, I don’t do meat. Not eat or prepare. I prefer the baking of the bread and the pies. Two recipes that have been a tradition at our house for over 30 years are No-Fault Pumpkin Pie from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen and Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread from Recipes for a Small Planet by Ellen Buchman Ewald.

Moosewood Restaurant
A Vegetarian Foodies Dream Come True!

Having been a huge Mollie Katzen fan for years, I was elated when my sister took a sabbatical at Cornell University.  Yes, I wanted to visit my sister, sure I wanted to see the Finger Lakes, but at the heart of the matter I wanted to eat at the Moosewood Restaurant.  Walking in there and experiencing a vegetarian cuisine from an establishment birthed in 1973 was similar to the feeling a Duke fan gets when they walk into Cameron Indoor stadium and experiences the synergy of the Blue Devils and the Cameron Crazies under the passion of Coach K.

Both experiences are like walking into a shrine, a place where the things you strongly believe in, with passion and conviction, you hold with awe and respect. Our hearts have the opportunity to pause every day and hold what we value.  Hopefully gratitude is in the recipe, not just once a year, but each and every day.

Bon Appetite!

No-Fault Pumpkin Pie from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

3 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
Directions: Mix in order given. Pour into whole wheat pie shell and bake 10 minutes at 450, then 40 minutes at 350, or till set. Variation: For a delicious pumpkin pudding, omit pie shell. Bake filling in buttered baking dish. If whipped cream is your fancy – whip it with real cream!

Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread from Recipes for a Small Planet by Ellen Buchman Ewald

¼ cup butter (I use soy butter)
2/3 cup honey
2 organic eggs
1 cup orange juice
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup chopped raw nuts (walnuts or pecans)
2 cups fresh whole cranberries
Directions: Cream the butter and the honey together; beat in the eggs and the orange juice.
In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, soda, and salt). Add the nuts and then fold in the cranberries. Turn the batter into a greased and floured 5 X 9 loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
Variations: You may also fill muffin tins ¾ full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. OR you can fill 4 mini loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Great mini gifts at Christmas time!