Thanksgiving

2010

It has long been a little personality tweak of mine that I am drawn to all things American. I've said it before, I can't tell whether I should have been born in the US, or England (another life-long love), but I'm not sure Australia is where I fit in. Therefore, I adopt all the traditions from the land of the red, white and blue, and the land of the ... er... red, white and blue.

Thanks to my avid cultural consumption, from the start of October I begin receiving emails reminding me that I need to get a turkey and have I decided on what sides I'll have on the table for my family this Thanksgiving? Ads and articles start popping up in the American magazines I subscribe to, and nowadays my Twitter and Google reader is filled with a Thanksgiving theme. Of COURSE I have to partake.

This is my third or fourth Thanksgiving and I subject the good-natured Veggie Dad to traditional dishes the likes of those he's never heard of before, and we sit down together and talk about all the things we're thankful for. I'm too afraid to invite anyone over for an extended celebration, as I'm worried they'll say "what in the hell are you talking about? We don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we're Australian (duh)" and "Well, where the hell is the turkey?".

My first Thanksgiving, I stuffed a pumpkin. One year I made Paula Deen's stuffing the star of the show (and ate it for the next week it was so huge). This year, after reading this article in the New York Times, talking about the importance of sides, I decided this Thanksgiving, we were having a side-fest. No turkey wannabes.

Our menu:

Paula Deen's Macaroni and Cheese
Mashed sweet potato
Green beans with lemon and slivered almonds
Art Smith's no-knead rolls (Yes, Oprah's previous personal chef)
Corn on the cob
Homemade gravy
Pumpkin Pie

You owe it to yourself and those you love to try that pumpkin pie. I'll explain in the post exactly how frightened I was of it, and how unbelievably excited I was to try it and immediately become pumpkin pie's biggest advocate.