Happy Thanksgiving ☺
Due to its ecumenical character and turkey-laden menu Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. This year I roasted some Italian chestnuts and added them to the mashed sweet potatoes, and I put a dash of cognac in my homemade candied ginger cranberry sauce, but otherwise kept things fairly simple. Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green beans, and cornbread. A store-bought pumpkin pie for dessert. Oh, and organic turkeys always taste better. Nevertheless, the holiday does have a sordid past, of which it's proper to be mindful. The following is from Mark Twain's Autobiography:
"Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for — annually, not oftener — if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments."
Posted by George Kenney on November 22, 2007 8:40 AM 
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