The Noble Pagan Forums - Thanksgiving & Food

This is one of the many ways I "trick" my mother into participating with my beliefs. She doesn't know she is, but she is none the less. And she doesn't really get it because she thinks we're just being unique in out home fashions sense .

We also do a lot of "nature gathering" in the autumn. The last several years My mom, aunts, a few of my female cousins and I go out to the parks and gather fresh pine and holly and the like for making decorations.

I don't DARE explain to her that this is a ritualistic activity since it would cause the whole thing to fall apart. I just go along and spend time with my female family and we bond a little while I gather my needs and teach my cousins about plants.

We sometimes go out and pick flowers during late spring and early summer bur that tradition has slowed down a bit what with everyone having to work day times and being to tired on the weekend to go trekking through the woods with me.

I LOVE posting pictures and Walmart has a lot of costumes left over from Halloween. All marked down 90%. I might just be able to find a Pocahontas.

I don't handle the dinner menu. I handle lunch. I make a 2 pound haggis every year. (Shhhh... Don't tell my sister in law- she's prejudiced against anything Scottish and thinks it's just a kind of meatloaf! Oh yeah- and I'm a crossdresser because I wear the kilt.) My mom and wife handle dinner. My mom, wife and father in law watch football and yell at the TV a lot. I watch and yell only if it's the Broncos playing. Otherwise, I don't care. The kids all play and make a lot of noise. My sis in law and I get into a fight because she likes to run things and I don't put up with her bullshit. My brother and I pick on each other, and the three cats hide in the basement. That's my Thanksgiving.

Great! When can you pick me up at the airport?

Well, my mom is the piano player at a local Catholic church... there is a 10:30 mass I am driving her to... So about noon. It should be ready by then anyway. Fly into Denver International and call me when you get here. (Note- I am only half joking. Especially if you wear a kilt! I could use the extra help tolerating my sister in law...)

We're pretty lucky this year. Everyone from Jon's family was just here for a funeral (not the lucky part), which means they are most likely not going to be here for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Yaaay! Jon's sister might come up from Georgia, but the chance is slim. I actually enjoy spending time with her. We'll probably stuff ourselves silly, then play card games - one of our absolutely favorite past-times.

Ever have an Italian Thanksgiving? - Well, of course, I mean "Italian-American" Thanksgiving ...

Amidst the incessant NOISE - yelling, laughing, crying, carrying on in Italian and in English and a mixture of both languages - there's the food. The MOUNTAINS of food. We're talking about an eating marathon that lasts from about noon till about - midnight.

First there's the antipasto (which my Neapolitan family pronounces "onnie-bast): an assortment of cheeses, salami's, olives, a variety of pickled vegetables (such as eggplant), and assorted salads, many with "a-lige" - anchovies. Trays filled w/the stuff. Cappicola (which to Neapolitans is "gabbaghoul") comes w/cantaloupe. Enough bread and olive oil to feed 500 people is piled up on the table, and everyone just digs in.

A little while later, and it's time for zuppa - soup. Here you'll get a big bowl of chicken soup, heavily flavored w/dill, w/tortellini in it, rather than potatoes. You shovel romano cheese onto it and eat it.

Now you're starting to feel like you're about to explode - but we're just getting started because the first pasta course is coming out. But, because it's Thanksgiving, we're not going to settle for just one type of pasta, no. We've got spaghetti, in both meat and marinara sauces - and also plain w/just garlic and olive oil and garlic and olive oil and aligii (anchovies). But there's also baked ziti - and ravioli - and lasagne. And bread for mopping up the sauces.

Before you turn around, out comes more pasta, a second course, w/the veal cutlets. This time, it's just spaghetti as a side dish. Now you have your veal - or your chicken - or your eggplant parmagiana.

Now it's time for the American part - the turkey and all the traditional trimmings. You look at the bird, and you want to throw up because you can't possibly eat more, but onto your plate it goes. Turkey - and mashed potatoes - and stuffing - and sweet potatoes - and peas - and carrots - and mushrooms - and cranberry sauce and gravy on top of it all.

There's creamed spinach. There's creamed corn. Scalloped potatoes. And good knows what else!

Then there's a good long break while the women clean up and the men play cards. Hey - like it or not, that's the way it is.

Then you get the first desert - the American desert. The apple pie, the minced-meat pie, the pumpkin pie, the sweet-potato pie, and the chocolate cake. Coffee. Tea. (The kids.)

Then you get the Italian desert (dulce) - the pastries, the cheese cakes, the espresso, the cappucino, the anisette. (The old folks.)

Then you get more assorted cheeses, assorted nuts, assorted fruits. fresh, dried, and syruped. More coffee, more espresso, more anisette.

And you have to eat it - otherwise there WILL BE hurt feelings - and nobody holds a grudge like an old guinea!

You're talking an annual 15 hour ordeal between the travel time, the gorging time, and the unloading in the bathroom time.

And you're not leaving w/o a month's worth of meals in the form of care packages - and may the gods help you if you forget to return the tupperware!

Holy camoly! I feel stuffed just reading all that! I can barely make it through all the traditional American Thanksgiving foods. I think there would be a lot of hurt feelings if I attended an Italian Thanksgiving!

Oh Hermitious One WHERE DO YOU LIVE????

I want to be there!!!! OMG I am weeping and salivating at the same time to a point that I may suffer rapid dehydration here shortly!!!

My husband can attest that I firmly believe that pasta and cheese are their own foodgroups!

Yes I know you listed off much more than that foodwise....that however is what my eyes and tummy gravitated towards though.

Mmmmm.....a mountain dedicated and made out of PASTAAAAAAA!!!!

*passes out from dehydration*



C/S/

thksgiving for us is a friendly competition my sis in law is a chef at bolo im miami and i while not being professionally trained have 2 of my dearest friends who are both chefs locally. This leads to much wondeful food and starting last year the brothers pick the best dish and loser buys the first round adding a little pressure and braggin rights for a whole year. Not sure what angle im going with this year but to anyone who want to cook the worlds greatest turkey which buy the way won last year, go to foodtv.com and look up the good eats episode called romancing the bird follow prep and cooking to a t and u will impress yourself and get the enjoyment of your family salavating over your creation.