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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 19:27:34 GMT
Thank you all good people. It's been a brilliant day thus far, a long walk up on the river earlier, then home to do a wee gardening before doing the turnip au gratin, in the oven now. Telephone calls to loved ones around the country. The vat of T's gumbo we miraculously made room for in the fridge last night, and then the final touches made lovingly as always. I never, ever have stopped marveling at this neighborhood tradition. People from all walks of life. My husband serving up his gumbo to each and every guest. It has always been a sacred memory of what this neighborhood is all about. There will be the Reverend Goat (a Native American local character who presides over major occasions) who will perform his blessing at the start of the meal with the hope that his dentures won't fly out of his mouth as they did one year , bless his heart,it was all we could do to not loose it and be solemn but has become a legendary story. There will be music and dancing afterward, or one may go home and nap and awake refreshed and go back out, as there will still be beau coup folks coming and going. Much to be grateful for indeed.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 19:51:37 GMT
I am pleased that some people can find a special meaning in this day. In my own family, it did not exist. One reason was having a French mother who absolutely could not connect to the event. But my biological father did not seem very interested either, so we would just have a family meal. My mother did make turkey when I was little, but I don't think that any of us really liked it. My father had a pretty big family with 3 brothers and a sister and all "good Catholics" so I had something like 27 cousins back then. But there was not one single time when the family ever gathered at Thanksgiving, even though most of them lived nearby (one uncle lived in Texas). It is not impossible that my mother was responsible for this -- not out of her refusal to associate with the rest of the family, because even though she held them in disdain, there were plenty of times when there was a family gathering of sorts, and she never refused to attend. It is more likely that it was the rest of the family that spurned this foreign woman, although I was not aware of it at the time.
So basically, just like anybody else, I appreciated the four-day weekend, and that was enough for me. It has only been through movies and television programmes over the years that I learned to understand what this day means to a lot of people. Nevertheless, I think that I would still be uncomfortable if I found myself invited to a Thanksgiving event now because I would feel as though I were trespassing.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 27, 2014 22:23:38 GMT
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends south of the border (and south of two borders, in the case of Bixa and Don C). Mmm, I can practically smell the perfume of Casimira's and Mr Casimir's gumbo from up here!
As for me, I'm giving thanks for an utterly luminous and not freezing late November day. I had to walk a lot (errands, meeting colleagues and bicycle has a flat...) but it was pleasant to walk and utterly pain free with the low humidity).
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 28, 2014 2:01:27 GMT
Thank you, LaGatta! Great to hear you are feeling so well. Kerouac, I do like the significance of this day in the sense of taking stock of all I have to be grateful for. Casimira, what a fun and beautifully appropriate way to celebrate this day. A giant hug to your intrepid chef & of course to you. After all my lack of enthusiasm, I wound up really enjoying myself. The dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants, where I am in fact treated like family & got a nice hug from the owner. My dinner companion is a lovely person & scintillating conversationalist. It was a gorgeous day, with the sky an almost unbelievable shade of blue. Here's a bit of the "local color" of my Thanksgiving day :: This was noonish, as we were coming back from buying the bus tickets to go to Veracruz in mid-December. The bedsheet will eventually be covered with enough thread that it will be a remarkably accurate depiction of the scene in front of the artist. This man was playing at the door of the restaurant while his little daughter came in to collect appreciative tips for the music. When he saw me photographing him, he motioned me to come take a picture of him & his daughter. He was surprised & quite pleased when I showed him the picture on the back of the camera. Do I look bloated satisfied? We repaired to a nearby coffee house for excellent coffee, which was followed by a much-needed walk. We went over to Santo Domingo. This photo does not do justice to what a glorious day it was ~ The church was open & no lights were on, so I grabbed the opportunity to photograph it in natural light. No reason for these photos except that they're pretty & the golden light of the afternoon was a lovely wrap-up to the day. That's it. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 2:08:50 GMT
Gorgeous! Thanks, bixa!
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 28, 2014 19:41:48 GMT
Thanks so much, Lizzy! I don't think I ever mentioned that in the time I've lived here, I may well have attended more Canadian Thanksgivings than US ones. It pays to have a good Canadian friend who loves to cook & who's extremely good at it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 19:48:22 GMT
How is that Bixa? As long as we have known you I was never aware of you having a Canadian connection, certainly not to that extreme. T. just commented btw, how good you look and sends his love.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 29, 2014 0:03:42 GMT
And certainly well "arrayed", what a lovely top. I'm jealous of how black your hair has remained underneath. I also have greyed from the top and have more black hair underneath, but it is black streaks in the grey/silver. All my maternal family grey prematurely, but the men keep their hair late in life. My uncle has a beautiful head of hair, at 80.
There is really a Moorish aspect to Santo Domingo, like Catholic churches in Andalusia and Sicily.
I was happy to see the "little girl" behind her father, as in the first photo I saw a very stunning young woman, who could have been the musician's young adult or late teenage daughter, but certainly not a "little girl"...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2014 3:45:00 GMT
It is truly a magnificent church, and,I don't think one could ever tire of the detail and the exceptional light that pours in at any given time no matter how many times you've photographed it Bixa.
And, Bixa has always had great hair!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2014 17:09:52 GMT
Bixa, did the contents of that polystyrene box on the table really satisfy you? Did you just have a cheeseburger? This may get my American passport revoked, but I should confess that I have never tasted cranberry sauce in my life. (Having a French mother restricts certain options and then you just don't even think about them.)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2014 18:40:28 GMT
Cranberry sauce is just like a very tangy red berry jam. I like it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 29, 2014 19:23:25 GMT
Casimira, "my" Canadian is Charlie, an anyporter who hardly ever logs on. If I ever mentioned her to you, it was more likely by her 3D name & probably sans nationality. Ha ha, Kerouac! That box just had the turkey that I was unable to finish -- well over a quarter of a pound! I want to thank you all for being so kind (T, too!) . I freely admit that I look like 10 miles of bad road, but Casimira is my witness that I photograph really, really badly. However, many other anyport faithfuls (all good-looking) have shared their photos, so I thought it only fair to do the same, despite the pie-faced look & the general fatness added by the cruel digital device. There's really no point in waiting for things to get better. Re: cranberry sauce ~~ Lizzy's description is quite accurate. I absolutely adore the classic homemade kind with orange juice & peel. In fact, I always volunteered to bring it so I'd have bunches of extra at home. It's also wonderful on vanilla ice cream. Here's a good standard recipe for it, which can be enhanced with ginger: www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/orange-cranberry-sauce
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2014 19:53:52 GMT
Ah yes, I do recall Charlie but, forgot the Canadian connection. And, I don't and have never thought you photographed poorly. We are our own worst critics save the few narcissists which we gratefully don't have any of on here that I'm aware of( any more anyway.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 22, 2015 18:13:16 GMT
It's that time again! I think Canadian Thanksgiving was passed without a ripple, or I just missed mention of it. At any rate, I'll be having US Thanksgiving here in Mexico with two Canadians, Mr. & Mrs. Charlie, at a local restaurant owned by a lady from Central America. Some menus of Thanksgivings past at US bases or ships here. And Louis XIV, who knows all about that, tells us how to make the perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Don Cuevas lazily reminds us of how much work Thanksgiving is here, but in his more usual working fashion kicked off a discussion of what to do with the leftovers.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2015 18:26:19 GMT
Yes, I think the Canadians here have given up on us. But since I don't celebrate American Thanksgiving either, I can read about all of this stuff with semi-fascinated disinterest.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 22, 2015 19:58:31 GMT
My French friends are always asking me what I have planned for the "Great Feast of Thanksgiving". But they're always disappointed when I tell them that I haven't celebrated this holiday since I moved to France, and really don't miss it.
I think part of this is the general "end-of-year-food-lust" that comes upon the French, when they start planning their holiday menus and thinking about consuming more foie gras, chocolate and champagne in two weeks than they do all year - but also they can't imagine anyone wanting to avoid something that sounds like their kind of fun.
I'm secretly relieved that it would cost a fortune to try to replicate a good old American Thanksgiving dinner in Paris, so I have a good excuse to avoid offering to do this for homesick friends. Occasionally, I do miss giblet gravy, though - my mom used to boil eggs and put them in whole.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 22, 2015 20:47:47 GMT
To be perfectly honest, my idea of the only real Thanksgiving for me is when I go to my mother's house. Still, it is an eatfest and I've had lovely T'days other places, but it isn't the same. I am friends with one of the owners of the restaurant where I went last year and he was stunned that I'd even consider not doing it again this year, even though I want to stick to my diet. *sigh* But I've been included in some grand feasts prepared by Charlie for both Canadian and US Thanksgivings, so thought it would be nice to share this occasion with them in this way.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 22, 2015 20:57:08 GMT
Eating a turkey always brings me the image of Istanbul.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 22, 2015 21:10:41 GMT
That took me a moment, Pariswat!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2015 21:48:20 GMT
Let's see, Thanksgiving is apparently this week. Maybe I will celebrate after all with a crab boil with Madagascar mud crabs from the Chinese supermarket.
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Post by htmb on Nov 22, 2015 22:17:56 GMT
Pot roast is on our menu. No Thanksgiving turkey for us.
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Post by htmb on Nov 25, 2015 19:24:33 GMT
Batter for banana bread before blending in the cranberries and pecans.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2015 21:38:22 GMT
Well, I'm ready this year, having missed last year's. We had great success with our pumpkins this year, so there will be pumpkin pie, and brussels sprouts with chestnuts and marsala, and I'm making some smoked salmon spread. Oh, and we're bringing a weird bottle of Cinzano Asti we found on sale.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 26, 2015 17:36:30 GMT
I think Cinzano Asti is just a normal Asti Spumante. Just that Cinzano is better known for the apéro.
Obviously I have no reason to celebrate US Thanksgiving; I don't celebrate our own. I am roasting chicken legs tonight, and experimenting with a pilaf of pinhead oats.
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Post by bjd on Nov 26, 2015 17:43:22 GMT
It's not really about food, but what's with the President of the USA "pardoning" turkeys?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2015 18:06:19 GMT
Quite a few areas in the U.S. have a reputation for executing the innocent, so let's just rejoice that a couple other innocent beings are pardoned instead.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 26, 2015 20:33:21 GMT
bixa - now I have this insane craving for turkey in dark mole sauce...
htmb - now I have this insane craving for banana bread with pecans (but not cranberries)...
kerouac - now I have this insane craving for just about anything cooked in crab boil...
But I had a really good sandwich made with left-over chicken, and later on a couple of glasses of a very nice Morgon. It's good to be well again, and the diet can wait till Monday.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
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Post by htmb on Nov 26, 2015 22:04:53 GMT
It's nice to hear you are feeling better, Chexbres! We had a nice meal of beef, ham, roasted vegetables, grits, mixed vegetable salad (on a different plate), mashed potatoes, and cranberry banana bread.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 27, 2015 1:03:01 GMT
Mmmm, lots of lovely things and Chexbres, that really isn't overindulgence. I don't think I've ever had a crab boil, and it is certainly something I'd like. I have had very good boiled snow crab (crabe des neiges) but I think the Southern version is rather more elaborate and spicy.
As for the pinhead (or steel-cut) oats pilaf in slow cooker, it sort of works but needs some tweaking. The pieces of groat do remain separate, unlike in porridge, and it is very tasty but there is a bit of that glop porridge produces. I had to leave for a work meeting, and the slow-cooker-full was too close to browning and scorching (at low) to leave it on, so I unplugged it and left the oats to keep on slower-cooking in the pot's own heat. All is transferred to a Pyrex glass cook-and store-oblong pan. Mushrooms, bits of butter; don't want anything too elaborate. Herbs. All ideas are welcome. The slight gloppiness should dry out in the countertop oven.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 27, 2015 1:10:21 GMT
You set a pretty table, Htmb. The food looks great, too! Chexbres, re: turkey in mole ~ years ago I attended an Easter feast at Casimira's house. One of the guests brought rabbit in mole & announced that it was the only truly Easter-specific dish on the menu. How so? we asked. Simple, it was "chocolate bunny". And now, as Thanksgiving winds to an end ~
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