IS YOUR THANKSGIVING GLASS HALF FILLED OR HALF EMPTY?

In 1621 the Pilgrims feasted for 3 days with 90 Indians to celebrate their first harvest. Three days! They were partying like it was 1999!! If John Wayne could have been at the feast he would have definitely said, "Whoa, take'er easy there, Pilgrim!


We would have looked like this back then. Last time I visited San Francisco I saw a few dudes dressed like this, complete with garters.
Canned cranberry sauce, don't even go there! Hours are spent preparing a wonderful meal for Thansksgiving and one of the most important items of the feast is taken from a can. Yuck.

Look at this. Is that tempting to eat? A loaf of cranberry sauce is tempting to eat? Give me a break, Pilgrim. You need my grandmother's Cranberry Relish Salad.

If you like cranberry sauce, you'll love this dish. Cook it up for Thanksgiving. It will become part of your Thanksgiving meal every year.

GRANDMA'S CRANBERRY RELISH SALAD

Both my mother and grandmother used to grind each ingredient in a meat grinder set on coarse. We use a food processor.

1 apple with skin and cored

1 orange with skin

1 package fresh cranberries

1 cup of miniature marshmallows

1 cup of sugar (or 1/2 a cup or more to taste)

3/4 cup of walnuts

Place everything in the food processor except the sugar. Process and then mix in the sugar. Best made the day of the dinner.


Okay, the turkey. How did the Pilgrims know when the turkey was ready to eat? There were no thermometers. Emeril was not born yet and hadn't learned to say, "BAM, your turkey is hot and ready to eat!"

It was pretty simple for the Pilgrims. Somehow they learned that turkey is completely cooked at 180 degrees and that popcorn popped at 175 degrees.

VIOLA! Stuff the turkey with unpopped popcorn. How totally 1621! The Pilgrims found that when the rearend blows off of the turkey and there's popcorn from hell to breakfast you know that it's fully cooked and ready to eat. They also yelled, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" when the corn started a popping. BAM! BAM!!

Here's a turkey stuffed with popcorn cooking the old fashioned way. Notice the rearend of the turkey is pointed out and not in so as to get the full effect of when the turkey is fully cooked.

Bon Appetite, Pilgrims!

My Thanksgiving glass? It was half full. I poured the water out and filled it with eggnog. Now my glass is full, thank you very much. How about your glass? Half full or half empty come Thanksgiving?