To all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving!! To all my other friends, please take a moment to reflect on the things that you are thankful for. We shouldn’t need a holiday to do this, but sometimes we just need a reminder. In America, we celebrate Thanksgiving as a reminder of the first feast shared between the Native American Indians and the pilgrims to the new land. I found this snippet at http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/origin-thanksgiving-day.html:

“It is said that Pilgrims learnt to grow corn, beans and pumpkins from the Indians, which helped all of them survive . In the autumn of 1621, they held a grand celebration where 90 people were invited including Indians. The grand feast was organized to thank god for his favors. This communal dinner is popularly known as “The first thanksgiving feast”. There is however, no evidence to prove if the dinner actually took place.

While some historians believe pilgrims were quite religious so, their thanksgiving would’ve included a day of fasting and praying, others say that the Thanksgiving dinner did take place.

Turkey and First Thanksgiving Feast
There is no evidence to prove if the customary turkey was a part of the initial feast. According to the first hand account written by the leader of the colony, the food included, ducks, geese, venison, fish, berries etc.”

I am always curious about what other people will be serving for their feast.  I know some people serve lamb, others serve prime rib of beef, while other, more traditional families serve either ham or turkey.  Following is our menu for today:

Appetizers-A relish tray with a selection of olives, marinated artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms, celery and carrots

Spinach-Artichoke dip (my daughter will bring this)

Salad–Chilled Cucumber-onion salad

Roast turkey with apple walnut stuffing (my own recipe)

Raspberry-cranberry sauce

Cheesy cauliflower casserole

Potato Salad (by special request of my daughter, I make a pretty good one if I do say so myself! )

–normally we would have mashed potatos and gravy–

Stuffed mushrooms

and for dessert;  Cherry Crisp and Pumpkin Pie.

Yumm!  It smells wonderful with the turkey roasting in my oven and I am so looking forward to our family coming together for dinner.

So whether it is an American tradition or not, a day should be set aside to give thanks for all our blessings and loved ones!  I hope you all have a wonderful day!!