Happy (very) Belated Thanksgiving to you and yours, Ian. I forget our northern neighbors celebrate the harvest in early October. I hope you are doing well, and it’s for sure you are still doing a great job here.
And Happy Thanksgiving to all the USians reading this, with also warmest wishes for the international readers.
I am here at work ( on lunch break ) making the big overtime money working on Thanksgiving. Some of the nursing units here and there have potlucks during Thanksgiving and one of the nursing units on my drug delivery route graciously permitted me to freeload off of their potluck. So I am eating some good food.
I found out some years ago that most modern present-day people don’t save the after-Thanksgiving carcasse for maximum use the way people used to. They just throw it out. So I decided to ask some co-workers who just throw the carcasse out otherwise if they could bring it in for me instead. The skeletons are still full of tedious-to-remove bits and strips of meat. I carefully strip all that off to use as meat and then low-steam the bones to get all the good stock flavor out. I then set that aside. Then I pressure cook the bones till they are soft enough to bash and grind and crush into turkey bone mush. I get all the soluble protein and minerals out of the bone mush which I possibly can and then throw the residual bone-sand into my garden. And I mix that bone extract back into the stock for good flavor and smooth mouthfeel and mineral nutrition.
This was my first Thanksgiving among others for several years. I typically don’t celebrate any holidays, but now that I’m living “in community” and attempting to embrace a homesteading lifestyle, holidays and other special occasions throughout the colder (that is, snow-covered) months are a pretty big deal around here. I’m adjusting all right, I’d say.
Hope everyone made the most of the occasion: here, there, and everywhere.
A very quiet Thanksgiving for me. By myself, no special meal, watched some of the Macy Day Parade in the morning, some football in the evening. Rode my bike outside a bit in the relatively warm afternoon.
I’ve done Thanksgiving with family and others too, and that’s nice, but sometimes a ‘down day’ just by oneself is the best kind of holiday. I absolutely despise the doorbuster sales Thanksgiving night, as it encroaches on trying to make every holiday uber-commercial and hectic. Thanksgiving remains perhaps the least-commercialized holiday, and I’d like to keep mine that way.
Thanksgiving this year. Gad. At least I’m out of the hospital and can sort of get around, so I’m grateful — very — for that. Our local grocery store, one of two in the county, puts on a pretty decent feed for those of us who don’t want to or can’t cook up a personal/family feast, and I’m grateful that they had everything necessary, most already prepared, for our own Thanksgiving spread. We ate well and the cats had their share, but then they got too excited, and we had to encourage them outside. There was a slight snowfall overnight. They camped out in the greenhouse.
It’s hard to come up with a positive future for our faltering empire. Canadians, I think, are lucky — certainly compared to Britain, and more and more compared to the USofA. But what afflicts us also will affect the thawing Frozen North. Who will be spared? Few in the end, right?
We do what we can. Be an example. Each of us can endeavour to be a good example and to help others to the extent we can. What will be will be, but it’s still possible to counter some of the worst of it on the personal and community level. I’m grateful for that, too.
One time a co-worker told me her husband and his friend had shot a wild turkey and they would be eating that for that particular Thanksgiving. I asked if I could have the carcass when done and she said sure.
Next day she told me her husband had gotten to the carcass first and had thrown it into the woods for the beasts of the forest. Perhaps a sacrifice-offering. It made me sad and disappointed at the time.
It isn’t Thanksgiving without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, marshmallow yams, pumpkin pie, and that green bean mushroom soup crunchy onion thing, in a room full of crying toddlers, football games, and sleeping men.
Fortunately, it’ll be a full year before I’ll again have to have to deal with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, marshmallow yams, pumpkin pie, and that green bean mushroom soup crunchy onion thing, in a room full of crying toddlers, football games, and sleeping men.
Trinity
Happy (very) Belated Thanksgiving to you and yours, Ian. I forget our northern neighbors celebrate the harvest in early October. I hope you are doing well, and it’s for sure you are still doing a great job here.
And Happy Thanksgiving to all the USians reading this, with also warmest wishes for the international readers.
Eric Anderson
Thanks Ian. Got the whole fam damily in the house. I’ll be grateful if we all walk away w/o covid.
different clue
I am here at work ( on lunch break ) making the big overtime money working on Thanksgiving. Some of the nursing units here and there have potlucks during Thanksgiving and one of the nursing units on my drug delivery route graciously permitted me to freeload off of their potluck. So I am eating some good food.
I found out some years ago that most modern present-day people don’t save the after-Thanksgiving carcasse for maximum use the way people used to. They just throw it out. So I decided to ask some co-workers who just throw the carcasse out otherwise if they could bring it in for me instead. The skeletons are still full of tedious-to-remove bits and strips of meat. I carefully strip all that off to use as meat and then low-steam the bones to get all the good stock flavor out. I then set that aside. Then I pressure cook the bones till they are soft enough to bash and grind and crush into turkey bone mush. I get all the soluble protein and minerals out of the bone mush which I possibly can and then throw the residual bone-sand into my garden. And I mix that bone extract back into the stock for good flavor and smooth mouthfeel and mineral nutrition.
Its one of the high points of my year.
sbt42
This was my first Thanksgiving among others for several years. I typically don’t celebrate any holidays, but now that I’m living “in community” and attempting to embrace a homesteading lifestyle, holidays and other special occasions throughout the colder (that is, snow-covered) months are a pretty big deal around here. I’m adjusting all right, I’d say.
Hope everyone made the most of the occasion: here, there, and everywhere.
sbt42
@different clue: there’s a -massive- stock pot on the stove right now. It’s been simmering since last night. We’re doing the same things here. 🙂
StewartM
A very quiet Thanksgiving for me. By myself, no special meal, watched some of the Macy Day Parade in the morning, some football in the evening. Rode my bike outside a bit in the relatively warm afternoon.
I’ve done Thanksgiving with family and others too, and that’s nice, but sometimes a ‘down day’ just by oneself is the best kind of holiday. I absolutely despise the doorbuster sales Thanksgiving night, as it encroaches on trying to make every holiday uber-commercial and hectic. Thanksgiving remains perhaps the least-commercialized holiday, and I’d like to keep mine that way.
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to everyone.
Ché Pasa
Thanksgiving this year. Gad. At least I’m out of the hospital and can sort of get around, so I’m grateful — very — for that. Our local grocery store, one of two in the county, puts on a pretty decent feed for those of us who don’t want to or can’t cook up a personal/family feast, and I’m grateful that they had everything necessary, most already prepared, for our own Thanksgiving spread. We ate well and the cats had their share, but then they got too excited, and we had to encourage them outside. There was a slight snowfall overnight. They camped out in the greenhouse.
It’s hard to come up with a positive future for our faltering empire. Canadians, I think, are lucky — certainly compared to Britain, and more and more compared to the USofA. But what afflicts us also will affect the thawing Frozen North. Who will be spared? Few in the end, right?
We do what we can. Be an example. Each of us can endeavour to be a good example and to help others to the extent we can. What will be will be, but it’s still possible to counter some of the worst of it on the personal and community level. I’m grateful for that, too.
anon y'mouse
Happy Thanksgiving, Ian. Thank you for hosting this place and publishing stupid comments from stupid commentators.
*ahhem
different clue
@sbt42,
Good fun, good food.
One time a co-worker told me her husband and his friend had shot a wild turkey and they would be eating that for that particular Thanksgiving. I asked if I could have the carcass when done and she said sure.
Next day she told me her husband had gotten to the carcass first and had thrown it into the woods for the beasts of the forest. Perhaps a sacrifice-offering. It made me sad and disappointed at the time.
Willy
It isn’t Thanksgiving without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, marshmallow yams, pumpkin pie, and that green bean mushroom soup crunchy onion thing, in a room full of crying toddlers, football games, and sleeping men.
Fortunately, it’ll be a full year before I’ll again have to have to deal with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, marshmallow yams, pumpkin pie, and that green bean mushroom soup crunchy onion thing, in a room full of crying toddlers, football games, and sleeping men.