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Song of the Week - November 14th, 2008

Whether you're having turkey or pasta, sing this song at your Thanksgiving table - we do!

Too Thin: Whisk 2 teaspoons cornstarch into 2 teaspoons cold water, or combine 1 tablespoon room-temperature butter with 1 tablespoon flour to form a paste. Whisk into 4 to 5 cups of barely simmering gravy and cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy thickens.

Too Thick: Add more of the reserved pan juices or warmed turkey or chicken broth, 1 tablespoon at a time. Or try a splash of a flavorful fortified wine, such as Madeira or sherry.

Too Pale: Try a few shakes of soy sauce, keeping in mind that paleness is only a cosmetic concern, unrelated to flavor.

I love Thanksgiving. Although I try and begin each day with a prayer of thanksgiving for all the wonderful gifts in my life, the hectic pace of the ensuing day sometimes precludes any deep thoughts for another 24 hours.

Thanksgiving, however, is an entire day devoted to the celebration of family, friends, freedom, and the bounty of our land. It’s a day to kick back and truly relish the good things in life.

The best part of Thanksgiving is the tradition of it all. As someone afflicted with holiday amnesia – What did I serve last year for Christmas dinner? Where did we ring in the New Year? Were we able to wear our spring dresses on Easter Sunday or was it snowing? – knowing that Thanksgiving dinner is pretty much the same year to year is a comforting thought. I might tweak the sweet potato recipe a bit or cook the turkey out on the grill instead of roasting it in the oven, but the major players stay the same. I’ll admit that I don’t like the meal as much as I like the fact that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year. Creativity in the kitchen is fun when entertaining a dinner party of eight, but tradition reigns when feeding the masses.

Sure, it takes a fair amount of work to get dinner on the table, but I don’t mind when I have my mother, sister and daughter beside me. In my home, there’s a camaraderie that exists between the women in the kitchen, just as there is a kinship between the men watching football in the living room and an affinity between the little cousins playing in the basement. These are our roles and we embrace them. Although I often lament through the week that the meal which took hours to prepare takes only minutes for my family to consume, part of the joy of Thanksgiving dinner is in the preparation process. I have accepted the bizarre self-realization that I am most happy when I am working hard, so suffice it to say that kitchen duty is not drudgery for me. Throw in a glass of wine and a little music and, in the words of Rachael Ray, I’m good to go.

Despite the fact that Thanksgiving is often looked upon in recent years as the beginning of the “holiday season,” in my eyes it remains a distinct and separate entity from Christmas. There are no mythical figures to worry about and no gifts to procure in advance, although I’m surprised that someone hasn’t already introduced a new tradition of a wandering Pilgrim who sneaks in through the night bearing gifts (I’m totally picturing the Burger King guy from the commercials here – scary!). Christmas is beautiful, magical and meaningful, but Thanksgiving is perfectly lovely in its simplicity.

It may sound naïve, but I think Thanksgiving is about looking at the glass as half-full: I can either be annoyed at the line at the grocery store or be happy that there is enough food to go around; I can grumble about the state of our economy or be grateful that I live in a democracy where there are people working to fix it. Our political leanings may differ and we may not always agree with our neighbors, but we have a community where people watch out for each other, care for each other and enjoy each other’s company.

So in addition to counting family, friends, and good health among my blessings, I am thankful that my life’s journey brought me to Beverly. I have crossed paths with many hardworking, intelligent, creative and compassionate individuals and I am happy to be in their company.