An American Thanksgiving

So, Eating Like The World has been to five continents so far, but this entry is staying right here in Northern Michigan.  Thanksgiving (and Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I guess) is as thoroughly American as the Fourth of July, and we had a pretty decent one this year.

Most years we go to my in-laws, and we "have to" get there at a certain time, which devolves into Angel yelling that we're late, and the kids dithering about instead of putting on coats and shoes, and a sullen car ride.  The visit is a marathon of different family complaining about all the little dramas and injustices of their life while the kids get increasingly stir crazy and malignant.  The food is generally mediocre.  After the visit, the venomous debrief of all the things that ticked off one or the other of us is epic.

Not this year, though.  We stayed home.  We had Thanksgiving for our family, and it was awesome.  We planned the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy for the core.  (the Holy Four, as I call'em)  Angel wanted hash brown casserole, Evie wanted green bean casserole.  Gable wanted steak fries.

Angel started early, and baked three pies on Tuesday: Pumpkin, Caramel-Apple and Cranberry-Blueberry.  She attempted home-made pie crust instead of using refrigerated, and was properly proud of the results.  Wednesday night we mashed together the hashbrown casserole and put it in the fridge so all we'd have to do on T-Day was put it in the oven.

Thanksgiving day, Angel started with making home-made yeast rolls, which sat on the stove rising for most of the afternoon.  When in the pan, Angel brushed them with home-made honey-butter, and popped them in the oven.  Out came the most beautiful looking rolls I've seen in a long time.

When dinner time came, we assembled our plates of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, beans, casserole, cottage cheese, steak fries, rolls, and accompanied with a local red table wine.  We then went around the table and each of us related the things that we are thankful for.  And we ate.  And ate.  And ate until our stomachs felt like they were going to stage a revolt...which I suppose is the focus of Thanksgiving, at least for a lot of people.

After dinner, Angel's mom stopped by for a piece of pie and a bit of relaxation before heading over to the chaos that is the in-laws' holiday dinner.  At the end of the day, we realized just how relaxing the day had been.  And we were thankful for that, too.