Thanksgiving Traditions
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| Spode Woodland, via Belk |
Thanksgiving
is a holiday centered around family, gratitude, and tradition. As we carry on
the tradition of the earliest settlers of our land, we celebrate with the
customary feast foods.
Now, this
sounds momentous, proud, and lovely. But, the truth is, the food gets a little
monotonous. If you don't like ham or turkey, then most of the time, you're just out of luck.
In a lot
of families, the preparation of a huge meal falls on one or two people, who are
charged with meeting the dietary and taste demands of a crowd. Earlier this
week, I was talking about the meal with my aunt, the traditional hostess of our
family Thanksgiving dinner. She noted that several family members want the
dishes we serve to be exactly the same as in previous years. Now, occasionally
we mix it up a bit -- one year a second, fried turkey (whom my brother and
cousin named "Brian" after a long debate as to whether the bird
should be brined, but that's another story for another day...) was on the menu.
Sometimes, I'll try to branch out into sweet potato pie or another dish that
seems to fit. But, by and large, the menu is fixed. My mom will make pumpkin
pie, pecan pie, and broccoli casserole. My uncle and grandmother will conduct a
raging two-hour debate about whether traditional dressing or oyster dressing is
better. I'll make a hot brown on leftover turkey Thursday night. I guess that's
how traditions work.
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| via Louisville Stoneware |
Every
family has their own set of Thanksgiving customs as well. Some folks, like Lydia, are all about the football-and-sweatpants aspect of the day. Others are
hurrying up the holiday for a tryptophan-induced nap and Black Friday preparations. The lucky ones, like Cristina, can pour a bourbon and enjoy the
day. When my maternal grandmother was alive, we stood in the kitchen and took a
turn saying what we were thankful for. It was a beautiful moment of affirmation
for the adults, and the bane of the grandkids' existence. But, it's forever
etched in our memories as What You Do On Thanksgiving.
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| via Hadley Pottery |
A fun way
to mix up tradition is to add some pretty new dishes and serving pieces to your holiday table. I'm forever in love with Spode's Woodland china pattern. Someday, the Hunting Dog series will be mine. More locally, pieces from Louisville Stoneware and Hadley Pottery add a little Kentucky tradition while prettying up
your table.While my suggestions for turkey tikka masala often go ignored, at least I can spice up the holiday with these fun bird patterned china patterns!
Here's to
old traditions and a few new ones to mix things up!
What are
your Thanksgiving traditions?
College Colors
Louisville
Mayor Greg Fischer recently proclaimed today to be "College ColorsDay" in the Derby City. Louisville residents are encouraged to wear the
colors of their alma mater, their children's alma mater, their favorite
collegiate team, etc. The event, Mayor Fischer said, is designed to encourage a
college-going culture among Louisville's children.
Now, I
certainly commend the idea of encouraging college for even the youngest kid.
But the thing is, here in Kentucky, every day is College Colors Day.
This
week, my social media feed has been full of expressions of collegiate pride.
Monday and Tuesday, the Big Blue Nation was out in full force; we hate Duke allday every day, and we weren't about to let anyone forget it. Wednesday was We
Are Marshall Day, as alumni and fans remembered the tragic 1970 plane crash that claimed many of the Thundering Herd's players, coaches and boosters. By Thursday morning, we were all gearing up for U of L and UK's weekend
games. 
I've long
believed that the Commonwealth takes its collegiate alliances so seriously in
part because we don't have a professional sports franchise. Even though a lot
of us cheer for the Bengals and the Reds, it's not like we have a pro team of
our own. Our schools give us a tribe to which we can belong.
Because
so many Kentucky families are from rural areas that don't necessarily have a
long history of college attendance, we have a lot of pride in our alma maters.
We follow our schools' sports teams, their academic achievements, and their new
developments. I keep up with new happenings at Transy, and I never miss the
UK-TU exhibition game. All the Morehead State alumni in my family are pumped
for next Wednesday's game at Rupp. It's a bit of nostalgia for simpler times in
our own lives and a connection with a longstanding tradition.
I'll be
wearing blue and white today, not because I needed the reminder from Mayor
Fischer but because, in the words of sportswriter Mike Wilbon,
"It's BALL NIGHT!"
What
school's colors do you wear?
Turkey Day - One Week Away
One week from now, most of us will be cooking, searching for our holiday sweatpants or eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving Day football. For me, I'll be staying as far away from the kitchen as possible - in my sweatpants, watching the Macy's Day Parade and ready to eat copious amounts of food.
No one wants me in the kitchen unless it's time to do dishes. Every year, I somehow magically disappear when it comes to dishes time! If my family is reading - I swear it's not intentional. Of course it isn't!
I listened to a fascinating NPR interview of chef Alton Brown yesterday and realized that people really get into Thanksgiving. Traditions are important to people, that much I know, but I guess I never realized that some people feel pasionately that there is a right and wrong way to cook a turkey. Who knew that stuffing preparation (inside the bird or out?) could be such a divisive holiday issue?
I pretty much just show up to eat and nap. I do remember the year someone forgot to make the mashed potatoes. That was terrible.
That's why I decided to consult my sister to bring you some tips for Thanksgiving that are actually useful. I'm pretty sure my tips on the best strategy to maintain your comfy couch seat in the face of would-be seat stealers aren't very helpful! I can attest that she knows her way around a kitchen.
Turkey Day is a week away. Here are my sister, Kate's, best tips to make it a day that your family AND you can enjoy. It sounds like she feels there is a right and wrong way to go about Thanksgiving, too.
- Plan ahead of time and be organized. This allows you to spend as much time with friends and family and out of the kitchen!
- Fresh turkey is the best, but frozen will do. Just make sure to plan enough time to defrost!
- What is that saying, “Butter is better”? Well, it’s the truth. Fat equals flavor and there’s no better tasting fat than butter. I usually have a pound (or two) of softened butter sitting on my counter top ready to go. I use it on my turkey (flavors turkey and drippings used for gravy), in my mashed potatoes, in corn, on bread, in desserts, and anywhere else I can think of. Last year, I even used it on my son’s arm when he got it stuck in between the chair rungs.
- Nothing makes better gravy than the turkey drippings. Pour drippings into a large measuring cup. The fat will rise to the top while the dripping settle to the bottom. Skim off fat and use to make a roux. Add strained drippings and chicken stock (if necessary) to make gravy. Season to taste. Nothing is better.
- Pumpkin pie screams Thanksgiving, but it’s nothing without whipped cream.
- Thanksgiving Pantry Must-HavesButter
Sage
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Chicken Stock
Poultry Seasoning
Black Friday in KY
It's hard to believe that the time is here for Holiday Shopping!
My Mom and I used to make the 45 minute trek to Louisville every Black Friday. We'd wake up at 5 am to get to the malls by 6 am.
I can't say that I still get up that early on Black Friday, but I definitely still enjoy getting out and seeing everyone scramble around the malls looking for the best deal.
Do you plan to hit up any malls in Kentucky on Black Friday?
Louisville:
Lexington:
Stay tuned next week for a post on Small Business Saturday and locally owned businesses!
Also, if you know of any black friday deals please leave them in the comments section!
Wooly Worms
It's
going to be a bad, snowy winter, y'all.
This fact
was confirmed for me yesterday when I ran across this guy.
Like most
country girls, I grew up with a whole lot of folk wisdom. Because so many
people in my town were based in a "grow it and eat it" farming
mentality, a huge focus was put on predicting the weather. Dogwood and redbudwinters. Indian summers. And the all-knowing wooly worm.
Now, in
case you didn't know, the wooly worm is the larval stage of the Isabella tigermoth. It can be brown or black, or a mixture of the two. Conventional wisdom
has always held that the more black the wooly worms show, the worse the winter
will be. The placement of the colors can also indicate weather patterns -- a
brown band in the middle of a black wooly worm means that winter will start and
end harshly with a warm snap in the middle. It's an old-timey tradition across
the mountains -- there's even a Wooly Worm Festival in Lee County!
My high
school biology teacher had more than a bit of country naturalist in him; he
taught us that a lot of natural phenomena that reach "folk wisdom"
status are often based in scientific fact. I've read that, while there isn't a
lot of scientific data to support the wooly worm's predictive patterns, their
color patterns are affected by moisture and temperature. I also know that the
wooly worm is usually right.
Did y'all
grow up reading the wooly worm?
November Quake
Yesterday,
as I took the dogs out for a walk in the hills at my parents' house, I started
thinking about how hard it is to characterize these first few weeks of
November. It's kind of still football season, and it's kind of basketball
season. Halloween is over, and you can't really drag Thanksgiving out into a
multi-week holiday. It feels ridiculous to put up Christmas lights already, and
yet I get so excited when I see the Christmas displays at department
stores. Maybe that's why there are so many November memes -- we're all trying to figure out what the month is all
about.
Recent
weather patterns here in Kentucky certainly have added to November's identity
crisis. It was sweater weather as my beau and I left Rupp Arena Monday night;
by the end of the week, I heard talk of tee times. Now, we all know that
Kentucky weather is unpredictable -- if you don't like it, stick around a day or two and it'll change. But, this is one crazy-assed Indian summer, even by
Kentucky standards.
Just when
I thought it couldn't get any weirder around here, November decided to throw me
for a loop. I was already a little on edge today. Deer season started this
morning and I awoke to shotgun blasts reverberating throughout the holler.
Then, around noon, I was standing in my parents' kitchen making lunch when I
felt a weird rumble. A ripple of vibration made its way
across the walls of the dining room and kitchen. The china cabinet groaned and
tinkled. At first, we weren't quite sure
what had happened. My dad swore he hadn't felt anything. My mom thought it was
just her imagination. But, soon enough, we confirmed it on our very favorite
news source -- Facebook.
Now, it
wasn't anything like the kind of quake they experience on the West Coast. It
was a 4.3 magnitude earthquake in Whitesburg, which is about 45 miles away from
my parents' house. There's no significant damage to be found. Around here, my
aunt suffered a few cracks in her walls. The KSP post for Southeastern Kentucky
told the Herald-Leader that they'd received reports of "people's pictures being knocked off the wall, and ceramic figurines being broken." Nothing devastating, but certainly a
memorable flourish on a pretty late autumn day.
I guess
November just wanted to be taken a little more seriously.