What’s up with the Popeyes Cajun Turkey? Have these states given up and are just gonna drive-thru on Thanksgiving?
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When I was dating my wife, I was invited over to her Norwegian Grandmother for Thanksgiving. They set out lefse as an appetizer, a thin potato tortilla to be served with brown sugar and butter. Unsure of what to do with it, I poured cranberry sauce on my mine. Many years later, her family still talks about my faux pas.
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Alaska: I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
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When I was a kid, we had some candle holders (and candles too I think) that had been passed down, but we put them on the tree without lighting them. Could be my grandfather got them when he was in Germany in the years prior to 1900, studying German. (We still have a number of other things he acquired, e.g., some old pewter beer steins, for example, that are REALLY cool). We never lit the candles because of the fire hazard. I really wonder how many fires resulted from those things?
(I was a last child of a last child; my dad was born when his dad was 44.)
Edited to add “prior to”
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Pumpkin cheesecake is gooood when done right.
The ultimate hybrid. (Though I must say I once made a pretty good pumpkin pie ice cream).
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The recent change in the weather got me thinking of a strange tradition a few days ago…
When you are a little kid growing up in a vaguely Christian household, the day when you bring home and decorate the Christmas tree is always special. Special even if you grow up in a family lke mine. And of course decorating the tree means bringing out items that you only see once a year. Things like the amazing red and green tree stand, the plastic water picher with “NON-POTABLE” written on the side in marker, and of course the Christmas ornaments. We had lousy ornaments, but they seemed special to me — like friends who only visit for the holidays.
But back to process of tree decorating. Hiding in one of the boxes of decorations and lights, was the container of spare ornament hooks. It was just a normal, small, Tupperware-type container filled with bent stainless steel wire hooks. “SPARE HOOKS” was written on the top, in marker. It had never been used for anything else, from what I could tell.
For me opening this box every year was mandatory, even if we didn’t need any extra hooks. Yes, it was a tradition. Because this box of hooks also contained the most horribly bizarre smell you can imagine. What was the origin of this smell? I have no idea. It wasn’t exactly organic, it wasn’t exactly metalic but it was harsh. It wasn’t a smell that slowly crept up on you. This was a smell that punched you in the nose. Slightly sweet, slightly dreadful.
I used to challenge my brother to stick his nose in there and take a good smell. He would not be persuaded. He was a bit like Bert, I was a bit like Ernie.
I can still remember the aroma. I have never encoutered it anywhere else.
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Okay, just not really being “Christian” - in the sense that we didn’t go to church, read the Bible (there were a couple in the house), or use the text of same to get people to do things - we still celebrated the major Christian holidays.
Though Mom professed to be a Methodist, one I’d define as “Solitary Eclectic”, lol. My dad had a weird relationship with religion while growing up and during and after WWII (TLTT), so that explains some of it. It was weird.
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Sounds like mine; my mother was Methodist also. My dad’s family was Unitarian, but I think my dad left the orthodoxy of that religion. We occasionally attended church, mainly when I was a Boy Scout that met in a Methodist church.
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For me as a European green bean casserole was one of those things I knew from fiction but where it took me a while to establish whether they are real or just TV tropes.
As far as I can tell, Americans really do eat green bean casserole on Thanksgiving, but they don’t all sit on the same side of their dinner table. One day I will find out if all American children have to build models of the solar system for school.
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My wife’s family is Norwegian, but that’s one that I haven’t encountered yet. Still, with butter and brown sugar it sounds pretty complete. Actually, just a bowl of butter and brown sugar is complete enough on its own. 
I would lay underneath the Christmas tree and look up inside it, watching the colorful blinking lights from the inside. We always had artificial trees and they had a weird smell. It was that once a year smell that meant a magical time with a couple of weeks off of school, Christmas specials on TV, and then new toys! I remember that smell, and the way the lights blurred and looked like colorful fireworks with my glasses off.
I still try to lay under the tree sometimes, if the cats leave enough room.
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It’s a way to include canned or frozen fruits and/or vegetables in a substance that can be large enough to feed a lot of people and seem festive.
Once upon a time, we weren’t able to get fresh produce all winter long in most of the country. The end of November is the start of that season of scarcity.
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Nope! Nor are they required to make volcanoes that erupt with baking soda.
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I blame Proposition 13 for not allowing me to do either. The papier-mache and baking soda budget was just gutted.
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Required, no. But who would pass up the opportunity.
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But I did have to make a model of a California mission. It was in about 1985, so who knows how it goes these days.
My dad helped me build it out of corrugated cardboard. It was cool, but what was important was that he took the opportunity to teach me about what an absolute genocidal fuckwad Junipero Serra was. That was never mentioned in school.
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Last I checked, kids still make those, but Serra isn’t quite as revered anymore. Not sure just how dark the history gets for those 3rd graders, though.
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My dad helped me make an electrical circuit out of scrap wood, nails, wire, and a battery and light bulb. I still don’t really understand electricity, though I knew enough to explain it to the teacher at the time, but it was fun seeing the way my dad could just scrounge up random bits of things and build something out of it. He was always building and/or fixing things. I learned that you can improvise and make something perfectly functional out of random junk; although it may not be pretty, it can get the job done as well as anything else.
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I was in fourth grade, but yeah, my father didn’t really believe in sheltering kids from the dark and horrible parts of life. I learned about a lot of things sooner than my contemporaries.
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I can confirm that green bean casserole is indeed a thing, but it seems odd to search for the recipe since it’s likely on the can of fried onions, green beans, and cream of mushroom soup. Maybe they were searching for variants after having had the same version all of their lives.
You have to order a Turkey from Popeye’s ahead of time. I don’t think they have them available for order on the day. Given the number of injuries people have each year trying to fry a turkey, I’d lean towards letting the pros do it. Also, maybe people are looking for a copy-cat recipe?
Also, obligatory:
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