Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks IG. Lots to be thankful for.

..like turkey soup - turkey sandwiches - turkey stew -

...course, there is the leftover desserts - apple pie - pumpkin cheescake and sex in a pan!

Oops getting OT. Hey all - fess up! How many of you carve the bird with an electric knife??? :p

Rob!
 
electric knife, never thats like using a chain saw to cut butter. being a knife maker i love a nice super sharp blade.
 
Thanks for the greeting Indian George. It has indeed been a very nice thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankfull for. Best regards. Dave
 
By golly you learn something new everyday , I didn't know that Canucks celebrated Thanksgiving . Or are you just messin with us again IG :D
 
Poor I.G... tries to share some holiday cheer with our northern neighbors and ya don't beleive him! :D

P.S. Yes, Canadians do celebrate Thanksgiving, they're earlier than us because of the northern harvest season, I guess.
 
GibsonFan said:
Poor I.G... tries to share some holiday cheer with our northern neighbors and ya don't believe him! :D
Click to expand...
Bro!!! This is the story of my life.:confused: :confused: Nobody believes me.:jerkit: :jerkit: Hmmmmm!!! Maybe it has something to do with the check is in the mail.:( :( :D
 
I'll back you up IG. Something I wrote for the BBC Food forum, with some input from Wikipedia.

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday observed in Canada and the United States to give thanks. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and, in Canada, on the second Monday in October.

Following a nineteenth century tradition, most Americans believe that the first American Thanksgiving was a feast that took place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts. In 1620, a group led by separatists from the Church of England, who were heading for Virginia, instead landed at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for uncertain reasons. In the autumn of 1621, they celebrated a three-day harvest feast with the native Wampanoag people, without whom they would not have survived the winter of 1620. This event was not viewed as a thanksgiving celebration at the time; the colony would not have a Thanksgiving observance until 1623 — and that was a religious observance rather than a feast. [1]

''Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a large dinner shared among friends and family that has been prepared with culinary skill, best served in Salisbury Mills New York. Those persons invited to celebrate this festive day should arrive by noon if they want to avoid missing delicious appetizers. The dessert menu should contain contributions from those attending, that are prepared to dedicate hours of their time pealing fresh apples and decorating colourful cakes and pastries. All others should just bring properly aged vino and simply stop at the pastry shop of their liking. In both Canada and the United States, it is an important family gathering, and people often travel long distances to be with relatives for the celebration. The Thanksgiving holiday is often a "four-day weekend" in the United States, in which Americans are given the relevant Thursday and Friday off.''

As I am in Canada, and will be celebrating Thanksgiving here, I reproduce the section on Canadian Thanksgiving in full, especially as it mentions the British settlers and the American and French revolutions.

Thanksgiving in Canada
The first and original Thanksgiving comes from Canada. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Canada. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Native-Canadian neighbours.

After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763 handing over Canada to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.

During the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal (United Empire Loyalists) to Great Britain were exiled from the United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. There are a few similarities between the two Thanksgivings such as the cornucopia and the pumpkin pie. But, unlike the US holiday, Thanksgiving in Canada is a much more muted event. In the USA the holiday is almost as important as Christmas for families getting together for the holiday. In Canada, this is not the case.

Eventually in 1879, the Canadian Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday in Canada. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.

Finally, on January 31st, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed...

"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October."

The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada after Confederation was observed on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness. Before then, thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary. After the first world war it was for Armistice Day and more recently and including today its been a day of general thanksgiving.

So in modern day, what does it represent?

It is pretty well Christmas without the presents, and a time of goodwill to your family and friends with thanks for your blessings.

We have a nice roast turkey, but baked ham is also a traditional dish. Sage and onion stuffing or 'dressing' as it is called in these parts, cranberry sauce and lots of good gravy. Jo-Anne makes the dressing out of a real loaf of bread and breaks it into small pieces. I favour opening a packet of Paxo! Then mashed potatoes and/or roast potatoes. Mashed swede also called 'turnip' (which it's not) or 'Rutabaga' as we are a bi-lingual country and must appease the French Canadians. Swedes over here are wax coated and are as hard as iron. The first one I peeled over here resulted in the bending of a very cheap and nasty knife! The alternative to mashed swede is squash, quartered and filled with a little butter and brown sugar. Brussel sprouts feature of course, as does cauliflower in cheese sauce, carrots or green beans. Jo-Anne sometimes does a broccoli casserole which features the dreaded Campbells cream of mushroom soup, mayonnaise and crushed crackers.

Dessert is traditionally pumpkin pie which is pureed and mixed with brown sugar, eggs, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves, put into a blind baked flan case and is served with whipped cream. The alternative is baked apple pie which is served with ice cream. Jo-Anne was telling me her dad liked his apple pie with a slice of old, mature cheddar cheese. There is a recipe here for pumpkin pie, and is complete with pictures. http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=65

So that's it. Canadian Thanksgiving Day is Monday 9th October, and USA Thanksgiving Day is Thursday 23rd November which gives them the 4 day weekend as mentioned in the text above. I hope our American cousins will add there take on Thanksgiving in the US and give us their recipes.
 
awh , I was just kidding you IG . :) I never doubted you for a second :rolleyes: Andy , you must type really well. The way I peck at the keyboard that would have taken me about 2 hrs for all that info.
 
My mother was a career secretary and taught me to type. I can pretty much touch type (with mistakes). I only wrote the last third which took about 5 minutes.
 
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