Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Here’s wishing each of you a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!!!

What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?
Little is known about the first Thanksgiving dinner in the Plimoth Colony in October 1621, attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 Wampanoag American Indian men in what is now Massachusetts.
We do know that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast, and that the colonists shot wild fowl—which may have been geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form, or forms, of Indian corn were also served.
But Jennifer Monac, spokesperson for the living-history museum Plimoth Plantation, said the feasters likely supplemented their venison and birds with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, and wheat flour, as well as vegetables such as pumpkin, squash, carrots, and peas.
“They ate seasonally,” Monac said in 2009, “and this was the time of the year when they were really feasting. There were lots of vegetables around, because the harvest had been brought in.”
Much of what we consider traditional Thanksgiving fare was unknown at the first Thanksgiving. Potatoes and sweet potatoes hadn’t yet become staples of the English diet, for example. And cranberry sauce requires sugar—an expensive delicacy in the 1600s. Likewise, pumpkin pie went missing due to a lack of crust ingredients.
And the whole food coma thing?  Well, that’s yet another myth…
It’s not the tryptophan in the turkey, it’s the booze, the amount of food (those second and third helpings of Granny’s sweet potato casserole and the pumpkin pie), and the sheer relaxation (other than the family fights/looney Uncle) and not having to work the next day…
A look back in time at a Navy Thanksgiving Menu… From soup to nuts!
And please, when you do sit down for your Thanksgiving, say a prayer for all our men and women serving in the military wherever they may be, and remember too our LEOs, Fire and EMS folks that are on the front lines here at home every day.
And I can’t resist! As God as my witness…

Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!!! — 20 Comments

  1. I love that episode of WKRP.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I’m doing an 18 pound bird on the smoker with some pecan and hickory. Brined and rubbed. Please, God, don’t let me screw this up.

    I know it’s going to be a good day today. As I was slowly waking up, passing through that strange dream state just before coming fully awake, all I remember is somebody in my brain yelling “It’s Thanksgiving! Bring forth the sacrifice! And another voice chiming in: “Oh great, another Aztec holiday.” (There’s a lot of shady characters in my head).

  2. Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkeys be tasty and your gravy boats be full.

    It doesn’t matter if it came out of a can or out of a pan, I ain’t eating no cran!

  3. The very best active duty Thanksgiving dinner I had was aboard the USS William R. Rush, (DD-714) when she was stationed at Fort Schuyler in the North Bronx.
    We were a support ship for the reserves, and only manned at 2/3s of a regular crew.
    On Thanksgiving there were only a few more people aboard than the duty section, and the cooks went all out.
    Whole roasted turkeys, every side dish you could think of, and fresh baked desserts.
    If you filled every compartment of a stainless steel mess tray, you would have needed two trays to sample each item, and you still might have had to go back for another round.

    There is still much to be thankful for.

  4. Can any aviator out there explain to me why winged turkeys can’t fly but reindeer can?
    Turkeys can fly, just not very well. I think.
    WKRP for the win!

    • The commercially raised turkeys probably can’t. They were bred for meat, not aerodynamics.

  5. A Happy Thanksgiving to all. And Robert, wild turkeys can fly quite well – had a couple hanging around my place this summer.
    For all the Fire, EMS, LEO’s, and military folks working this Thanksgiving Day – Stay Alert, Stay Alive!

    • Happy thanksgiving! I don’t understand the idiots who wast to ban thanksgiving as celebrating racial destruction of non whites. The first Thanksgiving was a combined harvest feast with both sides fully participating and as I understand it the pilgrims were never slave holders. Of well the left has lots of crazy ideas!

  6. Happy Thanksgiving! We smoked our turkey for ten hours yesterday — it came out wonderfully. Twenty pounds of tasty bird.

    And because I am a weirdo, I present Steve1989’s freeze dried Thanksgiving meal: https://youtu.be/9183p7iJ5E0

  7. A young man I once mentored lives on acreage. They raised a turkey, slaughtered it this morning and are preparing it for an afternoon dinner. He and his wife are serious preppers.

    I declined their invitation as some of their other guests I loath. You can’t pick your relatives and siblings.

    My best wishes for everyone’s Thanksgiving.

  8. Good thoughts to you, NFO, all the deplorables that comment here, and everyone in your circle down there.

  9. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good turkey.

  10. Prayers and thanks to Old NFO, and all site visitors who have ‘taken the oath,’ and all your families.

  11. Guy- Yeah, dammit… That is PATHETIC! Thank you for the kind wishes. I hope your turkey day was a good one!

    Bob- Back at ya, my friend!

  12. “Soviet realism” style turkey drop… and then “CINCINNATI”. My wife came in to see what I was laughing at; I quickly scrolled back up. As she was looking, I scrolled back down to expose “CINCINNATI.” She wandered off laughing.