November 29th, 2021

I'm back!  Did you miss me?   Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  We did!  Everything was terrific.  Great food, great company, great laughter and conversation and many things and people to be thankful for.  

Thanksgiving seems to be more food-centric than other holidays. Which makes sense. Originally it was a harvest celebration. As in, Thank Goodness there was a bountiful Harvest that will get us through to the next one.  There having been no super markets back in Pilgrim Times. If you couldn't catch it or grow it or miraculously just stumble across it already growing wild, you didn't have anything to eat.

Nowadays of course, it's just a matter of driving to my nearest Publix to provide dinner.  Although, to be fair, this year actually finding what you needed was a little trickier.  There were a few gaps on the grocery store shelves.  But I know how to pivot.  If I had one thing in mind to make and I cannot find all of the ingredients I need, I can either come up with an entirely different plan OR find a suitable substitute for whatever the missing product was.  Flexibility has never been more important.

For most people in America, I dare say that the turkey is the cornerstone of the traditional Thanksgiving Meal.  In our case, the turkey was excellent.  And it was surrounded by equally wonderful side dishes.    But you know what?  Even if you don't have turkey, it's still Thanksgiving on that Thursday.  I have certainly had untraditional T-Day meals in my life.  My mom did not enjoy cooking.  In fact, she was not enthusiastic about anything involving food.  So if it happened to be a Thanksgiving when nobody else was around other than my mom, my sister and I, we might have spaghetti for Thanksgiving.  It was still Thanksgiving, we still had a good time, we still watched the Macy's Parade in TV, and we were still thankful.  It's not just about the turkey after all.

Nope, as one person as our table this year remarked, and everyone else agreed, it's about the pie.  I provided 3 choices.  Pumpkin, as most people would agree is the quintessential Thanksgiving pie, Pecan was Tim's request and as it was also my late father's favourite  feels traditional to me and then for the 3rd pie I made a Lemon Chess pie which is not traditional at all.  While I was flipping through my recipes trying to decide what else to make I ran across this one particular old, stained and faded page and I paused.  I wondered how long it had been since I made that one.  It was so long ago, that I couldn't remember when I last put one together.  It might have been when we lived in Colorado (which would be at least  5 years ago) or it might have been Connecticut which would make it at least 15 years ago.  Wow!  That clearly indicated to me that it was high time I made another one.

Lemon Chess is a rather old fashioned pie.  You may never have even heard of it.  It's very southern in origin. Rumour has it that the name came from someone asking the inventor of this pie what it was and her answer was, "just lemon pie" in her very deep southern accent. The person listening thought she said, "Chess lemon pie" and thus the name was born.  It's kind of sweet and kind of tangy and sort of like a custard. There is no meringue topping. (though I generally serve it with plenty of whipped cream).  It was a big hit this year at Thanksgiving so hurrah for taking a chance!

It occurs to me that nowadays I only make pie at Thanksgiving. That's one time in 356 days.  That doesn't seem right. I make cookies  with fair frequency.  Muffins come out of my oven at least once a month and I make bread more often than that.   Cakes show up for birthdays. But pie?  Seems to get left out altogether.  Which is odd because pies are wonderful things!  There are so many different kinds!

One crust, two crust, fancy crust or crumbles.  Literally any fruit can be made into a pie.  Or chocolate. Or savories!  Savory pies are a wonder in and of themselves.   They can be big enough to serve everyone at the table or a small tart sized dessert or a hand pie.  They are versatile and delightful and honestly, sometimes I just roll out pie crust, butter and cinnamon/sugar it, cut and bake and call them pie crust cookies.

And frankly, for me, Thanksgiving without pie seems pointless.  The two foods I think of in relation to Thanksgiving are Turkey and Pie.  Turkey and Pie day!  And among so many other things (and people) last Thursday, we were thankful for both.

It was a great day!