Being Thankful that We Can Stuff Our Faces

A turkey isn't the only thing you can stuff on Thanksgiving. People across the nation and probably around the world are thankfully stuffing their faces too. I haven't had a "complete" thanksgiving since senior year of high schoo. That was actually the last time I was able to be home for the holiday. This is the 3rd year in a row I've spent Thanksgiving with Bill's family and this year it was different! I had a meatless turkey roast with vegetarian gravy, instant mashed potatoes, creamy corn, white rolls slathered with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! and sangria. Lots of sangria. Yum. And for dessert I had Kahlua cake (the only exception I will make for consuming dark chocolate), squash pie, pumkin pie, cranberry bread and pumkin bread- all in one sitting. Great huh? It's the only day of the year where I'm THANKFULL that I have the option of stuffing my face because I know there are so many people that unfortunately will not have the opportunity to go to bed tonight with a stomach that is as full as mine. Any other day of the year, I'd be utterly disgusted with myself. I ate all 3 meals in one sitting. But I guess that's the way things are done around here. Next year I hope to host a thanksgiving dinner of some sort and serve RICE. I still haven't figured out why rice isn't included in the meal. It could definately replace that red lumpy jiggley stuff that stared at me all throughout the dinner. Who's idea was that?

During my last year in Madrid all of us got together and had a thanksgiving dinner. I participated by volunteering to cook the turkey because apparently it's not commonplace to MARINATE the turkey so that it has some flavor and it's not all dry when you serve it. Plus the marinade is also really good with RICE! So being vegetarian, I volunteered to cook the turkey and I also made rice. I don't remember how the turkey came out but I do remember that no one even touched the rice. My feelings were slightly hurt that day. I was actually in a pissy mood that day because everyone was so caught up in re-creating the traditional thanksgiving meal that everyone has with their own families. That's what I wanted to do too. I just figured since we were such a diverse group of people that maybe our thanksgiving would be diverse too. Nope. Had to be traditional down to the stuffing- except for that the turkey was cooked by a vegetarian. (These days I won't even go NEAR a giant dead bird swimming in its own blood). Anyhow, I was in a pissy mood because all of my ideas for dishes were shot down because they weren't TRADITIONAL (the last time I was home for thanksgiving there was mexican food, pasta, rice and beans and turkey). This year, I brought 2 liters of Sangria and everyone loved it.

Tradition doesn't always have to be the same thing all the time to be traditional, now does it?

Happy Thanksgiving.