Recently, on United States’ Day of Thanksgiving, my mind remembered in my childhood when my family’s celebration of this holiday changed significantly for some years. When I was small, my mother would spend hours in the kitchen every Thanksgiving morning to prepare the requisite feast of a big whole cooked turkey along with many side dishes, which together were meant to represent the food that was eaten at the “First Thanksgiving” celebrated by about fifty Pilgrims, along with almost one-hundred Native Americans, after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. Although I did not notice at the time, I think my mom did not like being separated from her husband and three sons while she worked for hours in the kitchen. However, I do remember enjoying the fanciness of the feast at least as much as its delicious flavors. Continue reading →