Thanks Given

You need a pound a person. That’s what the butcher told me when I popped in to Straub’s for a fresh turkey on Friday. “But”, he said, “We don’t have fresh turkeys. You’re not going to get them until Thanksgiving.”

He suggested turkey breasts and I spent a serious moment pondering how I could pass off breasts as a full turkey dinner, but you just can’t get good gravy without the dark meat and all the rest of it. Then, I did it. I played the Canada card. I told him it was Canadian Thanksgiving. I don’t know why. Perhaps I just wanted to share knowledge. Perhaps I was just a little homesick. Perhaps I was annoyed that I couldn’t get a fresh bird in October, which is when my Canadian ancestors, with their shorter growing season, began the tradition of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest.

In the end, the butcher offered me a thawed twelve pounder, which I thought would suffice for my husband and three of his sports-obsessed buddies who’d flown down to St. Louis to catch college and pro football, hockey and baseball semi-finals. A pound a person rolls off the tongue nicely but, the reality is, it’s not enough turkey. There’s never enough turkey. Why is that?

Apparently turkey has some kind of dopamine trigger. That’s why you feel so good after you’ve eaten three heaping platefuls swimming in gravy, chased by pumpkin pie. Personally, I think it’s the company. I can’t remember a Thanksgiving dinner spent alone and for that I am always grateful. However, in Belgium, where Thanksgiving is not celebrated (it’s a “new world” custom), the weekend would come and go, with the only reminder being phone calls from back home and full reports of long weekend travels and events.

Thanksgiving is an important and universal family celebration here in the USA, as it is in Canada. For my husband and me, though, Thanksgiving means adding another chair to the table and including yet another friend at dinner. I’ve lost count of the number of meals where every chair in the house is pressed into service, squeezed around a collection of dining, kitchen, and folding card tables. Because we’ve lived far from our families for many years, we tend to celebrate with family, if possible, and with friends, always.

This weekend was no exception. On Friday, I cooked a small turkey full of stuffing, buttery mashed potatoes, cheesy Brussels sprouts, cubed turnips and sweet corn. Seven of us toasted Canadian thanksgiving, including our two kids who like nothing better than to clink glasses and say, “cheers”! As I looked around the table, I gave thanks, as always for health, family, and friends – oh yes, and for my one pound allotment of turkey!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone!