Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my number one most favorite holiday. No presents, no religion, no obligations — the only thing one must do is eat, drink, and then eat some more.

In my family, where religion plays a minor role in our day to day lives, I would almost classify our Thanksgiving dinner as a ritual. Certain things are repeated every year, tying one meal from 1992 to another in '95 to what I will be eating tomorrow. Though not spiritual in nature, we create the ritual out of food, and out of stories.

For example, every year we talk about the time my dad yelled at the Manager of Safeway, after a supposedly fresh turkey was discovered to be frozen. As the manager meekly tried to explain the ice crystals inside of our Butterball, my dad held his ground, and sure enough, the Manager drove over a turkey for us within the hour.

Or, there is the yearly winner of "the competition," which occurs between my family, and my mom's friend Anna. Anna always brings a dessert (nearly always a delicious Linzertorte for my grandfather) to share on Thanksgiving. One Thanksgiving, she decided our yearly meal was a competition for best dessert. Since then, the stakes have been raised (not really) and many scrumptious baked goods have been consumed.

My favorite ritual, however, is the yearly nibbling of the cornbread. We have made the same cornbread stuffing from an old issue of Gourmet for year and years ( I posted a slightly augmented version on Chicagoist). The basis for the stuffing is an incredibly dry, unflavorful cornbread, which is baked, cooled, crumbled, and then baked again. Don't get me wrong — it's amazing in stuffing, it just tastes bad on its own. And yet, every year, me and my sister try to dodge my mom's swatting hands in order to snack on the cornbread. Threats, pleas, and ultimatums do nothing to dissuade us from eating the unappetizing cornbread. And that is why we do it every year.

Of course, the food helps create the ritual as well. When we switched from lemon sweet potatoes to bourbon sweet potatoes, well, that was a large change for us. I was going to list another change we have made in the meal, but to be honest, I don't think we have changed anything else within the last decade.

I'm thankful for tradition this year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Recipes to come later.