When you think of Thanksgiving dinners you traditionally think of turkey, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. According to history.com turkey may have been the only traditional item that was on the menu. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated with “wild fowl” which could have been turkey, but it also could have been ducks, geese, cranes, swans, or partridges. The only other meat that was served besides the “wild fowl” was venison, deer meat.
Since “traditional” Thanksgiving meals are today’s traditions and not the food that was really eaten, a Thanksgiving meal can be anything you choose to celebrate with and eat. A fun Thanksgiving meal might be to “create” your own Thanksgiving meals.
Fun Thanksgiving Meals
A fun Thanksgiving meal could be to recreate what the pilgrims ate. For this Thanksgiving, try deer meat, beans, cooked pumpkins not in pies, peas, lettuce and onions. You could have a salad, a green bean casserole, peas, and sweetened pumpkin pudding.
Start your own Thanksgiving meal tradition. Maybe take one favorite dish of everyone in the household and have a favorites meal. Everyone will be Thankful for that. Maybe your favorite dish is a Cornish hen, your husband likes creamed corn or creamed peas, the kids love macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes. You will have at least one dish for everyone that will eat. For a dessert, try to pick something everyone likes.
If you are having guests over for Thanksgiving maybe find out a little bit about them. If you want to have an interesting Thanksgiving meal that is fun and educational, cook a dish from the country of their family’s origin. My husband’s family is from Italy. They like to cook lasagna, and stuffed shells. Then, you have my side of the family that can be traced to Greek origination. For an interesting meal that would be fun, we could fix some Greek dishes with the Italian.
Lamb and goats are traditional Greek meats for the holidays, but poultry, beef, and pork are always abundant for the Greeks as well. Bread and wine are great for meals and they are always a part of the Greek meals. For our family meal, we might have stuffed shells, sausage, bread, and wine.
If you incorporate different country’s traditions into your Thanksgiving meal, not only will everyone have fun, but it will be an educational experience as well. The reason for the Thanksgiving celebration, was to show thanks for everything that was given, and everything that was given by God. Whether you believe in God or not, you should still be thankful for what you have. Thanksgiving celebrations are a great way to express thanks and joy. So have a fun Thanksgiving dinner.
