This is a Thanksgiving blog, but it starts with a Christmas dinner.
It was not a dark and stormy night, but a pleasant Christmas Day several years ago. The Fair Family gathered about the table for a variety of sumptuous treats, including a smoked ham with honey glaze.
Everyone commented on how wonderful the ham was and my daughter said it was too bad we couldn’t have ham at Thanksgiving because we all liked it better than turkey.
A quiet settled over the table and the American revolutionary spirit welled up within me. Being a student of history, I knew there was nothing in the US Constitution or Declaration of Independence about turkey on Thanksgiving. There was tradition, but turkey on Thanksgiving isn’t a law (although I’m sure our federal government has regulations about how turkeys must be raised, slaughtered and plucked – and a 200-page binder of nutritional information and scientific analysis of the protein content of a turkey toe).
But regardless of tradition and the fear of being ostracized by friends and neighbors, I made my brave statement of freedom:
“Henceforth, the Fair Family will make ham at Thanksgiving.”
And from that time forward, starting with the following Thanksgiving, the population of American turkeys has grown by one each year – and the population of pigs has fallen by equal measure.
We still make mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie and all the other things that people make at Thanksgiving to go with turkey. But in OUR home the side dishes go with ham.
By this politically incorrect culinary statement, I mean no disrespect to the pilgrims and Native Americans who dined on turkey that first Thanksgiving. But I do wonder why people living on the shores of New England didn’t make lobster the main dish. Hmmmm…maybe next year?
