Friday 23 November 2012

Thank you and…….


When I lived in America the one holiday ..... the name given to any day of mass celebration...... I really embraced was Thanks Giving. It’s brilliant. Absolutely everybody goes to see family and if you’re a foreigner abroad they insist you join in …. all are welcome. Everything shuts down from Thursday through Sunday, tumbleweed blows through the empty streets. Even in Manhattan. They eat turkey and cranberry which sometimes comes in a can …… a can shaped lump of cranberry jelly sliced…… and stuffing and sweet potatoes. Sometimes they put sweet marshmallows in the sweet potatoes using recipes that their great grandmother’s used and it’s really sweet. And pies. Americans are mad for pies. They call pastry crust. Where as we might call a crust base with loads of apples or plums or pecans on top, a tart, they call it a pie. Where as we might call a tart with a pastry lid, a pie, they call it a double crust. They make pumpkin pies for Thanks Giving. They also make apple pie and cherry pie and cream-cheese pie and blueberry pie and…. I could go on. All the pies are good… just like mom used to make……and come with cream or ice-cream. Americans love their ice-cream too. When I was a teenager I briefly went out with a boy who lived with his parents in London. I went to visit him and he gave me walnut and maple syrup ice-cream, American ice-cream, kept in the freezer in a large silver tin, bought from a special shop that sold things like walnut and maple syrup ice-cream. This was food of the gods. And Americans. I had never tasted walnut and maple syrup ice-cream. Such things only existed in the movies along with blue-cheese dressing, sushi and Mexican food. The most exciting ice-cream event in my house was the arrival of the Arctic Roll, knocking the slab of Neapolitan off its exotic perch.
Back in Blighty I don’t usually celebrate Thanks Giving but this year, having been in touch with my Manhattan mates to make sure they’re all safe and sound, I got a taste for turkey. So, after much searching I found a small, ready-to-roast piece in M&S and we had our own little celebration. I did a kind of Ottolenghi version with red rice, puy lentils and butternut squash, crispy onions, chili and cranberry stuffing. I didn't make a pie, I made Nigella's Bakewell Tart which turned out remakably well  ……. and I gave thanks.

Top tip: respect flood water…..stay in!!

17 comments:

  1. Oh that looks tasty! Bakewell Tart; now I have to go look it up.

    We skipped turkey at our house; instead we had things like mussels, salmon, roasted potatoes and......drumroll please!.....a turtle cheesecake.

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  2. Your homage to Thanksgiving looks delicious ......... I always feel sorry for the humble turkey. It gets such a bad press but, my family would be horrified if we had anything else on Christmas Day and, like every bride always looks beautiful, our turkey always tastes delicious ( even if it doesn't !!!! ) Can't stay in as we are off to the Cotswolds tomorrow so, I hope that we can avoid the floods ! XXXX

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  3. Your observations about the different British and American terms for pie/pastry made me laugh! Thanks for the lovely reminiscences.

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  4. You've got me slobbering over the keyboard, how delicious that looks! x

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  5. What a good idea, I love the idea of celebrating, whatever the reason!

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  6. That all looks delicious. I make Delia's cranberry sauce at Christmas which is scrumptious. How lovely to have your own Thanksgiving feast!

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  7. Cranberry jelly really does do something for the Turkey. The North American version of Nigella is a woman called Martha Stewart. A domestic goddess that cooks, crafts, decorates, whatever.

    Jelly in the can is sort of a joke food, especially when served as a log and sliced. Most Canadians are classier than that and serve the jelly with cranberries in it in a dish and we do all of this in October.

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  8. The marshmallow and jello as an accompaniment at dinner, bamboozled me the first time I saw it arrive on a table in the US!

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  9. So agree re the Artic Roll and Neopolitan! Those were the days! I should be american, I love pastry, its a huge downfall of mine, like bread!

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  10. Arctic roll - topped with a ring of pineapple, with a glace cherry in the centre!
    Skyfall - is there only me that has spotted the total epic flaw in the story line? (spoiler alert!) They would have got away with it if the gamekeeper had not flashed his friggin torch with such abandon! The glow of the burning house should have been enough to light his way for Gods sake - given that he'd been roaming those moors all his life! I though it was a super stylish film though xxxxxx

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  11. Oooh, Diane, I am having to keep my eyes firmly fixed on the keyboard as I write this. Some of us haven't seen it yet!

    Americans need more holidays. I don't know how they survive on such meagre rations.

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  12. Wow - your bakewell tart looks fabulous _ I wish I wasn't so lazy about baking. All the thanksgiving foods are my faves - spuds and gravy and a bird - you can't beat it. Also however cynical one is - and I'm pretty curmudgeonly - it forces you to give thanks.

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  13. Such a lovely description of this celebration! As "holidays" go Thanksgiving is a pretty good one as it's all family and food and the occasional nap!

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  14. Love having a view of Thanksgiving from outside the holiday! I'm not a huge pie fan (I know, I should be banned from the U.S.!), but I like a tiny bit of pumpkin pie with my whipped cream.

    Your meal sounds lovely!

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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  15. Well, isn't that the most delightful post. (I've never had maple syrup ice cream either, but just say the word.)

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  16. I still think the traditional English accompaniments of sprouts and roast potatoes can't be improved upon; but to each their own. I wish I had an M & S down the road.

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  17. Oh yum, you made me all hungry with your beautiful post. We had tons of pies and many bowls on pumpkin soup over the weekend. It was lovely. Kisses

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