Hope everyone in the US has a lovely and delicious Thanksgiving! We are looking forward to some turkey and mashed potatoes – and cherry pie!
Tag Archives: Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!
If you are in the US, hope you are celebrating with some good eats, and maybe some turkey, too!
Filed under Holidays
The History of Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving
One of the mainstays of the American Thanksgiving Day table is pumpkin pie. But when did pumpkin pie become associated with the holiday? Though pumpkin pie has changed through the years, pumpkin, which is native to North America, may have been part of the original Thanksgiving Day feast. Recipes for pumpkin pie date back to England (pumpkins having been brought to England from the new world before the Mayflower – confusing, right?).
However, some of these early “pumpkin pie” recipes varied widely, and some had no crust, or consisted of a custard or apples baked inside of a hollowed out pumpkin itself. As legend would have it, the town of Colchester, MA delayed Thanksgiving in 1705 due to a molasses shortage that ruined any plans for pumpkin pie. The first published pumpkin pie recipe in the US appears in Amelia Simmons’ extremely popular cookbook American Cookery (1796), and in fact contains 2 variations.
No. 1. One quart (pompkin) stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg, ginger, laid into paste No. 7 or 3, and with a dough spur, cross and chequer, and baked in dishes three quarters of an hour.
No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.
By the 1800s, pies were an ingrained part of most Thanksgiving traditions, at least in the north. Pumpkin pie as we know it today usually is made with canned pumpkin, which was only introduced by Libby in the mid-20th Century. And thanks to Libby, 80% of the canned pumpkin in the US comes from one town, Morton, IL. There are so many pumpkin pie recipes out there, I can’t even begin to recommend one, but chances are you’ll be sampling a piece of pumpkin pie history this Thanksgiving!
Pumpkin Pie by Danube66
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you get to enjoy some pie today – we made a cherry one.
Filed under Holidays
Thanksgiving recipes for every state in the US
Thanksgiving is right around the corner in the US. Have you done your last minute planning and grocery shopping? We haven’t! There’s still time though, and plenty of inspiration out there for some tasty dishes. Though the traditional thanksgiving dinner is usually centered on turkey, you can really go outside the box, especially with sides. The New York Times recently posted a list of recipes, one for each state, inspired by local tastes and ingredients (purportedly). Some of the choices are pretty obvious like venison for Montana, through other choices have attracted some ridicule, like grape salad for Minnesota, which earned a slew of counter-articles. While the selection for pumpkin soup for Illinois is okay, we are personally eyeing the lobster mac n cheese from Maine. Annie’s Eats has a lovely recipe, pictured below, for another lobster mac option. Mac and Cheese itself is pretty all-American, given that its predecessor was first brought to the US by Thomas Jefferson. What do you think about the recipe choice for your state?
Lobster Mac and Cheese by Annie
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Turkey Day to those living in the USA. Hope you have all of your favorite foods! We’re especially looking forward to the pie!
Celebrating American Thanksgiving while Abroad
Happy Thanksgiving! Feliz Thanksgiving! This year we are spending Thanksgiving abroad in Lisbon, so we will have to miss out on the traditional feast. However, we are going to do the best we can in a country that isn’t too fond of turkey and with an oven that doesn’t exactly work. The Kitchn has tips to get back to basics and cook a simple Thanksgiving meal, which is what we will attempt. We know we will be buying a celebratory pie or tart, though (Do Pasteis de Nata count as miniature pies?)! As suggested by Farsickness, it is a good idea to check out celebrations in the area, but we are not really up for a Saturday night Thanksgiving at the Hard Rock Cafe, thus far the only option is Lisbon. We are definitely not alone in our Thanksgiving saudade (nostalgia), Bon Appetit is also featuring stories of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving in Rome and Lebanon.
Eating The World 