Daily Jots » Thanksgiving

Best Thanksgiving Movies

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:47:47 +0000

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, during the Great Depression, the Walton family makes its small income from its saw mill on Walton’s Mountain. The story is told through the eyes of John Boy, who wants to be a novelist, goes to college, and eventually fulfills his dream. The saga follows the family through depression and war, and through growing up, school, courtship, marriage, employment, birth, aging, illness and death.

Lovely Linda Mason has crooner Jim Hardy head over heels, but suave stepper Ted Hanover wants her for his new dance partner after femme fatale Lila Dixon gives him the brush. Jim’s supper club, Holiday Inn, is the setting for the chase by Hanover and manager Danny Reed. The music’s the thing. And be sure to listen for the song… “I’ve Got Plenty To Be Thankful For” by Bing Crosby. And while I usually pull out this movie for Christmas, I can see why it makes so many lists for the top movies for Thanksgiving!!

In LA’s Fairfax district, where ethnic groups abound, four households celebrate Thanksgiving amidst family tensions. In the Nguyen family, the children’s acculturation and immigrant parents’ fears collide. In the Avila family, Isabel’s son has invited her estranged husband to their family dinner. Audrey and Ron Williams want to keep their own family’s ruptures secret from Ron’s visiting mother. In the Seelig household, Herb and Ruth are unwilling to discuss openly their grown daughter’s living with her lover, Carla. Around each table, things come to a head. A gun, an affair, a boyfriend, and a pregnancy precipitate crises forcing each family to find its center.

During a Thanksgiving Day party we make aquaintance with a numerous and problematic family. The leading characters are three sisters: Lee, the woman of Frederick, an old misanthrope painter; Holly, who dreams of becoming a writer, or an actress, or who knows who…; Hannah, famous actress, beautiful, intelligent, good mother, good wife, good sister, in short perfect, the pivot of the family. The balance begins to break up when Hannah’s husband, Elliot, falls in love with Lee, who leaves Frederick. Holly goes through a deep crisis and meets Mickey, the former husband of Hannah, a hipocondriac TV producer. The affairs evolve and at the last Thanksgiving …

After losing her job, making out with her soon to be ex-boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson has to face spending the holiday with her family. She wonders if she can survive their crazy antics.

April Burns (Holmes) invites her family to Thanksgiving dinner at her teeny apartment on New York’s Lower East Side. As they make their way to the city from suburban Pennsylvania, April must endure a comedy of errors – like finding out her oven doesn’t work – in order to pull off the big event. And yes, that is the new Mrs. Cruise!

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How to make room for Thanksgiving guests…

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:44:35 +0000

Now I have to admit, I first picked this how to because of the picture. It simply struck me funny, but the advice is “right on” as well! Makes a lot of sense, just in case you find yourself with 27 guests to find space for this coming Thanksgiving and I’m sure that someone is pulling their hair out right about now!!

How to find room…

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Canadian Thanksgiving vs American Thanksgiving

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:36:36 +0000

Have you ever wondered why Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving six and a half weeks before the Americans? Well, I sort of stumbled upon the reason just this morning. I was going through my bookshelf and found… Now You Know… More! I began thumbing through it and found that there was a time when both countries celebrated the same date. It wasn’t until 1957 that Canada decided (because of a shorter growing season) to back it up six weeks. So that is why you celebrate in at the end of November and we celebrate it on the second Monday in October.

But I see nothing wrong in celebrating both dates! You can’t have enough of a good thing!

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Your Very First Thanksgiving

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 17:13:12 +0000

Not being the cook in the family, I wouldn’t know where to start if someone suggested that I cook dinner. At least with my family, they would know what to expect and probably all bring a dish that would lend to a Pot Luck style of Thanksgiving. But I was doing a bit of searching around for advice and found this page. That very question was posed to a lot of celebrity cooks and they all had some great advice to offer.

My favorite has to be…
Invite mom over.
George Duran

lol… but just in case you can’t hand all the planning/cooking over to mom, there is still a lot of advice waiting to be shared over at The Food Network.

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Fancy Up Your Pumpkin Pie

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:29:38 +0000

Well, you must know by now that I am more apt to dump in a can of prepared pumpkin pie filling than, make the filling from scratch, but it’s the crust that grabbed my attention.

I wonder how hard it would be to mix up a bag of pie dough, roll it out and then using a tiny cookie cutter, cut out about a zillion little leaves for the edging and the center of the pie? The crust I can already buy, so all I would have to do is add the tiny leaves. Now how hard could that be?

You’ve never seen me cook have you!

From Scratch Recipe

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The Guest List

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:48:17 +0000

That’s what today’s question is all about. Just how many people will be sitting around your Thanksgiving Table and if you could invite one extra person, who would it be? It could be someone living or dead, celebrity or even a historical figure.

So, who is it going to be for this year? Personally, I think that it would be my grandparents. I would love to ask them all of those questions that I never got around to askiing them. And oh yes, I would bring back dad and my little sister too. I have a lot of questions that I could ask them as well.

*Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember (Family Life Books)

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Your Thanksgiving Cookbook

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:48:54 +0000

A lot of people prefer to serve the same meal every year, but I was thinking that it might be nice to perhaps introduce one new dish each year along with the tried and true. It would make great dinner conversation when you think about it. The family would know that you have come up with something special and everyone would get a chance to vote on whether it was a hit or miss.

And if it’s a hit, you get to add it to next years menu.

Details…

“Williams-Sonoma, purveyor of choice gourmet products and kitchenware, has also created a collection of succinct yet comprehensive cookbooks. Part of the series, Thanksgiving offers 40 recipes that reflect the company’s signature good taste. From traditional and “new” holiday starters like Butternut Squash Soup and Mixed Greens with Bacon-Wrapped Figs to desserts including Creamy Pumpkin Pie and Ginger-Pear Torte, the book offers delicious options for a hearty, homemade feast. Main-course birds, dressings, breads, and other accompaniments are represented with the likes of classic roast turkey and Hickory-Smoked Roast Turkey with Horseradish-Apple Sauce; Cornbread Dressing with Oysters and Ham; and Cranberry Sauce with Cider and Vinegar, while a chapter entirely devoted to potatoes provides exemplary “mashed” formulas as well as Candied Yams and a knockout Two-Potato Gratin with Cheese.”

Thanksgiving (Williams-Sonoma)

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Super Simple Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:33:56 +0000

As long as you have a few rubber bands handy, you are almost done. I told you that this was a super simple centerpiece. And if you don’t have any veggies handy, you can pretty much use whatever you have on hand to decorate the candles. The same directions would apply. I’m off to see if I have any white candles in the house. If not, I get to go shopping again!

Directions

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The Thanksgiving Table

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:33:36 +0000

I know that you could use your regular dishes, but there is just something special about getting out holiday dishes that you only use once a year. Yes, I know that it is decadent, but I still want them anyway!

So, here’s an idea. I could use them for our Thanksgiving in October and then again when I celebrate your Thanksgiving later this month. So, you get a two for one special! And what’s wrong with giving thanks… twice a year!

*Churchill Thanksgiving Turkey Multi Colors 47-Piece Dinnerware Set, Service for 8

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Sweet Potato Pie

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:08:45 +0000

I wonder just how many people serve Sweet Potato Pie for Thanksgiving? I’m only wondering because up here, it is traditional to serve Pumpkin Pie. Only problem is… I’m the only one who likes pumpkin pie so we rarely serve it. I don’t like to think about my waistline about a week later because I would probably end up eating the entire pie.

Now to remedy that, the obvious answer would be to invite a zillion people to dinner. Yeah, I know that our thanksgiving is over, but hey… I can celebrate American holidays too.

Here are the ingredients, just in case you are sitting on the fence…

1 (1 pound) sweet potato
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

And here are the directions…

On a different note, I wonder if there is much difference between pumpkin and sweet potato?

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