Hello ‘cados, HP here with a thread for folks to talk about/offer advise/share photos/post recipes and resources, etc for the US Thanksgiving holiday, which is generally observed on November 27th.

I chose the header image because I think that it captures what our family really loves about Thanksgiving; the opportunity to come together and acknowledge how important we are to each other, and to commune in gratitude. I love the way that ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’, as with many of the 70s Charlie Brown specials, demonstrates that it’s not about the trappings of the day, but instead about friendship, and being grateful for what we do have.

And- it’s fun to cook! The other reason we really get excited for Thanksgiving is that we love cooking as a family. We all get up on Thanksgiving morning (and this year, we’re starting with some evening prep the evening before) and buzz in and out of the kitchen, taking breaks to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and to make sure we’re recording the Westminster Dog Show to watch later. We stockpile ingredients over the week, making small grocery runs until we have everything to make everything we love to eat, from butter rolls to cranberry sauce to baked mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and chocolate pie. We usually have leftovers for days!

The Thanksgiving holiday has a long, contested, and sometimes fraught history, but it is also a remarkably interesting US holiday. For example, I came across this interesting story about the first vegetarian Thanksgiving:

https://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/vegetarian-thanksgiving

I also thought I’d share a few websites that might offer some ideas/inspiration for those who are cooking/hosting/etc:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/thanksgiving-survival-guide

Here’s the generally very reliable King Arthur guide!

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/occasions/thanksgiving

Another reliable place for recipes, but beware, they paywall their recipes (one workaround I’ve found is to google the recipe with the title and ‘cook’s illustrated’ or ‘america’s test kitchen’-blogs often ‘adapt’ the recipes)

Then, of course, there’s r/cooking and r/baking:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking

https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and feel free to share any other recipes/resources/menus/etc below!