Injecting New Life into Turkey Day

The mention of Thanksgiving dinner probably brings up memories of eating large, unhealthy portions of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie; enjoying them to the point that you don’t pay any mind to the fact that the portions you consumed were large and unhealthy.  While the holiday also brings up other images of various family members falling asleep on the couch or the Detroit Lions getting blown out by halftime, the primary mental focus of Thanksgivings past tends to be around food.  However, the older we get, these memories tend to run together and form one concentrated blob of thought, much like Neapolitan ice cream that has felt a little too much heat.  And contrary to what may or may not be popular belief, this blending in our brains is not the by-product of our ever-increasing age.  Rather, it is because we tend to snack on the same appetizers and make the same side dishes year upon year upon year.  As a result, it is a meal that, even though loads of preparation goes into the meal, it is not necessarily accompanied by a lot of thought.  The flavors that are produced are great, naturally, but they tend to be a little bit robotic in nature.  If anything – and this is said at the risk of sounding sacrilegious – this sense of super familiarity has quite possibly caused Thanksgiving dinner to be a rather boring affair. 

In and of itself, this is not a bad thing.  In this case, such easy awareness has its advantages, especially since we all know how well food ties into memories.  However, we as a whole have become more adventurous, more curious, and much more willing to think outside the box when it comes to our dining habits over the past several years.  What’s more, we normally tend to use special occasions to indulge in refined dining opportunities; experiences where exquisite food and fine wine are practically required.  Based on this, we should be able to take a holiday like Thanksgiving – a day that certainly falls into this previously mentioned special occasion category – look at its food, and play within its time-honored culinary parameters a little bit, right?  Now, this doesn’t mean going completely off the rails and start preparing parts of a turkey’s digestive or cardiovascular systems as appetizers to munch on during the tail-end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  But it does mean it may be time to take what we have long perceived as your classic Thanksgiving meal and turn it up to a level of elegance that we typically reserve for other cherished moments in our lives.

In reality, pulling off this feat is not all that difficult.  In fact, the first step in pumping new life into the Thanksgiving dining experience has nothing to do with eating whatsoever.  Instead, it has everything to do with the type of ambience to set for your entourage, so the group can get fully invested in the refreshed approach to the meal.  Rather than blasting the dining room with the din of the afternoon football game, try filling the air with some classical music.  Or if the thought of Bach or Beethoven bores you, going media silent and allowing the natural sounds of the meal take over is a terrific option, especially since doing so more than likely means that everyone at the table will be able to converse in regular voices without fear of being drowned out by some outside audio force.  Admittedly, this step may be a little difficult to follow if you are in a family of gridiron fanatics.  However, considering this year’s afternoon game is a painfully dreadful matchup between the Dolphins and the Cowboys, you will be practically doing them a favor by killing the tube for a couple of hours.

Once the proper ambience is set, the best way to supplement its presence is to have a few nice hors d’oeuvres on hand, ones that go beyond a dish of sweet pickles or a nut-encrusted cheese log.  Indeed, cyberspace is loaded with a wealth of ideas for pre-meal snacks utilizing seasonal ingredients that will really bring the holiday home.  Yes, you may have an affinity for putting out a bowl of black olives and buttery crackers every year, but imagine how impressed your guests will be if they had the option of digging into, say, a butternut squash turnover or curried pumpkin seeds to go along with your traditional snacks.

Of course, the appetizers will serve a preview of the delights to come when the Thanksgiving meal is served.  Therefore a slight departure from your main feast is in order.  While there is no replacement your family’s favorite turkey recipe or preparation here – and really, there should not be one, no matter how much your palate is haunted by your aunt’s bone-dry bird you were forced to eat as a kid – some of the traditional sides can be doctored to turn them into a more sophisticated accompaniment to the featured fowl.  Try infusing your cranberry sauce with some maple syrup and Grand Marnier.  Reinvent your sweet potato side dish as a roasted salad mixed with bacon vinaigrette.  Touches such as these will add a dash of intrigue to a meal without sacrificing any of its traditional gut-busting tendencies.  In fact, it may bring the need to loosen your belt around even quicker than normal.

And if you are going to kick your food up a notch, you had better do the same thing with your wine offerings.  Really, this should be a bit of a no-brainer, anyway.  After all, Thanksgiving is a meal shared with people you love, so why skimp in the beverage department?  By all means, put the $15 bottle of merlot back in your wine cellar and open that $80 bottle of cabernet sauvignon that you have been saving for a special occasion.  Considering Thanksgiving is a day where people may fly thousands of miles from all over just for the chance to dine with you at your home, occasions really don’t get much more special. 

Ultimately, that’s the goal that you want to create with every Thanksgiving dinner you create.  You want to make it an exceptionally treasured gathering and not just some routine calendar-dictated obligation that fades into a haze of forgetfulness within days of the occasion.  By enhancing the Thanksgiving eating experience with a few upscale upgrades, you will indeed make the meal into an event your guests won’t soon forget.  Just know that even after you implement these ideas, there will still be more fun to be had at the kids’ table.  There always is more fun to be had at the kids’ table. 

By Rich Manning