Up until a couple of years ago, it had never really occurred to me that Thanksgiving could be someone's favorite holiday. Christmas is supposed to be the big one, and that probably would have been my default answer as well. I can't pinpoint when the shift in my thinking came, but it was probably around the time I learned how to dry-brine a turkey.
Thanksgiving, I realized, is my favorite holiday.
Obviously, I love the cooking. The Mayes family feast is always spectacular, a labor of multiple days that culminates in the Thanksgiving dinner itself. Turkey with gravy (of course). Mashed potatoes and, if my older brother is on the guest list, some kind of sweet potatoes as well. Brussels sprout salad, the one dish that requires neither oven nor stove real estate. Cranberry salad, an old-fashioned Jello recipe from my great-grandma that always makes more than we can eat. Stuffing from scratch and crescent rolls from the good folks at Pillsbury. A couple additional vegetables, entirely perfunctory. Apple crisp. A store-bought pumpkin pie for my husband, who is the only person who cares about pumpkin desserts. Possibly another dessert, usually experimental and rarely repeated. It is, without fail, my favorite meal each year.
We do not go around the table to say something we're thankful for, although I'm sure my mom must have dutifully tried to establish that tradition when we were younger. I like to think we don't have to––I know, as I sit there surrounded by the dearest people in my life, to be thankful for them, for the meal before us, and for the many other tangible blessings in my life, each of which points in its own way to the intangible blessing of being known and loved by my Creator and Savior. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to celebrate such rich gifts.
Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of November.
What I Read
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (★★★★)
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, Carl Trueman (★★★★★)
If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.
What I Cooked
In making these cookies, I broke the cardinal rule of baking: never modify the recipe on the first try. I don't particularly like making cookies (who has the patience to scoop 48 individual cookies), but I love oatmeal cookies and figured I could turn these into oatmeal cookie bars fairly easily.
Happily, my rule-breaking yielded delicious results. I didn't even make the glaze/frosting as directed, and they still turned out.
I decided to make homemade bread for my Thanksgiving stuffing (dressing, technically, but stuffing just sounds better) because I hate spending $4 on a loaf of artisan bread, and I made this particular bread because I love my Dutch oven. After 2 false starts with my yeast, I finally got my dough made and left it sitting for nearly a full day.
The actual baking was super simple, and it resulted in a loaf with lots of air bubbles and a crusty exterior. The loaf isn't terribly big, and it's definitely not sandwich bread, but it would be a great bread to serve alongside soup. As for me, I sliced it up, dried it out, and found it ideal for stuffing.
What I Created
Unpublished original poem "Settling"
Original poem "Let There Be Light"
Blackout poem "The Sorrowful Departure"
It seems fitting that after our holiday of Thanksgiving, we enter into our celebration of Christmas. As we reflect in gratitude on all we have been given, we recognize that we too must give in turn, lovingly, cheerfully, and thoughtfully blessing others with gifts, tangible and intangible, that will spark thanksgiving anew.