Thanksgiving in New York

 I am a Southern gal. When I was growing up during the Great Depression (I wonder why they called it great?) we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. After I married and had kids, we started our own traditions of turkey and cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes covered in toasted mini marshmallows. 

Every part of the country has it's own feast traditions, I guess. And, my Long Island raised son-in-law, who does the Thanksgiving dinner at their house, fixes the Thanksgiving meal like he grew up with. 

We had turkey all right... but I never in my life 'stuffed' a bird to cook it. Back home our cornbread dressing was made in a casserole dish or baking pan. 

                      Kevin got busy with his prep work early on Thanksgiving day. 

He never uses a recipe and often ends up making way too much food because he loves creating dishes he dreams up in this head or tries to replicate from food he's eaten other places. 

I missed my cornbread dressing. His was chopped fruits, chestnuts and a small amount of bread cubes.

    We also had a ham and that was my choice of meat! 

Owen, their middle son, loved the 'southern' sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. And, we had green beans but they don't cook them long enough to suit me. I love good ole southern-style green beans that's cooked well-done with chunks of bacon and maybe a tad of onion in the pot. 

I requested a dish from several Thanksgivings ago, parsnips and carrots cooked together. I like that combination but parsnips were not something I had eaten until Kevin introduced them to me. 

Do you know we never got a picture of the food on the table or of us all gathered around it! But I guarantee it was yummy and we all were as stuffed, when we finished, as that turkey had been before it was cooked. 

There's something about family and gathering together to celebrate the harvesting of good food and the great ways we have to prepare and cook it these days. 

And, being thankful for all the blessings that we have, individually and collectively.

It was another memorable holiday for us all.