Prepping for Thanksgiving

Our soul food kitchen in Tel Aviv is chock-a-block full of frenetic energy right now, dusting off old standard recipes in preparation for Thanksgiving (creamed corn, pumpkin and sweet potato pies, roasted potato salad, etc.) and experimenting with new stuff (yam cornbread with bourbon glaze, duck foie gras with buttermilk biscuits and pickled cherries, roasted goose stuffed with spicy red rice).

I’m not exactly sure how to explain all this flurry of activity. Sure, this is an uptick in orders around the holiday. But this is Israel, where Thanksgiving is almost non-existent. And part of the increased activity is making sure our menu is down pat. Although here again, we make changes to our menu weekly, so that’s really nothing new. And I think part of the increased activity is an outlet, quite frankly, of the political anxiety I am feeling this US election season. I’m trying everything I can do to exercise some of those demons. (The simplest solution would be for Trump just to go away quietly and never be heard from again, but now I am really digressing.).

Deeper down, the explanation has to do with how much I love (and miss) Thanksgiving. Hands down my favorite holiday. When we were kids, Thanksgiving was all about pick-up games of basketball in the neighborhood and casual buffet eating around the traditional football rivalries. Or family meals with my maternal grandparents in Americus, Georgia or my paternal grandmother in Savannah. Later on, it evolved around potluck get-togethers with friends and family. These days, celebrating a strange holiday in a strange land during a strange pandemic, Thanksgiving seems all about the memories that pour out via the manic cooking in the kitchen.

I don’t think I am prepping for Thanksgiving so much as channeling everything I have experienced over the years to be grateful for.