Interwoven, enlaced

How we embrace Thanksgiving in London | 18.11.23

It is stereotypically stressful, borderline unpleasant, reluctantly endured, historically thorny, but to me it has always signified a day intended solely to bring people together, to eat, absent material gain or religious fervour. There isn’t another example like it in the cultures my family navigates, and I love it. I love Thanksgiving. I’ve celebrated it always, I’ve written about it often — here, here, here, here, here, and here, and here, and here !

If you had an opportunity to scan through some of the articles I’ve linked to above, you will know what a special place Thanksgiving holds in my life (our lives), but, also, that finding our idiomatic feet of Thanksgiving in London, where the holiday is wedged within a regular work/school week, has been unsteady. (We’ve already established that celebrating on the weekend just doesn’t work, the point is to be cooking a turkey on the same day as pretty much the entire population of the United States.)

This year, though, feels good. A group of friends is crystallising around the celebration, it is starting, once again, to feel familiar. I am so looking forward to it.

I have already made cranberry sauce.

I am (re)reading Sam Sifton’s Thanksgiving book, which I do every year. It’s inspiring and composing all at once.

I have counted the chairs and the plates and will buy some soup bowls I promise though we won’t need soup bowls** …

I have a list of things that need to be done ahead of time :

• Check that tablecloths are clean and ironed so as not to spend Thursday morning ironing (I speak of this knowingly …).

• Remind our friends to each bring a dessert, this is our tradition. I wouldn’t presume to give suggestions, the design is surprise, but here are some things I might bring along if roles were inverted.
The best, legitimately ‘award-winning’ pumpkin pie
Pecan pie — always my favourite
Pecan bars whose recipe I tweaked over the years and have finally nailed
Cranberry lemon squares which have a real zing and are sure to revive the party
David Tanis’s illustrious cranberry curd tart which Thomas cannot resist making every year …

• Figure out how to cobble together a table (tables) to fit 20+ people, plus a side table for the food would be nice.

• Make stock

Things I must remember on Thursday morning :

• Start early by pre-mixing a cocktail

The rest of the day will be negotiated elastically around the creation of a meal that will include :

Turkey

Valeryn-Monroe stuffing

Cranberry sauce
Roast carrots and parsnips
Mashed potatoes
Green celeriac mash
Alison Roman’s very crunchy salad with fennel, apple, radicchio, and pecans

A pause

And many, many desserts, I don’t yet know which kind.

Happy week, and a very happy Thanksgiving if you are celebrating!

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** Thomas and I have an ongoing couple-threatening argument about the fact that we don’t have any decent soup bowls. I agree with him, but I can’t find perfect soup bowls. He, on the other hand, would have acquired any old ones 5 years ago … Every year before Thanksgiving the discussion is reignited, even though I have long since stopped making soup for Thanksgiving. But Christmas looms, and we will need soup bowls for Christmas …