Happy Thanksgiving

By

October 10, 2022

A blog post I wrote 17 years ago. Enjoy! 

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches (I live in Canada where Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October), I remember my first Thanksgiving experience in the US. My family was invited to share the meal with an older couple. We were served turkey and all the fixen’s and, of course, pumpkin pie. It tasted strange to me. I could tell that my brother and sister weren’t too keen either. Squash and pumpkins had not ever been a part of our diet before. When we got home, we children asked our parents if they had liked it. They had found it a strange taste as well.

Years went by and I became a self-sufficient farmer in Cape Breton, NS. I grew a lot of food including pumpkins. They were easy to grow and I’d developed a fondness for the pies after I learned how to make them and spice them up with enough cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The first year I lived there, I grew way too many pumpkins. I had to find ways to store it. I made pumpkin butter and canned it in cans with a canner that sealed the cans. I then made labels, having fun drawing pumpkins and listing the ingredients.

For Christmas that year, I sent my mom about a dozen cans of pumpkin butter. She didn’t open them until quite a long time after Christmas. She still was not fond of pumpkin pie. When she tasted the pumpkin butter, she loved it. It tasted so good!  She was so surprised. She asked if I could make more and send it to her for the next Christmas.

My mom died almost 3 years ago. My pumpkin pie became one of her favorite pies. She, like all my children, looked forward to eating pumpkin pies as one of the main features of our Thanksgiving meal.

Here’s how I prepare the pumpkin:

  1. I buy organic pumpkins now – my yard is too shady to grow them.

  2. I wash the pumpkin because I am going to cook it with the shell or peel on.

  3. Then I cut it in half and in half again until I have small pieces.

  4. I cut off the insides.

  5. I then cut the pumpkin into 1 – 2″ pieces.

  6. I put them all in a big pot and add water to almost cover the pumpkin pieces.

  7. I boil the pumpkin until it is soft – 15 – 20 minutes.

  8. I then fish out the pieces of pumpkin with a spoon with holes, put them in the blender and add other ingredients like sugar, milk, eggs, and spices, and blend.

  9. Blending it all together makes everything smooth and delicious. You can’t tell that the pumpkin has not been peeled.

And since I’m talking about blenders and food – I have to tell you about an easy way to make applesauce.

  1. Wash your apples

  2. Quarter them and take out the core

  3. Put them in the blender

  4. Add a bit of juice and blend

  5. Makes great tasting applesauce. It turns brown, but it tastes fresh and delicious and has the nutrition of raw apples.

Happy Thanksgiving!