Thanksgiving

What does Thanksgiving mean to me?  

Thanksgiving is the end of the Harvest season and time to give thanks for the harvest, and spending time with family.  For me, being in an Italian family it means lots of food.  We use to have pasta at beginning, but had to remove it from the menu because there is always so much food.

Living in New England this time of the year is exciting, there is definitely a chill and the air, the leaves are just about gone and that means snow is on the way.  And it's the beginning of the Christmas season.

How do I celebrate Thanksgiving?

We have a very large dining room table that is filled with family, lots of noise and conversation.   Once we get to the house where dinner is being served, we start with a toast to the family members who are no longer with us.  Then the chaos begins, with several bottles of good red wine, and the wonderful dinner.

What kind of dishes do we serve?

The traditional kinds of dishes for this holiday:

Turkey that is roasted without stuffing (but we do make stuffing and make it separate from the Turkey).

Sausage / potato stuffing

Brussell sprouts, or string beans

Stuffed artichokes

Homemade bread 

Roasted chestnuts with red wine ( this is usually at the end of the meal before coffee or desserts)

Italian coffee with Sambuca, this is suppose to help us digest

Desserts:

Pumpkin pie

Squash pie

Italian pizzelles

Canolis filled with ricotta cheese 

What is my favourite:  

My favorite is the stuffed artichokes,  cranberry sauce (we are lucky to have so many cranberry bogs in Massachusetts, and the harvest of the cranberries just happened the end of October.  Of course red wine,  and finishing touch the italian coffee.

Here are a few fotos of the foods that we have.  

Stuffed Artichokes

Sausage / Potato stuffing

Pizzelles 

I want to thank Catherine Bedson from farmhousehome for asking me to describe Thanksgiving in the US.

I will post more fotos after Thanksgiving so that you can see what it all looks like.