I’ll start with a quick look behind the scenes. You see this picture? Yes, the picture on the left. The Thanksgiving-oriented picture. Yes, that one.
This blog gets literally hundreds of hits a day around this time of year from people who are searching for this picture. Oh, they don’t know that this is exactly the picture that they want – at least, not until they see it. But once they see it, they come here to grab it. By the hundreds.
But that is beside the point of this post. It’s that time of year again – Thanksgiving. Some people have a nice, quiet dinner at home. Some people go to their eccentric great-aunt’s house. Others gather at the parents house. And still others go and have a respectable, civilized dinner out.
But not here at Cuisine Capers. Instead, we are descended upon by around 25 very hungry people (give or take one or two, depending on how things work out). And, I’ll point out, they are very hungry people who can eat a lot of food.
So, here’s the menu:
- 28 pound fresh turkey
- 15 – 20 lbs of mashed potatoes
- Gravy
- Wild rice and Italian Sausage stuffing
- 7 Layer salad
- Peas with pancetta and pearl onions
- Cauliflower and broccoli mixture
- Cheese Sauce
- Black-eyed Peas*
- Okra*
- Southern Cornbread*
- Green Bean Crap**
- Multitudes of dinner rolls
- Pies, pies and more pies
I’ll be chronicling the prep along the way, if all works out.
Notes:
* Black-eyed peas, okra and cornbread are all a nod to the southern roots, courtesy of my father who is from Hot Springs, Arkansas. No one but my father will eat the okra (pronounced O-KREE in my family), but most of us will eat the cornbread and the black-eyed peas.
** Green Bean Crap is typically called Green Bean Casserole in most families. In my family, we’ve changed the name in honor of my sister-in-law Laurie, who, after being assigned this dish to bring a couple of years in a row cried in horror, “No, not that grean bean crap!” after being assigned it yet again. Needless to say, she will be bringing the green bean crap for the rest of her natural life to every family gathering we have.
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Beautiful picture and hilarious explanation of the crap your sister is forced to eat for Thanksgiving. I’ll never eat Green Bean Casserole again without thinking about this blog entry! Beautiful picture, too, by the way.
Based on his food preferences, I bet your father is a pretty good guy! I bet he knows where all the good gardens grow in Hot Springs.
Recently geographer Warren Bland named Hot Springs, Ark. the No. 1 place in America to retire.
I gotta admit, Hot Springs is a pretty cool place to live, even for those of us who aren’t yet retired.
To see short video clips from Hot Springs, check out SpaVlogger.
Rebecca McCormick,
Travel Journalist, Hot Springs Village Voice