Thanksgiving and the Presidents

Our celebration of Thanksgiving owes more to our Presidents than it does to the Pilgrims.

By now we know that what the menu for the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621 differs from what is found on most of our tables today.  The first Thanksgiving, celebrated among the Puritan Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe would’ve featured venison, shellfish, corn, and other roasted meats.  These would’ve been cooked using Native American spices and cooking methods.  The meal most likely did not have any desserts or other sweets as the Pilgrim’s exhausted their provisions over the previous winter.  Although, cranberries were probably present at both the first Thanksgiving and on our tables today.  The Pilgrims held a second Thanksgiving in 1623 after a long drought ended that threatened that year’s crops.  Days of fasting and thanksgiving became common features of many New England settlements.

The first national proclamation of a day of thanksgiving issued by the Federal Government came in 1789.  George Washington called the day to celebrate the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.  John Adams and James Madison also proclaimed days of thanksgiving during their administrations.  Thomas Jefferson, our third president, felt it was not appropriate to issue proclamations for days of Thanksgiving, because of the separation of church and state.  By 1817 New York became the first of several states to declare an annual day of Thanksgiving, celebrated on different days.  As with many of our holidays the celebrations began as regional or state affairs, only becoming nationally recognized later on.

In 1827 Sarah Joseph Hale, author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” began a 36 year campaign

to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday, expanding the holiday from its traditional home in New England throughout the rest of the country.  During that time she sent dozens of letters to politicians, senators, representatives, leaders, and government officials urging them to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

Finally, at the height of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln scheduled Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the final Thursday of November.  In a speech written by Secretary of State William Seward, President Lincoln declared that the fourth Thursday in November would be an official U.S. holiday, Thanksgiving Day.  Lincoln also used this opportunity to thank God for recent Union victories in the American Civil War.  This marked the first time since 1815 that an American president had declared a day of thanksgiving.

Annually, Presidents issued Proclamations of Thanksgiving which made the last Thursday of November Thanksgiving Day.  This tradition held until 1939.  That year the last Thursday in November did not occur until the 30^th, leaving less than a month until Christmas.  Several retailers approached the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and urged him to move Thanksgiving up by a week to allow for a longer shopping period.  It was hoped that consumers, who shopped after Thanksgiving, would buy more for the Christmas holiday.

This decision caused a great deal of confusion and anger.  FDR’s opponents questioned his disregard for tradition by moving Thanksgiving to another date.  The mayor of Atlantic City pejoratively called the new date “Franksgiving.”  Aside from irritating his opponents the effect of transferring Thanksgiving had a very real impact.

Schools that had vacations and tests set had to revise their schedules.  Then, as now, Thanksgiving was a big day for football games.  Many teams needed to examine and revise their schedules.  To make matters worse many of the country’s governors did not agree with Roosevelt’s decision to change the date of Thanksgiving.  Twenty-three state governors decided to follow Roosevelt’s lead and moved Thanksgiving to November 23.  Twenty-three other disagreed and chose to keep Thanksgiving Day on its traditional date of November 30.  The governors of Texas and Colorado decided to recognize both days as Thanksgiving Day.  These decisions by the state governors split families whose members lived in different states and could not get together to celebrate the holiday due to having different days off.

In 1940 FDR moved Thanksgiving Day again up by one week. Thirty-one states followed suit while 17 continued to follow the traditional date.  In 1941, many people anticipated the new date and celebrated Thanksgiving Day on November 20.  In October 1941, the House of Representatives passed a joint resolution making the last Thursday in November a legal, national holiday.  The Senate agreed, however they amended the resolution to make the fourth Thursday in November a legal holiday, which takes into account years where November has five Thursdays. President Roosevelt agreed and signed the resolution into law on December 26, 1941.  Since then Thanksgiving has always been observed on the fourth Thursday in November.

The library has many good cookbooks to help you find that perfect recipe to make your family meal extra special.

Martha's Classic Thanksgiving (DVD)
The Thanksgiving Table: Recipes and Ideas to Create your Own Holiday Tradition

Their are many great websites out there that feature traditional Thanksgiving recipes, or if you want to try something different, new twists on the originals or something new and exciting.  Check out these following websites:

Better Homes & Gardens Thanksgiving Dinner Menus
Thanksgiving Dinner Menu Ideas and Recipes
Thanksgiving Menus & Recipes from the Food Network 
Thanksgiving Menus for Beginners to Experts  from allrecipes.com or their other page for more Thanksgiving Recipes

Cookbook Club Favorites

The Cookbook Club has been meeting at Kirtland Public Library since June, 2012. We meet the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 pm, except for November and December. (For these months, we meet once in early December.)

So far we've cooked from 25 books and one blog!

Our top three favorite cookbooks so far:

We follow the Cleveland food blogger at http://thisgirlsgottaeat.com/ and were lucky enough to have her as a guest at one of our meetings! Check out this girl's delicious recipes today.  

We've sampled at least 150 dishes and shared many recipes, laughs, and tips. Of the dishes, our favorites have been twice baked potatoes, turkey sandwiches, tomato crostini, and chicken pot pie casserole.

Our favorite ingredients to cook with are chocolate, olive oil, vegetables, and pasta.

Here is a list of our favorite kitchen tools:

immersion blender

Vitamix blender

Kitchen Aid mixer

crockpot liners

good knives

cutting board

wooden spoon

See all of the cookbooks we've used at the Library's website: 

http://kirtland.lib.oh.us/content/cookbook-club-7

Want to start your own cookbook club? Grab some friends and a cookbook. The Library has cookbooks of all kinds!

A New Spin on Thanksgiving Turkey

So. Full disclosure: I can't cook. 30 something male who plays games and reads comics? I know, it's crazy right? Sadly its true. But that doesn't mean I'm not a fan of spicing up my meal, and for YEARS there has been a recipe that has eluded  me. So when I was elected to do a post about cooking up a turkey, I ventured forth to find it.

To give a little background, I'm a big fan of the people over at RoosterTeeth Productions. I watch their videos, read the comics, and listen to their podcasts. Several years ago while they were still producing a tri-weekly comic, they produced this one...

In the RoosterTeeth podcast, RT founder Burnie Burns has on more than one occasion spoken about his now infamous "Deep Fried Jalapeno Turkey." While discussions of it have taken place, and threads upon threads of RT users have tried to wrestle the recipe out of him, yet to minimal avail.

This is something I need to have. Having already had deep fried turkey, the idea of adding Jalapenos to it is already making my mouth water. Since Burnie has been tight lipped about his recipe, I think I have found something comparable by adding this spin with one of my dad's recipes. 

INGREDIENTS
-10-14 lb Turkey
-2-3 Jalapeno Peppers.
-Inject-able Jalapeno Marinade
-Optional Brine: 5 gallons water, 1lb kosher salt, 1lb brown sugar. (can set 8-16 hours, let set at room temp for 30 mins prior to cook.)
-Roughly 2 gallons of Peanut Oil (or oil of your choosing)

DIRECTIONS
-To start, set your turkey in a 30 quart Aluminum Propane Deep fryer, and fill with water. This is measure how much oil you will need to use to deep fry. You will want to just barely cover the top of the turkey, and leave at least 4 to 5 inches of space from top.
-Remove turkey, rinse, and pat dry.
-Inject marinade. (There are different strategies for this. 3-6 oz. of marinade should be more than sufficient, but the locations and the number of injections is really up to the chef. up to 4 big shots could work, but little pecks all over the bird work too. It all caters to your taste)
-(Pre)cut your Jalapeno Peppers into sliced rings, and make small slices in the skin around the turkey. Neatly slide in your jalapeno rings under the skin around the bird. (Remove the seeds if you want to remove some of the spice kick.)
-Bring oil up to 350 degrees, and gently lower your bird into the oil.
-You will want to maintain the 350 degrees, cook time usually averages about 3 minutes a pound give or take so you can expect an average cook time of about 30-40 minutes or so.
-Using an internal thermometer, you can remove the bird around 151 degrees. The temperature should still rise to 161 after removal.
-Carve bird, serve, and lose yourself in sweet, sweet deep fried bliss.

Not a fan of the deep fried method or don't care for a little spice in your food? Not a problem. The CLEVNET catalog offers a number of different Thanksgiving Cookbooks that you can use to find a traditional cook more your style. Be sure to check them out, or stop in and we will help find one for you!

I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Are you?