Random Thanksgiving Facts

Ben Thompson  

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and everyone is getting ready to indulge in delicious food. Most Americans know the basics about Thanksgiving: pilgrims, Native Americans, turkey, Charlie Brown, and Macy’s. However, there are many more interesting facts about this amazing holiday. I have taken the liberty of surfing the web in search of the most interesting and random facts there are about Thanksgiving.
First on my list is that the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was responsible for establishing this holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for almost 20 years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She sent letters to five different presidents in hope that they would respond to her request. After years of waiting, she was finally able to convince Abraham Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday with the hopes that it would help unify the country after the Civil War.
Second: Americans love turkey. Over the past 20 years, American consumption of turkey has increased dramatically, from roughly 8.3 pounds of turkey per year in 1975 to over 18 pounds of turkey per year in 1995.
Third: the Republic of Turkey does not refer to turkey as “turkey” on their restaurant menus. They instead call it “large bird”.
Fourth: Franklin Roosevelt scheduled Thanksgiving one week earlier in 1939 in order to help the economy. He believed that giving people another week of Christmas shopping would help spur the economy. Many people argued against this and the date was changed back in 1941.
Enjoy your break, enjoy your turkey, and have a good holiday!

An Entrée into the World of Food Blogs

Molly Donahue  

There is something about food blogs that lures me to sit in one place, drink several cups of coffee and gather a list of recipes to recreate for more time than I care to acknowledge. The internet is flooded with food blogs and food enthusiasts alike generating gorgeous images of their kitchen creations. It is almost guaranteed that the visit to one food blog will inadvertently take you to another. They all link up - tempting you to click onto another and then another. It is a vicious cycle of flour, eggs and butter - vicious yet innocent.

Smitten Kitchen: Deb Perelman serves up consistently delicious meals from her small New York kitchen. The photos of her dishes are beautiful - the pictures alone will have you in the kitchen. She uses ingredients that you would probably already have or can easily find - nothing fussy. Her first cookbook, which will feature 80-100 recipes written and photographed by Deb herself, will be released in fall of 2012.
Recipes to try: mom’s apple cake, meyer lemon and fresh cranberry scones, mushroom lasagna

Joy the Baker: Joy, based out of Los Angeles, has a food blog that constantly induces new cravings. Her voice is unique, informal, and honest. Joy is relatable - she eats popcorn for dinner, has a drawer of chocolate, and makes friendship bracelets. If her blog has you hooked, check out her podcast. Joy, along with Tracy Benjamin from shutterbean have a free weekly podcast where they discuss the “most important unimportant” topics.
Recipes to try: cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread, curried sweet potato soup with goat cheese biscuits, chocolate espresso sandwich cookies

KathEats: Kath Younger from Charlottesville, Virginia is a registered dietitian. Her blog captures her daily meals and various aspects of her life. The trademark of the blog is “Kath Eats Real Foods” and it is evident that she does. Posting three times a day, you may feel like you know a bit too much about her life but, you’ll keep reading. KathEats does not focus on recipes but rather on her resourcefulness in cooking. She pieces together impressive meals daily and utilizes left-overs.
Recipes to try: overnight oats, risotto with butternut squash + ‘shrooms

101 Cookbooks: Heidi Swanson, based out of the Bay Area, is the author of Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Everyday. Her blog features healthy, vegetarian recipes. The images on her blog capture moments of her life while her dialogue makes you feel like you are having a conversation with her. Reading her blog, will naturally slow you down, if only for a moment.
Recipes to try: macaroon cherry tart, pumpkin and feta muffins, roasted delicata squash salad