Thanksgiving Dishes From Around The Country

This is too big to post in its entirety, but please do check out the link.

Colonel Mustard and I were just talking about Mark Kurlansky, the amazing food historian and author of Salt and Cod. I mentioned Food of a Younger Land, Kurlansky's book about combing the WPA (that's New Deal basically) Writer's Project archives for projects that took writers to all parts of the country, to discover the way folks ate back before the national highway system, before chain restaurants and before frozen food.

I find this wildly evocative of the discoveries in Kurlansky's book. If you took many family T Day traditions, subtracted yucky things like green bean casserole with Campbell's soup and whatever those onion thingies are made out of and added a dash of locavore, you could envision yourself back in a simpler time for food.

The Colonel commented on how he can remember  how certain fruits and vegetables were truly seasonal. I can too! Don't ask the ages!

You didn't get them all year round. They were special. You had anticipation for something as simple as a tangerine. And how they tasted! Like sunshine radiating from the smiles of a couple in love. Like the spring in the step of a boy trying his Red Rider wagon on Christmas morning. Or something like that.

Check it out Colonel! First entry: sourdough dressing. Better accelerate that baking program! That salmon pie and slow-cooked red chile turkey are worth other posts. And pecan pie bites with gravy? Never thought of it but now...ah sweet mystery of life at last I found you! My Dad would have been all over Pocket Stuffing.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html