Thanksgiving

On Wednesday, I was having a conversation with some co-workers about the types of foods they eat on Thanksgiving. I found it interesting that everyone does eat turkey but also incorporates cultural foods into their meal as well. A Latino co-worker has rice and beans, an African-American with Southern roots has macaroni and cheese and collard greens, the Italians I work with have different pasta dishes. So leave it to my mother to include Matza Balls, the quintessential Jewish food, into our Thanksgiving meal. However, instead of serving them in the traditional chicken soup, Mom made this unbelievable curried carrot and parsnip soup. Instead of the dumplings, we had Matza Balls.

 
Bubby, my 98-year old grandmother, who still lives on her own in the Lower East Side of Manhattan brought some Lower East barrel pickles and sour cherry tomatoes

and a cabbage roll

After the soup and sour stuff, it was time for turkey, dressing (stuffing prepared outside of the bird), cranberry sauce, rice, and brussels sprouts.

The bird before carving

The bird after my brother took a knife to it

The Dressing

I didn't take pictures of the cranberry, rice, or sprouts. We also enjoyed some good kosher wines
During dinner we spoke about what we were thankful for. We all mentioned family, friends, our health, and being able to practice our religion the way we choose to without fear of persecution. My dad said it best, he was thankful for the 4 generations of our family being able to have Thanksgiving together, Bubby (my dad's mother), my parents, my brother and myself (and our wives), and my daughter, and niece (Bubby's great-grandchildren).

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.