Food Addict

I get excited this time of the year.

Thanksgiving marks the one day a year I can eat my little food-addict heart out and not feel guilty. It’s a day of making, eating and giving thanks to all the food in my life.

I consider Thanksgiving a Christmas dinner pre-show. I test new recipes and perfect old ones, so when the big winter holiday comes around I’m prepared.

Do Thanksgiving dinners really change that much? In my family they do. The biggest change occurred about four years ago when my sister announced her vegetarianism and would never eat meat again.

Jaw-drop.

I remember us scrambling the week before she came home from college for Thanksgiving, trying to figure out how to incorporate her new lifestyle into our usual, carnivorous holiday dinner.

No, we didn’t decide to cut the turkey from the menu. Instead, we cleverly improvised. A quick Google search delivered a recipe for vegetarian dressing and we bought a box of veggie burgers.

The dressing was surprisingly delicious and since then, it has become a necessary component. We don’t buy the veggie burgers anymore.

Despite the success of the vegetarian dressing, my favorite foods on Thanksgiving are the good ol’ traditional ones like turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

I have an intimate relationship with pumpkin pie. Due to my sub-par cooking skills, I am not entrusted with many responsibilities on Thanksgiving. However, I can make a mean pumpkin pie.

I’ve always loved mixing the ingredients for the pumpkin filling and making the crust. The crust is especially fun: flattening the dough with a rolling pin with a thin layer of flour sticking to my hands.

To me, the best part comes from putting the dough in a pan, then pressing the sides down with a fork. It makes me feel like an artsy chef.

Finally, I prepare my “secret weapon:” homemade whipped cream. It always secures success with the family.

The recipe for my pumpkin pie spends the year hibernating in a vintage Betty Crocker cookbook carefully hidden in one of my kitchen drawers. The cover is frayed, the ripped pages stick together with old food spills and display horribly dated photographs of women cooking in aprons, heels and a full face of makeup. Every year, I consider throwing it out, but the pumpkin pie recipe contains enough sweetness and holiday cheer for me to keep it around.

This Thanksgiving, I encourage you to try something new, like vegetarian dressing. Or make up a crazy dish like chocolate mashed potatoes. But don’t forget to appreciate traditions, whatever they may be.

Francy Marcotte

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