Having Thanksgiving Dinner all Year Round
There are many reasons to enjoy a turkey feast any time of the year. For me, it was because it wasn't until sophomore year in college that I had a true Thanksiving meal. I come from a Hispanic family so my parents are not big on Thanksgiving tradition. We still have dinner. But our meal consists of rice and beans, plantains, and yucca. Sometimes, my mom would actually cook a turkey breast, otherwise we would just have chicken. Not that I'm complaining about my mom's cooking, but there was a lot of traditional Thanksgiving goodness that I missed out on.
So when I went to college, my friends and I decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner one year. We made it a potluck and everyone made their own item to bring. We had a full sized turkey and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, biscuits, yams and marshmallows, cornbread, and even a homemade apple pie and a pumpkin pie.
The result was delicious and a great new tradition for me and my group of friends. We were so excited about it, that we decided to go it again sometime in March. It was an extremely fun thing to do together and will provide me fond memories for many years to come. After all, there is no reason why people only have turkey and pumpkin pie once a year.
People complain about how making turkeys is such hard work, but it only takes a few hours and if you split up the work, so other people make the side dishes, it's almost no work at all and it was definitely worth it.
Another good thing about our multiple Thanksgiving dinners is that we all got practice cooking things that we don't normally cook. There's nothing worse than getting together with your family and the turkey ends up getting burnt or undercooked. That's because people don't make turkeys that often. But they should.
Thanksgiving is also a holiday of gratitude. So our faux Thanksgivings also reflected that, by making us aware of the things we should be grateful for a few more times a year. We all went around the table and said something we were thankful for before we dug into our fabulous meal.
Overall, it's an awesome tradition that I hope to continue. Thanksgiving foods are awesome. They go well together and it's a shame to only enjoy them once a year. This is especially a good idea if your culture prevents you from having the traditional faire on the November holiday.
