Thanksgiving Corona-Style

So here come the holidays. Heaven help us.

Baked Apples stuffed with Sweet Potatoes

As the pandemic rips across the planet, this will be a tradition-bashing year. I’ve friends who are delighted with the excuse not to have to drive six hours to eat an overcooked turkey and canned green bean casserole. I know others who, come hell or high water, are keeping a modified version of their holiday tradition.

I read an excellent article in the Times, which introduced suggestions on how to manage families getting together (or not) over the holidays in these unprecedented times.

Root Vegetable Gratin

Products of second marriages, Richard and I have a combined family that includes five children (with partners) and twelve grandchildren. Richard and I have been together thirteen years and have created new traditions that incorporate all of the expected shoulder-to-shoulder hoop-la, celebratory food and trimmings.

Since February, we’ve managed visits with individual families when all parties had previously quarantined.  But with five families to think about, combined with record-breaking Covid numbers, this year’s holiday get-togethers…well folks, they ain’t gonna happen.

Acorn Squash stuffed with Fruity Wild Rice

Prior to our marriage, we each had shared custody and are accustomed to spending holidays alone. It became my tradition, in fact, to declare other days Thanksgiving. The promise of effective vaccines gives hope. Perhaps Thanksgiving 2020 will be celebrating during the summer of 2021.

In the meantime, I’ve been perusing menu idea for the two of us. On the right column of this page, just beneath the Find Your Favorite Recipe, you’ll see a Gold Holiday Ball.

Poached Pears and Goat Cheese Panna Cotta

Tap on that, the Holiday Cookbook, and you’ll find a slide show (including the pictured dishes) with dozens of well-tested holiday favorites, all just waiting for downsizing. For a scaled-down bird, perhaps a Cornish game hen or turkey breast? Roast Turkey Breast with Cranberry Jus is the featured image on this page.  Baked Apples Stuffed with Sweet Potatoes might be all the accompaniment you’d need.

For kicks, I’m going to try making a couple of new recipes. One, Crusty Baked Cauliflower and Farro, is adapted from Ina Garten and come’s from Deb’s Smitten Kitchen. The other is for Spatchcocked Buttermilk Brined Turkey. I’ll have leftovers, which will be made into soup for the freezer.

Sweet Potato-Pecan Pie

It will be a long winter, and nothing soothes my soul like soup.

I’d love hearing how Thanksgiving will look to you this year. However you intend to paint your Thursday––be it broad strokes or scribble-scrabble––it may look and feel like solitude, but poetically speaking, you’ve never found yourself in such an expansive community (-: