Ya’ know, sometimes the week is to short and the mood is to light for “real” information, so what about some fun facts about turkey day!
Who said America is a young country? Our first Thanksgiving was in 1621! Except that feast lasted three days. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time with one… plus the Pilgrims didn’t have any football to watch.
And even though it may seem as if we’ve been doing it since 1621, the first turkey to be officially pardoned by a President was in 1989. And that was George H. W. Bush… who said he didn’t have a sense of humor?
And why pumpkin pie again? Love it or hate it, pumpkin pie truly is an American culinary invention. At the first Thanksgiving, however, it was probably more akin to a pumpkin pudding, the pumpkin itself having been hollowed out, filled with milk and honey and spices and “baked” over ashes. It wasn’t until about 50 years later that we start seeing the pie as we now know it, crust and all. Don’t forget the whipped cream!
Love a parade? Then you most certainly are a fan of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which has been going on since 1924! But if you thought Mickey Mouse was the first balloon character to fly above the parade you’d be wrong (I know me too). Felix the Cat? Nope, that was the second balloon to grace the parade, the first one was just The Cat.
Canned? Fresh? Either way you can feel lucky that it is not the 17th century – before sugar was being imported because cranberry sauce without sugar is… so, so sour… but sweetened cranberry sauce has been a Thanksgiving staple since at least the last 1700’s.
The turkey did it! Or did it? Maybe stop blaming the tryptophan in turkey and blame your food coma on… volume. It may be how much we eat not what we eat. And don’t discount the heat wafting from the kitchen, food + warmth = relaxation.
In any case, we hope you get a lot of that relaxation this Thanksgiving holiday!