Thanksgiving 2007
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s all about gratitude, friends/family, and great food. What could be better?
Poetry, costumes, and imagination – our culture (and I) desperately need more of it.
It’s become a tradition since I moved to this house (now called Soundcliff) in 1989 to host friends for feasting on Thanksgiving Day. Each guest brings at least one dish, and a poem, story or blessing.
We usually eat turkey, but there have been years when we’ve ventured into goose, Beef Wellington, and even stuffed squid (that year the theme was “Aphrodesia”). One infamous Thanksgiving, one of the guests decorated himself with fruit and frosting and served himself on a giant cardboard/silver tray for dessert (along with an original poem, “I’ve been Desserted”).
This year’s theme: Subversive Conviviality and Conjunctive Creativity. In other words, we made it up as we went along.
Blessed with great weather and a near-full moon, we also took hikes and read poetry, sang songs and chants and incanted blessings between courses. We began at 1 p.m., and finished sometime around 11 p.m.
Friends often ask to see the menu, so this year I’ll put it on the blog:
Pupu Course: Spiced cider, Champagne, Martinelli’s Sparkling cider, San Pellegrino
- Coins de pomme de terres -- fingerling potatoes with leek butter and French sorrel chiffonade (Gordon and Doug)
- Croutons with homemade goat cheese and membrille (quince paste) (Doug)
- Assorted nuts, cheeses, pate, olives, and one pickled green tomato
- Avocado & black bean paste
Poetry (Steven)
Soup course:
Sunshine soup (Malcolm)
Squash, golden beets, Yukon gold potatoes, sipolena onions, garlic, yellow fennel, pinch of curry, golden and red peppers
Salad course:
- Poetry of William Carlos Williams (Tom)
- Video: “Living Salad” – documentary of a ritual from last month where Doug Gosling served 40 people salad from a bed, which they ate on their knees with no hands (with spray vinigrette)
Baby lettuce, beets, carrots, & mizuna with pineapple guava vinegrette
Blessing circle: candle, globe, and 11 men (Sequoia)
Main course: Turkey (Gordon), dressing, sausage stuffing (Chris), sweet potato pecan cassarole (Sequoia), cranberry horseradish relish (Lurid Pink/Chris), mashed potatoes & celeriac (Dougo & Gordon), pumpkin date nut bread (Evan), ziti with fresh picked chard and mushrooms (Tom), guava chutney (Michael).
Palette cleanser: Lemon rosemary sorbet (Stephen)
Dessert:
Layers of Fall (Neil) : Carmel roasted pears, almond struessel, pumpkin chibouste, cider reduction Tuille triangle
Chai (Sequoia/Malcolm/Lirio) & after dinner whatevers (all)
So, with memories of that meal and all its layers filling me up even now, I wish you the best of this dark season. And despite supposed 'needs' of the money economy, I encourage engaging the gift economy: making presents, recycling things you love but are ready to let go of, and using the opportunity to communicate what needs and wants to be said to those you love (or maybe don't)...
2 comments:
Sounds like a great time was had by all. I just wanted to share with you our new Thanksgiving tradition. My wife found a three foot laminated picture of a tree and she taped it to the wall. The idea was that each guest would be asked to write what they were thankful for on a leaf which then was glued to the tree.
It was fun, got everybody thinking and was an interesting read for everyone.
Oh my God! This sounds like Bacchanilian bliss!!! I want the recipes!
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