We know that Thanksgiving is about more than the food. But we must have been really hungry during our Rocktown Weekly staff meeting, because food was all we could think about. The wonderful, delicious, it’s-OK-to-stuff-yourself-one-day-out-of-the-year Thanksgiving Day food.

Turkey baked golden brown, mashed potatoes piled high with gravy, grandma’s famous baked stuffing, cranberry sauce out of a can, green bean casserole laden with creamy soup, sweet potato casserole with so much sugar you can’t let Grandpa have any or else he’ll slip into a diabetic coma — all finished off with a slice of pumpkin pie.

It was then we realized that all we really wanted to do to for our Thanksgiving issue was celebrate the food!

Happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you enjoy!

For the love of turkey

We gather round the table
To share you with our friends
And today if we are able,
Our eating will not end

We’ll smother you in gravy
We’ll smother you in sauce
And for all those vegetarians,
This surely is their loss

Oh, turkey, blessed turkey
Yes, turkey is the word
We gather round your table
You big, beautiful bird.

My ode to stuffing

My ode to you beloved stuffing,
To your sweet morsels of soft bread,
Once crunchy,  become moistened, mixing up
Savory dreams while I sleep
Of the many leftovers you will make

To you my darling stuffing,
You wait patiently in your side bowl,
Overflowing, pricked with fork,
Making your rounds, as I anticipate your taste,
On that delicious Thanksgiving Day,
When, for you, I’ll always wear an elastic waistband.

Don’t keep me from my ’taters

Mashed potatoes are delicious
Mashed potatoes stick to dishes

A crater for butter, a dash of salt
Snowy whipped peaks, I will exalt

Made with milk – dairy, yum!
Running to dinner, I will come!

Sweet potato casserole, how I miss thee

Ever since I became hardcore about my vegetarianism,
Traditional Thanksgiving sweet potatoes are on my No List
(it’s the gelatin in the marshmallows.)

But I still want them.

Brown sugar crystals sparkling
dotted with gooey marshmallows,
they’re a vegetable… and a candy.

The things I sacrifice.
Somewhere, I hope a horse is giving thanks for me.

Recipe for yumminess

Veggies can’t be healthy,
When served on Turkey Day,
The veggies must be tasty,
Nutritional caution, away

We’ll mix one can of soup,
Cream of mushroom, please
With one-half cup of milk
And four cups cooked green beans

Just one teaspoon soy sauce,
A dash of pepper here,
Add 1 cup-plus fried onions
And a casserole doth appear

Bake for 25 minutes
At 350 degrees,
And all your guests will be asking
“More green bean casserole, please!”

(Recipe from Campbell’s)

Love in a can

Canned cranberry sauce
I should find you unappetizing,
Jellied cylinder of berry-less red,
Cut into thick slices and laid on a plate.
You’re tart, and you leave an aftertaste
There’s little to love …. but I do anyway.

Dear Pumpkin Pie:

I’ve been meaning to tell you for some time how much you mean to me. With your spice and creamy texture, I crave you even when you aren’t in season. I look for you in everything: ice cream, cookies, bread and even my coffee. I’ve contemplated pumpkin theft each time I drive by a patch full of your relatives. Your crust is as remarkable as your filling. It crunches at the end of a big bite and makes its presence more and more known as I get toward the end of my slice. But it’s only the end for a moment, before I grab another piece of you and smother you in Cool Whip. I will be enjoying your tangy taste as long as the season will let me.

Love,
Your hungry, wishing-it-was-fall-forever fan