Happy Thanksiving

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Phillipians 4:4-7

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast
Pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food.

The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them

Today dinner is centered on the turkey; 17th century meals included many different meats
 
Pilgrims did not worry about eating mostly meat or fat. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.
no refrigeration in the seventeenth century. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs The pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats.


They did not measure they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.

Native Americans were the first to enjoy cranberries. They mixed deer meat and mashed cranberries to make pemmicana—a survival food. They also believed in the medicinal value of cranberries—long before science discovered cranberry's health benefits
Cranberries are one of only three fruits that are native to North America. It's a wild fruit that grows on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes, mostly in the Northeast, but also in the Pacific Northwest
 
Cranberries were called “sassamanesh” by Eastern Indians. It was the early German and Dutch settlers who started calling it the “crane berry” because the flower looked a lot like the head and bill of a crane.
 
Lets here it for sassamanesh salad. Happy Thanksgiving. I am taking a day off from blogging tomorrow. see you on Saturday.