Thanksgiving in my home is usually a very small gathering. Other than my immediate family, all of my relatives live in California, so flying out to see them for Thanksgiving is both expensive and sometimes unrealistic. There, we spend Thanksgiving with a few neighbors, eating the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at our house and then going across the street for desserts. Because of this, everyone must contribute to preparing the Thanksgiving dinner, regardless of our cooking skill or lack thereof. Every year we all congregate in the kitchen and get to work. This year, I was assigned to making the salad, a seemingly easy enough task to complete. My parents and sisters were given more significant assignments, such as making the turkey, stuffing, and steamed vegetables.

After several hours of cooking and frustration, we finally sat down to eat dinner at 3:00 pm. It had never occurred to me that 3:00 pm is dinner time, but apparently that’s how we’ve always done it on Thanksgiving. We filled our glasses with sparkling cider, of all things, reflected on what we are thankful for, and prayed before getting down to eating.

As a whole, the meal was tremendous. The turkey was prepared perfectly, was very tender, hot, and had a hint of the stuffing in the taste. The stuffing was definitely the highlight of the meal. Stuffing has always been a strange food to me, as several foods, bread crumbs, raisins, and other seemingly unappetizing things are mashed together to somehow create a delicious end result. The steamed vegetables, beans and asparagus, were not bad. Vegetables have always been the last thing I would ever want to eat for any occasion, especially a holiday. However, these vegetables were not completely disgusting, which I suppose is a win in and of itself.

I have to admit that the salad had to be the lowlight of the meal. Having no cooking experience, I had no idea where to begin. I simply tossed the lettuce with Italian dressing, and crudely threw in some tomatoes and carrots. It did not occur to me that this would end up being an incomplete salad for such an occasion. I probably should have taken the time to cook some beans, croutons, peppers, chicken, or anything else I could think of in order to show an ounce of effort. At the time, being able to watch football seemed much more important. Regardless, it was still another successful Thanksgiving dinner.

Photo Courtesy of: Chicagonow.com

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