When I was a kid, everybody spent Thanksgiving at our house.
We lived in what was then the backwoods of southern Oregon, and year in and year out, we welcomed anybody who had nowhere better to go. New neighbors, stranded co-workers, current girlfriends or boyfriends, the lonely widower from down the road — even the preacher at our country church.
My older sister generally arrived the Wednesday night before, ready to pitch in and help my mom get everything ready. The two retired teachers who lived next door always brought strange salad-looking things that weren’t always the color you’d expect a salad to be — usually with raisins or walnuts or fragments of other mysterious fruits. And my father and I were in charge of stoking up the ancient wood-burning cook stove that was in what served as our family room.
We lived in a large, not-particularly-nice old house with an unconventional floor plan that included sort of a parallel living room (the “Party Room,” we called it) that we used only on special occasions. It had an unfinished concrete floor, a low ceiling and that old Franklin stove.
Rustic as it all was, at Thanksgiving, what brought us all together wasn’t the fire, the overstuffed chairs or the light whistling of the busted teakettle we kept on the stove as a homemade humidifier.
It was the food.
A juicy turkey with all the trimmings never failed to bring us comfort and contentment — regardless of our different backgrounds or how intense the political debate might’ve been around the table. For a few hours, we were a community. And all seemed right with our world.
These past months of pandemic and national turmoil have tested us all. Things haven’t seemed right with our world. We’ve been forced to question our professions, our politics — certainly other people’s politics — and even our life choices.
Amid all of our difficulties, maybe we’ve come to better appreciate a good meal.
This month’s annual food-themed edition tries to do just that. We’ll take a fresh look at food on several levels — including how we prepare it, how we enjoy it and why we should savor it.
Here’s a sampling of the menu:
- With Thanksgiving on the calendar, Christine Conklin set out to find what people are feeling thankful about this year. Along the way, she came across some mental health experts who tell us why taking time for gratitude is good for our overall well-being.
- Molly Allen sat down with the folks at Il Grasso and J Bell Cellars to hear how they’ve teamed up in these strange times to provide Yakima with an exciting new dining alternative.
- Carol Barany, who volunteers much of her time to help people struggling with homelessness, checked in with the kitchens of Yakima’s Camp Hope and the Union Gospel Mission.
- And for those who enjoy cooking at home, Andrea McCoy has another recipe from her Kitchen Captivated file that will have your mouth watering.
So there you have it. This month’s stories are served. Pass the gravy, please.
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November 06, 2020 at 09:00PM
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After a year like this, we could all use a good, square meal - Yakima Herald-Republic
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