A Few Thanksgiving Thoughts…

Just a few of my favorite perspectives on the holiday. Have a wonderful day, I hope you all can spend it with family and loved ones.

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?
- Erma Bombeck

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
–Irv Kupcinet

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
and your pies take the prize,
and may your Thanksgiving dinner
stay off your thighs!
-Unknown

As we approach Thanksgiving and I sit here writing from New England, not far from the site of the first Thanksgiving, I am reminded that another Thanksgiving tradition started here in Massachusetts colony – the Cranberry.

It was in 1816 that Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall planted the first commercial cranberry beds in Dennis, Massachusetts.

It wouldn’t be a New England Thanksgiving without the cranberry sauce. Some prefer to make a fresh cranberry relish, others don’t mind the canned variety of cranberry sauce or jelly. Family tradition often determines what kind of cranberry sauce you prefer with your feast. I personally like the canned cranberry jelly with the telltale ring imprints molded into it from the can (look, cranberry sauce just like mom used to open).

But cranberries should be more than just a side dish that is overlooked at Thanksgiving. You can make cranberry muffins, cranberry bread, desserts, juice and even string them with popcorn to decorate your Christmas tree.

The cranberry is a healthful fruit that is high in anti-oxidants. Cranberries also contain proanthocyanidins (PACs) that can prevent the adhesion of certain of bacteria, including E. coli, associated with urinary tract infections.

The cranberry comes to the consumer in many forms, sauces and jellies, juice, as well as fresh and dried fruit.

Of course the best way to eat cranberry sauce is on top of turkey and stuffing in a post-feast leftover sandwich.

Check out some other cranberry sources:

The Cranberry Insitute

Ocean Spray Cranberry recipes

National Insitutes of Health – Cranberry

Thanksgiving is 10 days away. Have you composed your list of things you are thankful for? If you know what’s good for you, you will.

According to Lisa Lewis, PhD, director of psychology at The Menninger Clinic in Houston, experiencing gratitude for good things that happen in our lives is good for us.

“Gratitude allows you to take good things in,” says Lewis. Listing things for which you can give thanks builds positive feelings.

“Before you dig into the turkey and stuffing, you could all go around the room, and each person could say what they are grateful for,” Dr. Lewis says. “It doesn’t have to be something spectacular. You can be grateful that you can breathe. You can be grateful that you have food to put on the table. You can be grateful for the simple things, for everyday life. That is really the key.”

Read the article at The Menninger Clinic website.