Given that Cooking by the Calendar (edited by Marilyn Hansen, 1978) seemed to have NO IDEA what gets harvested in August or what kinds of treats would be appropriate for Halloween, I kind of wondered what it would recommend for Thanksgiving. Hansen had a much clearer idea of what people would expect, though-- no recipes for random things with titles like "Rumba Rhubarb" or "Prospector's Pancakes."
The month kicks off with a wide range of stuffing recipes.
Whether your tastes are traditional (sage-y bread cubes or cornbread and sausage) or more adventurous ("Hawaiian" bread stuffing with water chestnuts and pineapple chunks or bulgur stuffing with mint and dried fruit), there's something you can shove up the rear end of a dead bird.
And what to do with the leftover poultry? The "After the Feast" section adds some less-expected options in with the usual turkey noodle soup, like Turkey and Olive Manicotti.
I am not sure how many cooks would be up for making manicotti filling and sauce, stuffing individual manicotti tubes, and baking the whole thing a day or two after preparing an entire Thanksgiving dinner, but at least this dish wouldn't add to Thanksgiving flavor fatigue.
The Turkey Cantonese seems more likely to feel do-able after a cooking-heavy holiday...
Well, if you don't mind chopping up celery, onions, green peppers, and maybe mushrooms. It comes together pretty quickly after that! (And the dish may be boiled rather than steamed or stir-fried, but at least it doesn't have cream-of-something soup or bunch of cheese dumped in, so it's probably slightly more authentically Cantonese-style than one might expect from a book like this.)
The veggies of the month are squash and pumpkins. My favorite recipe from this section explains what to do if a bunch of rowdy squash cubes start harassing you on the street.
Oh, wait. "Mace" isn't a verb here. Never mind.
Given how contentious family Thanksgiving gatherings can be, though, macing the squash cubes instead of Uncle Arthur might not be the worst idea.
Whatever you have planned for November, I hope you can get through it without macing anybody. Unless you just want to add a little ground mace to your veggies.
