Buck Reed, The Supermarket Gourmet
As far as food celebrations go, Thanksgiving takes the spotlight for not only the month of November, but quite possibly the whole year. Let’s face it, if food were a sport, then that one Thursday in November would be the Super Bowl, World Series, and Stanley Cup, all rolled into one. Thanksgiving has all the advantages: the iconic foods we all love that we only see once a year; the good gravy; the family traditionally congregating around the table; and, if you do it correctly, three kinds of pie for dessert. Did the Fourth of July really have a chance? But if we took away this day—pretend turkeys are extinct, soon to be followed by cranberry sauce—we might find out that November has a full menu of other food festivities.
The first thing we find is that November is National Sweet Potato Awareness Month (big surprise). We should all be aware that sweet potatoes are chock-full of beta-carotene, which is a big help in general nutrition and an excellent antioxidant. We should also be aware that sweet potatoes are great baked, mashed, boiled, candied (with little marshmallows), and French fried.
The eleventh month also claims to be National Peanut Butter month. This is convenient because November 3 is also National Sandwich Day. So, a peanut butter sandwich, with some milk, is an easy means of celebration to toast the day. Anyway, it beats defrosting a turkey, figuring out a 20-minutes-per-pound roasting time, and making stuffing.
November 2 happens to be Deviled Egg Day. November 14 is Guacamole Day, and November 17 is Homemade Bread Day. Right off the bat, I want to know who is on this committee, anyway. Wouldn’t it be way better if bread day was the day before sandwich day? Clearly, this was a government operation, and proves my point that government hates us and always will.
November 23 is Eat a Cranberry Day, November 25 is Parfait Day, and Chocolate Day brings up a big finish on November 29. Oh, and November 15 is National Clean Out Your Fridge Day, probably a practice day for when you will have to do it again a few days before Thanksgiving. Make it into a tradition and use any food that isn’t discarded to make a casserole. It may not be a meal to rival that turkey, but it most certainly will be memorable.
In an effort to promote food safety in the home, November 29 is Discard Your Leftovers Day. If you haven’t used up your turkey and cranberry sauce to make delicious post-thanksgiving sandwiches, then our friends at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) want you to be aware that it has to go. Since it is that time of year, there is plenty of information on the proper handling of leftovers to be found online.
So, even if we were to take away Thanksgiving—and in this politically correct world, it could happen—November would still have plenty to offer the culinary world.
