* * Coast to coast Thanksgiving celebrations, food and craft ideas

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Giving Thanks
Coast to coast Thanksgiving celebrations, food and craft
ideas–including how to make these festive fall wreaths
T hanksgiving Now
// BY KIM GREEN
IT’S THANKSGIVING MORNING in America. In Lewiston,
Maine, a young mom and her 4-year-old daughter are in the
kitchen, basting the turkey and peeling two-dozen potatoes
for mashing. In Fort Smith, Ark., seven cousins sit cozily
watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with hours
of football to follow. In Rockville, Md., runners are gathered
near the starting line for the annual 5K Turkey Trot.
There are common threads—food, family and gratitude—in
the many ways we observe this distinctly American holiday
across the country. But some communities have carved out
their own way of celebrating. Here are several towns that would
have made the pilgrims proud.
From wood-smoked
andouille to pilgrims on
parade, American towns
display their gratitude
// Chef John Folse carries
on a rich Louisiana
Thanksgiving Day—
and day after—tradition.
Plymouth, Mass.
The birthplace of Thanksgiving celebrates the famous first feast
the weekend before the holiday, drawing an estimated 175,000
visitors to the annual America’s Hometown Thanksgiving festival.
Pilgrims, Native Americans, soldiers, patriots, and pioneers climb
out of history books and onto the streets; parade floats depict milestones in American history, such as the Mayflower landing and passage of the Civil Rights Act.
For event director Olly deMacedo, 55, whose family immigrated to
the United States from Cape Verde (an island off the coast of western
Africa) when he was a boy, it’s a chance to tell the American story.
“I have lived that story,” he says. “Going to the United States, it felt
like we were going
to heaven, almost.”
DeMacedo quotes
a Pilgrim, saying,
“‘One small candle
will light a thousand’—America is
that candle. Having
people choose their
leaders, that’s a totally radical idea. It’s
changed the world!
// Olly deMacedo, (right), helms
And it started right
America’s Hometown Thankshere in Plymouth.”
giving festival in Plymouth.
Donaldsonville, La.
The Thanksgivings of Chef John Folse’s boyhood echo with accordion and fiddle music, crackling cooking fires and a tableful of extendPAGE 8 • A M E R I C A N P R O F I L E .CO M
ed family. Late fall delivered a rich hunter’s harvest from the “swamp
floor pantry”—venison, wild turkey, ducks—to the holiday feast. Even
more important was the next day’s meal: gumbo made from leftover
turkey. Everyone in the family, even the kids, had a role to play: preparing turkey stock; chopping celery and onions; stirring the dark brown
roux; slicing wood-smoked Andouille. That Cajun-Creole tradition of
team-cooked hunting camp dishes, a tradition Folse, 68, calls “minding
the black-iron pot,” lives on in his family.
— continued on page 10
—continued from page 8
“My nephews and nieces are learning those traditions from us,” he says.
“I can’t imagine the day after Thanksgiving without a turkey gumbo with
potato salad on the rim.”
Instead of heading to big-city malls on “Black Friday,” the citizens of
tiny Aitkin, Minn., don parkas and line the town’s lovely old Main Street,
sipping hot chocolate—waiting, with thousands of visitors from surrounding forested and lake-strewn rural counties, for the ice-fishing houses to
roll by.
For the uninitiated,
here’s how ice fishing
works: Build smallish
structure. Tow onto frozen lake. Cut hole in floor.
Drill into ice. Fish.
“Some are rustic,”
Amanda MacDonald, 44,
says of the ice fishing
structures. MacDonald
owns a local coffee shop
and directs the area cham// Town royalty kicks off the annual day after
Thanksgiving Aitkin Fish House Parade.
ber of commerce. “Some
have kitchens and a TV.”
On Thanksgiving Day, says MacDonald, families decorate their “floats”—
fancied-up fish houses on trailers and truck beds—in preparation for Friday’s
+ COMMUNITY TABLE
Crispy Brussels Sprouts
By Patricia Boileau, Arvada, Colo.
1 pound fresh Brussels sprouts
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red
pepper flakes
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Trim tough ends off Brussels sprouts and cut into halves. Place in a large bowl or
ziptop plastic bag. Add remaining ingredients. Toss to coat Brussels sprouts well.
3. Place Brussels sprouts, cut sides down, onto a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake
20 minutes, flipping halfway through the baking time. Edges will be browned or
blackened. Keep warm until ready to serve. Serves 4.
Per serving: 150 calories, 12g fat, 0mg chol., 4g prot., 10g carbs., 4g fiber, 180mg sodium
PAGE 10 • A M E R I C A N P R O F I L E .CO M
// Throwback Thursday: In El Paso, Texas, they commemorate a feast
pre-dating the Pilgrims.
Aitkin Fish House Parade. It’s a way to keep residents in town on
America’s biggest shopping day, to browse at local stores and slurp
hot soup at Aitkin eateries. “It’s about coming together for something creative,” she says, “and loyalty to the community.”
El Paso, Texas
We all know the story of Plymouth Rock. But some West Texans claim Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate and his expedition
celebrated the first Thanksgiving near El Paso on April 30, 1598.
Crossing the Mexican desert, mad with hunger and thirst, settlers spotted the Rio Grande and knew they were saved. Oñate
ordered a day of giving thanks—including Mass, a feast, and a
theatrical play—and claimed the surrounding lands for King
Philip II of Spain.
Since 1989, El Paso residents have been commemorating the
occasion with a reenactment and festival. It started when Sheldon
Hall, a retired businessman, began studying the area’s beautiful
but crumbling missions and learned Oñate’s story. Hall’s granddaughter Jackie Reed, 34, who visited the old missions with him
as a girl, has run the event since her grandfather’s death.
“It’s not only in his honor. It’s about history and culture,” she
says, “and shining a light on another page in the American story.”
Estes Park, Colo.
TERESA BLACKBURN
“This recipe is bound to turn anyone into
a Brussels sprouts fan. For years, the only
way I had Brussels sprouts was steamed
with butter, and that became boring. This
baked variation is not only easy to prepare,
but healthier and even more tasty. The
hint of heat and crunch of sesame seeds
makes them surprisingly delicious.”
JACK KURTZ/ UPI/ NEWSCOM
Aitkin, Minn.
Every year on Thanksgiving Day, a packed church gym in
Estes Park, Colo., echoes with laughter and live music. Volunteer “pilgrims” seat hungry guests and heap plates with steaming, home-cooked goodness as the Estes Park Thanksgiving
Community Feast gets underway.
It began in 2000 as a free Thanksgiving meal for a few dozen
people with no family in town. Steve Misch, 69, and co-founder
Larraine Darling, 61, expect to serve more than 600 at the event
this Thanksgiving, while also transporting meals to shut-ins
around town.
Residents and visitors to Estes Park, a small community near
Rocky Mountain National Park, pitch in with cooking, baking and
cleanup, while some people generously write checks for the cause.
Departing diners paper the “Wall of Thanks” with messages
of gratitude. “We take time to share our moments of thankfulness, and stress the appreciation of community, of family, of giving back,” says Misch.