An African American Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and a traditional African American Thanksgiving meal. Holidays are here again and we are all talking to one another about who's cooking which meal this year.d I have to be honest with you. In our family, we almost counts the days until Thanksgiving and Christmas arrive.

We're excited primarily because of the foods we will prepare together. Well not so much together because we all lives in different homes. But we look forward to the dishes that each family member will bring to the house where we will all meet at.

In our house we never drink alcoholic beverages at any holiday meal. So we have to make sure that every one is taken care of. So we make sure that we have diet drinks. We have juices for the children and regular soda for the adults. Color is very important on Thanksgiving. Orange is a favorite color. So are reds and greens. So we will use those colors in our table setting and/or the food itself. It is not so hard with the foods. We always have some type of green vegetable and orange colored potato as in yams or sweet potato pie on the table. Our menu will consist of the turkey of course. Someone will also make a ham. We always put the ham in a cooking bag allowing it to bake slowly in ginger ale, brown sugar and cloves.

We have to have collard greens. Now some of us would prefer fat back in it as the main seasoning but lately because of health concerns some of my family have been using smoked turkey to season the greens. And, oh, how I love the mashed potatoes with the giblet gravy. Now, the turkey will be stuffed with either regular stuffing or cornbread stuffing. We usually have both to satisfy everyone's personal taste buds.

And, then there are the yams. The way our family makes them can change based on who is cooking it. My recipe calls for yams, marsh mellows blended with brown sugar and butter. The marsh mellows are added just before the yams are done cooking in the oven so that they do not totally melt over the yams that gives a beautiful crusted look to the yams. Corn on the cob is always one of the vegetables along with cranberry sauce that never fails, always gets forgotten until the meal is over.

Our dessert's consists of apple, pumpkin and sweet potato pies. As an African American, we are use to having a good sweet potato pie. It is one of the many food items that will be brought to our house this Thanksgiving. And, I just absolutely love a good sweet potato pie. For those of you who have never tasted one, please do not compare it to a pumpkin pie. There is no comparison in taste. The only thing they have in common is the color. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!