Let us never forget what this holiday is all about.

And now for the lighter side of Thanksgiving…

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This is not my recipe, but it’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day appetizers.

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon frozen orange juice concentrate

Directions

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Gradually mix in the pumpkin. Stir in the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and orange juice until smooth and well blended. Chill until serving.

Serving suggestion: Spread dip on ginger snaps or over gingerbread men.

Who says you have to serve Turkey for thanksgiving dinner? If you’re serving a smaller group of people, consider drunken chicken instead.

Ingredients

Drunken Chicken

• 1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) chicken
• 2 bottles hard cider (I use Woodchuck Amber)
• one empty soda can
• extra virgin olive oil (EVO)
• Montreal chicken seasoning
• 1/2 Onion

Glaze

• 1/2 bottle hard cider (I use Woodchuck Granny Smith)
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• water

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Wash the chicken in hot water and dry thoroughly. Season the cavity with Montreal chicken seasoning and stuff an onion in the neck to prevent the steam from escaping during cooking. Rub the outisde of the chicken with EVO and season all over with Montreal chicken seasoning. Set the soda can in the middle of the roasting pan and fill it halfway with hard cider. Position the chicken cavity over the soda can and push down until the chicken is firmly seated. It should look like it is ready to “dance.” Pour the rest of the hard cider into the roasting pan.

Roast for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees, baste the chicken. Continue roasting the chicken until the juices run clear, for a total of 45 minutes plus an additional 7 minutes for each pound. (In other words, a 3 1/2 pound chicken would take a basic 45 minutes plus an additional 25 minutes, for a total 70 minutes or 1 hour and 10 minutes of cooking time.)

To make the glaze: Pour cider and corn syrup into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat. Dissolve the corn starch in water. Add the slurry to the sauce pan and simmer until the glaze thickens like gravy.

Serve sliced chicken breast using the apple glaze as gravy. Feeds 4 – 6 adults. (My children generally go for the chicken legs.)

“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”

George Washington
(Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789)

No matter what the ACLU says, George Washington’s Thanksgiving Address proves our Founding Fathers relied on Almighty God.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

(more…)

“Benjamin Franklin wanted the national symbol to be not the bald eagle, which he regarded as little more than a handsome scavenger, but reputedly the most intelligent bird – the turkey. Oh, how we have changed.” more…