by Donna Mccay

Created on: December 13, 2008

Thanksgiving Day at our house was filled with watching the Thanksgiving parade, friends, relatives, family, grandparents, and special guests. As a ice breaker we passed out colored leaves and pens for each to write what they were thankful for that year. A big brown grocery bag was thumb tacked to a bulletin board with a container filled with thumb tacks to place their leaves on the branches of a big oak tree that had been drawn on the bag. Then at the table each person shared what they were thankful for.

In the wee hours of the morning the turkey was put in a big roaster oven to bake. Mom would prepare all the vegetables the day before so all she had to do was put on the stove or in the oven. Then she could sit down and enjoy the appetizers, dips and punch. It gave her a break from the kitchen.

Of course everyone brought a dish to share and dessert too. A variety of homemade cakes, cookies and pies filled the dessert table. There always was Pecan, Lemon, Apple, Squash, Pumpkin pies.

Traditional Bubble Bread was made every Thanksgiving. Some people call it Monkey Bread but mom made it festive with red and green marchinno cherries. This is how she made Bubble Bread:

Take a round tube angel food cake pan and spray with butter, cover bottom with brown sugar, sprinkle cinnamon on top. Cut red and green marchinno cheeries in half and place in pan with rounded side down. Then place Pecan halves in between the cheeries.

Then she made bread dough with a little extra sugar and rolled in small balls. She placed the balls in the pan forming one layer. A mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon was sprinkled over the balls. Chopped Pecans was sprinkled on the balls then a spray of butter and the process was repeated for the second layer.

Let rise till doubled and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from oven and turn upside down on a decorative plate. You will see a colorful glaze of red/green cheeries and Pecans for topping with sticky brown sugar/cinnamon drizzling down the sides. You just break off a bubble bread piece and enjoy! Makes a great breakfast bread the next morning if any is left over.

Another tradition at Thanksgiving was a great way to get the kids to eat their vegetables. I would place equal amounts of carrots and turnips in a pan of boiling water and cook until tender. (This sounds awful but wait, don't knock it till you have tried it.) Then I would drain and whip the carrots and turnips with an electric mixer and add salt and butter to taste. You could

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