It’s time to start planning my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Every year there are a few non-negotiables for the menu, starting with my country ham, my husband’s pumpkin pie, his sister’s green bean casserole and my brother-in-law’s macaroni and cheese.
Some of these Thanksgiving staples come with a story — like the year there was a mild explosion that blew open the oven door when I apparently put a little too much bourbon and brown sugar into the roasting pan that held a 16-pound country ham. The ham and the kitchen were not harmed, and I’ve never failed since then to bake a country ham at least once during the holidays. (There was that time during the pandemic when I was tempted to skip the ham but then came to my senses before it was too late.)
This year I’m also thinking of trying my hand at one or two dishes that go way back in my family.
I haven’t had my mom’s lime green jello salad with pimento cheese and pecans in 30 years. (Don’t judge. That concoction came from the glorious 1970s.)
Another one I’m thinking of trying is my grandmother’s White Mountain Salad. It has only three ingredients — marshmallows, whole cream and pineapple tidbits — but it is not an easy dish to prepare if it’s done well.
My grandmother used to stand at the kitchen sink with a pair of scissors, meticulously cutting large marshmallows into quarters because she said you had to have a clean cut to ensure the marshmallows soaked up the cream. In other words, you couldn’t simplify White Mountain Salad by using the miniature marshmallows.
The fact that Grandmother took that kind of care to get a simple recipe just right tells a story that reveals something about her personality.
I know every family has holiday recipes that are both treasured and connected to a story.
We’d like to hear from Hoptown Chronicle readers who have a family recipe and a story about that dish. Please send your Thanksgiving contributions by email to editor@hoptownchronicle.org no later than Nov. 10. We’d also welcome a photo of the contributor or the prepared recipe — or both. Any photo that illustrates what you are sharing could work.
Similar to our Advent Storytellers project in 2019, the Thanksgiving stories will run in Hoptown Chronicle during the week or so leading up to Thanksgiving Day.
I can’t wait to hear from y’all.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
