Thanksgiving Haitian Style!

How to cook Turkey like a Haitian

To most of of us, Thanksgiving means

• Long Weekend
• Lots of Party
• Lots of Turkey
• It is a time when family get together in one location and eat, and joke, and have fun.

Thanksgiving Haitian Style!

In the Haitian Community, it's not just about the turkey, it's about everything else that comes with the turkey

• The "Macaroni Au Gratin"
• The "Diri ak DjonDjon" (Rice with mushrooms)
• The "Kodin-n Grie"
• The "Tropical Salads"

We're no pilgrim but we know how to eat that turkey

We already love to eat meat; I mean I have never met a Haitian Vegetarian

But there is a little bit of history behind thanksgiving that I wanted to share with you

The Real History of Thanksgiving
America's first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 was a three-day celebration of feasting and recreation.

The prior year was the Pilgrims' first winter at Plymouth, and it was so harsh almost half of the colonists perished.

By the second harvest, there was reason to rejoice. A peace treaty was signed with the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims' Native American neighbors. And Massasoit, their leader, shared his agricultural expertise, which resulted in a bumper crop. As was common in England, where the Pilgrims originated, they chose to commemorate their bounty with a harvest festival.

In 1777, the Continental Congress declared the first national Thanksgiving.

President Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863.

Why do we eat turkey for Thanksgiving?
I found two (2) Funny stories online that I wanted to share with you

Story 1 - "Queen Elizabeth of 16th century England was chowing down on roast goose during a harvest festival. When news was delivered to her that the Spanish Armada had sunk on it way to attack her beloved England.

The queen was so pleased that she order a second goose to celebrate the great news.

Thus, the goose became the favorite bird at harvest time in England.

When the Pilgrims arrived in America from England, roasted turkey replaced roasted goose as the main cuisine because wild turkeys were more abundant and easier to find than geese.

Story 2 - A Pilgrim woman told her husband it would be nice to invite the Indians over for dinner to thank them for all their help since the arrival at Plymouth Rock.

She asked him to go hunting and catch a nice big pheasant so they could have a celebration.

The husband, having just gotten off the boat, wasn't much of a hunter, but he did his best and set a snare along a small path in the woods.

A short while later, a pheasant came down the path and noticed the circle of strings.

"Gee," it said, "That looks like a trap. Someone could get hurt in one of those."

And the pheasant gingerly stepped around the trap. Soon another pheasant came down the path and saw the snare.

"Gosh!" it said. "A bird could get caught in one of those. They shouldn't be left lying around."

And the pheasant carefully stepped around the trap and went on its way.

Then, a turkey came down the path. Upon seeing the snare, it said,

"Wow! A trap! I wonder if it works ..."

Article by: Woodring Saint Preux

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