Issue 15, containing: A Giving of Thanks, A Holiday Meal Plan, A Chili Recipe, Letters, Commonplaces, &c.

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SOME EDITORIAL NOTES

It would be very nice if I could be consistent with these — but then, many things would be nice. I think I can find some pleasure in the fact that I’ve made it to 15 issues. And that the weather continues fine, and that banana bread muffins remain delicious.

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A GIVING OF THANKS

My children are not alone, I think, in a general disdain for the “normal” foods of Thanksgiving — they are iffy on the topic of turkey, are uninterested in mashed potatoes and gravy, and have a horror of the multitude of vegetables available. As a single mother with two small ones, I long ago had to find a balance between things like “overwhelming leftovers” and “ornery tastebuds” to come up with a holiday that actually made sense for everyone.

(Additionally, I’m not hugely interested in perpetuating cheerful historical lies, so that whole aspect has also been thrown out the window.)

After exactly one Thanksgiving where I put together a traditional meal and then had to live with weeks’ worth of leftovers that no one but me wanted, I changed my approach. The next year, I sat the kids down and asked them what food they felt thankful for. Not what they thought they should want, or what was traditionally part of Thanksgiving — just, the food that they were glad existed in the world.

I don’t make them justify their choices, and we inevitably end up cutting down the potential menu so that it’s actually manageable within a day. But ever since we started approaching it from that angle, it gives the children a chance to choose their own menus based on their own likes, and every year there’s a change that reflects who they are and who they’re becoming.

This has extended to how I approach Thanksgiving for myself as well. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was one I spent with friends who’d mistaken the day a Friendsgiving party was supposed to happen, and we found ourselves at 2 PM on Thursday with an empty pantry and short tempers. I went out to a late-open shop and considered the foods that I myself was thankful for — and I ended up with a bag full of eggnog, pecan pie, cranberry orange relish, and about five different weird cheeses. I brought it back, and laid out the food, sharing the food I loved with the people I loved.

That, I think, is the basis of how I approach this holiday now. I spend it with people I love, and we share what we love with each other.

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A HOLIDAY MEAL PLAN

Spaghetti with butter
Pizza bagels
Croissants
McIntosh apples
Clementines
Roasted potato wedges
Jello
Chocolate cake
Apple pie
Banana bread muffins
Apple juice
Lemonade
Chocolate milk
Chili (for me)

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A CHILI RECIPE

I get my love of chili from my mother, who despite being born in Florida was Texan through and through. The chili recipe I have from her is (as she wrote herself) more guidelines than anything else, and I’ve modified it for myself as well. It bears her principles, though. And as such, I don’t have a proper recipe. I have, instead, a list of ingredients not to forget, and the gentle belief that it’ll turn out all right in the end.

• meat 
• 1/2 onion
• green pepper
• corn
• beans
• diced tomatoes
• tomato paste
• garlic
• pepper
• chili powder
• cinnamon
• cumin
• salt
• ground chili
• thyme
• rosemary
• apple cider vinegar
• soy sauce
• sriracha

I’m thankful for this chili. I’m thankful that I got to watch my mother make it, and the warmth and fullness it gave me over the years. I’m thankful that I have those memories. I’m thankful that I’m here to make it in her memory.

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LETTERS

From the Potatoes, to the Children, “We Are Reasonably Surprised You Enjoy Us”:

We had thought that potatoes in any form would be tossed out with the rest of the traditional Thanksgiving menu. This appears to not be the case. Can we interest you in potato soup? How about scalloped potatoes? Potatoes in any form that can’t be readily mistaken for french fries? Maybe?

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From the Magazine, to the Chili, “Wow”:

We think you might be the best chili we’ve ever made. Thanks. To whoever. 

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COMMONPLACES

From Richard Jackson’s “Basic Algebra“:

“It was a mistake to keep this single knife in my heart so long, but it is my knife, and my heart, too.”

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From lookninja’s “767“:

It all gets swept away, of course
I’m not arguing that.  It all
falls into the lake; it all
is covered in kudzu, japanese
knotweed; it all goes
in the end.  But there are other worlds
than these, and there are beginnings
that haven’t happened yet and you
can lose something you love and still
fall in love again tomorrow.

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From Danusha Laméris’s “Small Kindnesses“:

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk 
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover 
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you would like to write a letter to be produced/answered in the magazine, please email me at minor.hours.magazine@gmail.com with the subject line:

Letter to the Magazine: [subject of letter as you would like to see it printed]

If you wish the letter to be anonymous or under a nom de plume, please state so in the body of the email; similarly, if you’d rather not be printed at all, please also state so in the body of the email. It will otherwise be assumed that mail sent to that address is intended for print.

Alternately, commenting on this post will get you a similar result, with much less fuss.

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-Until next week, be safe.