Six Tastes Kitchen

RECIPE

* This year’s Thanksgiving was a little challenging for some of us. We lost family members, friends, and loved ones to natural calamities, accidents, illnesses, and violence. Some lost their jobs, businesses, properties, and much more. Not to mention the rising cost of goods and services makes celebrating the holidays a bit harder this year. We all feel it, undeniably.

But no matter how difficult life gets, we still have many things worth being thankful for. We just have to count the ways and appreciate the fact that we are still here with one another celebrating the holidays despite the fact that some parts of the world are currently facing untoward hardship. It may be difficult to embrace the joys of the holidays with these thoughts. 

In my household, we tried to keep things simple and basic this Thanksgiving. We minimized unnecessary shopping and tried exploring the pantry, cupboards, and freezer for some stored food that had been sitting there for quite some time. The only items we bought from the store were turkey and potatoes; everything else was from the freezer and dry storage. The potatoes were selling for 0.99 cents for 5 pounds in our area; so, we bought a few bags to use for dinner and stored the rest in the basement. 

I have some extra apples in the fridge, so I used them to make an apple pie. I also found a frozen purple yam that I bought from an Asian store, which I had already forgotten about. So I made a purple yam pie as a substitute for pumpkin pie; I have some fresh pumpkins in the yard that we used for decoration. I will be using them for pumpkin pie this Christmas. There were 2 canned cranberry sauce in the pantry since last year and the dates were still good. I cooked it with some chopped fresh apples. I just added brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice to perk up the flavor. 

I also have some frozen corn and green beans in my freezer. I made these into green bean and corn casserole since I have a 1-lb canned cream of mushroom soup and a small bag of crispy fried onions in the pantry. I also made scalloped potatoes using shredded and sliced cheese that I have in the fridge, milk, and butter. I made the roux from scratch (equal parts of flour and butter) and added milk and cheese. I added this mixture to the sliced potatoes and baked it. 

Lastly, I found 2 boxes of stuffing mix from last year. The dates were still good; so, I used them with the frozen chicken broth that I saved in the freezer a few months back. I feel pretty good this year that I didn’t spend much on groceries.

Thanksgiving this year in my household was all about scaling down to the basics and being resourceful with what we have, as well as simply appreciating the presence of family and loved ones and celebrating life itself. Happy holidays to you all and God bless!

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