Bena Mae’s Kitchen: A Thanksgiving Picture

The most enduring and heart warming of Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the Four Freedoms, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear, Freedom of Worship, is in my view his painting of Freedom From Want.
The painting has become a nostalgic symbol of an enduring American theme of holiday celebration. It depicts an elderly couple serving a fat turkey to what looks like a table of happy and eager children and grandchildren and is reminiscent of Thanksgiving dinners my family enjoyed every year on this holiday…and still do.
We refuse to bow to the national craze of ignoring Thanksgiving Day, sweeping it out of the way in order to mob retail stores and get there while the prices are low. When ordinary human beings morph into a pack of hungry lions after a baby deer, screaming and shoving and grabbing purchases out of other customers’ hands in order to lay a $2 off waffle maker under the tree on Christmas morning. It’s disgusting, greedy, and uncivilized.
My family and I will not trade with any store that makes their employees work on this most American holiday, a holiday that is exclusively our own and should be given the respect for which it was intended. What would that little band of Pilgrims think if they had fast-forwarded into the future and seen what a colossal farce this holiday has become to some people in the year 2013?
Thanksgiving is an important part of our heritage and my family will be honoring it as such. We will be seated around the table upon which a display of delicious vegetables surround a golden Norman Rockwell turkey and always, always, the most traditional of them all, a delicious pumpkin pie.
We will laugh and talk about old times and fill our souls with happy memories of other Thanksgivings. And file this one into our scrapbooks for next year.
Tomorrow we may go Christmas shopping. Or we may not.

Enjoy!

Candied Yams

3 pounds garnet or ruby sweet potatoes (yams), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
Salt
2 cups orange juice
1-1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter

Get a large pot of water boiling and add a generous pinch of salt.
Boil the sweet potatoes for 5-10 minutes, or until they are not longer crunchy; you will finish cooking them in a moment.
Drain and set aside.
Mix the remaining ingredients in a shallow, wide sauté pan and bring to a boil.
Add the sweet potatoes and coat well with the sauce.
Boil on high heat until the sauce reduces to a syrup.