This year, have the best and worst Thanksgiving … ever. It’s tradition!

By Andrea Gaines

As everyone knows, the Thanksgiving meal brings out the worst and best in us.

The best comes out thanks to those who decide, ahead of time, that this is going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.  They are going to cook their little hearts out … and welcome everyone.

The worst comes out when someone decides that, dagnabbit, this year I’m not going to hold back when the political discussions start.  And, people are going to eat my sweet potato and marshmallow casserole … and they are going to like it.  

Trials and tribulations … overcome

Many people who, when asked about Thanksgiving 2020, have nothing to say.

They don’t know where it is going to be.  Nor do they care.

They don’t know who will be coming, or who will be going.

But, others welcome Thanksgivings as an opportunity for growth.  It has been a bad year, but I’m still here!

One friend revealed how one year the power went out and she was forced to cook the entire dinner on a BBQ – never having hosted the family for the holiday before.  But, they ate by candlelight on the back porch, and the food was crispy and well-cooked.  Delicious … and romantic.

Another shared with me the year she learned where turkeys came from.  A school bus took her, as a four-year-old, to a local turkey farm.  The turkeys were meeting their maker that day, and one of her classmates was dancing around with turkey feathers in her hair.  “I learned to love birds that day,” she said wistfully.

Trials and, ultimately renewal, you see, follow Thanksgiving with great vengeance.

Savor the fun of it all

Like I said.  Trials and, ultimately renewal, follow Thanksgiving with a vengeance.

So, rejoice in what, actually might be a far more simple Thanksgiving 2020, and, ultimately, a more joyful one.

Remember the funny dishes.  The funny circumstances.  And, the lessons Thanksgiving has to teach us.

Some people might be missing.  Gratefully … some really weird dishes (like the one here) might be missing.  But, you will still be with people you love, if only in spirit.

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Bologna Cake (sorry if I offend)

You are either going to hate this or love it (and think me a snob).

Bologna Cake is garden variety bologna meat layered (or stacked) and iced (or decorated) like a traditional sweet cake.

It does not require any baking or cooking experience.  A five year old could do it.

One person I spoke to said that this was a “low rent” appetizer.  Another person said it was a “kick butt football game snack.”

It is all over the internet.  Enjoy.  I guess.

Ingredients:  One block of softened cream cheese, one bottle of ranch dressing, a large package of plain old bologna, cheap crackers or bread, sliced olives (who cares what kind).

Assembly:  Mix your softened cream cheese with your ranch dressing to an icing-like consistency.  Chill.  On a large round platter, put down a thin layer of bologna (several slices), ice the bologna with about ¼ inch of the cream cheese mixture and repeat – bologna and icing, bologna and icing, bologna and icing until you build a cake maybe 5 or 6 inches high.  You then ice and decorate (with sliced olives) the whole stupid thing just like you’d ice a decorate a cake.  Serve it by using it as a dip of sorts, or as a sandwich on toast.