Under the Weather Dinner or No More Turkey

I have not been feeling well for the past week.  A nasty cough with some congestion really slowed me down for the long Thanksgiving weekend. I am so ready for this illness thing to be over!

So yesterday, while surfing the net between plays during the Colts-Texans game, I discovered this article, "Study: Antibacterial spices explain why some like it hot." About 5 paragraphs in, the author identified the spices most effective in fighting bacteria. They included garlic, onions, and chilies. Sounds like Cajun cuisine to me!

I wanted something fairly easy, fairly quick, and VERY spicy. My first thought: Shrimp Creole.

1. I chopped some onion, celery, garlic and mushrooms:

2. Then I cooked these down in butter

3. When it looked like this:

     I added a can of these:

4. Added these spices:

5. I cooked this mixture for about 20 minutes til it looked like this:

5. Added a pound of shrimp:

6. Served it up over some rice.

Jealous?

Happy Thankgsgiving Day

I had to go to Walmart today to get a couple of things for our Thanksgiving dinner today.  One of the things I had to get was all the way in the back of the store, so I had the pleasure of walking all the way through the Super Walmart. I was struck by something I saw in the store; and by what I did not see.

Super Walmart on Thanksgiving Day was very busy, but nearly all the shoppers had something in common: they were people of color. Everywhere I looked I saw brown and black faces. Even the people working at Walmart were mostly people of color.

Then it occurred to me, that the Latinos in the store (especially those first generation immigrants) don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Why would they? Thanksgiving is an almost exclusively American holiday. For all those in this country from Mexico and points south, they have no frame of reference for Thanksgiving Day.

The folks in the store of African descent, Thanksgiving Day must represent something quite the opposite of what Americans of European descent. It was the first Thanksgiving that eventually led to the slave trade. Like our Latino neighbors, those of African descent do not have the same frame of reference for Thanksgiving as white Americans, and, in fact, it could be that Thanksgiving Day has a negative association with their ancestral memory.

I give thanks that we are blessed to be in a country with such a diverse collection of cultural traditions and memories.