Thanksgiving is a day for one giant meal, not a bunch of little snacks
I feel pretty strongly about Thanksgiving food, as in I look forward to it for weeks in advance. I get hyped about making my great-grandmother’s dressing and tediously stirring gravy until it bubbles to just the right consistency. There’s a lot going on on this holiday — including having to sit across the table from some of your more annoying relatives — and the last thing it needs is appetizers.
I am not anti-appetizer. I love a little snack more than life itself, but Thanksgiving is not the day for little snacks. It is for hulking plates of ham and turkey, so laden with green bean casserole and sweet potatoes that it looks improbable. I don’t have time to sit around eating puff-pastry-wrapped wieners when there is cornbread dressing to attend to. I do not want to eat your frozen mini-quiches from Costco when there’s a glistening turkey in the background, just waiting to be carved.
I think the majority of the reason why I feel this way is that I’m the one who does most of the Thanksgiving cooking for my family. I am very busy in the days — weeks! — leading up to the holiday, making sure that my yeast rolls are fluffy and that I’ve found the perfect turkey-emblazoned decor for the occasion. I do not have time to sit around and pipe little dollops of cream into tiny pastry shells or wrap half-slices of bacon around a scallop. Sorry, I’m too busy making sure that the rest of the meal — the important part! — is going to come out great.
And I know someone out there is going to be like “Hey, what about deviled eggs?” Deviled eggs are not an appetizer at Thanksgiving, they are part of the main attraction. A deviled egg is the perfect foil to a big plate of hot food. After eating a few bites of dressing, who wouldn’t appreciate the cool, acidic bite of mustard and creamy egg yolk? Only a monster. And perhaps most importantly, deviled eggs can be made the night before and stored in the refrigerator, which means that the finicky work of piping all that yolky goodness into the egg white can be done long before your guests arrive.
To be completely clear, if someone shows up with a plate of those aforementioned pastry-wrapped wieners or a tub of cheese dip, I’m not going to kick them out of my home. I’m just going to place the snacks on the Thanksgiving table alongside the more important stuff, and proceed to ignore them in favor of the meal I spent countless hours working to prepare. I will, eventually, eat one, but only hours later when I’ve had too many weed gummies and can’t bear another scoop of dressing.
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