Happy Thanksgiving ~ Throw Back Thursday ~ Picture of the Day ~ Rhotacism ~ Grands Mini Chicken (or Turkey) Pot Pies ~ Thanksgiving Day History

Good 35º foggy/cloudy morning. 

First....

Throw Back Thursday..... me helping my sister Betty with Thanksgiving dinner....

Picture of the Day

Interesting.....

Remember when you were a child and spoke by making your “R’s” sound like “W’s” and everyone thought it was cute? That’s known as rhotacism and some people live with it even as adults. Rhotacism is a speech impediment that is defined by the lack of ability, or difficulty in, pronouncing the “R” sound. In English, the most common occurrence of this type is a pronunciation perceived as closer to “W”. An example of rhotacism would be Elmer Fudd’s pronunciation of "rabbit" as "wabbit". The Looney Tunes character, is notorious for his exaggerated rhotacistic speech ("Be vewwy quiet… I'm hunting wabbits")

Grands Mini Chicken Pot Pies

1 10oz pkg frozen mixed vegetables, cooked

1 cup diced cooked chicken (or turkey!)

1 10.5 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 16.3 oz can Pillsbury Grands Flaky Refrigerated Biscuits

Heat oven to 375º. In bowl combine vegetables, chicken (or turkey) and soup and mix well.

Press each biscuit into muffin tin cup. Place 1 round in each greased muffin cup. Firmly press in bottom and up side, forming 3/4" rim. Spoon a generous 1/3 cup chicken mixture into each. Pull edges of dough over filling towards center, pleat and pinch dough gently to hold in place.

Bake 25-30 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown. Cool 1 minute, remove from pan. 

***

• If your family loves cheese, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese over each pot pie about 5 minutes before the end of the baking time.
• Substitute any frozen (cooked) vegetables you have on hand, such as broccoli, corn, peas or green beans, for the mixed vegetables.
• Use diced rotisserie chicken in this recipe for a quick-prep shortcut.

Historically this date....

1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1994 – In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium.

 

And births this date include...

  

1933 – Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)

  

1936 – Gary Hart, American politician

Involved in one of the top 10 political sex scandals of all time.

1949 – Paul Shaffer, Canadian orchestra leader

1950 – Ed Harris, American actor

Man oh man, he's aged horribly!

 

1967 – Anna Nicole Smith, American television personality (d. 2007)

All I know. Nuff said. Happy Thanksgiving and TBT. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

Thanksgiving Day is observed each year in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, amid the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

HOW TO OBSERVE

In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity. Communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. Several U.S. governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual.

THANKSGIVING DAY HISTORY

Plymouth

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England. The ship carried 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship. They suffered from exposure, scurvy, and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived. When the remaining settlers moved ashore in March, they received an astonishing visit. An Abenaki Indian greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American named Squanto.

Squanto was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe, had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe. The alliance would endure for more than 50 years, and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

First Thanksgiving

In November 1621, after the first successful corn harvest, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast. He invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians suggest that many of the dishes likely used traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

This history of Thanksgiving provided by www.History.com. For more information on Thanksgiving, go to http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving.