Talking Turkey for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here and ready to kick off the holiday season.  With a dusting of snow on the ground and turkeys thawing in homes across America, brush up on these fun and entertaining holiday tidbits.

Cranberries are often the awkward guest at the party: they're always invited but no one seems to want them there. Whether you love or hate them, this Thanksgiving staple is here to stay, as it's served at an estimated 94 percent of Thanksgiving dinners. So, what do you do with this odd fruit? For those finding them raw in the grocery store, this might be the million dollar question. From drinks to desserts and in savory , cranberries are quite popular. While most opt for the canned, gelled version, the adventurous will be taking to Google to find a recipe to impress their guests. Just make sure your berries are ripe. How do you know? You bounce them, of course. Good thing they don't bruise.

As you set your Thanksgiving table, don't underestimate the knife and spoon, since there was no fork at the first Thanksgiving. Sure, the fork is an American table mainstay, but it wasn't introduced into America until 10 years after the pilgrims' first Thanksgiving in 1620 and not regularly used until the 18th Century. Thank goodness the turkey is so easy to eat with your hands. And if Mom asks why you're using your grubby paws to feast on that drumstick, now you have historic context to stand behind.

Mom will remind you of all her hard work for this holiday dinner and it’s traditional for women to do the bulk of cooking for Thanksgiving. It's typical for women to be in charge of feeding a large table of very hungry family, which also makes it typical for these women to take on a high level of stress in managing the dozen components that need to be completed.

Imagine being part of the first Thanksgiving, where it was believed that only nine surviving women took part in preparing that first meal for 53 pilgrims and over 90 Native Americans! Hopefully some of those men gave them a hand.

We all love those Thanksgiving leftovers. Some of us enjoy them more than the main meal itself. But maybe no one loves leftovers as much as Swanson. In a creative attempt to rid themselves of 260 tons of frozen turkeys leftover from Thanksgiving in 1953, Swanson repackaged the turkeys into meals and the TV dinner was born.  They were mimicked after the airline meals seen on PanAm flights and sold for 98 cents each.

Since we're talking turkey, what did you name your turkey this year? Most likely you named him dinner.  But did you know at every year, the President pardons turkeys? Last year’s set were named Apple and Cider and were given a life of leisure at George Washington's home in Mt. Vernon, Virginia. Turkeys in contention for pardons are selected as chicks and spend their whole lives (or 4 months) competing for the coveted prize of life. Much like a pageant, the birds are groomed from hatching and follow a road of Turkeys & Tiaras to get to the White House. Careful feeding and deliberate human interaction helps separate the winners from the dinners. Former pardoned birds have been sent to Disneyland and other outdoor turkey farms, though few live longer than a year.