The Perfect Thanksgiving

I’ve been thinking a lot about why people don’t cook anymore. The baby boomer generation is said to be ‘culinary illiterate’.  There are a lot of factors at play here, and if you want to join an interesting discussion on eGullet about why mothers fib and say their kids eat vegetables, take a look.
But, getting back to Thanksgiving, there is a distressing article in today’s NY Times.   Is it really true? Have we ‘lost the ritual of a shared meal’? If so, that is truly tragic. 
Has perfection become an ideal, and anything less is not acceptable? Has it been drummed into our heads that we cannot possibly cook as well as a restaurant or take-out? The November issue of Living, Martha Stewarts magazine has this headline, "The Perfect Thanksgiving".  What if….you have to work extra hours, you don’t have a bottomless pocket, the kids are crying, your husband has just announced the water boiler is broken and you still want to have Thanksgiving dinner. In that case, the perfect Thanksgiving is making what you can to eat, and more importantly, making the time to sit down together, as a family, and share the food and catch up with each other.
I’m truly blessed, I love seeing my family members, everyone is a good cook, and a perfect Thanksgiving is when we all get together and raise a glass of anything to say thanks for just being here. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!