My regular readers will know that I usually give my thoughts on the ambiguous meanings of Thanksgiving, and this year is no different. I think, though, that the election of a black man named "Barack Hussein Obama" to the Presidency gives us a bit of a good feeling this year that the often ambiguous ideals of America, celebrated in holidays like Thanksgiving, are closer to fulfillment than ever before. This year my thoughts on Thanksgiving are not that much different than last year's (unlike my recent Columbus day diary, which had some new info), but my thoughts this year do have a certain sense that America has taken a huge, historic step forward in fulfilling the ideals it was founded on. The election of Obama as President has caused even people like Black Nationalist Muhammed Yungai to reassess his generally angry feelings towards the US:

And now we have a President Obama! The mold has been irrevocably broken! The possibilities of opportunity in American life have been exponentially expanded.

Meant to do my final thoughts on Thankgsgiving either Thursday or Friday. But between cooking, eating, a computer outage, a couple of temper tantrums by my 3 year old and some much needed cleaning of our apartment, only getting to it now.

Thanksgiving is one of America's foundation myths. Every culture has them. And, as with most foundation myths, there is much hidden behind the myth. When Augustus hired Virgil to write the Aeniad, truth had almost nothing to do with the bargain. It was all about giving Rome a myth to be proud of so they could comfortably forget the military coup Augustus had carried out. In our case the happy shiny myth of thanksgiving hides our history of genocide against Native Americans and our establishment as a slave nation. Most Americans prefer the shiny happy myth to the reality. But I believe that if we don't face the skeletons in our closet we can never overcome the consequences of those skeletons. You don't grow and improve through denial.

Last entry I described my technique of treating poultry with concentrated tea to give it extra moistness and flavor. I soaked the capon we are having for Thanksgiving for over 24 hours in the tea, turning it over mid way through to expose both sides.

Today I transferred the capon to a more traditional pre-cooking treatment: a salty broth. In its basic form, brining means to soak a bird in salt water for at least 6 hours (I usually do it 12-24 hours). The brine adds flavor and moisture to the meat. I first heard about this method from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I was impressed with the results. As a white meat fan, dryness is an issue. Brining definitely helps.

Last entry I discussed our choice of bird this year: a capon.

Today I immersed the bird into concentrated cherry tea.

Why cherry tea? Because it made sense last year, it worked and people loved it. Sometimes my cooking instincts jump out and give me an idea that is off the wall. About 90% of the time they work very well...we won't talk about the other 10%. Those suck.

This year, on a whim, Joy and I bought a capon for Thanksgiving.

I have always liked Thanksgiving (as a very food-centered holiday) despite a certain ambivalence towards the underlying colonialism of the holiday. Some years I have written a diary focusing on the ambivalence of Thanksgiving (and Columbus Day) for those of us who know how bloody colonialism was in Amreica but also know that our own families may well have been saved from bloody pogroms and holocausts in Europe by the existence of America.