Thanks(for)giving
Robert Jensen has an essay up at AlterNet about Thanksgiving's inherently imperialist nature, which I mostly agree with, but in the spirit of not wanting to spend the rest of my life pouring dirt on my head and wailing, I prefer to think of the holiday as a remembrance of the very brief period of time before things went horribly wrong.
Yes, shortly after the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims industriously set about exterminating the Americans who lived here first, and yes the Founding Fathers did it too, and yes we're all complicit. But at that first one, Indians were welcome. At that first one, at least there was a chance that it might have turned out differently. I wish it had; I don't know what this country would look like now in that case but at least we'd have one less genocide on our collective conscience.
On that note, here is a recipe for Three Sisters Soup which I put together with a little Internet research after reading yesterday's piece on native foods in the New York Times (if you do any gardening, or are interested in cultural preservation or just cool projects, be sure to check out the Native Seeds program mentioned in the article). The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash, which the Indians interplanted. We had this last night, and even the two-year old liked it:
2-3 T peanut oil
2-3 cloves garlic
1 onion, sliced thin
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded, baked in a shallow pan of water at 350 for about an hour, then cooled, peeled, and cut in chunks (I was making a pumpkin pie at the time, so I just threw this in the oven with it--you could microwave it for 5-10 minutes instead.)
2 cups corn (I used frozen organic, because I am better than you.)
1 can each kidney, pinto and black beans, drained
1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 can chicken broth (you could use vegetable)
cumin--I think I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon. Depends on how much you like it and how strong yours is.
Salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt--as one Indian poster noted in his Web recipe, "We didn't use salt much before the invasion."
Brown the onions and garlic in the oil, add the squash and the corn. Cook for a few minutes. Add everything else and let it stew for maybe an hour--it should get pretty stew-like but the squash should not dissolve.
You can make cornmeal dumplings to go with it--they're fun!
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. dill (I think this has to mean fresh--I just used about 1/4 t. dried).
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
2 T. water
1-1/2 t. olive oil
1 egg
Mix the dry stuff, and mix the wet stuff separately. Then put them together and stir with a fork until combined. With wet hands, form about 16 balls 1" in diameter. Bring a large-ish pot of water to a boil, then turn down to a bare simmer and gently place the dumplings in the water (don't crowd them--they'll swell. Do two batches if you need to). Cover the pot and steam for 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and put them in each bowl of soup as you serve it. Eat and be thankful there are still some Indians left.
Yes, shortly after the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims industriously set about exterminating the Americans who lived here first, and yes the Founding Fathers did it too, and yes we're all complicit. But at that first one, Indians were welcome. At that first one, at least there was a chance that it might have turned out differently. I wish it had; I don't know what this country would look like now in that case but at least we'd have one less genocide on our collective conscience.
On that note, here is a recipe for Three Sisters Soup which I put together with a little Internet research after reading yesterday's piece on native foods in the New York Times (if you do any gardening, or are interested in cultural preservation or just cool projects, be sure to check out the Native Seeds program mentioned in the article). The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash, which the Indians interplanted. We had this last night, and even the two-year old liked it:
2-3 T peanut oil
2-3 cloves garlic
1 onion, sliced thin
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded, baked in a shallow pan of water at 350 for about an hour, then cooled, peeled, and cut in chunks (I was making a pumpkin pie at the time, so I just threw this in the oven with it--you could microwave it for 5-10 minutes instead.)
2 cups corn (I used frozen organic, because I am better than you.)
1 can each kidney, pinto and black beans, drained
1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 can chicken broth (you could use vegetable)
cumin--I think I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon. Depends on how much you like it and how strong yours is.
Salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt--as one Indian poster noted in his Web recipe, "We didn't use salt much before the invasion."
Brown the onions and garlic in the oil, add the squash and the corn. Cook for a few minutes. Add everything else and let it stew for maybe an hour--it should get pretty stew-like but the squash should not dissolve.
You can make cornmeal dumplings to go with it--they're fun!
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. dill (I think this has to mean fresh--I just used about 1/4 t. dried).
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
2 T. water
1-1/2 t. olive oil
1 egg
Mix the dry stuff, and mix the wet stuff separately. Then put them together and stir with a fork until combined. With wet hands, form about 16 balls 1" in diameter. Bring a large-ish pot of water to a boil, then turn down to a bare simmer and gently place the dumplings in the water (don't crowd them--they'll swell. Do two batches if you need to). Cover the pot and steam for 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and put them in each bowl of soup as you serve it. Eat and be thankful there are still some Indians left.
posted by Susan @ 7:48 AM
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