By Emily Schilling
Thanksgiving will certainly be a bit different this year. Friends and relatives may choose to attend a virtual turkey day celebration instead of an in-person dinner. And those prepping the feast may not only be shielded by aprons, but face masks as well this year.
Holiday safety precautions nowadays go far beyond making sure the turkey is thoroughly cooked and the leftovers aren’t left out too long before they’re packed into the refrigerator. Social distancing now must be considered when we invite others to break bread with us.
Yet Thanksgiving will also always be a time of tradition. We pull out recipes passed down through generations to recreate family favorites. Platters and bowls of the main attractions — turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce — take the spotlight and often reappear in the days to follow reimagined in everything from sandwiches to soups to casseroles.
Speaking of “reimagined,” this year’s turkey feast could also come in a plastic bag. Brach’s candy, makers of the autumn classic, candy corn, has introduced candy corn just for Thanksgiving. The bite-sized candies mimic the flavors of what you’d normally pile on your holiday dinner plate. There’s the cranberry sauce and the sweet potato pie. (Yum!) There’s carrots, glazed with ginger. And, then we get to the green beans and (pause for effect) the stuffing and turkey!
Fans of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” may remember Willy Wonka’s three-course dinner flavor gum which literally turned the bratty Violet Beauregarde violet. Wonka’s gum — which morphed from tomato soup to roast beef with baked potato to blueberry pie a la mode (Violet’s eventual downfall) throughout the chewing experience — always disgusted me. So, the thought of eating meat flavored candy is not getting me in the holiday spirit.
But still, if pouring some candy on a plate will lessen my time in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day (while still giving everyone the flavors they expect) I might consider it. Making post-holiday turkey and noodles is going to be a problem though if the only dinnertime leftovers I have are tiny little corn-shaped candies.
EMILY SCHILLING is editor of Indiana Connection.
