I am already contemplating the contents of my Thanksgiving relish tray. You DO have one on your table, don’t you? I consider it an important grace note to the booming symphony that is the Turkey Day meal.
My family had most Thanksgivings at my grandmother’s. She offered pickled whole peaches and bread-and-butter pickles, both of which she made. Also, red pickled apple rings and olives (purchased), and celery sticks stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese and onions (not technically a pickle, but in the vicinity).
A friend’s mother made pickled cucumber rings that looked like pickled apple rings, and tasted a little like them, too. Large cucumber slices were scooped out in the center and pickled in a sweet mixture that included red food coloring. I suspect this pickle originated as an attempt to use up cukes that were too large for other purposes.
This summer, my pickling and canning was impaired by recovering from a broken left wrist, so I don’t have my usual homemade pickled okra and bread-and-butters. Those I will have to find elsewhere – even if no one eats it but me, I must have pickled okra. Some friends and I were able to make our traditional vegetable relish, which is great on the tray and for turkey sandwiches later.
It wouldn’t feel like a full Thanksgiving meal, to me, without that relish tray. What do you think? What’s on your tray?
In the new book “Chefs of the Triangle: Their Lives, Recipes and Restaurants” by Durham writer Ann Prospero (John F. Blair Publisher, $16.95), you can discover interesting nibbles about the area’s top chefs. For example, that Walter Royal, chef of the Angus Barn in Raleigh, grew up in rural Alabama and was inspired to cook by his Aunt Vertal’s tea cookies. And that Jason Smith, chef of 18 Seaboard in Raleigh, cooked in Antarctica. Talk about a walk-in freezer.