Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans and Happy Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for? oh I don't even know where to begin, I thank God for my family, friends and good health. Also I am thankful for making so many lovely food blogging buddies and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I have an adopted American family and we are going to their home tomorrow, I said I would bring something I saw these sweet potatoes on the Bitten Blog (New York Times) and knew this was the one, flavorful and not too sweet. The sweet potato is a rich source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6 and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Manganese. You will also get protein from the black beans.

Ingredients:
  • 6 sweet potatoes
  • 1/4 red onion
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • a little Italian seasoning
  • handful of fresh cilantro
  • olive oil
  • can of blackbeans
Method:
  1. Roast the sweet potato with onion, garlic and herbs until soft
  2. then mix in black beans
  3. puree a few cloves of garlic, herbs and cilantro in olive oil and mix.

Ready to go into the oven
Making the sauce
Its done, ready to take with us tomorrow!

Here's a fun piece I wrote for Blackwing Quality Meats on the First Thanksgiving meal:

The first thanksgiving was in 1621 it was celebrated by the Pilgrims with the local Massasout Indian tribe to celebrate surviving many hardships and a successful harvest. The harvest was made possible by the Indians who helped teach the new settlers how to grow corn and local food items. The first meal consisted of fowl, deer donated by the Indians, cornmeal, fish such as cod and Bass, and possible turkey. Although historians feel that it is more likely that turkey became the center piece of the meal later on.

Other food that may have been eaten include lobster, rabbit, chicken, beans, squash, chestnuts, onion, leek, cabbage, carrot, eggs and goat cheese. Pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce was not on the menu as there was a dwindled supply of sugar and no oven to make the crust. Potatoes were also not on the menu as they were not culitvated at the time. The pilgrams didn't use forks just spoons and knives and a cloth to pick up hot items of food and they didn't eat a meal in courses, all the food was put on the table at once and it could be eaten as desired.

The meats were roasted and sauces made with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon , dried fruit and pepper.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster
Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
Meat: Venison, Seal
Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn
Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
Fruit: Plums, Grapes
Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns
Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrims's first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.
Pumpkin Pie: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation.



What ever you eat this Thanksgiving have a lovely day with family and friends Love from Rebecca of Chow and Chatter!



Sources:

  1. http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving/the-first-thanksgiving
  2. http://festivals.iloveindia.com/thanks-giving/dinner/food-in-history.html




39 comments:

  1. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Your vegetables look delicious!!

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  2. Very interesting! I'd love to have lobster for Thanksgiving! Yum.

    Have a great day tomorrow. Enjoy your family and friends! I know I will :)

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  3. Thank you for stopping by my blog and for those fun facts =). It's interesting to see that almost everything we eat was not on the original menu.

    Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

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  4. You can be a very good chef.. Your recipe is amazing! It looks delicious . I will surely give it a try. Nice post!

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  5. You can be a very good chef.. Your recipe is amazing! It looks delicious . I will surely give it a try. Nice post!

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  6. The sweet potatoes and black beans look delicious!

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  7. Oh - love that recipe. Wish I had seen it before I mashed my sweet potatoes (with good stuff but still...) Love the fun facts about Thanksgiving. Goat cheese? Loving that! Happy, happy Thanksgiving to your home.

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  8. Sweet potatoes and black beans sound like a yummy combo! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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  9. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    I love this post. I was reading it to my husband as we love food history.

    Adding your button to my side bar :)

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  10. Nicole: thanks appreciate it
    Gina: oh the same to you sweet Gina
    Mari: I know i found it fascinating
    Bryan: thanks
    Mardi: oh the same to you
    Jessica: thanks so much
    Claudia: thanks so much
    Reeni: happy thanksgiving to you and moon lol
    mom on the run: oh thanks have joined your new site as well

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  11. Looks delicious, have a great Holiday!

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  12. Happy Days. Please stop by my blog. I have something for you.

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  13. Nicci: thanks the same to you
    comfycook: thanks will go there

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  14. I don't know much about Thanksgiving as we don't celebrate it here, but this looks like a super yummy dinner! :)

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  15. Thanks for the history lesson! Happy thanksgiving from my family to yours!

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  16. Your vegtables look delicious.
    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
    Mimi

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  17. Funny I was thinking of posting what they did not have back then, and the fact that the Indians had no set meal, they kept the pot on the stove and most just ate when they got hungry!

    Blessings to you and yours, and that menu, oh I wish I was there!

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  18. Looks delicious! Hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving--enjoy the day and all your blessings.

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  19. Ooooh...I love sweet potatoes...in whatever ways they are cooked. This dish looks so delicious I would have to make it. Thanks for sharing.

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  20. Delicious meal, happy thanksgiving!

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  21. I'm just about to put our sweet potatoes in the oven.

    Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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  22. Rebecca, your roasted sweet potatoes look delicious. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

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  23. Very interesting indeed!
    Have a wonderful holiday with your adopted American family. I wonder if it is too late for this Canadian gal to be adopted by Americans. All this T-day blogging is making me hungry!

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  24. Oh I know so little about Thanksgiving so it was a really wonderful read!! Thanks and enjoy your holiday!!

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  25. That looks really good. Even if I haven't been working for many years and still can't find a job, I'm grateful that there's food on the table, I have clothes to wear, a shelter for protection, family and close friends, a means to do my blog, food bloggers like you and so much more. We don't really celebrate thanksgiving but have a wonderful one.

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  26. chocolaty lifestyle; it was new to me as well as I am British its a lovely holiday though
    Sarah: no problem have a great one
    Jenn: the same to you
    mimi: thanks have a lovely day
    Chef E: have a great thanksgiving
    Deb: thanks so much have a good one in sunny hawaii
    Mary: hope you like it
    MJ: the same to you lol
    the unplanned cook: oh thats cool have a great lunch
    George: thanks so much

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  27. Natashya my family will adopt you and you can celebrate Indian and British holidays!
    3 hungry tummies: thanks so much
    Divina: oh what a lovely outlook, will pray for the job for you, love Rebecca

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  28. Happy Thanksgiving,Rebecca!!!!!The Cilantro-sweet potatoes combo sounds wonderful.

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  29. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
    I love sweet potatoes!!

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  30. How very interesting...I threw together some odds and sods in the kitchen last weekend and part of it was sweet potato and black beans...very spicy and yummers! You did great here...this looks super!

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  31. Fuss-free holiday food. Yay!
    Happy Thanksgiving.

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  32. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

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  33. Happy Thanksgiving! What a tasty sweet potato dish.

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  34. thanks all

    Happy Thanksgiving

    Love rebecca

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  35. Yum! This sounds delicious--it definitely makes me feel thankful. Veggies are the best part of edible creation, in my humble opinion.

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  36. Sarah thanks for visiting oh and i agree

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