Are you ready to prepare a feast, give thanks, and eat like there’s no tomorrow? I doubt the Pilgrims would understand this holiday. If we really want to celebrate the original Thanksgiving experience, we might try something completely different. Why get cozy with the same old turkey when we could try, for just one day, to be like those brave souls who were struggling to survive in a strange new world?

Imagine getting on a ship, going off to a place unknown and unsettled, with only hopes and dreams of a better life. Harsh circumstances, sickness, fear, native peoples, different foods, no way back home, and bad weather were but a few of the challenges that faced these folks. They must have been very grateful that they made it through a year in the wilderness called America.

Thanksgiving is a holiday often eclipsed by Christmas and usually linked to the start of the Christmas shopping season. It would be tragic if Thanksgiving became just another holiday, since it is the one day that symbolizes the pure spirit of giving thanks in the midst of hardship. In some ways, Thanksgiving Day is the best of all holidays–no gifts to commercialize it, no religion to limit it, no elf to trivialize it–just one day in November to give thanks for all that we have and remember where we came from.

This Thanksgiving, I will honor the Pilgrims by setting aside all of my old recipes and blazing a new trail in the kitchen. I told my husband, Doug, that I want to make a “turkenduck,” which is a duck breast rolled with mushrooms, stuffed inside a chicken breast, placed inside a turkey.

He looked at me as if I had lost my mind and told me if I wanted to experiment with “weird food,” Thanksgiving is not the day to do it. Where’s his sense of adventure?

I remember as a child, kitchens were places that belonged to women. Men sat together looking at ball games or discussing politics, while women ruled the stove tops and ovens. My father, uncles and grandfathers didn’t complain much about food, especially when the women were armed with sharp knives. Chopping, boiling, mashing, slicing, mixing, baking, dicing, and tasting were serious tasks. In those days, cooking a feast was an all‑day marathon, perhaps not that much different from the Pilgrim days.

I still love to get up very early on Thanksgiving, to fight with the bird before getting it all stuffed and tied up. Then it clears the way for the real fun: pie making, peeling potatoes (I enlist my husband), and all other manner of delightful things to do. Last year, my daughter, Tammy, told me to put the turkey dressing into muffin pans and another new tradition was started. It was a lot better than the year we decided to cook the turkey in one of those dangerous,burn‑down‑the‑house, hot oil cookers. Dear Readers, unless you are a fireman–forget it. I’m just thankful we’re all still alive.

I have had a few disasters when it comes to Thanksgiving dinners. One year I got carried away with the sage and the stuffing looked a sickening green. My uncle said it looked like mold.

Another year, Doug, was making the mashed potatoes and added so much milk that we had to serve them in soup bowls.

The funniest year was when I somehow got the turkey turned upside down on the cutting board and thought it had shriveled because I couldn’t find the breast. Fortunately, after a full five minutes of terror, my daughters and I were able to flip the beast over.

What are you thankful for this year? How does your Thanksgiving Day dinner compare to that of

the early settlers who gathered around a long table, grateful for life, holding onto hope and dreaming of a bright future. Let’s all count our collective blessings and be sure to hug the cook. Oh, and if you have any criticism of what’s being served, beware of women with sharp knives.

Happy Thanksgiving.