Did you know Jingle Bells was originally a Thanksgiving song written in 1857 for Boston Sunday School?
Welcome to the Chop Chop Podcast.
I'm Sally Sampson.
And I'm Harry Rosenblum.
Our mission at Chop Chop Family is to enrich the lives of families by inspiring and teaching them to cook and eat real food together.
Today we're going to talk about Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays because it's all about spending time with family.
Sally, do you have any traditions around Thanksgiving at your house?
I actually don't.
Although I started something a few years ago that I would like to make a tradition, which was I found that, in my family at least, people seem to really like the food the day after Thanksgiving to make sandwiches with the turkey and all the stuff.
So what I did was I cooked the turkey the day before and I made everything.
And then everyone came for Thanksgiving and I love the idea of making it really about the day after Thanksgiving.
Sounds really fun.
And it's like this whole second Thanksgiving.
So it's more like a whole Thanksgiving long weekend for me and my family.
And we also have Matt, the engineer, and Stella here to talk about their Thanksgiving tradition.
The strongest traditions we had were when I was youngest.
It was really all about going to a certain set of grandparents' house.
I called her my nana.
And she was just like one of my absolute favorite family members.
And we would have this group of cousins who were, all you know, A drive away, who would get together.
And I still think of her every year when it comes down to Thanksgiving, even though we assemble now in various different places and with different groups of people and even different foods, because we've gotten more experimental over time.
But it still reminds me so much of her.
Have you ever had any like real failures of recipes on Thanksgiving.
I tried an oyster stuffing a few years ago that I accidentally made considerably more spicy than I intended to, which actually has like a funny little prehistory to it too, because at my wedding we had like a specialty drink that we made and we wanted to have a spicy component.
And I sent my younger brother out.
We had forgotten about that.
I was like, you need to go get chili pepper.
And he went and got this chili powder for this drink that was like incredibly spicy.
It was so much more spicy than anyone expected.
And so that bag of spice has been sitting around in my house for like years, mostly unused, because it is too hot.
So I accidentally picked that for the oyster stuffing and made a dish that was just on the edge of being edible.
Although I did have one uncle who was really hyped on it.
Stella, what about you?
Do you have any specific Thanksgiving dishes that you like to make and eat?
Yeah, for sure.
So usually I celebrate Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house, and sometimes my uncles will come into town, which is nice.
But everyone kind of has their signature dish.
Like my granddad is always doing the turkey.
My grandmother is doing like the mac and cheese and everyone loves my mom's potato salad, even though she doesn't like potato salad, but she's like the best at making it.
Somehow she knows how to season it like perfectly without really tasting it.
So she's always on potato salad duty.
And I'm hoping that one day I'll have like a signature dish to like come to Thanksgiving with.
I'm still trying to figure out what my dish is going to be.
So I need to practice.
Hopefully this year I'll get some practice in.
Nice.
I always want to be a little bit more, I guess, experimental with my cooking for Thanksgiving, because sometimes I find the sort of traditional foods at Thanksgiving kind of boring.
At the moment, I feel like, because we always do Thanksgiving, or often do Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's house, and she is very much a traditionalist
So usually in the last 10 years or so, cooking the turkey falls to me and I'm always interested in doing it in Turkey different ways, or brining it, or flavoring it in a certain way or smoking it.
But often I feel like I have to defer and just do a roast turkey.
Sally, I know that you have a lot of experience with testing recipes for roast turkey.
Yes.
I worked at Cook's Illustrated about 20 years ago.
And one of the things that Cook's Illustrated does is they basically take a recipe and think about every possible way to cook it, every variation, and then you come up with the best recipe.
My first assignment was to make a turkey for a crowd, so to feed 20 to 25 people.
I made 25 to 30 turkeys.
So at first, there'd be leftover turkey, everybody would have a turkey sandwich.
And then it got to the point where it was like, yeah, no, let me bring it home to my family.
And then we got to a point where literally nobody would take any home.
It was just like, I've eaten too much turkey because I would cook one from start to finish.
And then yes, this worked, this didn't work, or I want to try something different.
So it was weeks of making turkey.
So probably nobody ate turkey for years after that.
And here's our top things that we like to do or eat on Thanksgiving.
I like to take a nap.
I like to go for a run before the big meal.
My family would take a walk together after the meal.
I like to play games with my family after dinner, like Uno or like a memory game.
While cooking, we always listen to the song Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie.
And I like to go to bed early.
I love catching up with my family that I haven't seen in a while.
I always like a second slice of pie and I love to include a giant salad with the meal.
Recently, I've enjoyed trying a new recipe and I like to call friends who are not near.
Listeners, let us know what your family does or eats for Thanksgiving.
What is your name?
I'm Alistair.
And Alistair, how old are you?
Um, four.
Nice.
Okay.
What did you have for breakfast today?
Um, syrup and pancakes.
Was it yummy?
Yeah.
Okay, my second question.
If you were stuck on a desert island and you could only have one food to eat for a long time, what would you eat?
Um, pancakes and syrup.
Do you really like them?
Yeah.
Awesome.
So, is there a food you'd like to try but you haven't tried yet?
Um, yeah.
What's that food?
Um, I don't know.
Would that be like foods from other places?
Um, yeah.
Yeah, alright.
So, what do you like to cook?
Do you cook in the kitchen?
Yeah.
What do you make?
I make soup.
If you made me soup, what would you make me?
I like carrot soup.
Wow, our last person we interviewed had liked carrot soup too.
Okay, because Thanksgiving is coming up, what are you thankful for?
Everything.
Everything?
Do you want to be more specific?
And not just everything.
What are you thankful for?
Everything.
Like mom or dad or just everything?
Just everything.
Thank you so much.
Today we're going to talk a little bit about Thanksgiving, which in this country is a holiday people usually associate with New England, where Sally and I both live.
The realities of the so-called first Thanksgiving aren't always what they seem, but I love this holiday for its celebration of gratitude and gathering with friends and family around the table to spend some quality time together.
I had a great conversation recently about Thanksgiving with Jenny Shea-Ron and her daughter Lexi.
My name's Lexi Ron.
How old are you?
Eight.
And what grade are you in?
Dead.
She is a wonderful helper in the kitchen.
She has her apron and her knives and her own little cutting board.
So she really loves to get in there and help. even if she's not eating the dish that we're making.
And I'm Jenny Shea-Ron.
I'm a registered dietitian and a cookbook author of Coastal Kitchen, Everyday Seafood Recipes for Everyday Cooking, and then co-author of, with Lexi, the New England Kids Cookbook, which will come out in September of 2026.
And I also have a website.
It's Jenny Shea Ron, where I share mostly local New England seafood recipes, but also New England recipes in general.
One of the great local items on my table is always cranberries which grow on a vine along the ground where it's damp.
These areas are called bogs.
My parents always had, you know, the jellied cranberry sauce in the can.
So we always had that.
But then we do cranberry relish that uses fresh cranberries, orange zest and the flesh of an orange, and then cinnamon, a little bit of brown sugar and salt, which is probably our favorite.
You know is really great for days after too.
Let's talk a little bit about cranberries.
Cranberries are, I think, a really interesting fruit because they are native, right?
There's not that many things that are native to North America that we eat often.
So they're native and they're grown in a really interesting way.
We've been to a bunch of them in Massachusetts and actually put on the waders and get in the bog.
And it is so fascinating.
And I think most people don't realize that there's two different types of harvest.
There's the wet harvest, where they flood the bogs and then use little machines that kind of shake the berries off the vines, because cranberries grow in vines.
And then there's the dry harvest, where they have the machines that go through and there's no water used.
And then the cranberries are actually picked from the vines with these machines.
And cranberries float.
I heard recently.
I was not aware that when they flood the bogs, do you know what lives in the bogs?
Lexi.
No.
Uh-oh.
Spiders.
Like big spiders?
Like grass spiders, like hunting spiders.
Apparently that's one of their like native habitats is living in the cranberry bushes.
But so when they flood it, because the spiders can't swim, they end up on all the cranberries.
And I saw videos recently where there's just like all these spiders.
They're not dangerous to people.
But there's just all these spiders on the cranberries.
And they, of course, they don't package them when they package the cranberries.
But I thought that was pretty cool.
Scary for people who have arachnophobia, but I thought it was pretty cool.
Yes.
And I have arachnophobia.
So I mean, it's the one thing that I'm pretty terrified of.
So I am not going in another cranberry bog.
From a nutrition standpoint, what's great about cranberries?
Yeah, well, I mean, they're very low in sugar.
That being said typically, the way we eat them, you know, there's a lot of sugar added, which is why it's so great to be able to make cranberry products yourself, because you can control how much sugar is added to the cranberries.
They're loaded with something that's a very big word, an antioxidant or a plant compound called.
One in particular is called the proanthocyanidins.
And that powerful component actually helps any bad bacteria that gets into your body.
It helps flush that bad bacteria out, which is really fascinating, especially when it comes to stomach or gut health.
So the health of your stomach and then the health of your urinary tract.
So there's quite a bit of great research that shows cranberries really are very health promoting.
And they also have fiber.
They have vitamin C for your immune system, fiber for your digestive health.
So they really are a powerful and beautiful little berry.
Lexi, do you have like one or two recipes in your book that's coming out that you could tell me about?
The muffins, they're blueberry muffins.
They're big, but they're really good.
Maybe I would like the salmon.
Salmon bites, maybe?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She has a bunch of good, you know, local New England seafood recipes in there too, which we'll share with you.
But we also love to decorate with cranberries.
I don't know if you do this at your house too, but you know, the cranberries scattered on the table or in the floating candle votives are so pretty.
We've done cranberry garland before.
I'm thankful for my family and friends and seafood, books.
I'm thankful for books.
I'm thankful for, yes, family.
And I would say especially the health of our family, our immediate family, but also extended family.
My two little munchkins and my husband.
And also, I would say, extremely thankful, especially after going through the book writing process this past year or so.
Really thankful to all of our New England producers, whether it's cranberry farmers, oyster growers, scallops.
You know that we visited all the incredible folks that work so hard to bring us the local food you know, really thankful for that and for our local community.
Do you have any non-food family traditions around Thanksgiving?
We always do a turkey trot.
Thank you, Jenny and Lexi.
I can't wait to check out your new book when it arrives next year.
Keep an eye out for the New England Kids Cookbook coming out in September of 2026.
What about pie?
Does anybody have any pies that they are partial to for Thanksgiving?
We'll be right back.
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I'm not a big sweets person, so I will consume a small amount of pie if it is on offer, but I really don't have strong feelings about pie.
I'm with Matt.
I'm not big on that either.
All right, Stella, save us.
Yeah, so my family is bigger on sweet potato pie versus pumpkin pie.
So that will usually be on the table.
My sisters actually don't really like pie, which I think is insane, because I like apple a lot, especially with ice cream.
I love pumpkin.
I love sweet potato, but they're not into it.
But they're like, maybe this year we'll try it again and see how we feel about it.
And I hope they do, because I think it's kind of crazy.
I love pie.
When I was a little kid, we used to go to the house of a family friend who taught me how to make pie crust.
And she would make like so many pies.
I mean one year we were at Thanksgiving and I think there were eight people and there were nine pies.
Wow.
She loved making pies.
What I will say to you guys who say you don't really like sweets is apple pie but with some sharp cheddar cheese in the crust.
Hmm.
A little bit of savory, a little bit of sweet.
That's one of my favorite pies.
So but I'm with Stella apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie.
But the nice thing especially about making a pie yourself is that you know a pumpkin pie doesn't really have to be that sweet.
It could definitely verge more on savory pretty easily.
So that's my suggestion to pie people.
That is a great suggestion, because apple slices with a little slice of cheese like that is a snack that I go to for a lot.
So why would I not like this pie variation?
All right.
Well, maybe it'll be a new tradition for you, Matt.
Maybe.
Do you want to hear a joke?
Why did the turkey cross the road?
Why?
He reminded people to think he was a chicken.
We're here today with Nidhi Kedrewal, who's going to talk to us about nutrition and Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Nidhi, for joining us.
Yeah, of course.
Happy to be here.
So Thanksgiving, there is tons of food usually on the table.
Any thoughts of what to do with a picky eater who doesn't want to try Thanksgiving foods?
Yeah, so it can be pretty difficult dealing with some picky eaters on Thanksgiving, but we can definitely work through some solutions.
So at first just recognize that it's a lot of pressure.
You know seeing a table full of unfamiliar foods.
So just make sure to ease your kids into it.
So one thing that is pretty important is just talk about the menu beforehand and describe the have a combination of foods they are familiar with and foods that they haven't tried before on their plate, just so we can strike that golden moderation so that kids would be more willing to try new foods if they have foods they are familiar with already on that same plate.
A third tip is let kids serve themselves, and you can walk them through each dish with a little bit of encouragement, but don't try to force them to try everything, because then, as we know, the more they'll resist and rebel.
And if possible, have your kids involved in the dish prep.
So If your kids are helping you cook and prep the vegetables, then they're definitely more likely to taste their hard-earned work.
So those are just some ideas to deal with picky eaters on Thanksgiving.
Yeah, those are great.
As my kids have gotten into, like the tween and teen years, I've actually started requesting that they prepare a dish for Thanksgiving and that they choose a dish they want to make, which then becomes a way for them to also share it with other family and with their cousins and stuff and encourage the younger kids to try it because their older cousin made it.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
And we definitely know that when kids are involved in prepping, they're more likely to try the food.
So I think that that's really important on Thanksgiving.
It's great.
I love it.
And then I wanted to follow up.
I mean, I know this is something that always gets talked about and people talk about tryptophan in Turkey, but why does everybody want to nap after dinner on Thanksgiving?
Is it the tryptophan?
Is it the large amount of food?
Is it the intensity of spending time with family?
What do you think?
Yeah.
So people want to nap after Thanksgiving for a combination of that.
Turkey contains a lot of tryptophan and also something called the big meal effect.
So starting with the tryptophan first.
So turkey contains a lot of tryptophan, and it's actually the same exact chemical I talked about a few episodes ago with the pumpkin seeds that make us so sleepy.
But that's not the main reason we feel so tired.
So The main reason is because of the big meal effect.
So holiday meals are usually pretty carbohydrate heavy, which causes our blood glucose levels to go up because all the sugar we're ingesting
And because our blood glucose level spikes so fast, we also then experience a really quick drop or a crash, which makes us feel tired.
And because we're ingesting so much food into our digestive system, a lot of our blood is getting diverted into our digestive system and it's drawing blood away from our brain.
So it also makes us feel less alert and more sluggish.
Makes sense.
Great.
Outside the turkey has more feathers.
The outside.
One of the things that I love about Thanksgiving is that it is about the meal.
It's about getting people together, but there's nothing else on top of it.
I feel like other holidays, there's other things going on.
It's probably the only holiday without gifts.
Right.
There aren't gifts and you can kind of do whatever you want on the holiday.
But I do love the idea of being thankful and using it as an opportunity to think about things that we're thankful for.
So I would love for us to go around and say one thing that you're thinking about.
You can obviously, we all have opportunity to be thankful about lots and lots of things.
I'm really thankful for, especially this year, my city where I live.
I live in DC and I was away at college.
I was going to school in New York.
So now just having this year to be back and kind of reconnect with the community and even just seeing like the leaves change and like going to places I used to go to as a kid, like it's really felt, but also like I'm seeing the city in a new light.
So I'm just really happy to be back for this year.
Yeah, I was thinking something that is kind of similar to that.
I recently moved back to New York City with my wife and we have a lot of friends here.
So I was thankful for my friends this year, especially over the past couple of months, just because they've been welcoming us back with open arms and trying to help us out and showing us a lot of fun times as we get back into the city.
And it's just been great to be able to reconnect with those folks on a more everyday basis.
I would say that I'm most thankful this year for my family, both my immediate family, my wife and my kids, and my dad and my brother and extended family and any time that I get to spend with them.
I feel like something that I really, really enjoy and I'm trying to remember to enjoy is the fun time that I get to spend with them, even if it's just sitting around after dinner and laughing and hearing about what my kids did at school during the day.
But right at this moment, I feel like we're all having a good time with that.
And I'm very thankful for those interactions.
Similarly, I'm very thankful for my grown kids, who live close enough to me that I can see them fairly often and fairly casually.
And they just are such nice people.
And that's really nice.
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This podcast is written produced, edited and hosted by Harry Rosenblum and Sally Sampson, with engineering by Matt Patterson.
Stella Maiden is our intrepid intern.
An extra special thanks to Jenny and Lexi Ron.
Shout out to Hope, Alistair, Maddie, and Ruben.
Thanks for adding your voices to our show.
Music in this episode by Jim Hall and Lisa Hammer.
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Thanks for listening. well i i'm i'm thankful to have all of you to make this podcast because it's really fun yes i second that
