Happy Thanksgiving: A Bit of Food History

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, if only for the wonderful food. And as a history freak, I love that so much of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes are native to the Americas.

roasted turkey on table

The food supply expanded when Europeans “discovered” the New World. Prior to Columbus’s first voyage in 1492, there were no turkeys, potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, cranberries or maize, i.e. Indian corn. There was a cereal grain called corn, but it’s more like wheat, not like the ears of corn we’re used to.

And there was no chocolate. Chocolate is native to the Americas, so the Spaniards were the first Europeans to encounter it. It became popular at court after the Spanish added sugar or honey to sweeten the natural bitterness. From there, chocolate spread through Europe in the 1600’s and grew into the international obsession is has become today.

Can you imagine a world without chocolate? I really wouldn’t like that at all!

Nor would I like a world without sweet potatoes, pumpkins or cranberries, some of my favorite ingredients for fall goodies.

Alas, with only four of us for Thanksgiving dinner, we won’t be roasting a turkey. Instead my niece will grill chicken thighs. We will have all the usual side dishes though: mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

So from my house to your house…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Linda

PS: Stay tuned for my upcoming new cover reveal and Black Friday sale on, you guessed it, Friday!

Tuesday Travels: Quebec City, Setting for Rogue’s Hostage #HistoricalRomance #99cents

Tuesday Travels

Quebec is one of the settings used in my French & Indian War-set historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage. When I was writing the book, my husband and I took a vacation to Quebec Province so I could do some research. We started in Montreal, where I managed to find my way around the Metro using my college French. (Note: I took this trip back in the pre-digital photography days so the photos are from my Art Explosion CD collection.)

Quebec panorama

Chareau Frontenac

Hotel Chateau Frontenac, Quebec, Canada

After a couple of days we took the train to Quebec, and I fell in love with the charming old city, though I had to keep reminding myself that the city in my book was the previous city, the one that was destroyed by the British shelling.

Since I wanted to stay in the old part of the city, I booked us a room at Chateau Frontenac, the venerable Canadian Railway hotel. Picturesque setting, but we were pretty sure they gave us the smallest room in the place! Instead of a view looking out toward the river, our window looked down onto an alley. Oh, well, we didn’t spend much time in the room anyway.

We were far more interested in wandering the streets, taking pictures of the old houses and the fort and battlefield, which plays a part in my book, as does the lovely church pictured below.

battlefied

On the last day we took a boat ride on the St. Lawrence for the spectacular views of the city and countryside. What a beautiful area! I’d love to go back some day.

Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church

Quebec, Canada – August 21th, 2009 : tourists visiting the old church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Place Royale of Quebec city downtown under cloudy sky. Construction was started in 1687 .UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

But the Canadian border is still closed as I write this, at least until July 21st. (I can’t believe I am writing that. The idea of the border between Canada and the U.S. being closed for a year or more would have been a foreign concept before Covid-19!)

In the meantime, you can explore the Pennsylvania frontier and the old city of Quebec in the pages of Rogue’s Hostage. It’s on a 99 cent Kindle Countdown Deal in the US and UK through the end of the day, Wed. July 7th. My apologies to my Canadian readers. Amazon doesn’t have Kindle Countdown Deals in Canada yet. Some day, I hope.

Rogue's Hostage Kindle Countdown Deal July 1-8, 2021

Buy now from Amazon or read free with Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon.com
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Amazon UK

Where are you going this summer? I recently traveled to Boston, Cape Cod and New York. I’ll be sharing details of my trips in upcoming Tuesday Travels posts.

Linda