Thanksgiving is one of the biggest celebrations in America and the Thanksgiving dinner is at the centrepiece of this festivity. It is only befitting to bring some freshness to this age old tradition. The idea is to create a mystery box challenge themed Thanksgiving dinner that the family can enjoy together.
This idea is inspired by Masterchef mystery box challenge and will require you to think of different food groups and as many items as you can think of under each food group (refer to list below as an example). Then make paper chits using different coloured papers for different food groups, ensuring that you write down all items belonging to one food group on same coloured chits.
Dairy: milk, butter, curd, cheese, yogurt etc.
Fruits: apple, banana, pineapple, guava, papaya, pear, strawberry, mango etc.
Vegetables: onion, tomato, celery, cabbage, broccoli, capsicum, radish, turnip etc.
Meat: turkey, pork, lamb, duck, fish, chicken etc.
Herbs and seasoning: garlic, pepper, oregano, dill, basil, thyme, rosemary etc.
Dessert: biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, ice creams, pies, puddings, sweet soups, tarts etc.
Then each family member is allowed to pick up one paper chit from each food group (without looking) and finally has to come up with a dish for Thanksgiving dinner with all those ingredients (there can be various renditions of this like: using only 2-3 food groups at a time, using only ingredients in your chit, using all ingredients in your chit plus other ones, so on and so forth). Everyone need not be a great cook to participate in this challenge, the idea is simply to unleash your creative side and have fun creating new recipes for the entire family.
The end result is active participation in the Thanksgiving dinner and everyone will be excited to see what dishes their family members come up with. Not only does it build anticipation but also acts as a great conversation starter. It creates space for everyone to share their anecdotes about cooking with bizzare combinations of ingredients and in the process make some beautiful memories. This can also result in some great dishes which become a family secret to be enjoyed by generations to come.
Aashi Agarwal Oct 14, 2021