Traditional Thanksgiving food bores me, and I’m not really sure why. It may just be because it’s heavy on simplicity and familiarity; nowadays, I only have taste buds for novel flavors.

That being said, I can’t veer too far from tradition on our favorite feast day. I spent a good amount of time cradling my cookbooks in the weeks leading up to this Thanksgiving nailing down menu options. My thought was to cook something from every continent while including all the standard fare - green beans, carrots, mac ‘n’ cheese, etc. The final menu hit the mark, though I did skip Australia (I fear I may need a new cookbook). Our feasting friends Maria and Kyle rounded out the menu with the two items every Thanksgiving must include - stuffing and turkey.

For Africa, we had glazed carrots topped with benne seeds, chives, and cilantro. These were the most beautiful carrots I’ve ever worked with, and the tangy orange and carrot juice glaze was quite worthy of them. Benne seeds were brought to the Carolinas by enslaved Africans in the 18th century and are essentially OG sesame seeds with a more distinctive nutty taste.

Pumpkin seed rolls represented Europe due to their rye flour vibes. A nut butter of sesame and pumpkin seeds was incorporated into the dough to create the deepest nutty flavor possible, and the rest of the toasted seeds crowned them.

A solid Asian contingent (you tell me how I’m supposed to only choose one!) comprised of smashed potatoes on roasted seaweed sour cream (Korea), makhani mac ‘n’ cheese (India), and loubieh (green beans in a tomato reduction - Lebanon) provided many of the necessary elements of a proper Thanksgiving feast but with the sought-after noteworthy flavors. We enjoyed the smashed potatoes as an appetizer and were blown away by the funky seaweed sour cream. The loubieh kept the green beans perfectly crisp (overcooked green beans have no place in my kitchen) in a bright, velvety tomato sauce, and the makhani mac ‘n’ cheese was a magical pairing of cheesy goodness and Indian spices.

South America was properly represented by a green mango ceviche with pumpkin seed powder. The acidity of this salad along with the toasted pumpkin powder was totally worth trekking over to White Center to collect the green mangoes.

Of course, North America was quite involved, too, thanks to the essential dressing and smoked turkey that Maria and Kyle supplied. Kyle’s smoked turkey has perhaps ruined all other turkey for me - it was juicy, tender, and perfectly smoky. It was so good, it featured in my dreams last night.

For dessert, I hesitated to deviate from my beloved bourbon pumpkin pie, but I just wasn’t feeling it this year. I turned to Arkansas possum pie instead, a treat I made for my birthday a few weeks ago that was worth an appearance here. More of a pudding than a pie, Arkansas possum pie consists of a crumbly pecan “crust” with layers of sweetened cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream with more pecans and shaved chocolate tossed on top. The chocolate pudding is divine; quality cocoa powder, like the Guittard cocoa rouge that you can pry outta my cold, dead hands, is worth the price.

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you do anything different this year, and was it worth it? I think our meal will be remembered for years to come!