Pork Tasting

Thanksgiving - or what my wife and I call "The Forgotten Holiday" - is coming up next week. I hope you will be able to gather with your family, as many of us do here in the States.

But unless you're the one actually cooking up the turkey (or ham, or gefilte fish, or whatever), you're probably going to need to bring a side dish or some other edible contribution to the meal. I know our family always looks forward to my Mom's banana bread and my wife's pumpkin roll.

Well, the folks over at iVillage have 50 Thanksgiving Side Dishes to offer, complete with recipes and mouth-watering photos.

I'm already hungry.

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A rabbi at a prominent local temple had been curious for years about why Gentiles seemed to love the taste of pork so much. Finally, as his retirement approached, he thought he would take a risk and try some. He went to another city, where he was unlikely to be known, walked into one of the better restaurants, and ordered the first item on the dinner menu he knew to be made of pork.

As he was waiting, who should walk in but the president of his congregation. Seeing the rabbi, he approached with a big smile on his face, and asked if he could share his table. The rabbi had no choice, of course, but to agree. The two exchanged pleasantries.

And then, as it happened, the waiter appeared with the rabbi's order. Setting it carefully on the table, he removed the cover with a flourish and revealed an entire roast pig, done up to perfection with an apple in its mouth.

The president of the congregation was thoroughly shocked, naturally. However, thinking quickly, the rabbi proclaimed, "What an incredibly nice restaurant this is! Everything is so fancy! Why, look at all the trouble they went to just to serve me the apple I ordered!"

[first seen in Pastor Tim's PearlyGates]

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WORDS for YOUR WEEK: "Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." (Robert Caspar Lintner)

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