Pipe-Gun Fun

By Diana Hooley

An Idaho Thanksgiving means different things to different people. My friend Carolyn from Boise likes to eat burritos on Thanksgiving. Another friend from Blackfoot skips the turkey and eats funeral potatoes and ham. As you might expect, funeral potatoes are a popular carry-in casserole at funerals.

Pumpkin pie may be a Thanksgiving standard, but pickle pie, a Utah import, will probably make an appearance on some eastern Idaho tables. Pickle pie is served as a dessert so it’s made with sweet pickles, not dill.

Many Idahoans choose to eat out at Thanksgiving. Each year the River Rock Café in Riggins reportedly serves a great holiday spread. Other Idahoans don’t want to buy their Thanksgiving bird. They’d rather hunt it.

Fall and winter are the seasons for bird hunting. My husband was just a gangly teenager when he went on his first bird-hunting adventure.

“I was probably thirteen or fourteen years old,” Dale smiled, remembering. “I had an old bolt-action shot gun and had high hopes I could bag a pheasant.”