Showing posts with label Thanksgiving Fun Facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving Fun Facts. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

10 Cool Thanksgiving Fun Facts To Impress Your Friends

Thanksgiving has been celebrated in the United States for nearly 400 years. What started as a feast between a few people has turned into a holiday celebrated by millions of Americans. Being a family friendly restaurant in Des Moines, we obviously love any holiday mainly revolving around food. This one even has the added bonus of a day full of football too. 
Wobbly Boots Roadhouse has pulled together a few interesting facts about Thanksgiving for you. Whip a few of these out at the dinner table and impress your family and friends with your extensive holiday knowledge!

#1
The first Thanksgiving took place in 1921 between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe, and it lasted for 3 days. Today, we tend to eat for about an hour, take a nap, wake up and have a snack, and then spend the days after our Thanksgiving searching for Christmas shopping bargains!

#2
Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday until 1863. After years and years of letters from Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor best known for writing "Mary Had A Little Lamb," Abraham Lincoln was finally convinced to make the holiday official. 

#3
President Lincoln placed Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday in November, but it moved for a couple of years. In 1939, President Roosevelt thought it would be a good idea to move it up a week to the 3rd Thursday in November. This was meant to lengthen the shopping season and boost the Depression-era economy. It didn't quite catch on, and after 2 years it was changed back to the original week.

#4
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter expressing his feelings about the popular Thanksgiving bird. In this letter, he wrote about how he wished the bald eagle had not been chosen to represent the country because it was a bird of "bad moral character." In his opinion, the turkey is a much more "respectable bird." If the turkey had been chosen as our national bird, would we still eat it every Thanksgiving? 

#5
Swanson ended up with tons of extra frozen turkeys in 1953 after the Thanksgiving holiday. Some brilliant person proposed that they package the leftover birds along with a few tasty sides in an aluminum tray. From that idea, the first TV dinner was born.

#6
If Thanksgiving is your favorite holiday, you can make plans next year to celebrate it twice! Canada also observes Thanksgiving, but they hold it on the 2nd Monday in October. Take an early trip up north and hit both holidays.   

#7
If simply eating turkey isn't enough for you, you can live in Turkey and not even have to leave the U.S.A. Your choices include: Turkey, Texas; Turkey, North Carolina; Turkey Creek, Louisiana; and Turkey Creek, Arizona.

#8
The original Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 included the store's employees in vibrant costumes, floats, bands, and live animals from the Central Park Zoo. Today, you won't see zoo animals marching down the street, but you will see lots of gigantic character balloons. 

#9
Football has become as much a Thanksgiving tradition as turkey and stuffing. In 1882, the Intercollegiate Football Association decided to hold an annual collegiate championship game in New York City on Thanksgiving Day. Many college teams built some famous holiday rivalry games around this holiday. 

#10
The NFL started holding Thanksgiving Day games in 1920. Today, there are always 3 big games held on the holiday. One game always features the Detroit Lions, another always includes the Dallas Cowboys, and the teams for the third game change every year.  

This year, our beloved Iowa Hawkeyes will be taking on the Cornhuskers the day after Thanksgiving. Joining us at the best place to watch sports in Des Moines is way more fun than fighting the Black Friday crowds! The fun will continue on Saturday as the Iowa State Cyclones host West Virginia. With 17 TVs placed all around the restaurant, there's not a bad seat in the house.  



Wobbly Boots Roadhouse will have our incredible football specials available for every game over the holiday. These include $3 Tall Boys from the bar and many of our delicious appetizers priced at only $5! If you didn't bring home enough leftovers from Thanksgiving to satisfy your turkey cravings, we've also got the best smoked turkey in Iowa waiting here for you. Have an incredible Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends, then head on over to the Boot to spend a weekend full of food, football, and fun right here with us. 



Don't forget you can take home 16 oz. bottles of Wobbly Boots House Recipe BBQ Sauce!!

New Second Location - Same Incredible BBQ!

Open EVERY DAY at 11:00 AM!

Like us on Facebook!
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Follow us on Google+!

Wobbly Boots Roadhouse
1301 NW 114th St
Clive IA 50325
(515) 223-5700

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Top 10 Favorite Thanksgiving Foods















When someone says the word "Thanksgiving," certain foods immediately pop into your head. It may be different for everyone, but most likely very similar. Your favorite BBQ restaurant in Des Moines did a little research, and these are the ones that popped up again and again.


TURKEY

Most definitely the star of the show, it's rare to find a Thanksgiving dinner table without a turkey on it.  It's a great main dish for feeding a lot of hungry people. You can find all kinds of yummy recipes for the leftovers too.   


DINNER ROLLS

It's hard to imagine a great big meal without some hot, buttery rolls to go along with it.  There's really not a lot to say about them other than they better be somewhere on the table.    

SWEET POTATOES

Most people either love or hate this dish.  They can be baked, mashed, or cooked into a casserole.  It doesn't truly feel like Thanksgiving until you toast some marshmallows on top of these potatoes.  A combo of cinnamon and sugar is also great to top them with.  

CRANBERRY SAUCE

Once again, another dish you either love or hate.  Often you will see a can-shaped blob of this stuff in a bowl, but they're actually pretty simple to prepare fresh, and a lot tastier.   

GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

French fried onions are nearly impossible to keep on the grocery shelves this time of year.  If you spot them in someone's cart, most likely they will be sitting next to some green beans and cream of mushroom soup.  The person that came up with this side dish has made many hungry people very happy over the years. 


STUFFING

A true Thanksgiving cook will go all the way and cook the stuffing inside the turkey.  Many people choose to go the easy route and buy a box of Stove Top. Either way that you do it, turkey always tastes better followed by a bite of this side dish.  


PUMPKIN PIE

A big ol' slice of pumpkin pie topped with a mountain of whipped cream is the perfect end to a Thanksgiving meal, or a great snack for hours later if you forgot to leave room for dessert.    
    


MASHED POTATOES

These are always delicious, and especially important to have on the table if you are one of those people that hate sweet potatoes.  Mashed potatoes really don't taste their absolute best without the next item on the list.  


GRAVY

Gravy not only tastes great on mashed potatoes, but it tastes amazing over the turkey too.  True gravy lovers may even be seen drizzling it over their entire Thanksgiving plate!  


HAM

Ham is popular for Thanksgiving in families that have members that don't particularly like turkey.  As with turkey, it's a great main dish that can be prepared for a large number of people.  Also, it's great for sandwich-making along with the leftover turkey for lunch on Black Friday.    


We have a great suggestion for making your Thanksgiving turkey or ham taste even better.  Try it with a bit of our house-recipe BBQ sauce drizzled over the top!  You can buy it by the bottle to keep on your holiday dinner table.  Also, if you miss out on having any of these Thanksgiving classics at your particular gathering, we've got quite a few of them on our Wobbly Boots Roadhouse menu. 




Stop by over the weekend and order up whatever you missed out on during your Thanksgiving feast, or have something totally different for a little break from the leftovers you have in your fridge.  The best BBQ restaurant in Des Moines will be here the entire weekend after Thanksgiving serving up our delicious food, pouring our awesome drinks, and showing all of your favorite games.  Hopefully we'll be seeing you.  Until then, have a great Thanksgiving!    





Don't forget you can take home 16 oz. bottles of 

Second Location - Same Incredible BBQ!

Open EVERY DAY at 11:00 AM!

Like us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Follow us on LinkedIn!
Follow us on Google+!

Wobbly Boots Roadhouse
1301 NW 114th St
Clive IA 50325
(515) 223-5700

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving Day Trivia!

Where does the time go?? We can't believe it's already Thanksgiving! One more blink and it will be Christmas and then New Year's. Perhaps it really is true what they say... Time flies when you're having fun!

We certainly have been having a wonderful time. Wobbly Boots Roadhouse in Iowa just celebrated an awesome opening weekend. We've already said this, but thanks again to everyone who came out and celebrated with us!


We're going to keep the fun rolling this Thanksgiving week. We will be closed on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day so that our employees can spend time with their families, but we'll be open and ready for business Friday! To help get you in the Thanksgiving mood, the Wobbly Boots Iowa team has put together a list of hilarious, entertaining, and (somewhat useless) Thanksgiving Trivia. Enjoy!

Wild turkeys can run up to 20 mph if they get spooked. They can even fly up to 50-55 mph!

The Pilgrims came to the New World on a ship called the Mayflower. The captain was a man named Christopher Jones.

If they look up into rain, turkeys can drown.

If individual cranberries don't bounce 4 inches high, they are considered too ripe to be sold.

Commercially raised turkeys cannot fly.

Gimbel's was the first department store to host a Thanksgiving Day parade.

The voyage from England to the New World took 66 days.

President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday at the end of November in 1863.

The Wampanoag Indian tribe was invited to join the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving feast.

Wild turkeys spend the night in trees.

102 Pilgrims originally came to the New World. Only 50 survived to celebrate the first Thanksgiving a year later.

Wild turkeys have a field of vision that spans up to 270°.

Thanksgiving is also celebrated in Canada, but in October instead.

The first Thanksgiving celebration was held in 1621 and lasted for 3 days.

Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be the United States' National Bird.

You'll be the hit of any Thanksgiving celebration with these fun trivia facts at your fingertips! Come in and show off your knowledge at the best BBQ restaurant in Des Moines. We look forward to celebrating with you!

New Second Location - Same Incredible BBQ!

Open EVERY DAY at 11:00 AM!


Wobbly Boots Roadhouse
1301 NW 114th St
Clive, IA  50325
(515) 223-6140