Everyone has those family recipes that make foodies recoil in horror but they are the dishes that Thanksgiving would not be complete without. What are your dishes and what is the most non-foodie ingredient?
We have one of those Jello salads with cream cheese whipped cream crushed pinapple and lime Jello. It looks like it's from outerspace but my father would be most unhappy if it were missing from the table.
But seriously what IS a foodie? I get called that all the time. I assumed it was because I want to ultimately be a chef.. but now you're using it in a different context so now I'm confused. LOL
Gram's Creamy Turkey Ragout with Pimiento Cornbread Dumplings - obviously it's all left over from the night before transformed into a new supper but what's left over from here goes you know where...."BFT" ('bout freakin' time) - I'm not a turkey fan & my family will not deviate from traditions; although. I must admit that the "BFT" is actually better than the actual Thanksgiving spread.
The true Thanksgiving charm is obviously not about the turkey but rather the long awaited weekend with close family on a slow speed setting at the beach cottage without televisions computers & fuss - just good old-fashioned food & fun !
We have two - both from the grandma's who are no longer with us except at Thanksgiving!My husband's mother always made or brought "shrimp dip'". One bar of cream cheese and one sauci shrimp cocktail the kind that comes in a glass jar in the refrigerator section of the grocery store - these two ingredients are pureed in a blender and served with bugles. It's getting hard to find the shrimp cocktail and the bugles but we have to have this!
My mother made creamed onions by draining a glass jar of boiled onions and mixing them with a can of cream of celery soup (undiluted) and sprinkling on some Italian bread crumbs. These are baked when the turkey comes out to rest. My husband insists we make these every year.
Actually there is a third item and it's mine! - stuffed mushrooms with deviled ham as the secret ingredient- but it's a secret.
Wow Ginny. My family has a dish we make that is remarkably similar. You unwrap a block of cream cheese and plop it on a plate then dump a jar of prepared cocktail sauce on top. On top of that you drain a dump a can of baby shrimp. That's it. You don't do anything else to it but stick Triscuits in it and enjoy!
I can't believe someone else makes this. I used to have a friend who called this "Crab Pizza". She would let the cream cheese soften then spread it on the plate. (Funny aside: one time my now-ex saw the block of cc on the counter and put it back in the fridge. He thought he was doing her a favor.) Haven't had it since she moved away 18 yrs ago. Not sure if I miss it!
Because I am first generation we had very little American food for Thanksgiving until I learnt to cook it myself. Instead of turkey we had tikka; instead of potatoes we had pancit. So when I finally tried green bean casserole at a friend's Thanksgiving when I was 20. I fell in love with what was then the most exotic Thanksgiving side I had ever had. Onion rings on vegetables? What manna from heaven is this?
That green Jello with pineapple concoction was a staple at our T-day dinners too. It was sliced into squares plopped on 1 leaf of iceberg lettuce and set at each place instead of a green salad. Now that I celebrate Thanksgiving with in-laws I have offered to make it there too but they've got plenty of their own nasty sides to contend with and I suppose the carbophobes in the group would not care for this "too sweet" item (but the sweet potatoes paved with marshmallows are apparently OK)......
We also have a jello dish.. Jello frozen berries on top of a layer of cool whip and cream cheese. all on a crust made from pretzels and butter.
the other dish we just have to have around thanksgiving is called sex in a pan it is a shortbread cookie crust with a coolwhip and crem cheese layer topped with chocolate pudding (Jello from the box) topped with more coolwhip.
(and a sercret of mine.. I add a little spam to my homemade cornbread pudding everyone thinks it is sausage or ham... lol)
Pretzel Salad! I haven't thought of that recipe in ten years! Someone always made one for all of our block parties birthday gatherings or Wive's Club luncheons when we lived on base. I remember thinking it was the best-tasting disgusting-sounding recipe I had ever tried. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I'll have to make one soon.
Gummy white bread. Hellmann's/Best Foods mayo. A SLICE OF CANNED CRANBERRY JELLY turkey salt and pepper with lettuce. Best eaten at 11:00pm Thanksgiving night when everyone else is watching TV or sleeping and your olfactories have had a chance to regroup after cooking all day. For the cook this is the great Thanksgiving dinner.
see i like the contrast of toasted white bread and LOTS of mayo and lettuce and turkey and of course leftover mashed potatoes green bean casserole and cranberry sauce on the side like 2 hours after dinner because there are some people at my house who get that "oh i can't eat another bite" thing - really? i don't have that problem so i just eat more after they leave! :)
Bingo!! I cook dinner for 20+ and usually dont' get to really enjoy the dinner. But I LOVE the sandwich you described. I don't include the lettuce but love this sandwich- call it a turkey terrific and I usually have it with some of my moms creamed cauliflower on the side.
Whole wheat bread. "Hellmann's/Best Foods mayo," cranberry jelly (fresh or canned) white meat turkey yellow mustard. "salt and pepper with lettuce."
If you *really* wanna go whole hog add two strips of warm bacon. (Get it? "Whole hog"..."Bacon"? Heh? Heh? Heh?)
Stuffing slathered in gravy on the side with more cranberry jelly on top of it with another side of a dab of GBC or mashed potatoes with yet more gravy. BTW--*real* turkey gravy has visible pieces of hard-boiled egg white in it.
Never heard of (I presume) hard boiled eggs in turkey gravy. Or any kind of eggs for that matter. But I do use the giblets in my gravy. Without giblet chunks it ain't turkey gravy! I buy extra gizzards so I can have "giblets" in both the gravy and chopped up in the sage/bacon dressing I make from scratch. Both of which recieve a healthy dose of white vermouth to enhance flavor... (Thank you. Julia!)
I have to laugh as I read these posts-like many of you I am the TG cook and don't really take the time to enjoy my "treat" until a few hours after the main meal. Then I toast up some wheat bread get out the Best Foods,white turkey meat,cranberry jelly and left over stuffing. These ingredients then are lovingly portioned with almost equal amounts except for mayo. Perfection.
One of my favorite (non-traditional) Thanksgiving dishes is a culinary exchange student with yours. Definitely a bastardized dish it's Madhur Jaffrey's gujerati sem (green beans stir-fried with garlic and black mustard seeds) simmered for a couple of minutes in white sauce and sprinked with crispy fried shallots and garam masala.
AFAIK the sauce takes it completely outside the realm of any traditional Indian cuisine. And fried shallots and garam masala may not appropriate to northern cooking. But the dish works as a whole fits right in on the T-day table and doesn't cause my midwestern in-laws to raise an eyebrow. Onion rings on vegetables?} Oh yeah!!!
It's GBC baby! Green Bean Casserole one of the most famous American holiday side dishes! It's easy to make tastes great looks pretty and anyone who turns their nose up at it as being "insufficently foodie" wears their underwear too tight.
If you asked 10 people at random if GBC was at their Thanksgiving dinners. I'll bet at least 6-7 would say "yes."
You have given me an idea and I thank you for it: Next time I make this. I will use fresh-made onion rings chopped instead of the canned onions. (I still won't be able to eat more than two bites of it because of my restricted salt diet but I love seeing other people enjoy good food.)
Some years ago. Cooks Illustrated did a homemade version of green bean casserole that got rid of the inedible aspects of it (canned green beans cream of mushroom soup) and replaced them with things people would actually want to eat like fresh green beans real mushrooms and a proper white sauce. However they totally kept the canned french-fried onion rings simply because nothing else even came close.
I have a green bean frencher that I use to prepare fresh green beans for GBC. I blanch the frenched beans drain them and then assemble the casserole with the cream of mushroom soup and fried onions. The fresh beans really brighten up the dish!
I don't mind so much that's it's non-foodie. Ken. I mean my idea of a great lunch when hubby's at the office and all the kids are wherever they are is a handful of Sunkist dates which I dip one-by-one into a jar of good ole Skippy. Understand the dates have utterly no purpose; they're merely the vehicle for stuffing globs of hydrogenated legumes into my mouth. Conscience is forcing me to put up with natural peanut butter these days but it's just not the same without the added sugar and--shhhh don't tell--but sometimes I just have to sprinkle salt on top.
So as you can see. I'm hardly one to denigrate GBC on a technical basis but the truth is... I just don't like the stuff. No matter who has ever prepared it it always feels.. slimy.. to me.
I also TRULY don't care for baked yams or sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping... even though I LOVE Marshmallow Fluff (hmmm... I should try adding that to my date/Jiffy recipe). Sometimes when I watch family and friends devour these two dishes. I feel like a changeling who was dropped off by Martians. :-D
Great post!! My family has been eating the same dishes at Thanksgiving for my entire life. It is a traditional meal except- believe it or not does not include GBC and the sweet pototoes are always baked then mashed and seasoned with only butter salt and pepper. As a matter of fact. I am 53 yo and have never had either!! I think I may have to just them sometime- but I am not allowed to make them for Thanksgiving- no way I can change the menu!
Pepperidge Farm (blue bag) stuffing made with chicken broth from a can into which I put 1/2 pound of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage sliced mushrooms butter slivered almonds and Bells Seasoning in the yellow box. My family whines if I don't make this.
Another mark in the jello category... Coke Salad- Black cherry jello coke pecans pineapple and cherries. Only in the South would you label something like this a "salad"
However what I really look forward to at Thanksgiving are the following days of turkey sandwiches. Turkey fresh white rolls brie.. heat under broiler. Top with mayo and left-over cranberry relish. OMG
Yes. Coffeyville. There used to be a really good smorgasbord restaurant over by Riverton called the Spring River Inn. We would go over there now and then if my dad was off on Sunday. (He ran George's Cafeteria in Coffeyville from about 1972 until 1988. It's gone now. I miss it sometimes.)
Pretzel Jello. Yes my wife's elderly aunt. God rest her soul would bring that to nearly every dinner including Thanksgiving.
A few weeks ago my wife got nostalgic for that dish and we didn't have the recipe. It was provided by Google however.
doctor_mama we have a favorite "mold" dish too. Shrimp mold. It's not necessarily a T-Day staple but an all around holiday staple. Sounds awful looks awful but I will defend it til the day I die. Highly seasoned boiled shrimp chopped chopped celery other ingredients that fail to come to mind now all mixed together with unflavored gelatin and molded. It shows up at bridal showers and wedding receptions too (not professionally catered ones of course).
That sounds about right. I bought a cookbook of his favorite recipes and the Coke salad is in there.
The jazz brunch at Clinton's musesum hosts his "favorite" desert. It's looks like uncooked brownie mix but it is hot and extremely chocolate. It is spooned on a plate and topped with whipped cream and cherries.
Ahh Honey Bee... Coca Cola Salad.. we add chunks of cream cheese to ours. It's a staple at our house for Thanksgiving. One year mom decided not to make it and you woulda thought she hadn't cooked anything else from all the caterwallin from my brothers (never mind that the table was groaning under the weight of all thoe other food!). They simply couldn't enjoy Thanksgiving dinner if we didn't have my Grandmother Jessie's Coca Cola salad.
I wondered if someone was going to mention Coke Salad!This is from my BiL's family (TX) so if any of my sister's family comes over we have it. Ours is just as you decribed yours. I love it!We do have trouble finding the Black Cherry Jello tho & in the past few years we have had to use plain cherry. We went to countless stores in a 25 mile range.
On the other hand. I don't think my family had any unusual Thanksgiving items. Oh wait. I guess having Oyster Dressing and Rice Dressing and Cornbread dressing and Herb Dressing might be considered unusual. These are 4 separate dressings not one! We are from New Orleans.
Another jell-o vote from a Utahn by birth. My mom makes a layered salad with four different flavors of jell-o splitting each batch in half and mixing one half with some sour cream to create an opaque pastel layer for each color. The salad takes hours to make because you have to let each one set before you can pour the next but it makes a pretty spectacular (and sort of campy) presentation of an 8 layered rainbow salad. I made this salad for friends last Thanksgiving and added vodka shots to the layers. It was that much more spectacular.
Molly - I assume by your screen name you are Mormon so I have a question for you.. In Jeffrey Steingarten's book he talks on and on about how good Mormons are at baking amazing fruitcakes around the holiday season. Is there a specific reason for your delicious fruitcake? Or do you think he writes about an isolated incident?
I'm not Mormon any more (see vodka in the jello) but I was raised Mormon in a small town in Utah that's heavily Mormon and my family is still practicing. But I've never actually had fruitcake nor see a recipe in any of my Mormon cookbooks. Doesn't fruitcake typically involve alcohol? If so then I'm guessing that it was an isolated incident. Which book of Steingarten's? I'd be interested to read about it.
Respectfully disagree that Libby's pumpkin pie is not "foodie." Pumpkin pie is a perfect example of how to highlight one ingredient in a delicious and simple way. And if you do a quick search. I think you'll find most hounds agree Libby's recipe is hard to beat!!
I agree but I think I've found a way: using the Libby's recipe as a starter. I use 3/4 the amount of sugar - and substitute dark brown for white sugar. Increase (use heaping measurements of) all the spices. Sometimes I subs real half and half for the evaporated milk. All the rest remains the same. It's even better than the original!
For the past several years. I've made a batch (or two) of Cranberry Pecan jam in small (1.5 oz or 4 oz.) jars sometime between Halloween & Thanksgiving. I then set one at each place setting for Thanksgiving dinner. Each person then has a jar of jam to take home with them along with some sliced turkey left overs to make a sandwich or two the next day. I LIVE for the turkey sandwich the day after thanksgiving.. and this way the host doesn't get stuck with a ton of turkey leftovers - especially if the host doesn't have a large family under their roof. The best is to add a little cream cheese. Yum!!!
It's a William & Mary/Williamsburg/Virginia thing - Sherried Crab Stew (along side is a beautiful cut glass sherry cruet for an extra splash) & juicy/tasty Oyster Fritters with their signature sour cream and bacon relish just as General Washington liked them.
For the longest time when I was a kid we went to our family's Korean friends' house on Christmas eve or they came to us and brought some of our favorite Korean dishes to serve alongside the stuff we had (if we went to their house we didn't go empty-handed either).
One year we were all at my grandparents' house. The Hans' youngest son was about four at the time. He got into the "adult" punch and at first everyone was thinking. "Oh isn't that cute." Got considerably less cute when he got sick under the buffet table. (It was red punch to make matters worse.)
We always had KFC for Christmas Eve when I was growing up. My grandma (my dad's mom) was not exactly known for her cooking skills so one year my aunt & uncle "volunteered" to pick up a bucket of chicken and the tradition began. it wouldn't have been Christmas without that red-and-white bucket!
It ain't Thanksgiving without a can of Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce. I once had Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house and her mom made "traditional" cranberry relish and it was horrifying. Tasted like I was eating pot pourri. Yuk!
Mix graham cracker crumbs with sugar and butter. Spread evenly over bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan and bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
1-1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (cooked fresh or drained canned)1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar1 cup whipping cream3 large eggs1 tsp vanilla extract3/4 tsp ground cinnamon1/4 tsp ground mace1/4 tsp salt
Place mashed sweet potatoes in large bowl. Whisk in brown sugar whipping cream eggs vanilla extract cinnamon mace and salt. Mix well and transfer filling to pie crust.
Bake until pie is set the in center about 45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool.
In a saucepan on the stove top over medium heat heat marshmallows and milk folding gently until marshmallows are about half melted. Remove from heat and continue folding until mixture is smooth and fluffy.
In a separate bowl beat egg whites add sugar gradually and continue beating until stiff and smooth. Add salt and vanilla. Fold into marshmallow mixture and spread over pie.
We always have a pistachio pudding salad with miniature marshmallows and pineapple in it.. but why? No one in the family seems to know when it was added to the traditional fare. Being Latina we also have tamales with our coffee that morning---to give us energy to cook for hours. The tamales were a latecomer to the T'giving table though. It wasn't until I moved back to Texas that we started that tradition. My family aren't tamale makers but there are many home based tamale makers in Austin.
Funny story about psitachio pudding salad:A friend of mine grew up with with that dish being a regular part of a holiday meal. Using the pistachio-flavored boxed pudding mix the "salad" is green. One year she was making it and accidentally knocked it over onto the cat that was asleep at her feet.. the WHITE cat. Yes it dyed part of the white cat green. To this day her family calls that dish Green Cat Salad.
It alternated with a fruit salad that consisted of a large can of fruit cocktail (drained preferably in juice or light syrup) a bag of sweetened coconut and a large tub of sour cream. This is still surprisingly delightful and I've been known to make it myself.
Thanksgiving is my holiday and Thanksgiving week is my favorite week of the year. It's probably because it's the only major holiday that isn't religious or nationalistic in origin: it's about food family and relaxation a kind of ramping up to the general insanity of the holiday season.
I was in the ninth grade when Watergate was taking place (1972). By eleventh grade people were making this cake called Watergate Cake. A girl in my class brought one of these to school - a cake made with this fabulous new invention - Instant Pistachio Pudding!! According to this girl's mother it was called Watergate Cake because it was green (representing money) and full of nuts (the politicians) and it was frosted with Cover Up Frosting. Seventies food humor.
I've been addicted to Pistachio Pudding ever since. My friends think I'm crazy. "What IS that half eaten bowl of green stuff in your refrigerator?" Pure heaven.
Our "weird" thing my mother always served was hot sauerkraut with butter. I think this was because my grandmother used to make sauerkraut from scratch years ago and it was a real treat. However. Mother's was from a can.
Yes a Tbsp each of whole cranberry sauce and brie wrapped in puff pastry or phyllo brush with butter and bake for appetizers. The other dish we can't do without is broccoli and cheese (Velveeta) topped with Ritz crackers. With lots of butter throughout.
The cranberry/brie things are so good they could be a meal by themselves. I got the recipe from Ocean Spray but it's not much of a recipe. Just little cubes of brie a spoonful of whole cranberry brush the phyllo with melted butter and fold bottom corner over into triangles a few times. Bake 10 minutes then let cool because they are hot!
I CAN'T WAIT to try this! This will be appearing over the weekend -- I will not wait for Thanksgiving. I love whipping up new phyllo surprises and lately we're on an appetizers-for-dinner kick in my house. We make a monster-size batch of a new recipe I want to try as my sweety insists that we always make the full company's-coming-amount and then the two of us watch ummm something silly like Desperate Housewives and indulge. So tonight or Saturday it will be your phyllo munchies. Thank you.
I make sweet and sour meatballs. Make your favorite meatballs melt one can of whole cranberries with one 14 ounce bottle heinz catsup. Add meatballs and let it simmer for an hour or so on low. I ususally add a little brown sugar and lemon juice for a more sweet and sour taste and maybe some sour salt.
See. I am motivated first by texture then by taste. Ambrosia has Coconut flakes in it.. and whipped cream isn't supposed to be chunky. LOL
Other than that tastes good.. but it's one of those things that was always a staple on the holiday table.
I'd read this far in this most interesting thread and was fearful I was not going to find Ambrosia mentioned. This was an absolute "must" for every Thanksgiving & Christmas meal at our home and homes of all relatives on both sides of the family - though I do not know why for to me its taste does not anywhere near justify all the work involved. Know there are many many versions of ambrosia but that made by all in our family was a very simple recipe - fresh cut up oranges canned crushed pineapple and coconut (preferably from fresh coconut). Grating that coconut and especially fooling with cutting up all those juicy sticky oranges just was not worth it to me. Think if needed they also put a little sugar into the ambrosia but no whipped cream other fruits jello etc as other ambrosias I've had sometimes contain. I actually liked what the folks called "fruit salad" better than ambrosia. Can't remember all details but was chopped apples pecans celery (and think maybe at times raisins. Mandrin orange slices and maybe some other fruits) but apples pecans celery were main ingredients lightly moistened with mayonnaise. And I can never think of holiday meals and coconut without thinking of a coconut cake (made from fresh coconut) by one aunt every Thanksgiving & Christmas. Absolutely best coconut cake I've ever eaten. After Aunt Vera died both my mother and other aunt tried to make the cake using her recipe exactly but neither could ever get their cakes to come out nearly as good as was Aunt Vera's.
Hashbrown casserole. Frozen hashbrowns baked with a couple sticks of butter a bunch of shredded cheese cream of chicken soup and sour cream - baked and topped with crushed potato chips. So gross but very yummy. Funny part is we introduced some friends to this not too long ago as a joke and everyone went completely crazy for it.
No. I don't think it'd be gross at all. I like the idea of potato chips as the topping vs crackers or bread crumbs.. that would give you the salt without having to add it... I wonder.. do you use plain chips? I bet ranch chips would be delish!
There was a great thread on these potatoes a while ago- I think the thread called them Mormon Funeral Potatoes. We call them Cheesy potatoes- and I have never met anyone who does not like them! We sometimes top them with corn flakes- and sometimes add cubed ham and broccoli ( and then pretend they are almost healthy because of the broccoli!). We don't have them on Thanksgiving but they usually appear at Easter brunch!
My brother would disown me if he read this but for me it is that hideous green bean casserole you make with cream of mushroom soup and french fried onions. Sorry to all those that may be fans of said concoction and such but to me it looks disgusting and tastes worse.
Edited to add.. boogiebaby posted right before me and I didn't notice his post above mine says essentially the same thing. Ah well. GMTA!
A dish called "San Antonio Squash". It's served at Threadgill's in Austin and is available frozen in the grocery stores there. Since we've moved back to Rhode Island. I still make it every year as my mother is bereft if it's not on the table. Thank goodness Threadgill's posted the recipe on their website! It's a mixture of yellow summer squash onions cream of mushroom soup hot peppers and Velveeta - topped with bread crumbs and baked.
My brother would kill my mom if she didn't make the famous broccoli rice casserole. I have NO idea where it came from but it is Uncle Ben's white rice cheese whiz broccoli and walnuts. Assemble and bake in oven. It's kind of like mac and cheese with veggies.. and nuts.
ever since I was little the night befor Thanksgiving my Papa would put together his own pasta dough and make homemade noodles that he would dry on a plastic table cloth (set aside just for this purpose) overnight. The next day my mom would set aside the gizzard and some of the stock from the turkey and cook the pasta in it with the gizzard diced up. It was so hard to decide between these noodles and the turkey because just one bowlful was enough to put you in a food coma. My boyfriend was introduced to these "noodles" as they are simply called and he is counting down the days to Thanksgiving so that they can get reacquainted :) I think he's hooked!
well if you knew my family you would think it anything but foodie haha.. my dad thinks everything should be battered and deep fried or mixed with a can of cream of mushroom soup... I cant believe this one survived his cooking past but Im glad it did!
I just thought of another one. My husband's family always ate what they call salami coronets for an appetizer on T'giving.. slices of salami rolled with cream cheese filling.
Dh's family always has what they call salami coronets for an appetizer on T'giving Day. They're salami slices rolled with cream cheese filling.
One of our standards is a baked corn casserole souffle thing maded with canned cream corn peppers and onions--even topped with crushed saltine crackers. It's been served at every Thanksgiving meal in my family since the early 1900s. I can't stop now! Grandma would roll over in her grave!
When I was still living with my parents we would go to my older sisters for Thanksgiving. This is in the mid-Hudson valley. In addition to Turkey stuffing etc there would also be: a roast beef. A disposable aluminum pan full of ziti with red sauce. Sometimes the unusual combo of linguini with corn kernels. A total mish-mosh of food some of which was traditional and some was... filler. Oh and she was never much of a veggie eater so there is always the token green beans (overcooked) and the token iceberg and styrofoam tomato salad. With a selection of 8 different bottled dressings. We made Thanksgiving dinner at my parents one year when we visited very nice probably the best dinner that ever graced my parents table and my sis shows up with... ziti. Gotta love her.
And no dinner was complete without an antipasto (pronounced antipast) consisting of Genoa salami slicing pepperoni celery sticks sliced provolone which is layed on a platter. On top of that was dumped a jar of artichoke hearts undrained a jar of roasted red pepper undrained chucks of the stinkiest provolone you could find (it wasn't smelly enough unless it smelled like feet) and chunks of pepperoni. Delicious but not heart healthy.
Sorry to be late in replying. I grew up in Hurley/Kingston sis lives in Ulster Park. Are you familiar with Cappolla's restaurant? It was in Highland started in a storefront and then they built a new place on 9W (Cappollas Fantasia or something like that). That was my fave Italian food esp when Vinny the dad was still supervising.
You start the event with chips & dip--always featuring Velveeta and Ro-Tel tomatoes nuked together dipped up with tortilla chips (if you must) or Ruffles. If it thickened up. Grandma would nuke it again.
She used to would put her turkey in the oven and set the timer so it started cooking at like 3 a m. because they liked to wake up in the morning to the smell of turkey. When it was done (she always cooked a 20+ pound bird) she'd carve it all up and put it in the roaster to reheat just before dinner. I never saw a turkey carved till my husband and I started doing our own. Dressing is made in its own pan never stuffed into the bird. When my mom (an Okie) joined the family she made cranberry sauce every year--the Kansas side of the family didn't know anything about such things. Then we had mashed potatoes and gravy corn rolls and my aunt Edna's escalloped asparagus:
Drain canned asparagus (amount is according to how many you're serving; I usually use four cans) place in casserole pan and salt lightly. Top with sliced hard-boiled eggs (at least 3; I use 6). Make a medium white sauce and add a jar of Old English cheese (sharp Cheddar spread). Pour this over the asparagus and eggs and top with buttered bread crumbs. Bake at 350 until the crumbs are brown and the sauce is bubbly.
This stuff rocks and I can't imagine Thanksgiving dinner without it even now that Edna is gone. (I make it for my own Thanksgiving dinner; last year when I had had knee surgery the day before thanksgiving my husband made it and did just fine.)
We also have some kind of salad or other vegetables. If I'm there my aunt Sue always makes a big mess of pretzel jello which I love--but I can't eat a whole doggone pan of it by myself! There are usually sweet potatoes but I don't really care about them (the only time I remember the sweet potatoes was one time when we were having Thanksgiving with the other side of the family and my aunt Pat burned the marshmallows on top of the yams and never heard the end of it). Other times we have other things. But you don't mess with the basic menu one year they did trying to spare my grandma the chore of cooking the turkey and even my dad who hates turkey said. "Why didn't we have any Thanksgiving food?"
two of the main ingredients are canned mushrooms and cornflakes.. not exactly foodie fare but family & friends used to wait all year for it!
i modified it a few years ago and [much to mom's chagrin] my sister insists it's even better now :)
Our entire dinner is a big foodie nightmare but the big staple at Thanksgiving dinner is the cranberry jello which is a combination of some form of red jello (strawberry or raspberry) can of cranberry sauce with whole or crushed cranberries frozen strawberries and a can of crushed pineapple. Gets finished off way faster than the jellied cranberries do.
The way we did cranberry jello at the cafeteria was with raspberry jello. Then there were nuts (always local native pecans) in it along with the chopped cranberries and crushed pineapple.
We also had a cranberry-marshmallow salad that was pretty much the same only it was mixed with whipped cream so it turned into this nice fluffy stuff. (I have these recipes but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the cafeteria's recipes here even though it's gone almost 20 years now...)
But at supper we have the basic bag of cranberries boiled in a cup of water and a cup of sugar. (My mom was on a diet a few years ago and made cranberry sauce with Splenda instead of sugar. It was just not right.)
That reminds me.. my boyfriend's Mom puts red grapes in her cranberry sauce - sliced in half. I thought it was so unusual but when I tried it. I really liked it. The other day I spied a package of 'baby grapes' that looked adorable but I was in a hurry and didn't take the time to see if they were seedless or not. If they're seedless. I'm thinking maybe this year. I'll add baby red grapes to my cranberry sauce and see if anyone notices. Regardless of what cranberry dish goes on the table Thanksgiving day it does not negate the little jar of Cranberry Pecan jam I mentioned in a reply post above. :)
This isn't for Thanksgiving at our house but I've had something like that at other parties and liked it -- and I don't llke jello molds usually. But the way I had it it was very thick with mostly cranberry sauce crushed pineapple and chopped walnuts. The jello just kind of held it together without being too sweet. And it didn't jiggle!
This is very similar to my family's dressing but mine has a pound of bacon and I saute the onions and celery in the bacon fat WITH a stick of butter. Then I use evaporated milk to soften my white bread. I hate white bread but dressing with anything but is an abomination. This recipe has been handed down from my great grandmother.
For me it was Creamed onions... yup.. drain those jars of Aunt Nellies plop em in a pot with a can of cream of mushroom soup. I have added to it since Mom isn't around.. use additional shitakes sherry or white wine and thyme.. but it's something I HAVE to have. I'm such a fan that sometimes I make a mini-Thanksgiving dinner for one.. with the onions a roasted turkey thigh and GASP.. stovetop stuffing with extra onions and celery! OOH... I want it tonight now!
I must have been sleeping when I first responded to this post because I answered what was the most non-foodie thing we have for Thanksgiving not what my favorite non-foodie thing is. My favorite and my son's too is a salad that once upon a time was based on a Waldorf salad but has morphed into something altogether different. Start with apples walnuts and mayo (the only remaining vesiges of Waldorf salad) and add seedless grapes sliced banana and mini-marshmallows. The mayo is mixed with an equal amount of Cool Whip for a dressing. This is especially good the 2nd and 3rd day (if it makes it that far). We only eat it on Thanksgiving and Christmas but we love it. Yep we're strange all right.
None of our dishes are "foodie" - Thanksgiving for us is about tradition and the same side dishes have been making an appearance since mom took over:
blue cheese dip w/ raw veggiesbutternut squash soupmashed potatoesbaked sweet potatoescreamed onionscaramelized onionsstuffingcranberry relishsome type of green
Really? Seems to me like the damn things sprout up all over the northeast in the fall. Baked & pureed with chicken stock definitely makes everyone say: wow! how fancy! Oh wait.
Jello-salad seems incredibly exotic to me. And no. I've never had a green bean casserole. Ever. Only had my first taste of mac & cheese 2 years ago. Different reference points i guess.
The cheap-o turkey from the freezer section in the grocery store! Why spend $150 for a bird that has American roots deeper than mine when it is simply a vehicle for gravy and later pumpernickel and mayo? Anyway my favorite part of the turkey is the stock I use 'till February. And no this isn't because we cook the daylites out of the poor critter; brined and delicious is our ceremonial bird.
Having grown up in a kosher. Holocaust survivor household holidays were all about food. My immigrant parents and Grandma (she lived with us) prepared tons of ethnic food but Thanksgiving was all about American food. Nothing Hungarian about Thanksgiving. We alternated visiting relatives in Cincinnati and would have the turkey at around 2 p m and serve a light supper around 7 p m just before the guests would leave. My favorite memories are my mother's interpretation of stuffing with Pepperidge Farm croutons onions mushrooms celery etc. sweet potatoes (Bruce's yams from the can) jellied cranberry sauce (Ocean Spray) a kosher version of green bean casserole and dinner rolls from the bakery. Because the pumpkin pie was dairy (from the bakery too) we always ate it on paper plates with plastic utensils. For the light supper we had leftover turkey sandwiches and a Pepperidge Farm chocolate cake a treat to me as my mother & grandma always made our desserts from scratch (Hungarian/Austrian specialties!). To my brother & me Wonder Bread was a treat as we always got our bread from a bakery (Vienna bread). In retrospect. Thanksgiving was probably the worst culinary use of my grandma & mother's talents but you have to admire how eager they were to "fit in" and prepare a REAL American holiday tradition.
Our Thanksginving is routed in trdition too. We have all of the items we ate when my brothers and I were kids and my grandmother prepared the meal. And we have added new items as we had our own kids. But. I do notice that we never leave anything out- we only add. FOr appetizers we have cheese crakcers ( must include triscuts for one neice) pepperoni spinach dip my borthers wonderful stuffed mushroom a fabulous clam chownder compliments of a SIL a mexican layer dip. For dinner the bird gallons of gravy- stuffing made with bread chicken ctock butter onins celery and bells seasonings ( last year we used ten loaves of bread!) potaotes sweet potatoes spinach butternut squash boiled onion carrots peas cabbage salad canned corn for the picky eaters green beans cranberry sauce and dinner rolls. For dessert. I bake the pies (apple pumpkin lemon merangue and blueberry) truffels from another SIL and some kind of chocolate dessert. U usually try a new preparation of an item and see how it flys. One year it was cranberry sauce- now dinner must include both homemade sauce as well as ocean spray. Last year I made some kind of sweet potato casserole ( no marhsmallows!) but the family prefers them with just butter sal and papper so I will go back to tradition this year. It is a lot of work and a lot of food but is the favorite family holiday.
I haven't seen anyone mention Cope's corn yet. Although it is not the tastiest corn IMHO it is a must have at our Thanksgiving. We soak the kernels overnight and cook it up the next morning. My dad is Pennsylvania Dutch so the corn cranberry relish ground up in the meat grinder with orange peel sugar and walnuts and really crispy crouton stuffing is his favorite. We live in the south now so we also have a tasty concoction of cornbread dressing with an actual whole chicken shredded in it. Talk about poultry overload!
The day after Thanksgiving he insists we make a huge quadruple batch of sand tart cookies (made with rose water) to tide us over until Christmas. Thanksgiving to Christmas in our family is a constant month of really good eating!!
Cope's corn! I have two boxes waiting in my pantry right now. Thank goodness for being able to order through websites as they do not seem to carry this in Florida grocery stores. My father's side is Pennsylvania Dutch too... Shoo Fly Pie and all.
Hey - do you happen to know of a good way to use up a log of Lebanon Bologna? I have a sweet & a regular sitting in my freezer and my boyfriend is not overly keen on either.. which I find strange for someone that can't eat enough beef jerky. My typical use is pan-frying thick slices in a dry pan.. then putting in a sandwich.. but then I'm left with a ton of sausage after I get my fix.
AHHH. Lebanon Bologna!!! Everytime I ever visited my grandma in York we went to the Farmers Market and bought several pounds of it. We ate it on sandwiches but my dad's favorite is to serve it in big hungs with a nice sharp cheddar spicy mustard. Wege's or Gettysburg hard pretzels(extra salt). Utz's chips pickles red beet eggs and olives. My dad is a little OCD you might say so he assembles all of these items in a circle on a plate and eats them counterclockwise until only one bite of each remains and he finishes his favorite thing last (the hard pretzel) : )
Now that I live in New Orleans we put the lebanon bologna on our muffaletta sandwiches. It is kind of the same idea (good cheese salty spicy meats pickled olive spread and great french bread). By the way the Emeril's recipe calls for the traditional kind of bologna which as you know is very different from Lebanon. However it might be interesting to see how it would come out.
Oh what I wouldn't do to be going this Saturday to the farmer's market in York and getting lots of yummy food!!!
But sadly the individual Knaub's cakes are not. They were a staple for our Holiday meals. We all got to choose our favorite types of cakes and they were assembled in little boxes for us. You can not replicate those choices or flavors. That plus all the pie choices at the market made for sugar overload at Thanksgiving. I have never seen a Farmer's Market like that found in York our's here in New Orleans is not even close : (
Red beet eggs! Those were always served at family reunions. Hey - you might appreciate this website. Maybe a gift or two for Dad this holiday season? After missing an outing to Weaver's during our reunion last year my brother informed me the flier they picked up had this website for ordering. I got the pretzel barrel to share with my co-workers and they were shocked to see each pretzel individually wrapped for freshness. We don't mess around with our pretzels. BTW - as another *slightly* OCD person. I appreciate your father's eating methods. I do it that way too.. except I add apple slices & nuts to the platter as well. : )
Hey Mtleahy,Being born and raised in Hanover (York County. PA). I know all about the joys of Lebanon Bologna one thing my Mom would make was "bologney gravy" basically chipped beef gravy using Lebanon Bologna in place of the dried beef. MMMMM a plate of white bread smothered in bologney gravy.... And I have to add you have not tasted an Utz potato chips until you have purchased them at the factory in metal cans. I don't even eat the ones in bags @ supermarket. TIM
Since we're an American/Japanese family next to the mashed potatoes roasted sweet potatoes and stuffing with apples & onions that we must have we always have onigiri and a big bowl of cold broccoli that we dip in mayonnaise mixed with shoyu & sesame oil. And my daughter makes sure I make an apple pie. I never ate pumpkin pie until last year,cant say I missed it.
In my family we sometimes have about 30-40 (extended) people for Thanksgiving and we all have very different opinions about what good food is.
Non-Foodie favorites are the salad my sister always makes that we don't remember the name of: half and half fruit cocktail madarin oranges grapes and mini marshmellows. Soak the mini-marshmellows and half and half until the marshmellows break down and fluff the mixture. Mix in the fruit and serve. It was a recipe inherited from my maternal grandmother. Everyone loves it.
My family seems to prefer canned sweet potatos to real. I don't get it. I offered to make a sweet potato casserole with a praline streussle but got voted down for mini marshmellows and canned spuds. The horrors the horrors.
Appetizers include cheese straws shrimp cocktail relish trays with black olives (the seedless kind from the can) green pimento olves mini sweet gerkins my grandma's homeade bread and butter pickles and dill pickle spears.
Dessert for the longest time included Mrs Smith's pies and chocolate creme pies made from instant chocolate pudding store bought grahm cracker crust and cool whip. I've been bringing homeade pies for awhile now but still get beat hands down by the chocolate pudding pie.
The one food I really miss since I became a vegetarian my grandfather's homeade sausage stuffing. There was so much sausage in the stuffing it bled liquid fat in little orange pools around itself on your plate. (insert homer simpson drool here) The best stuff ever.
We do this too! We have two glass bowls and each bowl has three sections- one for the black olive one for the grean olives and one for the sweet pickle mix. I think the bowls are worth a fortune but have survived decades of Holidays without a mishap.
I know it was the highlight of the appetizers being able to play with the olives. I tried it last year for nostalgia's sake but those holes are a lot smaller than I remember.
In our family there isn't much difference between the kids table and the adults. One year we had some role throwing action between the two.
This is my favorite post. I've seen in chow hound. I love reading about all of these family traditions.. it's wonderful not so much about the food as you would think but about families and people.. unless I marry I will most likely never experience a family holiday dinner again,in ways thats a good thing!( LOL) ,my all time fave dish was a salad my grandmother made from grapes ,pineapple mini marshmallows,egg yolks,lemon juice and whipped cream.. i still make it from time to time just to remember enjoy and appreciate what you have!.
I thought we were the only people with the mini marshmellow and whip cream salad! My sister brings it to a lot of holiday parties and everyone is always put off at first and then raves about it. Well with that much sugar and cream how can you not I guess.
This post is hysterical! Our family also has the classic green bean casserole complete with French's onioins. My mom also makes the broccoli rice casserole (my family is big on casseroles) and some weird cake/cobbler thingy where she dumps some boxed yellow cake mix and some canned pie fillings together and bakes it up. I think it's actually called "dump cake". My all time favorite Thanksgiving dish however is mashed rutabegas. I don't remember a Thanksgiving without them. A little butter and gravy.... mmmmmmm. We had some guests last year that ate up all the rutabegas and I was mad as all get out ;) I hope they go someplace else this year.....
Rutabagas are a tradition in my family too! Although it never gets forgotten to tell the story of the first time I had them at my grandmother's house and ask where she got the horrible orange potatoes! They seem to build traditions -- the other story always told too was that before they were married my father came to my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving and he had to cut and peel the rutabagas (sometimes no easy task). It became his task in perpetuity (40+ years later) even though he doesn't eat them!
But I must have rutabagas at Thanksgiving -- but now I have them throughout the fall. Try them cubed and roasted with sweet potatoes (with or without white potatoes and/or baby carrots)!
Once we all make it to the cottage on Thanksgiving Eve our "family bunch" has homemade PASTA E FAGIOLI with homemade PANNI. My great-aunt is from the Isle of Capri & her Italian cooking is simple yet wonderful. It's a family tradition that's well over 40 years old! The real treat is gathering all together on the shore & spending a long weekend with close family & friends all in slow motion - no televisions no computers & no fuss!
For you abbeshay and everyone else on this thread who have brightened my day by making me laugh and walking me down through some pleasant spots in Memory Lane. Sorry no marshmallows on this one though. This recipe doesn't need them at all.
1/3 cup milk1/2 cup sugar1/3 cups dark rum1/3 cups brandy6 Tablespoons soft butter1 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon nutmeg1/2 teaspoon ground cloves1/2 teaspoon salt
Stir all into yams. Adjust seasoning to taste. Mix well and spoon into greased 9"x13" baking dish.
(Note: I've increased the flavoring agents in this recipe because I enjpoy big flavors. If you want something more subtle use 1/2 t for spices and reduce alcohols to 1/4 c ea.)
I totally agree that this is my favorite post on chowhound having just lost my last grandparent and knowing that Thanksgiving (my FAVORITE holiday hands down) will never be the same. I totally teared up reading this because it seems we're all different but the same - and it's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - because it's about the food and the love. I come from a family that loves good food and there is nothing foodie about our meal. Nothing. And despite moving on to new generations - there's no way I'd change a thing about it. Once a year that green bean casserole is the best thing I've ever tasted. I used to crave it pregnant because it speaks of comfort and family to me. And turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy. We do have homemade cranberries and cornbread and pies. But it's all plain and simple and perfect. THANK YOU for this post.
p s. Fried onions are the best. :) They're on that classic comfort food of tuna noodle casserole in our house too!
I so agree! Last year I had Thanksgiving at our house -- just a month after my grandmother died. So I HAD to make her creamed vegetables -- not just creamed onions. Long ago she adjusted the recipe for non-onion eaters. So our Thanksgiving table is not complete without her version -- onions cauliflower and carrots. Depending on how it's made -- it can be very foodie!
Love this thread. For the past 25-30 years. I have done most of the cooking for Thanksgiving my favorite holiday. The past few years my daughters are taking over and lot of the preparations and are even hosting the dinner. I love it. It is all about tradition family friends and FOOD. Not very CH food either. Apps include cheddar cheese straws chips and dips crudites. Turkey and ham. In recent years I have started buying Greenberg Smoked Turkey from Texas and it is terrific and much easier than getting up in the middle of the night to start a turkey. Jello Salad green bean casserole broccoli-rice casserole creamed pearl onions yellow squash casserole mashed potatoes sweet potatoes corn bread dressing,cranberry sauce (from the can) homemade dinner rolls and cinnamon monkey bread. Pumpkin pie pecan pie buttermilk pie. Contributions from in-laws-Tomato aspic made with tomato soup gelatin and hot sauce. Awful is the only word to describe. It's the tradition in their family so it is lovingly accepted and eaten. Other mother-in-law brings a one liter bottle of soft drink to a dinner for 20 people. Oh well. Everyone does home with leftovers. In recent years that disposable Gladware and Zip-lock bags have worked well. We won't be in the states for the holidays this year. I'll make a special Mexican Thanksgiving dinner for the neighbors. Already found a supplier of fresh turkeys and Costco has spiral-cut honey-glazed hams.
For me it's ham-butter. Basically you mince a bunch of ham in a Cuisinart and add a couple blocks of softened butter and some black pepper mix it all together. It's awesome on hot biscuits even good smeared on turkey breast however horribly bad for you it is.
I've seen lots of responses that say the green bean casserole-thing is at the top of people's lists. I'll be meeting my boyfriend's parents for the first time this Thanksgiving (they're from Atlanta we're in San Francisco) and I'm told that's her signature holiday dish which she'll be contrubuting to dinner at my house. Looking forward to trying it. I think.... :)
I feel like I am standing in the corner watching all this thinking to myself.. what about the stuffed celery??????? Doesn't EVERYONE have a tray of stuffed celery at Thanksgiving? .. it was then that I realized that this is not a traditional Thanksgiving dish to any family except my own. My maternal grandmother is the queen of the preparation.. and heaven help the person that tries to 'help' her.
Mix together & 'stuff' into the rib of each celery stalk (like you would peanut butter).. then slice in ~2" long pieces and arrange on platter.
I've switched to pecans when I make it behind her back - less bitter than walnuts.. and I like to slice mine into bite-size pieces.
P. S. My family also has the same discussion every year - as it remains unresolved - what is the difference between "stuffing". "filling" and "dressing"?
It was a right of passage for the grandkids in my family to be allowed to make the relish tray at grandma's on Thanksgiving - complete with black and green olives gherkins and celery stuffed with creme cheese or cheez wiz. Paprika classed the whole thing up! When the family grew and we started having smaller separate family Thanksgivings my mother opted for cheese and crackers summer sausage and veggies with spinach dip as the pre-dinner pickin's
For all my love of Thanksgiving day-after leftovers are my favorite meal of the year. Turkey and gravy (cooked together) and mashed potatoes made into potato pancakes. My mom passed away a few years ago without telling me her secret to keeping them from falling apart. Doesn't mater they still rule.
sorry to hear about your mom's passing have you tried adding egg [and maybe a little flour] to bind the potato pancakes? that should keep them from falling apart.
leftovers in our house were usually turkey sandwiches - leftover turkey on toasted white bread with tomato and mayo nothing 'foodie' about that! oh and of course a dish of reheated stuffing which always tastes better the day[s] after.
Our sandwiches have stuffing and cranberry sauce on them too. One of my favorite days too since I don't have to cook anything for dinner just warm it up and I let a giant pot of turkey soup simmer all day. Potato pancakes definitely need an egg and a little flour. I also put a pinch of baking powder and baking soda to lighten them up.
This isn't my tradition but it was a delightful article in the Washington Post about thirty years ago. The writer remembered coming to the US with her family as Cuban immigrants. They had been told that to be American they had to have roast turkey on Thanksgiving so they did---with black beans and rice. And they were told you had to have hot rolls so they did---croissants with guava jam. She ended "And that is the way we have always done it since". Sure sounds good to me.
Stuffing stuffing stuffing... Is there a person who does not love stuffing? Who cares if it's Stovetop if it has oysters or mushrooms or sausage or cranberries in it. It's stuffing. To me stuffing is like chocolate. Even mediocre chocolate is still decent and worth biting into after a bad day. It's chocolate after all. We make ours with pimento stuffed green olives onion butter broth poultry seasoning onion celery. Sometimes we put some sausage in. And it's always Pepperidge Farm white bread slightly stale. I wish I had a big bowl of that with some mashed potatoes and gravy to wash it down right now!
My ex-MIL made the stuffing the first year I had Thanksgiving dinner at her house. She uused those dried cube things and didn't moisten them very much. So what we ended up with was burnt croutons. Thank heaven I had insisted on making cranberry sauce even though that bunch of Yankees didn't know what to do with it. You couldn't NOT eat the stuffing; that would have been rude so the next best thing was to drown it in a ton of cranberry sauce.
My grandma makes the best. Two parts bread and one part cornbread with lots of sage butter onion celery. You get it good and soggy with eggs and broth and cook it till it sets. If you can make out discrete cubes of bread it's not soggy enough. Then you bake it till it sets up like a nice savory bread pudding.
Now and then she'll make one pan of oyster stuffing for the about three people at the table who like it (I'm not among them).
Stuffing is my favorite part - Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing bag no egg broth sauteed celery and onion and garlic parsley. Bell's seasoning a little more sage if I feel like it peeled cut up chunks of Rome apple and : sliced fresh water chestnuts. (You can use drained from a can but not as good.) and toasted slivered almonds. Best taste if cooked inside the turkey ( I prefer Butterball hen under 14 lbs.)
Well no not exactly. She wasn't much of a cook though. Nor did they care about anything even moderately adventurous. I remember the night I cooked them a chicken pot pie and they acted like I was trying to feed them something from another planet.
The main reason she's my ex-MIL is that when the ex-husband and I moved back to where he grew up a cul-de-sac in a Portland suburb from Wichita. I was like a square peg in a round hole--didn't fit no hope.
Any kind of dressing (stuffing) is great as long as its made mainly from cornbread rather than wheat breads. Something like 2 parts cornbread to one part wheat bread (toasted bread rolls or biscuits) the items you mention revsharkie plus some turkey broth giblets chopped hard boiled egg. Everyone to his own thing but to me dressing mixes are highly preferable to light bread (wheat breads) dressings even homemade. And in the Home Cooking thread I earlier mentioned an Irish Potato dressing made by friends in Alabama which was lots of work but was absolutely delicious.
It is simply not Thanksgiving without Pillsbury crescent rolls. I'll eat a whole can by myself. We like Thanksgiving dinner pretty traditional; the same meal every year. For a while there Mom kept trying to sneak in new things but we always shot her down.
I wondered if anyone was gonna mention these. My brother just wont come to the table unless the Pillsbury crescent rolls are there. I like em too but he is nuts about them. Last year we had 6 cans of them and they all disappeared (about a dozen people)
No but I really enjoy grossing out my husband with a big bowl mixed with the left over mashed potatoes dressing gravy turkey all mixed together. It looks gross but tastes great. I've done that every morning after Thanksgiving since I was a kid.
My Grandmother(who raised me) would always take the left overs turkey ,ham roast chicken dressing mashed potatoes corn broccoli,put them in a large pan in a pie crust,then pour the left over gravy over it cover with a top crust then vent it and coat it with canned milk and bake making,by a ton the best pot pie I have ever had.. man I miss those!
yes i belive the brand she prefered was pet as a side note if there was crust left over she would put it on a cookie sheet or bottom of a baking pan put canned milk on it also then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.. very good treat and nothing wasted!.
Hm! We've always layered the leftovers as a sort of casserole using the gravy as a binder but I'm liking the idea of a big ol' pot pie! Given how many pies we make Thanksgiving week it would be nothing to make an extra disc of dough to save for the weekend...
Leftovers always become the "diner" meal-hot turkey and gravy stuffing served over white bread. Mashed potatoes on the side. It's the only time white bread is ever in the house. My husband once asked if I could use whole wheat bread instead. Um no. Actually the next night is usually turkey a la king with those canned black olives added for additional "flare".
My mother makes the lime gelatin salad as well. It has lime Jello cream cheese a T of mayo crushed pineapple and pecans. She also does a cheese ball on special occasions as well. Cream cheese pecans pineapple minced onions minced green peppers and seasoning salt. Mix and chill. Then roll the ball in more pecans.
My Aunt Dean has a special secret macaroni and cheese recipe. She is over 70 now and has handed the culinary baton to me. Thanksgiving. Christmas and Easter will not happen without Aunt Dean's Macaroni and Cheese.
We also make shrimp fried rice for Thanksgiving as well. Only on my father's side of the family. I'm not sure why. We just do :-)
I made the lime gelatin salad for a Star Trek party back in my 20s when we were supposed to bring "weird" food. Everyone loved it.
My family always has to have a cheeseball too. (sometimes with pimiento and green bell pepper so it looks Christmasy) and a few years ago I found a sweet cheese ball instead of savory that is now a staple at our tree-trimming party. Cream cheese and butter with mini-chocolate chips (and a little brown sugar) rolled in chopped nuts. Serve with honey graham and chocolate graham crackers. Yum.
Didn't see this mentioned.. In tha Baltimore area there is a tradition of serving sauerkraut with the Thanksgiving dinner many families also serve keilbasa with the sauerkraut( I love the keilbasa the next day sliced cold with some Utz's Potatoe chips)
Maybe the sauerkraut is from the PA Dutch influence. I remember reading somewhere that it is an Amish tradition to have sauerkraut with Thanksgiving dinner. Sounds good to me.
I brought this up on Sep 27 but I had gotten long winded (first) about Watergate Cake. I am so glad you posted this. My family is from the Northern Virginia area. I have never heard of anyone else eating this for Thanksgiving. PA Dutch? Or Amish? Really interesting. We also had it for Christmas dinner too. But not at any other time of the year. From 09/27:Our "weird" thing my mother always served was hot sauerkraut with butter. I think this was because my grandmother used to make sauerkraut from scratch years ago and it was a real treat. However. Mother's was from a can.
Lots of my family put the sauekraut over top of the also traditional mashedpotatoes,,,Every Thanksgiving Day for the last 15 ot so years a bunch of us prepare Thanksgiving dinner at the family house for the Johns Hopkins hospital. These are small apartments for the families of the pediatric patients who are under going treatment at the hospital. We have always served saurkraut and keilbasa and we get quite a varirty of responses from the families as they come from all over the US and the world. Just trying to spread the tradition
My MIL makes stuffed celery mixed with cream cheese and olives and pimentos. My mother made her stuffing with the Kelloggs Croutettes. She added onions celery peppers mushrooms and lots of Bells Seasoning. It's still the only stuffing I can eat the next day cold. She also used a small crock pot to start the giblet gravy the night before. My husband's aunt made a great stuffing with stuffing bread that you cut up and dry the day before. She added cooked sausage onions celery. I make it once in a while. My sister in law always has to make brocolli casserole made with velveeta cheese.
I have had sooo much fun reading all these posts. I cried a bit laughed a lot and got some great ideas!!! I will certainly try some of your recipes.
For me. I am a stuffing nut. My mom used to buy the junk white bread and dry it in the oven with the pilot light over night to make her stuffing. The first year I tried to make the stuffing myself. I found out I have an electonic starter( no pilot light) You just have to laugh. I also use rolls from my favorite resturant for the stuffing. One year I didn't break up the rolls before they dried out and I had to use a hammer to break them down. I am sure most of you have left the bag of giblets in the turkey the first time you cooked a turkey.
A few years ago a friend didn't want to deal with her family so she and her family joined me and mine. I started making deviled eggs and put the yoke stuff in a zip lock bag and give it to my friends son and this has become his job. My sister LOVES that green bean cassrole. My friend's other other son in a vegetarian so I learned how to make mac and cheese veggie style.
This year another friend and her family will join us. My only answer when people ask me what can they bring to my house is..."Bring whatever will make Thanksgiving complete." I love the variety.
Oh what a wonderful way to say it! This thread points out just how much each person brings their own family traditions with them. The only time my family had the marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes was when my cousin was with us for Thanksgiving while she was in college near us one year. For her. Thanksgiving would NOT have been complete without them.
A dear friend tells the story of her first Thanksgiving at her (now) in-laws house. Coming from a traditional Irish house she was shocked to have a pasta co
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