poll:turkey fixings

[carolyn.1]

Hi everybody!
I'm sure for Thanksgiving that each family prepares basically the same menu every year for dinner. Recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.
I am sure that each region has their own specialties due to location.
This is the menu that my family has every year. I feel it would be very interesting to see the different foods.My Thanksgiving is one meal that is NOT Low-fat!!!!
Turkey/dressing/giblet gravy/mash potatoes/cranberry sauce/macaroni & cheese casserole/brocolli & cheese casserole/collards/lima beans/rice/hard dinner rolls/deviled eggs. And of course pecan pie and several other desserts.
Charleston, SC http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[MrsReber]

Our dinners have gotten more interesting as our families have grown. Now we have Turkey, ham (for my brother-in-law who is allergic to turkey), lasagna or stuffed shells (for my sister who is vegetarian), broccoli, stuffing (one vegetarian, one with meat), mashed potatoes and gravy, and always mashed sweet potoates. We try to talk my mom into her creamed cauliflower, too. It's so good! She always goes overboard with food, trying to make everyone happy. Then, of course, we have two or three desserts. I want to make a cheesecake,but my sister-in-law won't eat cheese, so I am also going to make brownies and my mom is making pumpkin pie. Ahhh! And to think, there's only 10 of us, 3 of which are children!

[Vanessa]

Hi. Nice thread. OUr thanksgiving is of course turkey which I marinade 3 days in advance, our stuffing is similar to the picadillo (its meat stuffing), a sweet potato casserole, fresh cranberry sauce, salad, wild rice (with mushrooms added), If my mom is here we make these two desserts cazuela (made with two types of sweet potatoes, fresh coconut milk, pumpkin it is LOTS of work) and tembleque (sort of a jello made with fresh coconut)wines, and coffee...ops bread too. If my parents are not visiting we will try other type of desserts like chocolate cake with chambord, an apple date cake etc.
Once when my husbands parents were here she made American type stuffing and mashed potatoes and these noodles cooked in chicken broth (from Ohio).

[mlynn]

I think my grandmother's Thanksgiving dinner is a running joke in our family. She loves to have everything prepared at least 24 hours before, then she microwaves everything(or in the case of the turkey slices it and puts it in a roaster.) We usually had:
very dry turkey (smile)
floury gravy
microwaved canned peas (complete with dents)
cornbread and regular bread dressing
canned cranberry sauce
candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows
homemade bread
macaroni and cheese
pecan, chocolate, pumpkin and/or coconut cream pie

Luckily, my grandma makes very good pies. The first time I tasted a non-dry turkey I was amazed. I didn't know they could be moist. My husband and I still laugh about that.

[venus]

Our family's Thanksgiving is very unique, since my parents are vegetarian. they get together with a group of their very old friends, who are also vegetarian. We have been doing this since I was a baby, so their kids are like my (and my brothers) brothers and sisters. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Cooking for it is a two day marathon. Our families have all grown, so about 25 (!) people now attend. My mom and I make 5-7pumpkin pies (one no dairy), 4-5 apple pies (one with sugar), 4 blueberry pies, 300-400 stuffed grape leaves, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and fresh whipped cream. One family comes from out of town and they bring a fabulous fruit and nut bread. Another family makes a salad to end all salads--with homemade spinach/avocado dressing and everything in it. Another family brings the side dishes--sometimes chestnut stuffing, mini spanakopitas, feta, olives, fried mozzarella, hot cider, spinach, minestrone, kugel, mac and cheese, lentils, stromboli. Finally, one family makes the main dish. We have stuffed cabbage with cheese/rice or bulgur stuffing and cveggie gravy, 4 cheese lasagna. One year they even made a tofu turkey, but "us kids" had a rebellion and refused to eat it http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif

The hubby's family is ultra-traditional, so it's very different. Turkey, stuffing, canned sauce, brocolli and cheese...it was quite a change the first time I went!

[MaryB]

I like this topic too. My family has been going to Thanksgiving at my parent's for the last four years. This year all of my siblings (all five of us) plus three spouses, 5 grandchildren and my great-aunt will be there. Here's my mom's general menu: Roast turkey with bread stuffing (both inside and outside of turkey), homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, molded cranberry sauce, pink applesauce, corn, green bean casserole, parmesan rolls (definitely not low-fat but oh-so-good), pumpkin bread, and various relishes (carrots, olives, etc). For desert this year, there will be pumpkin pie, apple pie, and cherry pie. She's a great cook!

[BeckyM]

What a great topic!

Our family definitely is big on traditions, so our Thanksgiving was almost the exact same every year. But now that I'm married and live far away, I'm not with my parents at Thanksgiving. So we don't miss out on that great meal, we have basically moved our traditional Thanksgiving dinner to Christmas! We always have turkey, and for several years now I've been the one making it, using a recipe from Bon Appetit with all sorts of fresh herbs rubbed on the turkey. We also do homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, ginger ale salad (a molded gelatin salad with ginger ale, grapefruit, oranges, grapes, etc., but no artificial "jello" flavor), homemade clover leaf rolls, both homemade cranberry sauce and canned jellied cranberries (for my dad who likes that best), and pumpkin pie for dessert. We also have stuffing, but it's not homemade -- it's Pepperidge Farms. For years I've been trying to convince my family to add things to it -- nuts, cranberries, celery, mushrooms, etc., but my sister is really picky, and she won't let me mess with our traditional recipe.

Now that I'm married and live in the same town as my in-laws, Thanksgiving dinner is with them. Luckily, they basically have the same traditional foods my family has, with a few variations. But I'm the only one in my husband's side of the family who prefers the dark meat, so I always have to remind them to cut some of that for me. My mother-in-law makes almost all the food, though she lets me help with the desserts. We usually have a fairly big group of people (my husband is the youngest of six), so we have lots of pies! I usually make two pumpkin pies and one or two apple pies, and my mother-in-law makes lemon meringue, banana cream, and maybe another variety.

But most important of all, our Thanksgiving table is always surrounded by friends and family who enjoy being together and giving thanks for all our blessings.

[Joyce]

The one "hand-me-down" recipe at our table is "noodle pudding". This is a mixture of egg noodles, apples, walnuts,white raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and eggs. It is a version of an old German recipe.

[marshalynne]

We go to my sweeties mothers house for Turkey Day. She makes turkey, homemade stuffing, sweet potatoes, creamed onions, mashed potatos with gravy,greenbean casserole,corn,fried cauliflower (boiled cauliflower breaded in pancake batter and fried) with cheese sauce, cranberry sauce (jellied) and rolls. The rolls are the big joke because every year she burns them with the exception of last year because she gave everyone a job. He mashed potatoes and I made the rolls!

[Laura]

I pretty much follow what I had as a child but have added a few things. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potatoe casserole (CL version) lemon jello with pineapple and apples, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie. My mom now has early onset Alzheimers so cooking something like this is not really an option but I love to cook this dinner and bring back many old memories for her.

[LGBurns]

What a great idea! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it isn't as commercialized as the others. Just about gathering with family and friends and giving thanks for your blessings.

I haven't had Thanksgiving with my family in a while because I live in Chicago and they are in California. But when I host Thanksgiving here I try to replicate my family's traditional menu: turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green salad, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls and, our family's Finnish tradition, rattikus (mashed rutabaga). Unfortunately, I haven't won over a lot of converts to the beauties of rattikus yet because I haven't been able to make it like my mummu's, but I'm trying. For dessert we usually have pumpkin pie plus something delicious that my sister Dayna makes (she used to be a pastry chef so you can imagine). And of course being from California we always have very good wine (that I have more trouble replicating here!).

Thanks again Carolyn.1 for the great post!

[Ohioan]

This may sound silly, but my mother and I have franks and beans for Thanksgiving (although this year I'll probably have veggie wieners). Let me explain:

When I was 11 years old, my mother and I were just starting out on our own, and the first year we were so poor that we couldn't afford turkey and all the other things we'd always had for Thanksgiving. All we could manage were franks, beans, and sauerkraut (franks were a lot cheaper then). Well, things improved over the next few years, and in fact my mother remarried into a big Italian family when I was 18 and we had huge family Thanksgivings again.

More time passed; my stepfather died; my mother began moving around the country with me in my last years in the Air Force and beginning years of teaching; and there we were alone together again. So now we commemorate it all by having franks and beans for Thanksgiving, saying to each other as we begin: "We've done okay for two people who once couldn't afford Thanksgiving dinner. And we still have each other."

Corny, isn't it? But I feel as though I know you guys so well that I can share it with you. You're like family, too.

And now I've thoroughly embarrassed myself. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif Forgive me for being maudlin.

Phoebe

[Laura]

Ohioan-

What a great story! More than anything it seems you and your mother have captured the meaning of Thanksgiving!

[LGBurns]

Ohioan: I'm tearing up from your post. When I was twelve, my mom and I were living together just the two of us (my other siblings were out of the house). She would say "it's just you and me, babe." That became our code for spending time alone together any time -- even to this day. Your story brought me back to those times, thanks!

[karen w]

Thanksgiving is a toughie in our family-both my own family and my married family. You see as a kid my father and I begged my mother to make spaghetti year after year for turkey day. We both don't care for turkey. I'll eat it if it's in a soup, casserole etc... but the plain stuff carved off the bird-no way!. Well year after year my father and I grumbled under our breadths as my mother prepared yet another turkey along with a lot of the traditional sides. I guess that's another reason this holiday is difficult for me-I never liked sweet potatoes or cranberries as a kid!

Well now that I'm married(and do not live near my parents) I do not spend every thanksgiving at home. My husband and my father in law also dislike turkey(guess I must have married into the right family.) So now when I make Thanksgiving, turkey never enters the picture. Or the house! One year I made a baked chicken dish in a saffron-caper-orange sauce with a lot of different sides(none too traditional.) Another year it was a sauteed fish with a pineapple-teryaki sauce. When we don't cook my in-laws favorite Thanksgiving is to go for Chinese!!!

This year my husband, my 3 kids, and I are flying to my parents for the holiday. My husband and I are already trying to brainwash my mother to nix the turkey. Last time it worked. She only made a small turkey and maded stuffed cabbage for my husband and me. The time before that, however, our brainwashing did not work-she made a 20+ pounder, and probably had 19 pounds left over! We hope she's learned. We're just not a turkey family!!!

[jabb]

Carolyn,
Thanksgiving here in Baltimore MD is the usual turkey and ham fare, but last year when I had Christmas dinner, I used some recipes from the CL Nov. issue(I think....I'm going on memory and at 11:30pm, it failing rapidly). I was really impressed with the cranberry-apricot sauce recipe. I am not a big cranberry-from-the-can eater but this one was divine, I'd never had REAL cranberries before....and never again will my lips touch the canned stuff. My husband slapped it on every after-Christmas-dinner sandwich he made. The traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner fare tends to be turkey with gravy, ham, sweet potatoes(my grandmother use to make it with the marshmellow tops but we have diabetics in the family now), collards, stuffing and the city's traditional sauerkraut. This year we are hosting my away-at-school daughter and so far, one of the friends from Texas. I've pressed my hubby into action and he is going to fry a turkey(breast, maybe). That's good,too. I try to pazzaz up the meal with other dishes from CL.

[shoefling]

Great thread! When I was little we usually went to one of my grandparents or aunts and uncles house. The fare was pretty raditional: turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed peas, relish tray, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce. I got married last year and now my husband and I live about 700 miles away from both our families. Last year we did not get back for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I had to work the evening shift on Thanksgiving so did not really have time to cook anything. Our dinner consisted of things that we had bought form The Heavenly Ham Company--ham, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole. The food was good, but I think that being around family is the best part of the holidays. Being away from them for the majority of the year makes me appreciate and miss them all the more.

[lindrusso]

There are some dishes that I crave due to childhood memories, but I am also adding new dishes to create our own traditions. For instance my mom rarely did mashed potatoes, but for me it's a must! I guess we don't do it exactly the same every year, but we usually choose from the same assortment of these dishes:

Turkey - we do ours with wine, butter and cheesecloth.

Stuffing - my mom always followed the back of the Pepperidge Farm stuffing bag, adding almonds, onions and celery - and it's always been one of my favorites. Last year I made a stuffing with corn bread, wild mushrooms and pecans - very tasty.

Can't ever have too much starch at Thanksgiving!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Glorified Zucchini - zucchini baked with wine, cheese and cream of mushroom soup.

Haricots Verts - a green bean dish with roasted shallots and hazelnuts.

Cranberry sauce - I like the homemade, my husband likes the canned, so we'll probably be doing both!

Pumpkin Pie - using the recipe right from the Libby's can. I've never tried making it from an actual pumpkin - maybe some year....

And there are two things that always showed up at my Grandmom's house that won't be on my menu - sweet potatos with the marshmallows and any kind of jellied salad. For some reason I just don't like them!

For holiday appetizers our family always looks forward to spinach balls and mushroom crescents - you can make these ahead of time and freeze them which is nice for the busy holiday season - they are delicious!

Okay, it's late and I'm rambling.... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/eek.gif


[This message has been edited by lindrusso (edited 10-22-2000).]

[ElinorC]

Ohioan,
I just read about your Thanksgiving feast and think you should be feel very proud to have captured the spirit of Thanksgiving. The essence of Thanksgiving is having your family around you and the food is secondary. I fixed the traditional turkey dinner for years and then I rebelled and cooked one of our favorite non-holiday menus and enjoyed it even more with our family.
From a fellow Ohioan (Cleveland) and 'oldie'.

[Danielle]

Thanksgiving has changed a lot for me over the years. My parents divorced when I was 13. Prior to that, we always spent Thanksgiving at my Aunt Marsha's. She'd make turkey roll instead of a whole turkey...just not the same. But her zucchini bread was out of this world, and she let me have unlimited amounts of black olives before dinner.

My mom eventually remarried, and we started to have Thanksgiving at my step-dad's mother's house. Quite the adventure. She was living with some random guy in this little house, which was always crowded during the holidays. She'd bake the turkey way too long, make beef gravy from a packaged powder (don't ask why, because I'm not sure either), and I was forced to sit at the kiddie table, a place I hadn't sat at since the age of 10 (I was in college at the time). After the "grown-ups" would finish dinner they'd smoke cigarettes (except my mom and step-dad) and play cards all afternoon. Ugh. Luckily my brother and I could escape and go up to visit my dad for the rest of the day. I always felt bad about leaving my mom behind, because she disliked being there as much as I did.

My mom is divorced now, so up until I got married this year I would spend the day with her and my brother. She'd make turkey, cheesy hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, Stove Top Stuffing (our favorite), corn, rolls, and I would bring a pumpkin pie. Hash brown casserole is the best!

The few times I've gone down to my grandparents the food is pretty much the same, but instead of hash brown casserole my grandma makes Aunt Polly's potatoes (named after my great-Aunt Polly, who always added too much milk and made the potatoes a little runny), and a Bishop's chocolate pie.

So many memories! Thanks for helping me to remember.

[Beth H]

Thanksgiving in my family growing up, we had the usual turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, plus cranberry orange relish, dried corn, squash with marshmellow casserole, candied apples, nut bread, etc. I cooked Thanksgiving myself last year and tried some new traditions, including a delicious broccoli casserole.

[This message has been edited by Beth H (edited 10-23-2000).]

[andi]

Originally posted by carolyn.1:
Hi everybody!
I'm sure for Thanksgiving that each family prepares basically the same menu every year for dinner. Recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.
I am sure that each region has their own specialties due to location.
This is the menu that my family has every year. I feel it would be very interesting to see the different foods.My Thanksgiving is one meal that is NOT Low-fat!!!!
Turkey/dressing/giblet gravy/mash potatoes/cranberry sauce/macaroni & cheese casserole/brocolli & cheese casserole/collards/lima beans/rice/hard dinner rolls/deviled eggs. And of course pecan pie and several other desserts.
Charleston, SC http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

Carolyn, can I come visit you for Thanksgiving???? You are making my mouth water!

Ohioan, I loved your story! You have reminded me of the true meaning of Thanksgiving! You should submit your story some place!

Our meals are typical mid-west fare. Turkey, tators and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry bread, apple pie. I may be inspired from this thread to try something new though!!!

[carolyn.1]

Andi,
Come on down!! Or should I say down and over.HeeHee. You did say Northwest, right?

[andi]

Carolyn-
Midwest, Northwest it's still down and over! I think it would take about 14 hours though! Maybe you could just send your samples over the internet...Yummmm

[Donnalee]

Originally posted by Beth H:
Thanksgiving in my family growing up, we had the usual turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, plus cranberry orange relish, dried corn, squash with marshmellow casserole, candied apples, nut bread, etc. I cooked Thanksgiving myself last year and tried some new traditions, including a delicious broccoli casserole.

Beth H.,

Can you post the broccoli casserole recipe please? I am looking for a good one. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Beth H (edited 10-23-2000).]