poll:keeping up tradition?

[emilycat]

I was wondering: Have you kept up the Thanksgiving meal tradition in your family?, i.e., do you prepare the same things, eat at the same time of day, etc., or have you developed your own tradition?
In my family, we always had the very traditional roasted turkey, stuffing, baked sweet potatoes, white rice with gravy, English peas and rolls with pumpkin pie for dessert. We always coordinated with my aunt's family, because she lives about an hour away. We ate at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so we'd be really hungry. I'm definitely not the traditional type; I haven't had to prepare Thanksgiving meal by myself yet, but I do everything but the turkey and sometimes stuffing when I go home for the holiday, because I love to cook and my mom doesnt' especially. Last year I did acorn squash baked with apples, sweet potatoes because they're a staple in my family, a mushroom-whole wheat dressing, a broccoli and red-pepper and olive salad, and pumpkin custard for dessert. My mom also did white rice and gravy so my dad wouldn't freak out. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif I'm sure I'll always do something different every year, because I think most of the fun is in experimenting with new dishes! I love Thanksgiving...it's such an excuse to immerse myself in cooking for nearly a week! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (As if I don't do that 24-7 already! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif )

[This message has been edited by emilycat (edited 11-04-2000).]

[Susann]

Emily-what an awesome topic! I am really in to family traditions and rituals and all that good stuff. I truly feel like I am starting my own holiday rituals with hubby (this will be our second Thanksgiving since the wedding) through the healthful CL recipes. Last year I made a pecan pie and the apricot cranberry sauce and the maple glazed sweet potatoes. This year I will make these again (by popular demand)and probably add some more dishes.

On a kind of similar note, I try to stress the importance of family traditions to my students. Every year, my 11th graders do what I call 'family folklore projects.' We talk about folklore and traditions. Then my students come up with a set of questions and interview a grandparent (several of my students have grandparents, so they get some fascinating info!). We present our findings and bring in a visual aide (usually a family recipe). Last year, for the first time, we actually made a class cookbook with family recipes and the significance of each recipe. The end result is quite informative.

Sorry-I blabbed on with this one. I guess the cookbook story isn't too relevant, but I thought I would share it, anyway (I blame it on my venti mocha which I am completely enjoying http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ).

[Missi]

My finace and I still go back with our families for holidays, so we have yet to have our own traditions ( except the one where we eat two Thanksgiving dinners since both families want us at their house!!!!!) I have a feeling this will continue next year even though we will be married (we get married in January). I think we probably won't get to have our own traditions until we have children of our own. So I guess I have plenty of time to think about it!!

On a side note, Emily, do you still have the recipe for the mushroom-whole wheat dressing??? I like to take a dish of my own to Thanksgiving dinner(s) and it sounds great!!!

[Laura]

I mainly stick with our families traditional meal but each year try to add something new. We never had a sweet potato casserole growing up but I added the CL sweet potato casserole one year and now it has become a traditional favorite. I will often vary the menu with the appetizers or desserts I serve.

On the non food side, we always go around the table and ask each person what they are thankful for. My kids take turns stuffing the turkey, peeling potatoes, helping with decorations, whatever... just to have them more involved.
One year when I was first divorced and did not have my children for thanksgiving I was feeling quite sorry for myself and did not want to spend thanksgiving with any family or friends. I went to a shelter for the day and it was the best thing I could have done. When my children get a few years older I hope to make that a part of our "tradition" as well. It really hit home how much my family and I do have. I love thanksgiving.

[kentgirl]

In addition to my parents, I have five sisters and three brothers and we all live within driving distance from one another. Since we all married with kids, all holiday get-togethers are fun but noisy! We have the usual turkey dinner, mainly to please my Dad who does not like change. So we never try new ways to cook the turkey, or deviate from the standard dressing recipe. However, with so many people, we can get creative with other dishes-and we do! Sometimes my Dad will even try them and like them!

I love and understand the importance of tradition. When my children were little, I made it a point to establish traditions that were unique to our family. And it's so easy to start a tradition. One year, as we were decorating our Christmas tree, I made homemade egg nog. Every year from that point on, we always had my homemade egg nog when we decorated the tree. It became a tradition. I just love it when my grown boys say "Remember when we were little and we always......".

[sushibones]

I continue to fix a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but we have gradually evolved our own set of traditions. I do try to keep the menu very simple, though, rather than trying to fix a lot of different things. We live far away from our families, so it is just us, and no one else to bring extra dishes.

Our Thanksgiving dinner has evolved into: roast turkey, rice and gravy, monkey bread (a sweet dough that is formed into balls and dipped in butter and baked in a tube pan--a recipe I got years ago from a friend), some vegetable (usually green beans or broccoli), and a pumpkin chiffon pie. No one in our family likes cranberry sauce of any kind, so we skip that. The bread and the pie are pretty labor intensive, so I put most of my energy into fixing these. The turkey and rice and gravy are what I grew up eating. The bread and the pie are my own additions that my family insists I make every year (I usually try to take the Wednesday before thanksgiving off to do some off the preliminary work on these).

My husband grew up with a different set of Thanksgiving food, so to accommodate him, I make a 2nd dinner later in the weekend. His dinner is leftover turkey and gravy, southern cornbread dressing (baked in a pan like a cake), and his Aunt Robbie's recipe for sweet potatoes (no pecans, no oranges, nothing weird--lots of milk and butter and sugar and vanilla and some cinnamon, with marshmallows on the top). This way we both get to have our comfort foods, and I don't have to kill myself trying to get it all done in one day.

The other tradition we have evolved into for Thanksgiving is that my husband makes a cream cheese dip with Rotel tomatoes which he and the kids eat with snack crackers and/or vegetables to tide them over until dinner time. I take my time making dinner, cleaning up as I go, and we usually eat about 4 or 5 PM. I'm not exhausted, the kitchen is reasonably clean when we eat, and it is still early enough to sit and relax for the rest of the evening. This is one of my favorite holidays, and one that I have finally figured out how to make it enjoyable for everyone, including myself.

[emilycat]

sushibones,
I LOVE monkey bread! My mom used to make it at the beach, at home, whatever, and it's sooo delicious! Hmm...may be next on my dessert list.

[sushibones]

emilycat

I have never made the dessert version of this, although I think that is a more common version of monkey bread. I have always just made it as a pull apart bread, like dinner rolls on steroids. It always tastes so buttery and yeasty. Quite addictive and easier to make than rolls.

Actually, as I recall now, the recipe says to cut into diamonds before dipping in butter (I use tub margarine). I just roll the dough out on the counter and cut it into sort of diamond shapes with a pizza cutter and overlap the diamonds when putting them in the pan. The dough actually winds up being irregular shaped blobs after sitting on the counter for a while and being dipped in the butter.

Many years ago my husband had an older gentleman friend (this was in Dallas, and Dr Gill was a true Southern gentleman, courtly and gracious) who was a mentor for him. He and his wife threw a party for us to celebrate our engagement and served this for dinner. I had always just called it "Mrs Gill's Monkey Bread." Last year while looking through The Southern Hospitality Cookbook which I had received as a wedding present over 25 years ago, I found the identical recipe, but I had never noticed it before. Kinda weird, especially since I had never seen a recipe for monkey bread that was quite like this one--it calls for 1 cup of mashed potatoes. But this has always been a favorite, no matter whose it was.

Another Susan

[lindrusso]

I like to do pretty much the same thing from year to year. I almost never roast a chicken or turkey, make stuffing, or make pies the rest of the year, so I figure why try something different when it's our one time of year that we make these goodies?

I usually do my moms stuffing but last year I tried a new one (corn bread, pecans and wild mushrooms - yum). My mom never used to do mashed potatoes, but they are a must for my Thanksgiving - the more starch at this meal, the better!

One thing I will change from year to year is the side dish. Sometimes a zucchini dish (with cheese, wine, and cream of mushroom soup), sometimes green beans with roasted shallots and hazelnuts. This year I plan to try CL's green beans with the bacon and onions.

We don't live near family, so for Thanksgiving we usually get together with other "orphaned" families in the area. So, I guess our traditions are sort of still in the making considering we've done Thanksgiving in several different places the last few years!