Thanksgiving Traditional Foods

[Karen]

Posting over in the Thursday's thread made me wonder - what do you regard as traditional Thanksgiving foods? And what will you have this year, if you know!

Traditionally, my family growing up had (at least) turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing of two sorts, butternut or Hubbard squash (or both), turnips, rolls, and tomato aspic. Depending on who else came, there was sometimes also green peas with pearl onions, and a jello salad with cottage cheese and pineapple in it.

For dessert there was always at least four kinds of pie: apple, pumpkin, mincemeat, and pecan, sometimes others as well, served with a good sharp cheddar cheese.

When I got married and began to have Thanksgiving with Paul's family, they usually had the green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. My Italian-American friend told me it was not Thanksgiving without her grandmother's ravioli.

So what traditional or non-traditional foods do you have?

[Taz_Zoee]

Oh my, with my family we have soo much food I couldn't even begin to list it all here. But what I eat is ham, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, rolls (my aunt makes the best home-made rolls, I hope she makes them this year), sometimes I'll have stuffing. Other foods offered are turkey (of course) one oven baked and the other deep fried, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, yams.....I can't even think of anything else.
Usually our dessert table has more to offer than the main meal. Cookies, cakes, pies, brownies, just about any dessert you could possibly think of. I always have to have a piece of my aunts chocolate cake and my moms coconut pie. :)

OOooh, I can't wait until Thursday!!! :D :D

[Karen]

Oh, you are right, I forgot to list cranberry sauce. We always had two kinds - the jelly and the whole berry, and some years we had a great cranberry relish made with cranberries, orange, and just a bit of sugar.

[Freedom]

Growing up with Dad's family -- Sicilian -- we had lots of courses: a salad with lots of Italian bread, made by my grandparents, a pasta (usually Ziti at the holidays as we had Spaghetti or Linguini every Sunday) and meatballs and meat, turkey with meat stuffing, candied sweet potatoes (my Mum made those!), jellied cranberry sauce, next a melon usually honeydew, then roasted chestnuts, and ending with loads of desserts: pies, wandies my Aunt Mary made (we used the Sicilian name, though), and all sorts. During the main meal we'd have wine, and water, then coffee with dessert. Whew, I'm feeling full just remembering it all!

I've never understood marshmallows with sweet potatoes, not something we ever had.

Now that it is just Dad and I, the meal is greatly toned down. Turkey, "stuffing" but not made in the bird (takes too long!), sweet potatoes with Mum's recipe, jellied cranberry sauce, green beans, roasted chestnuts. Dessert usually ends up being our supper, lol, neither of us can eat the way we did at my grandparents home!

[Roxyluvsme13]

We usually have turkey, dressing (my mom's homemade that is to DIE for. She fries it, and seriously, I could eat it every day for the rest of my life LOL), fruit salad, sometimes ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese, rolls, butterscotch pie...

That's all I remember right now, but those are the typical usuals I think.

[cassiesmom]

I'm with Freedom - marshmallows don't go with sweet potatoes for me. My family likes dressing baked in a casserole separately from the turkey.

My Eastern European-American family (Czech on my mom's side, Polish and Ukrainian on my dad's) eats bread dumplings and sauerkraut with our turkey instead of mashed potatoes. Here's a picture of bread dumplings. You boil the dough in a loaf, then slice the dumplings about 3/4" thick, then top them with brown gravy. They're different from potato dumplings.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAO3aC-aVIQa2PrL2EOMCMVDLpDUl89iLvqZxSJpAlWUcJH6Qcv-ymcg

[Grace]

I loved Thanksgiving growing up in Rhode Island. Probably because I was too young to be responsible for the cooking :)

We always started off going to Church. Then it was off to a high school football game - they are still playing those games on Thanksgiving :)

Next to my aunt's house for dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes, turnip, cranberry sauces, gravy, stuffing, corn, rolls - and several kinds of pie for dessert. Think of the carb grams we consumed :eek:

Nowadays we do turkey, potatoes, peas, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and I have a turnip casserole recipe that is really good. Just pumpkin pie for dessert.

[krazyaboutkatz]

My mom has always slow cooked the turkey overnight and she makes the stuffing and puts it inside of the turkey. She's always done this before Thanksgiving so we just heat it up the day of Thanksgiving and there's a lot less work that way.

We have Turkey,home made gravy, bread stuffing, yams, green beans, cranberry relish, rolls (sometimes with yummy brown sugar inside of them). Since we have stuffing we usually don't also have mashed potatoes but we did when we'd go to my grandparents house. We usually have pumpkin, apple or cranberry apple pie for dessert. Sometimes my mom also makes vinegar pie with any left over pie crust. It sounds nasty but it has cinnamon and sugar on it to cut the vinegar. My mom also made some cranberry loaf this year and I can't wait because it's one of my favorites.:) I think that's about it.

On New Year's Day we usually have pork and sauerkraut with home made mashed potatoes. I'm of German descent on both sides.

[luvofallhorses]

We have

Turkey
Stuffing, we usually cook stuffing inside of the turkey and then make another one not with the turkey
Cranberry sauce, whole berry and jellied. My mom is also making a cranberry relish like you described Karen.
Dinner rolls have to have those!
A veggie tray consisting of celery with pimento spread, carrots, cucumbers, black olives, etc.
Sweet potato casserole
Mashed Potatos
Green Bean Casserole (I am not sure if this is happening we'll see!)

I am sure I'm forgetting a few things!

For dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie
Peach Jell-o salad which will probably be served with dinner.
Homemade Fudge

We also have a tray of some lunchmeat, cheese, crackers, chips and dip while the turkey is still cooking in the afternoon. :)

[pomtzu]

Wow Grace - did you ever bring back the memories. :D

Yup - growing up in RI - Thanksgiving was quite an adventure. It started out with the Warwick/Cranston H.S. football game (yup - Grace and I went to the same game and h.s.), then it was an afternoon of eating yourself silly. Sometimes Dad cooked, other times we went to my aunt's place. Being Italian, the dinner at Aunt Milly's was huge. Started with soup and antipasto salad, Italian bread, then the meatballs and spaghetti, then on to the turkey and all that traditionally goes with it. I always skipped most of the Italian because I wanted to have room for all that turkey! :p If you were still able to move after all of that, then on to the pies and spumoni and coffee. Of course the adults had wine with dinner, and even the kids were allowed if they wanted it. When we stayed home, Dad didn't cook all of that - none of the Italian food first - just the traditional turkey dinner.

Now that those days are long gone, I do the cooking. Usually have a cheese and cracker tray to have something to munch on while everything is cooking. Turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes (no marshmallows!), corn, peas, cranberry sauce, sparkling cider, pies - pumpkin and apple and sometimes mincemeat (I'm the only one that likes MM), pumpkin bread.

My 20 lb bird is defrosting in the fridge - can't wait to get it in the oven and have that wonderful smell of the roasting bird, fill the house. :)

[Grace]

Wow Grace - did you ever bring back the memories. :D

Yup - growing up in RI - Thanksgiving was quite an adventure. It started out with the Warwick/Cranston H.S. football game (yup - Grace and I went to the same game and h.s.) :)

What I didn't mention - my cousins went to Cranston H.S., so Thanksgiving dinner at their house was always a post-game celebration for some of us :D

[momcat]

Growing up, Thanksgiving was always our big family holiday at my uncle's farm upstate New York. Dinner was what my uncle grew on the farm over the summer, the only thing they bought was the turkey and that was from the local poultry farmer. Dinner was the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, various veggies, creamed onions, gravy to die for and our choice of pie - warm with ice cream. (My aunt made the ice cream). Three generations sat down for dinner, the table went from the dining room, through the hall and into the family room.

Before dinner my cousins and I always had a soccer game in the front yard. One year we totally shocked our parents by coming to dinner dressed up, my cousins in suits and me in my Sunday best. We didn't do that very often.

Those were the days.....

[pomtzu]

What I didn't mention - my cousins went to Cranston H.S., so Thanksgiving dinner at their house was always a post-game celebration for some of us :D

How sweet it was - but only if it was a Warwick win. :) Hope you all had a friendly rivalry, otherwise it wouldn't have been a pleasant occasion....:eek:

[Alysser]

That's so cool you guys went to the same high school :cool: You coulda been sitting next to each other one year. :p

We have Turkey, bread stuffing, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, apple pie, my mom's peanut butter balls (:D), cranberry sauce, yams (ick my dad eats those), and I think that's it. :D

I can't wait till thursday! I love my dysfunctional family holidays!:love:

[happylabs]

Good topic Karen! I was just thinking of starting one.

In addition to the bird, we have traditional foods: mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, veggies, usually corn for my brother and another veggie, maybe green beans or peas. Pumpkin pie is a must for my family and maybe a chocolate pie for those who do not care for pumpkin.

I have my menu and grocery list prepared for shopping later today but I feel like I have forgotten something.

Buddy is the only one of my 3 cats that will come out while we are eating and demand a bite or two of turkey. He is such a funny boy. He also likes a bite of dinner roll with butter on it. :D

[Pinot's Mom]

I, too, grew up in RI, but on the other side of town. ;)

Thanksgiving growing up depended upon whether we were home or not. If we went to Barbara Kerney's across the way, it was a SPREAD! Turkey, ham, lasagna, all kinds of food - HUGE. If we were home; Turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and usually a family thing called "Christmas green salad". This was a jello/whipped cream/pineapple/pimiento creation that usually melted next to all the hot stuff, but that was OK, no one wanted it anyway.

Now (T-Day is at our house this year) it's Turkey cooked with bacon on top (so my whole family can fight over that when it comes out of the oven), stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, broccoli casserole, MUST HAVE crescent rolls, salad and for dessert there will be pumpkin, mincemeat and pecan pie.:D

[happylabs]

I, too, grew up in RI, but on the other side of town. ;)

Thanksgiving growing up depended upon whether we were home or not. If we went to Barbara Kerney's across the way, it was a SPREAD! Turkey, ham, lasagna, all kinds of food - HUGE. If we were home; Turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and usually a family thing called "Christmas green salad". This was a jello/whipped cream/pineapple/pimiento creation that usually melted next to all the hot stuff, but that was OK, no one wanted it anyway.

Now (T-Day is at our house this year) it's Turkey cooked with bacon on top (so my whole family can fight over that when it comes out of the oven), stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, broccoli casserole, MUST HAVE crescent rolls, salad and for dessert there will be pumpkin, mincemeat and pecan pie.:D

I feel sad for the lonely and melting jello salad. :D

[pomtzu]

I feel sad for the lonely and melting jello salad. :D

Hey - that salad is GOOD! I make one like it - lime jello, whipping cream, miniature marshmallows, crushed pineapple, and maraschino cherries. It's served as a dessert tho, and not with the hot meal. It's a pretty dish at Christmas with the green of the jello and the red of the cherries! And it tastes great too - very rich with all that whipping cream! :D


ETA: If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It REALLY is very yummy!

[Randi]

I've got a recipe for Pecan Pie - can anyone tell me if it sounds good, or do you have one "to die for"? I've never made one before.

Pecan Pie Recipes

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons almond-flavored liqueur, such as Amaretto
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans
1 pie crust (9 inch size), unbaked or frozen

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, slightly beat eggs with a fork. Add sugar, corn syrup, butter, almond liqueur and vanilla; stir until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean and center of pie appears barely set.

Cool on wire rack.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Or is it over?

[Karen]

It's not over yet - it is always on a Thursday, so will be this Thursday!

Yes, when we had the jello salad it was not near the hot food! It didn't have marshmallows in it, or pimentos, but that does sound pretty, Pomtzu!

(I won't be making it, as I am allergic to citrus, and the pimentos, too, but I can visualize it!)

[catland]

My mom always put the jello on its own plate so it wouldn't get warm with the rest of the food. She would put it on a leaf of lettuce and the jello would have grated carrots and celery (her idea of a vegetable?).

Also, to honor our Norwegian heritage we'd always have lefse! (looks like a flour tortilla but made out of potatos).

[Karen]

In our house, the tomato aspic went on a lettuce leaf, so pretty red against the green!

Cool, do you have a lefse recipe? Just curious! Swedish, not Norwegian in my family, but it sounds intriguing anyway. We'd sometimes make "Swedish hamburgers" - a regular burger with grated potato and chopped onions mixed in, but never had lefse.

[luvofallhorses]

What is tomato aspic? Like a spread? :o

[Karen]

What is tomato aspic? Like a spread? :o

No, it's a savory "jello," not sweet, spiced tomato juice and gelatin, and it was opaque, not too shiny, and really yummy!

[luvofallhorses]

It sounds interesting. I love tomatos!

[moosmom]

A tradition that my maternal Grandfather started was celery, stuffed with blue/cream cheeses and paprika on top. It's one of my childhood favorites.

My "Bumpy" taught me how to make gravy from scratch with pan drippings.

THOSE are wonderful childhood memories!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

[redbird]

We usually have a Turkey, stuffing of course, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes which I'm not crazy about but my sister loves them and she usually does the cooking. Corn and peas for veggies, sometimes a salad but I don't eat it, I rather eat all the other stuff ;) Of course there are pies and cake. I love Thanksgiving. There is a whole display of nuts of all kinds after we eat. I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out but I love it all.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p129/caroltree/THANKSGIVING/Plgindn1.gif

[Catty1]

http://content.comicskingdom.net/Bizarro/Bizarro.20111123_small.gif

[Lady's Human]

No, it's a savory "jello," not sweet, spiced tomato juice and gelatin, and it was opaque, not too shiny, and really yummy!

On that point I beg to differ.......

[RICHARD]

I am going to miss the french bread rolls that the Mexican bakeries make.

When you get them warm they are crusty on the outer and the insides are so soft it literally melts in your mouth.

[pomtzu]

On that point I beg to differ.......

I've never had it, but I think I would have to agree with you on that one.

I like tomato juice plain, or in the form of a Bloody Mary, but that's it!!!

[pomtzu]

I am going to miss the french bread rolls that the Mexican bakeries make.

When you get them warm they are crusty on the outer and the insides are so soft it literally melts in your mouth.

Well now - they really are pretty easy to make. hint-hint-hint.....:p

[Karen]

On that point I beg to differ.......

More for me, then! I think Ma and I always liked it best anyway. I cannot have it anymore as Worcestershire sauce has stuff in it that I am allergic to, as does Tabasco sauce, but I can reminisce, anyway!

[sparks19]

Pretty traditional here.

Turkey

mashed potatoes

gravy

corn

stuffing

green bean casserole

and then more desserts than we should be eating after a meal like that lol

Today I had the BEST pumpkin pie I think I've EVER had. Hannah's preschool had their thanksgiving lunch today and it was all really good but that pie was the best.

I will never forget the year when we were at Brians family thanksgiving and one of the younger cousins made her uncle a pumpkin pie. her first pumpkin pie she'd ever made. She was SO proud of herself. her uncle took a piece of the pie and took a big bite ... only to realize that she really just used pureed pumpkin lol no sugar or anything but he was such a trooper and ate the whole slice

[Asiel]

To all of you celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow---

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!!!

[jennielynn1970]

My family is PA Dutch... so we have traditional PA Dutch style foods.

Roasted Turkey
Potato stuffing
Dried corn (rehydrated in milk and cooked)
Spinach or lettuce with hot bacon dressing
Fresh cranberry relish/sauce
**Guy Fieri's Green bean casserole (not PA Dutch, lol)
Gravy to die for

Desserts are usually
Mince meat
Pecan pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin
or some lighter dessert like lemon sponge

[jennielynn1970]

More for me, then! I think Ma and I always liked it best anyway. I cannot have it anymore as Worcestershire sauce has stuff in it that I am allergic to, as does Tabasco sauce, but I can reminisce, anyway!

Ever have tomato jelly, Karen??? It's really yummy!!! Wos Wit Makes it.

Or Red pepper jelly with cream cheese and water crackers??

[Karen]

Ever have tomato jelly, Karen??? It's really yummy!!! Wos Wit Makes it.

Or Red pepper jelly with cream cheese and water crackers??

Hmmm, I have not. Maybe there's no lemon or citric acid in it, and I can try it? I'll have to look for it. As for the red pepper jelly, I am allergic to peppers of any color, so that's out.

[mrspunkysmom]

Well we had the standard stuff growing up, but we also had rutabagas or waxed turnips every Thanksgiving or Christmas. It feel to me to cleave, peel, and chop again the rutabaga for the meal. I like rutabaga better than mashed potatoes.

My mother's stuffing was an acquired taste. It is excellent for adults but not children. It was not at all sweet.

I'm starting my own tradition this year: home-made apple sauce. I still have to sweeten it. I really do prefer no sugars, but it does need a little bit.

[dab_20]

We have turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy (from the turkey drippings), green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes/yams, pumpkin pie. Sometimes other desserts like jello with fruit in it or just fruit salad with mini marshmallows.

YUM!

My mom and I work on thanksgiving so we're having ours on Saturday!

[caseysmom]

I got the two ten lb turkeys marinating, I made the sweet potatoe casserole just have to top with marshmallows and warm up tomorrow, peeled the potatoes and have in water in the fridge, made candied popcorn, made two different gravies, one vegetarian for my daughter and her best friend, one with all the gross stuff that I love (hearts, gizzards etc) I bought a really nice gravy from costco too without organ meats for those that won't want that.

I am on call this weekend so wanted to get as much done in case I do have to work from home. I got the table set, even ironed the napkins....

[sparks19]

I do have a turkey downstairs in the freezer but it's not being cooked today. I'm going to cook that on Monday. today we are going over to hubby's cousins house for the big family gathering.

She makes this ice cream dessert that is to DIE for. it's vanilla ice cream and vanilla pudding and whipped cream and then the crust is a crushed ritz cracker crust.... OMG delicious. She made it for my first ever family function and I've been hooked ever since lol whenever I walk in she says "I made your favorite dessert" and then I take it to the closet and eat the whole thing. LOL ok not really but I want to. It's SO good.

this morning we are having a bacon and egg breakfast and watching the macys thanksgiving parade and just enjoying being together before we meet up with everyone else for the feast.