Describe your typical Thanksgiving dinner.

Cafe Society
21

Just for the heck of it I did a search through my posts and found three seperate thanksgiving dinner posts I did, each lists roughly what we had.
From last year, 2005

“2 injected and deep fried turkeys
1 Honeybaked Ham
2 huge dishes of cornbread dressing with chicken and turkey meat in it
Deviled eggs
Broccoli and cheese casserole
Macaroni Salad
Whipped sweet potatoes of some kind, likely with the marshmallow stuff on top
Fried corn
Green Beans
Baked apples
Caramel cake
Chocolate Pecan Pie”

This one from 2004,

“roast turkey (for my mother who, Jesus love her, cannot eat turkey unless it has the lowest moisture content possible and manage to be JUST edible) AND a cajun fried turkey (from my step-dad who is from Louisiana), a honeybaked Ham (for my sister, who is a certified ham maniac), cornbread dressing with plenty of chicken in it (I realise we now have technically 4 meat dishes… shuddap. ;>), Sweet potato casserole, Green Bean casserole, Squash of some kind, cranberry stuff, deviled eggs, giblet gravy and a spice cake… and then what I’m bringing.
I’m bringing a loaf of italian herbed bread, some brussel sprouts and maple praline bread pudding… and a pumpkin pie.”

And finally from 2002, I don’t know what happened to '03 or 01… just didn’t post I guess.

"We have the Turkey, a ham and cornbread dressing with chicken in it, cranberry sauce of some kind, and a wide assortment of vegetables with several pies for dessert. Pretty typical southern style Thanksgiving dinner I think. "

We usually wash all this food down with generous amounts of sweet tea and, thanks to my late grandmother, Singapore Slings. (I don’t know why she started that but it’s tradition now)

22

Turkey
stuffing
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
banana pudding

23

The standards (we always do quasi-potluck; it’s too much cooking for one person):

Mom makes:

Roast turkey
Mushroom, wild rice, and onion stuffing, sometimes with additions of dried apricots and/or slivered almonds
Homemade whole-berry cranberry sauce

I make:

Sweet potato casserole with ginger, pineapple, and orange juice
Homemade rosemary/dill/onion bread
Another veggie side dish or two, usually something green (Brussels sprouts, maybe spinach, or if I’m feeling mabitious, mushrooms stuffed with a mixture of spinach, sauteed onions, garlic, sour cream, and Parmesan cheese)
At least one pie - I made Derby pie a few years back, and now I think I would be shot if I showed up without one

My sister brings:

(I should explain that she is a good cook, but rather on the conservative meat-and-potatoes side; she refuses to eat any cooked green thing, or pretty much any cooked vegetable at all. My theory is that she was switched at birth)

Some kind of appetizer, often goat chese baked in tomato sauce to spread on toasted garlic baguettes
More wine, because she is never convinced there will be enough
Pop and/or beer, now that she’s married, because her husband drinks them and Mom never thinks to have them in the house
Maybe another non-pie dessert

If we have guests, often they will bring something as well, maybe a dessert or an appetizer. Smoked salmon was a big hit, as was the marinated fresh mozzarella I made last year.

We are Midwesterners who were transplanted from the East Coast when I was a small child, and my sister was an infant. Semi-nonpracticing Ashkenazi Jews as well, and we wouldn’t think of mixing milk and meat on a Jewish holiday, but Thanksgiving is no sweat.

24

Oh, and my mutant sister always brings a can of jellied cranberry sauce and a box of Stove Top stuffing, which nobody touches but her.

25

I never realized how the same my family’s T-day dinners are from year to year. Huh.

The menu:

Turkey
Mashed potato
Mashed sweet potato
Potatoes au gratin (not nearly as good as they were when made by my cousin’s other grandma, who passed away and no one else can make them quite right, so about 20 minutes of annual dinner conversation is about how the potatoes au gratin aren’t as good)
My aunt’s manicotti
My mom’s homemade white bread
Creamed corn
(Could we possibly have more starch?)
Poor man’s pierogi (there’s no reason why we have this, it’s not part of our ethnic background, but it’s one of my grandma’s trademark dishes and one year she didn’t make it and there was nearly a mutiny)
Green beans
Salad (that we kind of pretend to eat so that we’re eating another green thing)
Relish Tray
Those carrots with the brown sugar (that I don’t like)
Chocolate chip cookies, with nuts and without nuts (which causes a fight every year, because someone is always mixing up the icky nut kind with the plain good kind)
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Vanilla Ice Cream
My other aunt’s pound cake
Wine
Beer
Bailey’s Irish Cream

26

I don’t think I’ve had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in years. Last year’s holiday feast consisted of the following:

Ham
Sweet potato casserole <- just about the only thing most would consider normal, other than the desserts
Various middle eastern dishes: hummus, marinated yogurt balls, falafel, kafta, kibbe, pink or yellow turnips, glorious artichoke pies from Middle East Bakery
Southern dishes: greens of some sort, succotash, meat impregnated deviled eggs
Egg rolls
Mostaccioli
Guacamole
Corn bread and crescent rolls
Whatever vegetables looked good at the market plus frozen corn (yep, more corn)
One time my sister brought chitterlings, then she took them home again (We have nothing against organ meats or mystery meat - I grew up eating potted meat food product and sweetbreads. Perhaps it was the way she prepared them.)
Desserts: truffles, cookies, apple pie, pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie

What is this thing you speak of called turkey?

27

Turkey breast (I don’t think anyone in my family has done a whole turkey since I was a teenager and we still had big, family-reunion-type Thanksgivings)
Mashed potatoes & gravy
Stuffing with apple rather than celery
Candied sweet potatoes
Black olives
Cranberry sauce
Crescent rolls

If there’s anything green, it’s green beans–just plain green beans, no caserole and no crunchy things on top.

Dessert may be an apple pie or cheesecake. We try pumpkin pie every once in awhile, but nobody really likes it.

28

Ahhh - My Favorite Holiday (and yes, I do the majority of the cooking)
Turkey stuffed with Cornbread Sausage Stuffing (cooked on Weber Grill)
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes w/roasted garlic
Sweet Potato w/Pecan & Honey topping
Broccoli w/Cheese Sauce
Whole Cranberry Sauce (pox on that canned stuff)
Tomatoes stuffed with Corn
Fresh Baked Refrigerator Rolls
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Beverage Options:
Iced Tea
Wine (usually a Tempranillo or Shiraz or both)
Beer (usually consumed while monitoring grill)

29

We’re lucky enough to have two Thanksgivings at my house. I’m Canadian, so we have both, yay! This year, we’ll be at another Canadian household for that one, but what I normally have/had while growing up:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing (basic bread, celery, onion with sage, poultry seasoning, salt & pepper; cooked in the bird)
Gravy
salad
broccoli and cauliflower
roasted sweet potato
homemade buns
ham (depending on the number of guests)

pumpkin pie
apple pie
ice cream

Drinks would be whatever anyone wanted. Never pop/soda, though. Bleah.

At my mother-in-law’s house

Turkey
green bean casserole
cranberry-granola casserole thingie my sil makes
asparagus
mashed potatoes (usually from a box) and gravy: these are at my insistence as both my husband and sons love them - she’d never thought to have them before

Dessert is whatever I bring, which is usually pie. Drinks are water and pop. Coffee with dessert.

I really miss having Thanksgiving at my house. My mother-in-law has many wonderful qualities, but being a cook isn’t one of them. She’s okay, but ehh.

30

Turkey
Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing
Gravy
Pernil
Baked sweet potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole
Homemade cranberry sauce (usually 2, including a Jezebel sauce that’s become a new tradition thanks to a friend.)
Arroz con gandules (yellow rice with pigeon peas)
Beans (Kidney beans, Puerto Rican style)
A cornbread for eating, usually with chipotles mixed in.
Creamed Spinach
Cranberry Salsa
Glazed baby carrots
3 or 4 homemade pies, pumpkin always, and either an apple or pecan depending on my mood.
Fresh apple cider and 5 or 6 bottles of wine opened, usually Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Beaujolias, and some kind of dessert wine.
And other misc. things like cheese/veggie/olive tray, dinner rolls, coffee,etc.

I think I have everything my mother has on her table, with the exception of a roast suckling pig and pasteles, which I have never made, and proably never will. Too much damn work.

This year will be something new, we’re going out to eat, I just haven’t decided where yet.

31

It depends on who’s hosting. If it’s mom, then we’ll have the traditional family Thanksgiving:
Turkey
2 kinds of gravy (mushroom for the vegetarians and turkey for the omnivores)
Mashed potatoes, sometimes garlic mashed potatoes
Sometimes stuffing, but no one’s really a big stuffing fan
Sometimes sweet potatoes, but my mom’s the only one who eats them
2 vegetarian casseroles (usually broccoli/tomato/feta with couscous and mushroom/barley)
2 or 3 vegetable sides (usually zucchini, sometimes green beans, peas, broccoli)
Small bites (green and black olives, sweet and dill pickles, carrots, mushrooms, snow peas, jicama, cherry tomatoes, etc.)
Yorkshire puddings and sourdough rolls (and sometimes store bought rolls, since dad doesn’t like sourdough)
Salad

For dessert, pecan and pumpkin pies with whipped cream or ice cream (or, for my dad, whipped cream and ice cream)

To drink, iced tea, water (flat and sparkling), milk, wine (red and white), and beer. On a good Thanksgiving, we can make it through half a dozen to a dozen bottles of wine. With dessert, coffee (grandpa only) and tea (everyone else).

If my sister and brother-in-law are cooking, it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll make. They’re less tied to the traditional than we are. And although they’re both fantastic cooks, the little kid in me likes the traditionalism of being home for Thanksgiving.

Plus in our family, big holiday meals last between three and five hours because there’s so much talking. My parents have a bigger dining room table, so we can all fit there comfortably for longer.

32

Turkey - (these days, it’s fried, usually)
Gravy
Ham (because I don’t like turkey. I don’t need the ham (there’s more than enough food for several thousand people and I can make it through one meal without meat), but my father insists that there must be ham so that I won’t accidentally starve to death on Thanksgiving night. So there’s ham, “for me.” One of the many annual thanksgiving fights.)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes (usually. Au gratin is a reasonable substitue. I did pomme anna once).
Sweet Potatoes
Something green (broccoli or green beans or greens.)
Cranberry Sauce
Homemade rolls
Salad

Drinks are served in wine glasses but can be whatever

Several pies of various kinds

At certain relatives’ houses, there is macaroni and cheese - but it’s part of the orgy of starch listed above. Doesn’t tend to happen at “home.”
Occasionally ice cream

33

My last few years, Thanksgiving has been a bit ecclectic, but for tradition, I’ll describe typical Thanksgiving dinner at Gramma’s (where we always went for my first 22 years, and where I still would, were I close enough):

Salads/Appetizers:
Endive salad with bacon dressing (also some with butter dressing, for the vegetarians)
Cucumber/Tomato salad with sour cream dressing
Olives, black and green
Veggies and dip

Main course:
Turkey, of course. The standard roasted whole bird
Bread stuffing (meat and vegetarian versions)
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy on all of the above (also meat and vegetarian versions)
Cranberry sauce
Kielbasa with saurkraut
Venison
Pierogis
Green Bean Casserole
Broccoli, Cauliflour, Cheese casserole
Some sort of corn (cob or creamed)
I think squash, but I never paid much attention to that, since I don’t like it
Stuffed mushrooms
Dinner rolls

Desserts:
Apple pie (x2)
Cherry pie
Pumpkin pie (x2)
Rhubarb pie
Pecan pie (x2)
Lemon merrangue pie
Chocolate cream pie

Everything except (usually) the cranberry sauce and the pie crusts is homemade. Gramma can, of course, make excellent pie crusts, but she just doesn’t think it’s worth the time, any more. And needless to say, there are usually a lot of folks at Gramma’s for Thanksgiving.

34

My parents:

turkey (always oven-roasted)
mashed potatoes
turkey gravy
green bean casserole (with french friend onions, naturally)
corn (usually canned)
cranberry sauce (canned)
black olives
sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows)
pumpkin pie with whipped cream

My mom tried to get fancier a couple of years (homemade cranberry sauce, etc) but no one ate it, so we settled on simple. I still think of exactly these dishes when I think of Thanksgiving. We usually ate light at dinner so we could have huge turkey sandwiches a few hours later.

Husband’s parents:

turkey (oven-roasted)
at least three types of baked casseroles covered with cheese (spinach, potatoes, etc.)
two salads (seven layer, waldorf, etc)
mashed potatoes (or cauliflower or turnips, as everyone in the family is/was low carb)
sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows)
bread or rolls
gravy
cranberry sauce (homemade, chunky)
pumpkin pie, apple pie and various fruit and veggie breads (zucchini bread, banana bread)

This is after a morning of sausage and egg casserole, fruit breads, coffee, sometimes even wassail if the weather was cool enough, with beer, wine, water tea and sodas to drink.

All this for four to six people. It was kind of a culture shock the first year I went to his house for Thanksgiving.

35

we make:
2 turkeys usually one fried, one smoked sometimes one bbq’d
mashed potatoes
giblet turkey gravy
biscuts
stuffing
mashed yellow turnips
canned cranbery sauce
hummus
spinach cheese balls
a pumpkin dessert (pie or cheesecake)

people bring:
random things, including
salad
brownies
veggies and dip
this wonderful cheese potato dish
green bean casserole
kabobs
other Pakastani dishes that are delisious but I don’t know the names of

and, though we live on the east coast USA, we hold Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday evening before Canadian Thanksgiving, invite everybody (friends, neighbors, family co-workers) - and, because many of my husband’s co-workers are observant Muslims, on years canadian Thanksgiving falls within Ramadan, we eat after sundown.

36

If I’m cooking (and I haven’t for the past few years) this is the menu:

Roast Turkey
Bread stuffing (bread, celery, onions, broth, salt and pepper)
Mashed potatoes
Gravy (made from the drippings)
Corn
a tiny bit of cranberry dressing, either the cranberry/orange kind or the NPR horseradish one…make it one year, freeze small containers and it lasts a decade
Crescent rolls from the tube
Sweet potatoes…glazed, no marshmallows involved
something green, generally broccoli, but never the green bean casserole…don’t know why
Pumpkin pie for dessert (there are no choices…you either eat it or do without dessert)

37

It depends on where we go.

My Aunt’s:

Turkey
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Carrots or other veggie
Brocolli salad
Apple Raisin bread stuffing (mmm so good)
Cranberry sauce
And sometimes squash

Along with a bit of wine and some sort of pie for dessert. Generally either pumpkin, or mincemeat.

My Grandma’s:

The basic menu is Turkey, gravy, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cranberry sauce, lazy cabbage rolls/cabbage rolls, bread stuffing, a variety of pickles (onions, carrots, beets and Polish or dill pickles) and sometimes creamed onions. Wine or water to drink.

If there is a lot of people coming, we also add in ham and/or meatballs and gravy.

For dessert there is usually a variety of squares and cookies, one or two types of pie (apple or pumpkin usually), cheesecake and lots of coffee.

And if this is around Christmas, and we go to the farm, we have all of that plus fruits and veggies with dips and rolls and sandwich meats for a snack a couple hours after dinner is ended. Always accompanied by lots of drinking and talking the whole night through.

My step-mom’s is just straight turkey, gravy, potatoes, frozen mix veggies and stove top stuffing. Ugh.

38

until last year we had the traditional turkey dinner with the usual trimmings. last year, my older daughter was in oklahoma with her boyfriend’s family. this left the wife and i and our younger daughter. a turkey for three seemed to be a bit much, so we cooked some new york strips on the grill. i served them with baked potatos and a tossed dalad.

we may do this again this year

39

Well, generally speaking, after listening to my mom paradoxically brag about using a Reynolds bag to speed up the cooking process to just 2-3 hours, and moaning about spending all morning cooking, she generally henpecks my dad until he tears himself away from the TV. Vynce and I spend a lot of time rolling our eyes while we fill the wine glasses with sparkling grape juice-

Oh wait, you meant the food. Huh.

Turkey with or without Gravy
Mash Potatoes (which is my least favorite way to serve potatoes)
Dressing (which Vynce and I won’t eat)
Corn
Carrots
Green Beans & Squash (just for my folks too)
Rolls or Biscuits
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie and/or Apple Pie and/or Squash Cake

40

It all depends on the location but we are usually in one of two places for Thanksgiving; New Jersey or Charleston, SC.

For the most part the menu is as follows:

Turkey w/ Gravy
Cornbread Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Baked Maccaroni
Mashed Turnips
Greens
String Bean Casserole
Candied Yams
Mashed Sweet Potatoes in Orange cups*
Sweet Potato Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Rum Cake
Wild Rice
Cornbread
Dinner Rolls

Charleston Menu additions:

Shrimp Casserole
Baked Ham
Baked Fish (fresh and local not imported)
Okra

*This is a time consuming but cute dish. After you remove the flesh of an orange half you fill it with mashed sweet potatoes and top it with some marshmallows and a cherry. Melt it all down for a bit and serve.