Midwestern Thanksgiving Menu?

Cafe Society
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My parents’ Thanksgiving:

Turkey or Ham, oven roasted.

Many many pounds of mashed potatoes

a BIG bowl of black olives, the bigger the better

cranberry sauce (from a can, because my mother is the only one who likes it and isn’t going to make sauce just for herself… plus, the non-can stuff doesn’t taste as good to her)

baked yams, with marshmallows, of course

two boxes of stove top (made with turkey drippings)

turkey gravy

Pillsbury Crescent rolls

green bean casserole (with Durkee french fried onions, of course)

carrots and potatoes (cooked with the turkey until mushy and lovely)

corn (canned) to be mixed with mashed potatoes in lieu of gravy (for me)

pumpkin pie (or pumpkin cheesecake if we’re lucky) with cool whip (because it’s a hell of a lot easier than whipped cream when you’ve cooked all this othe r crap)

My SOs parents’ Thanksgiving:

Turkey AND Ham (and sometimes roast beef)

atkins friendly ‘mashed cauliflower’ (actually pretty good)

creamed spinach with Ricotta (so good!),

maple bourbon sweet potatoes for ones who eat carbs

glazed carrots

stuffed mushrooms (garlicy)

homemade horseradish

homemade cranberry sauce

cheesecake with real whipped cream and mixed berries

I prefer mine, because that’s how I grew up. We often skipped the hot turkey all together and had sandwiches (with mayo, thick sliced tomatoes and lettuce) for dinner, because, really, that’s the best part anyway. His is fantastic, but just not what I’m used to.

You’re right, AuntiePam Thanksgiving isn’t about new recipes and haute cuisine. It’s about family and having the same food you grew up eating every year as a kid.

I’ve never met anyone in the midwest that eats anything but the three big meats (turkey, pig (pork, ham) beef) for Thanksgiving, unless you’re feeling ambitious and make Cornish game hen.

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Oh… both of us grew up in Kansas City (me on the Missouri side, him on the Kansas side).

23

Did we forget the succotash?

Mr. Legend and I managed to get our families to combine after our first horrific double-meal Thanksgiving Day. His family is from south-central Iowa; mine is from western Pennsylvania (and my mom is the one who insists on succotash, so it’s not really midwestern).

Our family’s menu:

Turkey (duh)
Stuffing - some from inside the turkey, all wet and smooshy (Iowa) and some made on the side, moist on the inside and almost crunchy on the outside (PA)
Beets
Green beans (without the bacon, in deference to the vegetarian hostess)
Sweet potatoes with apples (we skip the marshmallows nowadays)
Homemade cranberry sauce (Iowa) and some from the can (PA)
Turkey gravy
Green salad with a caramelized almond dressing
Homemade rolls
Some kind of legume/bean dish, so our hostess can get protein (not traditional)
Pumpkin and/or banana nut bread
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream (from an aerosol can nowadays; we used to whip it ourselves)
Apple pie
Cherry pie (made with cherries from our tree)

and, of course, succotash - which, in my mother’s version, is simply a can of lima beans and a can of corn mixed together.

We serve iced tea and lemonade, and there is almost always a guest who brings a couple of bottles of wine.

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The menu from the OP is pretty much what we’d have in Saskatchewan, except for the noodles. The green beans might optionally be replaced by some other veg, maybe peas-and-carrots.

And nobody uses marshmallows.

25

I’ve lived in Michigan most of my life and we have the same meal.

But I would love the duck so much more.

Never could grasp the appeal of turkey.

26

We always had two dinners: one with Dad’s family on Thursday, and one with Mom’s family on Saturday, when all the out of state siblings could make it in.

The menus are pretty much the same both places:

turkey
ham
mashed potatoes
mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top
corn
green beans
cornbread dressing (grandma uses biscuits in hers, too)
cranberry salad, not sauce, salad
pumpkin pie with cool-whip
pecan pie

My aunt makes dressed bananas (quartered, then dipped in some kind of sauce and rolled in crushed peanuts) for Thursday, and another aunt makes ambrosia for Saturday, but otherwise everything’s pretty much the same.

Yeah, it’s starchy and fattening and low cuisine. It’s supposed to be; it’s comfort food. That’s what Thanksgiving is all about, after all–surrounding yourself with the people and the places and the foods that are warm and safe and familiar, wrapping the familiarity around you like a blanket of peace and happiness. The fact that the people I love are all there is enough for me without them feeding me fancy, exciting foods.

27

We eat mostly the traditional foods, but we’ve added a broccoli, rice, and cheese dish to our standard holiday fare. We will generally make this dish on Thanksgiving and for Christmas, as well. It’s VERY good, and everybody eats some.

Since we have a lot of diabetic and/or overweight people in our family, we do try to have more veggies than a traditional feast would set out. For instance, we generally have a veggie tray AND a couple of different kinds of salad. The veggie tray usually has some olives and pickles on it, but it’s mostly stuff like baby carrots, celery sticks, bell pepper slices, cauliflower florets, cherry tomatoes, and green onions. Everyone arrives before the turkey and other hot dishes are done, and fills up a plate of veggies and salad. This takes the edge off of the appetite, and gives us some good healthy vitamins and fiber.

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Very true. You can use the same-old “bland boring” recipes, but zap them up a little and make them more interesting.

I started using Alton Brown’s turkey brining method two years ago and it’s just incredible. I also use the Reynold’s cooking bags and only need to roast a 20-pound turkey for about 2½-3 hours. It turns out moist and delicious. I throw a few tablespoons of butter and a handful of fresh rosemary inside the cavity before cooking and it’s really good. Then I use the drippings for gravy. The rosemary makes the gravy incredible.
My MIL always did the method of cooking it at 250° for 6-7 hours, and basting every half-hour. The damn thing was always dry as a bone. SHe would always say that’s how turkey is, it’s dry and that’s why you need gravy. :rolleyes:

I make a cranberry dish with fresh cranberries from the (produce section, not canned), that includes orange marmelade and walnuts. Not more canned cranberries sliced into circles. Yuck!

I make the green bean casserole, but cut down on the soup and milk mixture so it’s not so soupy and gloppy and it’s just as good. I also add a big sprinkle of black pepper and extra french-fried onions.

I make a corn souffle, too. You get your corn (gotta have corn on Thanksgiving!), but in a slightly different form. It’s really good. It has corn, an egg, a bit of sugar, flour, salt, and some milk, all thrown in the blender, blended on high, then you pour it in a baking dish and as it bakes it puffs up like a souffle. It turns out light and fluffy.

29

Mac and cheese? On Thanksgiving? Now I know why I question if Indiana is really part of the Midwest or not.

BTW, “Duck Duck Grey Duck” is NOT played exclusively in Minnesota or even in all of Minnesota. On the other hand, some parts of the Midwest DO say “casserole” and manage to avoid the potato chips on top.

But a “traditional” Midwest Thanksgiving has turkey–that’s why so many of us call it “Turkey Day.”

Friggin’ "gourmet: Eastern editors…

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Spoken like a true bigot. You must be very proud of your ethnocentrism, ignorance, and narrow-mindedness. I’m sure you regularly pat yourself on the back about how much smarter you are than all us innate racial inferiors who infest the Midwest.

31

In the Midwest, we make allowances for picky toddlers when it’s a holiday, even if it means macaroni and cheese. There may be evil parts of the country where it is considered ideal to cut small children absolutely no slack at all during the holidays, but not the Midwest.

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Thanksgiving in the Midwest isn’t Thanksgiving without a big old ham and a couple of jars of Claussen pickles.

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TeaElle, shut the hell up.

And as long as you’re sitting there being quiet, pass the Cool Whip. :slight_smile:

  • tsarina, lifelong Michigan resident, whose family eats turkey, stuffing, potatoes, biscuits, and beans every year, and it tastes WONDERFUL.
34

Ooh, tempers, tempers people, really.

Accuse me of being a bigot all you want. I am not prejudiced against people. I am prejudiced against bad food, unapologetically and eternally.

Life is too short for bad meals. Eat well.

35

No, you’re not a bigot. You’re just a food snob, one who feels free to insult the tastes of huge swathes of people. Classy, that.

36

And canned cheeze, are we the only midwest family that does canned cheeze and crackers as one of our apps? We can’t be, I see the little cans in your shopping carts people!! There’s a reason the fake cheeze goes on sale the week before Thanksgiving.

Jane, lifelong Chicagoan, capable of being a food snob, but not when the house smells like turkey and mashed potatoes and green bean cassarole and the family is coming for my favorite meal of the year…

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I was born and raised in the upper Midwest, Wisconsin to be exact. I will admit that some of the foods that my family gave me as a kid were very bland. I have since lived on the east coast and in Texas before moving back to the Midwest. My tastes in food have expanded greatly. That said, I still love a traditional Midwestern Thanksgiving dinner.

To me that means:

  • a meat and cheese tray while you are waiting for dinner
  • lots of turkey (cooked in a bag and seasoned)
  • homemade dressing
  • (s)mashed potatos
  • gravy
  • cranberry jell of some type (sometimes homemade, sometimes in a can)
  • pickles
  • brown and serve rolls (usually burnt, since they are forgotten)
  • pumpkin pie (could be with wiped cream, ice cream, or yes, even Cool Whip)

The following are optional and a few appear from year to year:

  • other types of pie
  • sweet potatos
  • various vegetables
  • fresh homemade bread (I bring this after getting tired of the burnt brown and serve rolls)
  • various fruit salads
  • bars and cookies

The thing that TeaElle needs to remember is that even if this sounds like a simple menu, it’s still very well prepared and excellent tasting food. The act of preparing the food is part of the family bonding. By insulting our food, basically you are insulting our families.

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Am I the only one who is amazed and wondering how a thread about favorite Thanksgiving foods somehow got turned into Elitists vs. Populists?

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** Eva Luna**
Yes, you are. Everyone else read the OP which brought up a rather elitist menu labelled “Midwestern”. All these people chiming in about their favorite traditional foods of course brought out at least one who had to be snobby about canned cranberries and cool whip.

I’m amazed by the number of people who think Thanksgiving is not complete without ham, though. Maybe there just have never been enough people around at most I’ve been to, or maybe it’s because my mother doesn’t like HOT ham, but I don’t think I’ve ever had ham for Thanksgiving, except in a restaurant which doesn’t count. I have, however, had goose for Christmas, but that was a long time ago (in Minnesota). (other important note: a long time ago = about fifteen years0

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Why is the menu so elitist? Shucks, it’s not what we serve, but I wouldn’t freak out if it were served to me at someone else’s house. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of Cool Whip myself, but I’m not going to criticize someone else for eating it, either.

What’s the big deal? I just don’t understand why everyone is getting so out of joint, on both sides of the equation. So someone doesn’t like your food? Big deal, they don’t have to eat it. Everyone has their own traditions. My sister hates 2/3 of the Thanksgiving stuff on the table - she’s a very picky eater- but hey, if she doesn’t like Mom’s gravy or picks the marshmallows off and leaves the sweet potatoes behind, I may think she’s missing out, but that’s her problem.