Our Hoosier thanksgiving supper:
Roast Turkey (roasted with a Coke glaze, which carmelizes the bird)
Mashed Potatoes
Potatoes Au Gratin
Stuffing
Egg Noodles
Cranberry stuffs
Green Beans
Hot Buttered Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
I’ve eaten a Persimmon or two. They’re alright, but no one coks with them, probably because by Thanksgiving they’re rotting on the ground and smell like horse hocky.
I think it is important to understand that the traditional food is bland. That’s Thanksgiving. Now it is also important to understand that bland does not mean bad. I would not use cool whip, I feel the bit of work required to make whipped creme is worth the effort. I try to avoid processed food all the time, the chemical taste offends me. That means we avoid creme of mushroom soup. I make the meal, I decide what goes in it.
Now, when I visit MIL, she uses lots and lots of cans and boxed food, it is not what I would make but I don’t go there for the cuisine, I go for the company.
The midwestern diet is rather bland. The freshest food we have does not include the exotic ingredients easily found on the coasts. Just as I would not comment on my MIL’s use of cans and processed food I would not presume to tell a New York, California, Georgia, Texas or other non-midwestern person what to cook. Those people have different foods available. WHen you come to visit me we have choice meats and other food that is fresh, I won’t serve you a mango because our local markets don’t have good ones.
I think the OP menu sounds great, you’d never find it on my Thanksgiving table, and I am a bit insulted that she believes it belongs there. When she decides to visit me I’ll set her right and give her some excellent bland food, if she doesn’t like it the door is handy.
On the one hard Labor I hear what you’re saying, on the other it’s pretty silly to state that, for example, people eat canned cranberry sauce because they can’t get fresh locally. I live in the Midwest and I can get fresh cranberries down the road at Kroger. Boil them up with sugar and an orange and you have fresh cranberry relish.
People eat canned cranberry sauce because they enjoy it, because it gives them the feeling of going home. Comfort food, ya know? I don’t think anyone should have to justify the enjoyment they get from that. For a lot of people, the foods they eat on Thanksgiving are more symbolism than sustenance.
I personally hate for any major changes to befall the Thanksgiving menu – things may be added but nothing taken away from the core menu of turkey, mashed potatoes, tsimmus (sweet potatoes cooked with carrots in orange juice and honey) pumpkin pie. Since my father & brother are vegetarians, we always have loads of vegetable dishes, but I’m not emotionally attached to any of them.
Hello Again: Born in Indiana, learned to read in Kansas, went to school in Brooklyn, went to college in Virginia, now living in Michigan.