I ask this every year.
What is the one food item you have to have on the table for thanksgiving? For me, it’s a big ol’ slab of ham. It’s more important than the turkey, if it comes down to it. My mom’s fried corn is the runner-up.
I gotta have whipped sweet potatoes, WITH marshmallows on top. It may be considered trashy in this day and age, but I love 'em
Pumpkin pie. I could have a piece of pumpkin pie before everything else, during everything else, and after everything else. Even if I’m too stuffed after everything else to enjoy a piece of pie, I find room. There’s always room for pie – that’s my motto.
Sweet potatos.Not candied,no marshmallows,no BS.
Bake in the skin,remove skin,top with butter.
Try one…You’ll like it!
The dinner I’m going to, I’m bringing pies, because I just know, with absolute certainty, that they won’t have enough pie. I know this even without knowing how much they’ll actually have. No matter how many pies you have, you don’t have enough.
There’s no specific pie that’s necessary, but what’s really essential is that you have a variety of them. Thanksgiving at Gramma’s house always involved at least nine different kinds, which of course means that there were always a minimum of nine whole pies (usually more; you need duplicates of most of them).
Crescent rolls. It’s the only time I can justify having them.
Chronos, that reminds me of Harold and the Purple Crayon. “There was nothing but pie. But there were all nine kinds of pie that Harold liked best.”
Mashed turnips. Family tradition. (Probably also one of the offerings at the original Thanksgiving.)
I thought you said “dried corn” and while that’s a favorite, they don’t make it around here.
So I’d have to go with canned cranberry sauce.
Stuffing and gravy.
My stuffing and gravy in particular… which is basically mom’s recipe, which was my grandmother recipe, which I remember my great grandmother making.
Mmm… :drools on keyboard:
Whole cranberry sauce for the turkey.
What is “Dried” corn?
My mom’s tsmmis – its a mix of sweet potatoes and carrots and figs and orange juice and molasses, baked and stirred and baked until it is all falling together. nom nom nom.
Pearl creamed onions. Absolutely love them.
Mom also made mashed turnip (rutabega) and mashed buttercup squash. Neither which I liked. I always had an aversion to orange veggies (carrots etc). I love green veggies.
I have not had them in years and years. I am kind of loner, and I really don’t do Thanksgiving, but Mom always made them.
Mom also prided herself on her pies, she would make apple, pumpkin, pecan, and minsemeat. the apple pie would have to have extra sharp cheddar cheese. She would insist on using Northern Spy apples which is a variety I have not seen since I moved away from the Northeast.
I just made some roasted buttercup squash for the first time. Peeled it, cubed it, drizzled with olive oil and s&p, then roast at 375 for 25 minutes. Very creamy texture.
I miss Mom’s oyster dressing. I can make it, but nobody here likes it (New England; how is that possible?) so I don’t bother. But I miss it.
You are a good New Englander. I consider myself a native Vermonter, Mom was born in Quebec, but just barely, less than a mile from the Vermont border. She was born in a customs house.
Oh, thank god there’s another one out there. We have them at Xmas and Easter, too. Sweet potatoes without marshmallows are NAKED!
That sounds EXCELLENT! Mind posting a recipe?
Mashed turnip for me, too. Some years we’ve had both rutabaga and turnip, and intense debates over which is better. Yankees take their root vegetables seriously.
Pumpkin pie is important too. Don’t even get us started on pumpkin vs squash pies.
It’s Pennsylvania German soul food. Corn is dried and sold in a box, then reconstituted with milk or cream and comes out nuttier and sweeter and nummier.