Recipe, puhhh-lease!
I mean, I can figure out the mechanics – make the jello, throw in the other stuff, put it in the fridge.
But, how much walnuts, etc?
And, where does one find strawberries in November?
-Another
Butternut squash, pressure-cooked with a ham bone then mashed to a paste, with butter and black pepper.
im hungry
Stuffed dates- take some pitted dates, stuff them with walnuts, then roll in sugar. I generally eat the whole plate myself.
Each household in my family brings something special to Thanksgiving that we make at no other time of year. When the cousins come, they bring their own specialties, but this is the core group.
From me: vegetarian posole, made with pinto beans instead of pork, and sweet potatoes with apples, baked with butter and a drizzle of maple syrup
My brother: Harvard Beets (I suspect he just opens a can, but who’s going to argue on Thanksgiving?)
My mother: Succotash. At no other time of the year would she consider mixing corn and lima beans, but it’s mandatory on this one day.
My mother-in-law: Fresh cranberry sauce (she also makes cucumber salad and a wonderful salad with an almonds/caramelized sugar dressing and mandarin oranges, but she makes those on other days as well)
Oyster Pie! Mom picked this up from Colonial Williamsburg years ago, and it’s easy as, well…as pie.
Dump a pint of drained fresh oysters (or is a quart?) in a store bought pie crust, sprinkle with about 2 TBS. flour, top with pie crust, crimp edges, prick crust, bake at 350 until golden brown.
Sounds weird and we always get odd looks from new guests, but if you like oysters you can’t beat it.
Mine involves oysters, too. My mother puts oysters in her cornbread dressing. Everyone thinks it’s disgusting, but they wouldn’t even know what they’re eating if I didn’t tell them. The only reason I tell them is just in case they’re allergic to shellfish or something…Don’t want anyone puffing up and having to make a fun holiday trip to the ER.
Anyways, I don’t have the recipe, sorry. But I will have it soon. I get to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the first time this year…for more than 30 people. Why not start out big your first time? shiver
My best friend’s mom makes a mashed, baked sweet-potato dish, served in scooped-out half-oranges with a bit of the pulp mixed in. I’m having Thanksgiving dinner with their family this year, and these are ones of the things I’m most looking forward to–I haven’t had one since the last time I had Thanksgiving with them, back when my friend and I were in grad school.
The Purple Stuff. It is basically a sweet and sour purple-cabbage sauerkraut. Except not gross like sauerkraut. It goes so well with turkey that you would think they were created together by a loving and benevolent God.
Chop up some sweet potatoes and red-skinned potatoes. Boil till soft.
Thin one can whole berry cranberry sauce with some orange juice. Heat. Combine with potatoes.
Thats RED potatoes and WHOLE cranberry sauce.
Well, after I am done chuckling pleasedly, I will drop my Mom a note and ask for it. I’m sure she’d be delighted to share. I’d give it to you myself, but I only made it by myself for the first time last year, and I don’t remember what portions of what go into the salad, and in what order.
Mashed turnips and squash, and creamed onions.
A few years ago I hosted a “Marginally More Authentic Thanksgiving” (MMAT). I didn’t have any desire to go “all the way” by eating outdoors in October with Indians and no sanitation, but I wanted to have things slightly more akin to the first Thanksgiving.
We had duck (served in bowls and eaten by hand), lobster, clams, a really good cranberry and nut dish, and deer, along with some of the more traditional fare. It was delicious- if it weren’t so bloody expensive to buy deer and lobster I’d have it every year. (According to some accounts, the Pilgrims also ate seal and swan, but apparently Winn Dixie was all sold out.)
“The Orange Stuff”. (What is it with Thanksgiving and "stuff"s?) Orange jello mix (but not actually the gelled jello), cottage cheese, cool whip, canned mandarin oranges. That’s what’s in it, but how it’s made…I have no idea. Aunt Joyce makes it.
We love it madly, but new people find it utterly repulsive. At least 'til they try it.
My grandma makes orange jello with mandarin oranges every year. But she serves it with sour cream mixed with honey. It really shouldn’t be good, but it really is.
I personally don’t have to have this dish, but certain members of my family do. I found this out the first year I made Thanksgiving dinner. My mom usually makes a dish with string beans, cream of mushroom soup, and dehydrated onions on top. I think it’s horrible, and didn’t plan on making it. I thought it was just my mom that ate it (she wasn’t coming), but one of my brothers called ahead to ask if I’d be making it. :eek: So maybe not unusual, but I can’t get away from it!
Mom also is an ambrosia person–for any holiday, there is the lovely green stuff.
(Dang, I typed that with a straight face! She and one nephew are the only people who can tolerate it!)
Wild Rice hotdish. I have made it twice, but do not like cooking the wild rice-quite smelly (we get it from a small co-op in northern minnesota) so now Mom makes it.
Pieroghis. Made with either sauerkraut or potatoes/cheese. Fried in LOTS of butter with onion. Manna.
Damn I’m hungry.
Dang, MissTake! I’m going to have to run home and have pierogis for dinner now, with melted butter & sauteed onions. Yummy! (We usually have those at Easter but haven’t made it a Thanksgiving tradition.)
My Thanksgiving must-have is fresh green beans and fresh baby carrots, steamed until crisp-tender. In another pan, I melt butter and stir in bread crumbs and heat until it’s browned. Then I dump that out on top of the green beans and carrots. Yummmmmm.
Sweet Potato Cheesecake.
Roast 2-3 Sweet potatoes. Mix with 3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese. Mix in 1 cup sugar. Mix in a couple of tsps spices…cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc. Mix in 3 eggs, one at a time. Pour into springform pan and bake at 350 for about a 45 minutes, until it sets to your liking. Oh, you can make a crust if you want. The best crust is to chop up a cup or two of pecans, toast them on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet, then mix with a little butter and brown sugar. Press the nuts into the springform pan for a crust, then bake the crust for about 10 minutes to set it.
[hijack]Ohh… crazy… they are SUCH* a comfort food, aren’t they?
You know with all the butter and sour cream on top they aren’t good for you, but still… 
My nana could whip them up in no time flat. I cannot, ergo they are a holiday treat.[/hijack]
Oh! And the seeming despised green bean casserole? As a kid, I could not tolerate it. Now, I love it (as long as there are LOTS of onion crispies)