The herb rubbed turkey my mother makes for the holidays. I think that the recipe ishere. We don’t usually make the mushroom gravy, but when we do it’s divine.
My birthday falls shortly after Thanksgiving, and I don’t like cake, so Mom makes Chocholate Chip Cookies for me. Tollhouse with her own added ingredients. They’re the best and I look forward to them every year.
I thought hard about this; there are lots of dishes that traditionally appear on the holiday table that get my mouth watering each year. Certain green bean casseroles. REALLY well-made mashed potatoes. Sweet potato pie. Leg of lamb (oh man, would that I had the money to eat it more often!).
But, the one thing I consistently make absolutely certain I get ahold of isn’t a dish at all.
It’s the turkey’s skin, right out of the oven!
Ooooooh. Do you have a recipe? Because I was planning on going all traditional and turkyish for Thanksgiving but I wanted to do something different for Xmas. Last year I did pork, this year I was thinking of beef. And the artichokes sound interesting.
Turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving. Sometimes I think I’d rather just skip right past the turkey dinner and go right to the sammiches.
I LOVE stuffing too, but I make stove top often enough that it’s not that special.
However, I would have to say the stuff I look forward to the most is cranberry sauce the way Mom’s always made it - straight out of the can so you can still see the ridge imprints in the sauce slices. If anybody goes fancy and makes cranberry sauce from scratch, I just won’t eat it.
I’m going to be bold and damn the flames! Actually, since this isn’t the Pit, I feel pretty safe.
Fruitcake! There I said it! I love fruitcake and can’t get enough of it. If the stores have any left after the holidays and it gets marked down, then I buy all I can afford and horde it. It usually lasts me until about the second week of January. I never get sick of it. If it were available all year, I’d probably ignore it, though. It’s the seasonal aspect of it that drives me a little crazy over it.
Thanksgiving-hmmmm, pretty much everything.
Holidays in general? PIEROGIES! No, check that-HOMEMADE PIEROGIES!!!
It’s gonna sound funny, but…
Brown 'n Serve rolls. My family has always had those- besides the turkey, they’re the one constant throughout the years. Now that I rarely have T-day dinner with the fam, I find I can get my turkey day fix with turkey, gravy, and brown 'n serve rolls.
I have a big family. We often do deep fried turkey…holy crap it’s awesome. It’s way easier to lug the 2 fryers my uncles have to one house and keep turkeys coming then trying to do it all in the oven.
Homemade mashed potatoes and gravy - not the flakes. I love the flakes, but they don’t got nothin’ on the real thing.
Texas potatoes - the little hash brown chunks with the sour cream and cheese and whatever else. Oh my god these are my favorite thing ever. No onions though, please. I am seriously obsessed with these things. I always go back for more and more. They ususally show up at a family function or two throughout the year because they are easy and everyone loves them.
And something that I only see at Christmastime - Mint M&Ms. My mom sent me a huge bag last year when I was still at school as part of my finals care package and I studied and ate those suckers. Finished the bag in like two days.
Oooh! I just remembered-my cousin’s cookie tray! My cousin’s wife loves to cook and bake, and every year she makes a whole mess of Xmas cookies and makes up big trays for all her family and friends. Oh, they’re absolutely out of this world-peanut butter balls, divinity, fudge, spritz, gingerbread, molasses cookies, you name it, it’s there.
Standing rib roast with Yorkshire Pudding.
I miss the stuffed zucchini my mom used to make for the holiday but we haven’t had it in a long time. I think it was actually my paternal grandmother’s recipe and my mom took over making it. Hmm … I inherited that recipe box so I may have to make some this year.
My grandmother’s Springerle.
Mmm, tooth-cracking yummyness.
Turkey for me, with the gravy. Most of the year, my family eats chicken or beef. Turkey is a rare treat.
Grandma’s little potato things. I think there may be some fancy french name for these things but it didn’t get passed down. Essentially these are mashed potatos with lots of cheddar cheese in them, spread out on pastry then rolled and sliced jellyroll style. Sprinkle with paprika or tumuric and bake. Smother with gravy and mmmmmmm.
You can keep the roast; for me, it’s my mom’s Yorkshire pudding. It’s not the same when my sister makes it, and I’ve never tried. But mom’s is yummy, and she only makes it on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Stuffing/dressing. I mean the wet kind, cooked inside the turkey so it soaks up all the turkey juices. Mmmmm! 
Definitely love the stuffing - turkey is OK, but its main purpose is for making gravy.
Also, turkey noodle soup.
But what I look forward to is the desserts, pumpkin AND pecan pie.
Brian
Cornbread dressing, with plenty of sage… gravy on top. Heaven! :>