Last two times I hosted Thanksgiving, one year was all vegetarian and the other was roast ham - which I prefer to turkey anyhow.
Not a huge fan of commercially raised turkeys because I have been in turkey “processing plants” which pretty much turned me off. I have bought “heirloom” pasture-raised turkeys for Thanksgiving, which were IMO infinitely superior in taste and texture.
But for several years I’ve gone to a friend’s house, and she puts on a stellar and very traditional Thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of people and it’s always delicious. I can take or leave the turkey, but she does a roasted root vegetable thing that is just wonderful and that’s going to be my favourite part, again.
My husband, myself and my sister-in-law are all vegetarian, and since our Thanksgiving just consist of my parents, my brother and his wife, and my husband and I, we substitute Quorn. The first year, there was a turkey too, but everyone liked the Quorn enough that it’s the entire main course for the last two years. There’s always a meat side dish as well, but rarely a whole turkey for three people.
That’s funny - I’m going to extremely rural South Carolina for the boyfriend’s Thanksgiving this year, but evidently they have very dry boring turkey. I am bringing cranberry sauce. (I wish they had bacon wrapped venison!)
My dad hated turkey so we usually had ham instead. Dad said he didn’t like turkey because he was born on Thanksgiving, Mom said Dad wouldn’t eat turkey because it would be cannibalism…
We’re having homemade pizza this year. My sister and brother and brother-in-law. One time we cooked burgers on the grill. My wife didn’t feel like turkey this year. lol. We always have a fun time no matter what we eat.
My son-in-law and his family are vegetarian. My daughter became vegetarian, and I somehow joined the group. I make almost everything with a vegetarian alternative.
The son-in-law’s family has become very fond of Wham for any holiday meal, and my daughter makes a killer pineapple glaze for it.
I’ll be buying one of those prepared turkey dinners from a local grocery store for the carnivorous contingent.
~VOW
well i hate roast turkey and we have a big family thing so usually can’t avoid it. Though I do love me some turkey jerky lol. Family has cooked teh thing a million different ways, always the same result, dry and/or flavorless. Though it makes ok taco meat or nacho meat as leftovers.
Thanksgiving’s always at Disney World, this year at 'Ohana at the Polynesian. Disney usually puts turkey on its holiday menus, so it’ll probably be there. I likely won’t eat any, though.
I occasionally do turkey at Christmas, the rare years that we eat at home instead of going out, but Thanksgiving is a Disney holiday for us.
Vegetarian here. My traditional Thanksgiving: cheese ball and crackers for snacking while watching parades/sports/Thanksgiving cartoons, then a main meal of vegetarian stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed vegetables, homemade cranberry dressing, and a dessert of apple pie with cheese. Really, it’s pretty much my childhood Thanksgiving sans turkey… and I love stuffing so much that I can make it the centerpiece of my meal.
Once spent Thanksgiving with a friend who had chili for dinner. Amazingly, we are still friends.
My ex-husband’s Italian family used to have homemade ravioli for holidays until they got Americanized.
I feel Thanksgiving exists as an excuse to eat yummy roasted turkey. Turkey is what God eats for lunch.
With the recent fad of brining or otherwise doing shit guaranteed to result in super moist turkey I wish fewer people would do turkey.
Moist turkey is great for sandwiches. It sucks for thanksgiving dinner when I’m eating it with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and all kinds of things that provide more moisture.
Since the only meats I eat are birds and fish, I eat lots of turkey year round so it isn’t anything special. So if I am at all responsible for what gets made on Thanksgiving (which generally means it is just me and my wife) I don’t deal with the hassle, but I don’t have any go to thing.
Dad was a gourmet cook so we often had a prime rib roast of crown roast or something showy like that when it was just the immediate family. When we got together with his family there was at least one and some years two turkeys. I think 34 was the most we ever sat for one of those meals.
We always buy up cheap turkeys around Thanksgiving and then roast one now and then throughout the winter.
This year we are having baked spiral sliced ham for the day itself, mostly because we are having company the day after and wanted the leftovers for sandwiches.
Forgot to add - My wife has an uncle who hates turkey and so the few times we ate with them on the day there had to be two entrees so he didn’t have to eat the stuff.
We do turkey for Thanksgiving but at Christmas we do the Polish Christmas Eve dinner, which is traditionally meatless (homemade pierogi, w00t!). Then on Christmas day we have ham and fresh and smoked kielbasa for the meats.
I’m not a big turkey fan so once a year is plenty.
For us, Christmas was not a big “family dinner” event. We visited various houses for various family members but the meals were not generally big affairs.
