Your Thanksgiving favorites?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Besides the obvious turkey, what are your Thanksgiving favorites? What things have you tried at other people’s houses, or had someone bring to your own Thanksgiving, that weren’t family traditions, but which you thoroughly enjoyed? Conversely, which traditional Thanksgiving foods do you wish would go away, because you can’t stand why everyone else likes them?

And what are you cooking/going to eat this year? Recipes appreciated, but not required.

My own answers:
I love everything (OK, almost everything). A couple of things I think have undeserved popularity, though, are:

Jellied, canned cranberry sauce (although I loved it as a kid)

That nasty casserole of frozen string beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, and canned Fench fried onions…Thanksgiving food should be made from scratch, or at least bought from somewhere that makes it from scratch (bakery pies are acceptable, for example)

Last night I made the whole-berry cranberry sauce (12 oz. cranberries, boiled in 1 c. sugar and 3/4 c. water until they pop, along with 1 cinnamon stick, few cloves, few cardamom pods, 1-in. piece grated ginger, zest of 1 orange, splash orange juice, splash Grand Marnier, splash Chambord).

Also made sweet potatoes (no real recipe, but I add melted butter, brown sugar, crushed pineapple in juice, orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, molasses, and a healthy splash of bourbon). These will be put in a casserole later and baked with the ubiquitous marshmallows on top, or my sister will never forgive me. I might have added pecans, but some people don’t like them…oh well, maybe with the leftovers.

But the piece de resistance is in the oven right now…Derby Pie! It’s a Louisville specialty, and the recipe is from a former co-worker’s mother. I made it a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving for the first time, and it’s making a repeat appearance by popular demand:

1/4 cup butter
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 c. white corn syrup
1/4 t. salt
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (I prefer walnuts; not as sweet, 'cause this pie is pretty sweet already)
2 T bourbon (don’t leave this out! It’s worth buying a bottle if you don’t have some)
1 8" unbaked pie crust

Cream butter, then add sugar slowly. Add beaten eggs, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla. Add chocolate chips, nuts, and bourbon; stir well. Pour into pie crust and bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Serve warm, with whipped cream if desired (I think the whipped cream is overkill).

Enjoy, and please share your traditions and recipes!

2

Mom’s gravy. Cooks know how hard it is to do gravy properly. Mom has a thing with turkey gravy- she makes it so well, that it’s not at all uncommon to see people drinking it at the table when nobody’s watching. I’m serious- and have done so myself; gravy so good that it changes it’s nature from a condiment to a beverage, a transubstantiation almost holy in it’s blessedness- it’s difficult to imagine a better foodstuff. Not one single family member doesn’t lick his/her plate. I would eat that gravy on a dishrag. And am counting the minutes until I get to do so.

b.

3

I’m a firm adherent of Calvin Trillin’s theory that, culinarily speaking, it’s a lot more sensible to pay homage to Christopher Columbus than the Puritans. He’s been trying for years to make Spaghetti Carbonara the official Thanksgiving dish.

I’ve extended the sentiment and each year make some really tasty dish from our melting pot heritage. One year it was lasagne; another it was real enchiladas , chiles rellenos and refried beans. This year it’s a huge pot of jambalaya (courtesy of Cajun Man and DrMatrix, two fine Lousisiana boys who just relocated to NYC for a few decades).

Frankly most turkey tastes pretty blah. I’ve brined it and smoked it but it still tastes too much like the cardboard slabs of my childhood memories. But two family traditions do wring my heart and taste buds:

  1. My mom’s own invention for cranberry relish. You gotta have an old fashioned food grinder to make it; a food processor turns it to mush. A pound of fresh cranberries, 4-5 crisp apples (seeded but not peeled), 2-3 oranges (don’t peel!) and sugar to taste. Grind it all together at least 24 hours in advance; the taste mellows with time. You may need to add more sugar. Add chopped nuts just before serving if you like 'em.

  2. Oyster dressing: Butter a baking dish really well. Break two pkgs. of saltine crackers into large pieces into the dish. Cut about 5 Tbsp. butter into little chunks and stir 'em into the crackers. Pour on 1 qt. fresh oysters (including liquor), then add milk until the crackers are totally covered. Fold gently until oysters are distributed. BUT–and this is the important part–the final gentle stir-around must be done with your finger It’s tradition, folks. It wasn’t Thanksgiving until somebody yelled, “I’m stirring the dressing!” Then everybody had to rush to the kitchen and admire the browning bird, offer gravy advice, sniff the bubbling pots, sneak a dollop of whipped cream off a pie, etc.
    Oh yeah, bake the sucker at 350 for about 45-50 minutes.

Wishing everyone a good holiday!

Veb

4

My wife and I are not big turkey and dressing fans so we don’t eat the traditional turkey dinner. We eat a special chicken tacquito dinner. We have this every Thanksgiving. It’s our favorite food so we feel, why eat something you don’t like that much on a special day?

We also see it as a more Native American dish somehow since we use corn tortillas. But the big reason is that we just feel it tastes better than turkey. We also have refried beans and sometimes tamales with that. Our one nod to east-coast traditions is that often we have pumpkin pie.

5

This year I got the Tofurky vegan Thanksgiving feast — it includes a vegan “turkey” roast, tempeh “drummettes”, “giblet” gravy, and Tofurky jurky “wishsticks”. Best of all, they donate part of the proceeds every year to a worthy cause… this year it’s the nonprofit Vegetarian Resource Group. I’ve got the roast baking now. Can’t wait to dig in.

TV Time, coincidentally, my wife just made chicken taquitos for our kids for lunch. (I’m the only vegan here.)

6

I must always peel the skin from the turkey. I hate the meat but, I will wrestle you for the skin.

I also love turnip.

7

I hate cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. Stop insisting that I must have some! You know I don’t like them!

I must have the stuffing and the mashed potatoes, though. And my mom always makes mixed vegetables with cheese sauce that are wonderful.

8

Daddy’s cat-head biscuits. I’ve never had any bread that was better.

Someone else mentioned oyster stuffing. That’s also a winner at my house.

My sister-in-law comes from Amish-country, and she makes baked apples that, when mixed with the biscuits mentioned above, can induce orgasms.

My contribution is a flour-less chocolate/amaretto cake with berry puree’ and real whipped cream.

9

**plnnr, ** any chance of getting you to share the cake recipe? I’ve been searching for a good cake for Passover with no flour, and that one sounds splendid!