Picture it: A rowdy crowd of Italians gathered around the Thanksgiving table; my mother (or in the olden days, my grandmother) pulling the crowning glory from the oven and carrying it to the table with a flourish. As she sets the masterpiece on the table, we cheer and congratulate her on the culinary achievement. A spatula is handed to my mom and she makes the ceremonial cut into the Thanksgiving Day main course.
Up until this point, my story may sound similar to your Thanksgiving dinner, but here’s where it gets a little dicey. My mom has NOT pulled a turkey from her oven, friends. We don’t really eat turkey on Thanksgiving at our house. Instead, our main course is an ooey-gooey, bubbling hot tray of lasagna.
To be fair, my mom does cook up a small turkey breast and most of the trimmings, but it’s purely ornamental. We hack into the turkey breast to make sandwiches when we’re playing cards after dinner and I think we eat it only to be polite and maybe as a nod toward tradition.
The only trimmings I like are mashed potatoes (made with Yukon gold potatoes, entire sticks of butter and HEAVY cream), green beans(not casserole!), and cranberry mold (some kind of jell-o and sour cream mash up with nuts in it–Panny, I hear you shrieking in horror!).
So, what’s on your Thanksgiving day table? Any family specialties? Do you even LIKE turkey? Spill the gravy and tell me everything!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday… and I’ll eat Thanksgiving dinner any chance I get… if a resturant serves it up during the year, I’ll order it.
In my family, it is all about the turkey, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie. No green bean casserole here! We have rolls and corn and cream cheese stuffed celery. And I just LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo
My children only like my turkey and insist I make good ole fashioned cornbread dressing (not the kind you buy in packs at the grocery store) We like our food to resemble what it is…for example green beans are not mixed up with a bunch of other stuff and made into a “casserole”
The children always said that their Grandma’s casseroles were scary!!!
I make an excellent sweet potato dish that does not have marshmallows all over it.
We won’t have freaky jello salads!!!
You have just described my Father’s side of our family and Thanksgiving. We always have a traditional turkey day din with my Mother’s side of the family but the day after we head up to my Father’s Sisters house to feast on an Italian Thanksgiving. Much like yourself we do have a turkey but the crowing glory are always the pasta dishes!!!!
Have fun on thanksgiving day….
I’m not a huge turkey fan, but I like it well enough to have a small piece for the big feast. Personally, I am a side girl.
Our traditional family Thanksgiving meal has included the following:
turkey, regular gravy, giblet gravy, bread dressing, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, pea & asparagus casserole, acorn squash soup, dinner rolls, cornbread, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.
I know, there are a few very similar items on the list. But did you ever see that episode of friends where Monica makes four different kinds of mashed potatoes and mac & cheese for Chandler, all because everyone wants something different? Yeah… it’s like that in our house.
*sigh* i LOVE thanksgiving. just reading the comments above made me smile. i can hear the happiness that tradition (even if unorthodox) brings. tradition, family, friends, and food seem to be the heart of the this holiday.
thanksgiving is truly a ‘homecoming’ holiday…more so than any other. i hope everyone who reads this post has someone to be with and somewhere to be next thursday, turkey or not!
You can take the girl out of the vegetarian….
j’adore green bean casserole, salad (made with cukes, cheese, olives), mashed potatoes (made with butter and whole milk), yams (no marshmallows, thank you), pumpkin pie, stuffing/dressing, corn.
The turkey’s just there for other people to eat. I could eat holiday veggies all day long. Works out well for everyone
At my parents’ house–when I used to be able to go home for Thanksgiving–we would have the traditional American food, but we’d also have some Filipino food, too.
It wasn’t uncommon to have a pork roast and maybe some ham. We’d also have lumpia (eggrolls to Americans), rice, pansit (noodle dish with veggies and some bits of chicken or beef or whatever), and who knows what else. For dessert, there was no such thing as pie. We’d have leche-flan (a sweet custard) or bibinka (a sweet rice). Mmmm.
I only know how to bake a turkey breast according to directions and mix up some Stove Top Stuffing, but I’m going to attempt mashed potatoes and gravy myself this year.
For those families with the (to me) bizarre tradition of requiring canned-cranberry-sauce-still-maintaining-the-molded-shape-of-the-can to appear on the table, I’ve always had the notion to take a can, strip off its label, spray paint it the exact hue of the so-called cranberry sauce* inside, then surreptitiously replace the original during the meal.
*The can needn’t even contain “cranberry sauce” so long as it it’s the correct size. The beauty of this scheme is that this item can be used year after year, since it’s essentially a decoration.
p.s. For the record, I enjoy homemade cranberry sauce, concocted with whole cranberries.
My parents have decided to go out of town, the friends I often spend Thanksgiving with are out of town, and I’ve decided to work instead of eat and give the employees the day off. No muss, no fuss (but alas, no turkey sandwiches either!)
Please send stuffing!
I LOVED reading these comments! Wishing everyone a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving!
Esp. you Carrie, you poor thing… I hope someone special plates you up a hot meal and brings it to you at work.
PS: Pannie, you are describing every holiday meal at my parents!! I kid you not, we all LOVE canned cranberry sauce. One guy I met, I mentioned my love of it – no joke – he BOUGHT ME AN ENTIRE CASE!!! We hadn’t even gone out! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!
husban-dito’s family has some weird game with the cranberry sauce…whoever “calls” the top slice (the pattern from the lid of the can is imprinted on it, i think) is the ‘winner.’
don’t worry…i don’t get it either. i only like c-sauce on my turkey sang-witch…toasted wheat, turkey, lettuce, smear of mayo, tad of stuffing and c-sauce. yummmmmmm
HHAHAHAHAHHAHHHH!! the slice king!! that is too funny!
MAN I LOVE TURKEY SANDWICHES>!! I am so stinkin sick. I need one NOWWWW>>>…
I always make turkey, but never eat it with the meal. I like the hot turkey sandwiches with dressing the next day. My favourite dish on any holiday table is mashed turnip with brown sugar, butter and pepper. My daughter and I can eat it by the bowlful!