Diverged from the thread title above. Another one of those fun, meaningless conclusions. They make sense given standard American fare after blending of various ethnic groups into the norms of areas.
The hazards of being a guest- will they or won’t they offer foods that are a must have for you?
Another question- how many of you are changing things due to the pandemic constraints? Family gatherings? Comfort foods, ie traditional fare?
Sort of what you are asking–a go-to that we have once a year is what we call “mashed turnip” but is really a rutabaga. Not everyone loves it, but the scent of it simmering on the stove in the morning is the smell of Thanksgiving for several generations.
However, I keep listing rutabaga in my Shop-Rite pickup order, and they keep saying it is not there. I’m quite sure it is, because they always stock up on them at TG, but i think the pickers just don’t recognize it. I’m dying to go in and buy one, but will resist.
So unless we can find at an open air farmer’s market, we may be skipping it this year. So Thanksgiving will smell a little different (plus I love it, and love making potato-turnip cakes out of it for leftovers).
Edit: D reports they found them at farmer’s market, so Thanksgiving is NOT canceled, lol!
We’ve always handled that by letting guests know what we traditionally serve and encouraging them to bring their favorite side or must-have. I can remember only one guest bringing something, creamed pearl onions which were very good and a nice addition to the spread.
That reminds me of the year we went to SisIL for Thanksgiving. We usually hosted, but she wanted to do it that year. The minute we got in the car to leave, S1 who was probably around 12 or 13, complained that his aunt didn’t serve biscuits or pumpkin pie.
Since you are such a great cook, I suspect they are thrilled with your offerings ?
Our family thanksgivings are very potluck. The only thing that was hard was the year the person hosting didn’t want to tell people what to bring and we ended up with 4 people bringing hash brown potato casserole. But there was so much food that we didn’t mind.
My mil makes the best pumpkin roll and my daughter requests it every year. But my sil buys one from a friend who makes them and sells them. They aren’t half as good as mil’s and everyone is disappointed but sil keeps buying those pumpkin roll and tells mil not to bring hers. Mil has made a separate one just for us! I’m pretty sure my sil doesn’t really like the pumpkin roll so she’s not aware lol!
I was a guest at my BIL’s last year. He was on the Atkins diet, so no stuffing, no potatoes, no rolls, etc. At least he let us make gravy for everyone else. Made me want to have TG2 when I got home.
On the mac and cheese, I had never had it as a side, but my Ds African American sig other made it on his first Thanksgiving with us, which includes my group of friends. It is to die for, and is a solid square of baked mac and cheese, as the recipe includes eggs., unlike any recipe I’ve ever had. My friends and I are all converts to this being the best side ever.
Meanwhile, yes, Wisconsin mashed potatoes, yawn. As a childhood Arizonan, I’d rather have something with green chilis, like a corn pudding, but that is just me.
Garland, I adore rutabaga! Mashed, just the best thing ever with black pepper and butter. One of the Scottish traditional foods from my childhood. Hope you can procure one!
@“great lakes mom” My D scored two small ones at the outdoor farmer’s market. So yay!
Also love rutabaga but here I’m solo on that one. And yes, despite my liking plain sweet potatoes, the big turnip gets butter. Sometimes, a little cream or lemon pepper, too.
Afaiac, TDay can be celebrated multi times. Don’t like what they served? So have your backup at home.
This came easy to us cuz the girls or SO’s have had odd work schedules. We might celebrate on a different day, then pull something together from leftovers on the Thurs.
We had our Thanksgiving with our med school boy and his GF over a week ago. Food tasted great.
I’ve never needed to celebrate much on “the” day humans ascribe to it. Christmas and birthdays can move to fit a schedule better.
The only exception is our wedding Anniversary. That one we always celebrate on the day and everything else that comes up which might get in the way is pushed aside. We go away that day. Even this year were able to snag a really nice AirBnB along “our” creek further downstream. The weather was terrific so we were able to kayak out to the mouth of the Susquehanna River (3 hours or so?). It was awesome even if it wasn’t somewhere exotic. We had never done it before and we had the creek to ourselves.
We have all the fixings here to treat ourselves to another Thanksgiving dinner though. Even if we don’t go to FIL’s, we’ll eat well again. It’s just more of a Thanksgiving when more of us were together. It’s a turkey dinner with all the fixings and a lot of leftovers otherwise.