Is there something special about that sweet corn? Or is it just dried corn that gets ground up into what is basically polenta meal?
Toss up: stuffing or Brussels sprouts and bacon.
@BunsenBurner - One source I found indicates that flint corn (similar to dent corn grown for animal feed) is used for polenta. Dried sweetcorn is just exactly what the name says. You could pull a bag of frozen sweetcorn out of your freezer and run it through a home dehydrator and make your own dried sweetcorn. For polenta, you could shell a couple ears of ornamental “Indian corn” from a farmers market, and run it through a grinder until it is as fine as you want.
Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. There are all different sorts of cornmeal and polenta meals available… when I wanted to make mamaliga, I had to search for special corn stuff… regular woukd not do.
I love the stuffing and gravy. But it is Very Important that the gravy is good. If the gravy isn’t good, the whole dinner is ruined. My D1 would laugh at that comment, but when her MIL ruined the Thanksgiving gravy, she understood and now whole heartedly agrees. Good gravy can save a dry turkey and bland mashed potatoes. Nothing, can overcome bad gravy.
The family has tried to keep MIL’s pumpkin soup (served in a hollowed out pumpkin) recipe going, but nothing equals hers. This year’s will be especially poignant after her passing.
I was just reading a piece yesterday that ‘Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without “Angel Corn.”’ The guy gave the recipe for the corn casserole that was corn, cream, butter, and Ritz crackers. Just something his grandmother made.
Add to the recipe above a little chopped onion, salt & pepper, and some pats of butter on top and then cook in a water bath and @twoinanddone’s reference above would pretty much be my mom’s corn pudding. 
- My Mom’s broccoli/cauliflower casserole 2) stuffing and gravy 3) sweet potatoes roasted with olive oil and garlic (I’m not a fan of sweet things on sweet potatoes 4) brussels sprouts with garlic and olive oil.
Okay, confession: any vegetable roasted with garlic and olive oil.
How was the gravy ruined? Lumpy? Allowed to burn in the bottom of the pan?
gravy can be too salty, too much flour, sort of paste-like. Or it can be delicious.
Homemade (make ahead) cranberry sauce! It makes it Thanksgiving for me
@Nrdsb4 I think it was a little of everything. It has been a number of years ago, but I remember her calling me and saying “You were right”. (That was amazing in itself!) She always used to say “Oh, Mom, don’t make such a big deal about the gravy. How can you ruin gravy”. Little did she know!!!
I asked a similar question to my friends on Facebook. I was looking for food that represented your heritage or your geographical location. I got Spanakopita and Pastichio,zeppoles with salt instead of sugar as a bread, lasagne, ravioli, antipasto, stuffed grape leaves, Collard greens, sweet potatoes pie, Mac and cheese, cornbread dressing, chitlins (!) Ham and Turkey, sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows), potatoes salad, oyster dressing and cornbread dressing, green beans wrapped in bacon, spinach Madeline, ambrosia and pecan pie . Everyone was so eager to contribute their background!
Mac n cheese. But yea I second wine (red tho).
Hash brown casserole. No one really cares about the turkey at our house. (Several vegetarians, too.) I’ve bought smaller and smaller turkeys over the years and H and I have a running joke about the leftovers- we still have them and don’t like them. Second place, stuffing with gravy. I often eat only hbc and stuffing after cooking all day.
Toss up between butternut squash or eastham turnip. I love my mother’s stuffing too!