Two things my kids, especially S1, have to have for Thanksgiving - Pillsbury flaky layers biscuits, and cranberry sauce made with canned whole cranberries, mandarin oranges & chopped walnuts. When he lived too far away to make it home for Thanksgving, S1 made the cranberry sauce himself and ate it as a side dish for days. When we spent one Thanksgiving at my SisIL’s, the first thing S1 said when we got into the car to go home - “They didn’t have biscuits.”
“I was shocked to find out a neighbor does not like pumpkin pie. I thought everyone did”
I’m a firm no on pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin bread but not pie. Our family is split on it. Some love it and some of us go for the other dessert options.
“Never had double ovens as a child or an adult. Everything needed to fit in the oven or on the four burner (electric) stove.”
Same here. I manage just fine without a double oven. Just make ahead then heat up while the turkey is resting.
I mention this every year but I am REQUIRED to bring hot pineapple casserole each year. It is delicious. It is easy. But I always think “I am capable of so much more!” (I will bring other dishes too). It’s a MUST have on the table on Turkey Day.
https://www.pauladeen.com/recipe/pineapple-casserole/
I reduce the amount of sugar, crackers, butter and flour - probably by about a 1/4 or a 1/3 so it’s not so thick and sweet.
At our lake house, we only had one oven. I bought a roaster at Walmart for very little money and made the most beautiful turkey I had ever produced in that roaster. Everything else went into the oven or on the stove.
I love having two ovens at our current house. And sometimes I even pull out the roaster too.
I grew up with pumpkin pie, but DH’s family never ate it, so he claims he doesn’t like it. They do apple and pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but I love pumpkin pie. So do our girls, so it remains on the menu.
Last year was the first time I did not make mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. The previous year, no one ate them. For about five or six years before that, I was the only one who ate them.
Our Thanksgiving dinner is pretty traditional: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, peas, cole slaw with bell peppers, and olives. We used to have cherry pie–no real fans of pumpkin pie here. Actually, my spouse made pumpkin pie–sort of–one Thanksgiving, using canned pumpkin filling. When the center of the pie fell, he decided to level it off by putting molasses on the top (unguided creative cookery). The molasses dissolved into the pie filling and made a real wreck of the pie. If we had ever liked pumpkin pie, that would have put an end to it. Now we have Godiva chocolates for dessert instead, and everyone is happy.
Cranberry sauce with the whole cranberries, simmered in water with a ton of sugar until they pop, pour into a dish, cool a bit and then refrigerate–super easy and very popular here. When I was growing up, the family used a strainer to remove the cranberry hulls, making a more refined sauce. That is way too much work for the benefit, in my view.
Probably our only peculiarity these days: I always try to slice the cabbage for the cole slaw as thin as Uncle Bill used to slice it, and never succeed.
A historical peculiarity: My great aunt always put Wonder Bread on the table at Thanksgiving, along with all of the really great traditional dishes. Only my dad ever had a slice of bread with dinner.
Here is your laugh of the day. DS was doing a study abroad, and was there during Thanksgiving. We were visiting. I took…canned yams and marshmallows, green beans/mushroom soup/canned onions, small canned potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, jiffy corn bread mix, stove top stuffing, canned gravy…in my luggage.
No turkey…we bought a rotisserie chicken but then…after cut up, it was fine.
It was a fabulous thanksgiving!!
We go through multiple cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls on Thanksgiving and the days that follow. I could spend hours creating perfect homemade rolls and the family would demand Pillsbury crescent rolls.
My H makes the pumpkin pie. The filling is from pumpkin that he roasts and purees himself. The crust is from scratch. The pumpkin pie really is terrific, but I always say that I make 12 dishes and we have to spend 7/8 of the time complimenting his pumpkin pie.
I stopped making sweet potatoes of any kind. No one else missed them but me. (My favorite way to serve them was to whip them with orange juice and maple syrup.)
When I was growing up the pies were always pumpkin and mince meat (from the box, not homemade from actual meat.) I made a mince meat pie for about the first 7-8 years of our marriage, but again, no one else liked it so I stopped.
Does anyone else make “moistmakers”? We picked it up from that episode of Friends, where Ross goes crazy because someone stole his sandwich. It’s a turkey sandwich but you put a slice of bread in the middle that has been soaked in gravy. I make a ton of extra gravy for post-Thanksgiving moistmakers. The funny thing is that we don’t know if such a sandwich was ever a real thing, or if it’s just something that the writers of Friends came up with. But my family loves them.
We go all out on pies usually. I’m good at lemon meringue, french silk, apple & pumpkin. I’m the only one who will eat minecemeat; sometimes i make one sometimes not. I also make a stuffing that has apples, nuts and sausage. It’s good!
last year we went out for TG - my Bday and i didnt want to cook. This year i’m looking forward to cooking again. good break. going to try the cornbread casserole; thanks for posting that.
My grandmother was an expert (no, a goddess,) at roasting chicken or turkey, nothing like it. She always had roast chicken waiting when I visited. Later in life, she still made conventional homemade stuffing but added cinnamon. I was addicted.
Yes, MIL liked magazine or church exchange recipes and I treasure them. Speaking of pineapple, one that this thread reminds me of was “Pineapple Souffle,” this recipe is close. I’ll make it this year. MIL used a cup of sugar. So it’s a very sweet side dish…so much that we’ve also served it as dessert. I make it in a souffle dish and all that sugar gives it a little sheen on top.
https://realhousemoms.com/pineapple-casserole/
White bread, canned pineapple, butter, sugar, eggs.
Our weird family tradition is sherbet served at the start of the meal, not as a palate cleanser but just a “Sure kids, you can have ice cream with your green beans.” Usually orange, placed in cups or bowls at each spot so it’s there when people sit down. No one seems to know where the tradition came from but it was from at least as far back as my grandmother’s table and we’ve continued it. It does seem it make the wait for everyone to sit down easier for the small people.
@QuantMech Have you tried using a mandoline slicer for the cole slaw?
We have a pretty traditional menu for Thanksgiving and nothing we eat is something that gets a lot of hate. My family never had the green bean casserole and neither did dh’s so It’s not something we have ever included with our own family. I suppose the closest thing we have, but which I don’t eat, is canned cranberry sauce. My family growing up ate it (not me), dh and my own kids prefer it too. I would happily make homemade cranberry sauce but since they like the canned stuff, I don’t bother.
I do have a funny Thanksgiving menu story. Years ago, dh and I were planning to spend Thanksgiving in Atlanta with his aunt (his mother’s sister) and her family. MIL and her sister grew up in NYC, but MIL has lived her entire married life in CA while dh’s aunt married a southerner and has lived in Atlanta ever since. I grew up in the mid-Atlantic tho my mom is from Boston and my father from the Midwest. Despite growing up on opposite coasts, dh and I grew up with the same basic Thanksgiving menu-turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing (bread), cranberry sauce, a vegetable (NOT green bean casserole), and pumpkin pie. There may be a couple of other random side dishes or desserts year to year, but this has always been his, mine and our “must have” Thanksgiving menu. So the year we were headed to Atlanta, dh’s aunt called me and asked if there was something specific to our own menu that we liked to have so she could make sure to include it. I answered “no, we are pretty basic/traditional - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing but we are fine with whatever you have.”
On Thanksgiving day, the aunt, who was hosting a large group, had an enormous spread which included not only our traditional menu, it also had wild rice, aspic (um, I had never seen that before and didn’t know what it was), both bread stuffing and corn stuffing, as well as several other things. At one point, dh’s cousin commented, “I just realized what was different today, we never have mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving!” I was shocked…number one, because I wouldn’t have said anything about mashed potatoes to the aunt had I known they didn’t normally have them. I wouldn’t have wanted the aunt to trouble herself making them just for us even tho I know I would have been disappointed without them! And two because who,doesn’t have mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving! Later, I jokingly mentioned this to the aunt saying I didn’t realize they wouldn’t normally have mashed potatoes and she said that in the south, it is traditional to have rice, not mashed potatoes. However she likes them and grew up with them so was happy to include them.
I have never heard anyone from the South ever mention that rice is traditional for Thanksgiving and not mashed potatoes. Is this true, or was it just some weird thing dh’s aunt got wrong when she married into a southern family? Maybe it was just her husband’s family that had rice so that’s how she raised her own family? Any southerners want to comment?
Southerner here. I never heard of rice instead of mashed potatoes, either!
One thing that we always served instead of green bean casserole was slow-cooked stewed pole beans, made with salt pork or fatback to flavor the beans. Other southerners on this board will probably recognize it. It has always been a favorite but I never seem to be able to find good pole beans anymore. It’s not the same with regular green beans.
I grew up in the south and never heard of rice at TG.
I now want a moistmaker sandwich!!!
Libby’s pumpkin pie filling is actually better than trying to make your own according to America’s Test Kitchen. Libby’s makes their filling from a type of pumpkin (Dickinson) that they developed themselves for texture and sweetness.
Southern in laws and have to say, everyone (incl yankees) oohed over the “tomahto” aspic. Except me.
I did the same thing! Shortly after marriage, we went overseas to visit some of my husband’s family who had never experienced Thanksgiving. I took everything possible that was boxed or canned. His family ordered a fresh farm turkey, and I remember how shocked I was to see such a scrawny turkey! I’d never seen a fresh turkey before then! I also remember sitting at the kitchen table manually converting the oven temps from Fahrenheit to Celsius which I’d forgotten to do in advance (°F − 32) x 5/9 = °C
Regarding cornbread, I switched from a cast iron skillet (too heavy) to a carbon steel skillet which is much lighter and makes excellent cornbread. I put a little butter in the pan, place it in a hot oven until the butter melts, then pour the batter into the hot pan. It sizzles and gives a golden, buttery crust. I have the Lodge brand which is preseasoned http://a.co/d/7j48j8u (Amazon short link).
I make cornbread in a glass 8x8 dish that is pre-heated to the proper temp before pouring in the batter.