I detest pumpkin anything (and Brussels sprouts), but I’m told I make an amazing pumpkin pie. My mother loves to bake and makes/brings a delicious apple pie. I don’t know why I’ve never asked her to make the pumpkin one, too, so I don’t have to deal with it. Maybe this year. DH makes a small Waldorf Salad for himself because no one else likes it (most of us don’t like mayonnaise), and only he and my mom will eat any kind of squash or candied yams or sweet potatoes so, if we have those, my mom makes a small recipe and brings it for the two of them.
Every year I think (and post) about all the Thanksgiving foods we make out of habit that go mostly uneaten, like cranberry sauce and most of the turkey, and wonder why we don’t adjust the menu to just mashed potatoes and that broccoli dish. And add a green bean casserole. We do enjoy all the cooking, prep, and festivities, but our menu sure could use an overhaul.
Thanksgiving has been a trial for my Mom since she was diagnosed with Celiac a decade ago. She has given up on stuffing entirely because the gluten-free versions are ghastly. We don’t stuff the turkey now, since she the stuffing apparently contaminated the turkey and/or gravy a couple years ago and landed her on the hospital. She skips all desserts but ice cream, and all bread and rolls. We do make gravy with cornstarch not flour, and we interrogate all contributed side dishes in case of any flour used.
Basically the Venn diagram of her and my vegetarian son’s plates is mashed potatoes.
I love celery too and if someone else doesn’t like it they can bring their own dressing or skip it altogether. I believe in honoring guests up to a point but if I’m making Thanksgiving dinner at my house, I’m making it my way. Of course in the case of a true food allergy, I’d try to be more accommodating but I’ve actually never heard of a celery allergy.
Ehhh, not really.
I usually saute the celery and onions before combining them with the other stuff but this year I may just saute the onion and see if that improves things. I also make celery sticks stuffed with a cream cheese/blue cheese spread and sprinkled with paprika for an appetizer. As I said, I LOVE celery.
I’d keep sauteeing the celery with the onion. It’s really there for flavor, not crunch, and the sauteeing develops the flavor.
When I was a child and we had Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s, she always had a cut glass dish of crisp celery stalks on the table, sometimes with some olives. She also had a glass pitcher in which she would stand celery stalks in cold water.
This talk of celery reminds me of the one time I cheated and used Stove Top stuffing. We ran out of dressing for leftovers, so I ran to the store and bought a box of Stove Top stuffing. I added freshly sautéed celery and onion, and of course my kids thought it was the best ever!
@Consolation My grandmother also put fresh celery stalks on the table, usually in a glass container of some sort filled with water.
My brother doesn’t like celery - since we always make more stuffing than fits in the bird anyway, it’s easy enough to set some aside for him that gets cooked separately.
Both celiac and vegan is a hard combo especially for dessert. I think for the celiac I’d try a rice stuffing - rather than something that tries too hard to imitate bread.
@garland I know it depends on what you think of as good stuffing. I have celiac, but we never cooked dressing in the bird, always casserole and it was already made with cornbread. Old school cornbread in south can be made without any flour at all. Now I also use GF bread with it as it has gotten better. Last year I used Pamela’s cornbread mix and leave out all sugar and I use cubed/dried GF bread or this time of year Glutino, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have gluten free stuffing in box that I mix with cornbread. But might also work if your mother’s was all bread stuffing based. Imagine makes gluten free cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup if those are ingredients. This time of year you can also buy GF turkey gravy in a box to make it easy.
Celiac person here too: I like Gutino and Whole Foods brands of dried gluten free stuffing. Trader Joe’s brand comes out mushy in my recipes. I also like non-sweet cornbread based stuffing too. It’s easy to cook in a separate dish. Many families make two (or more) dishes of stuffing anyway.
Back to the southern rice discussion: one of the holiday dishes I grew up with in Georgia was a broccoli and rice casserole. It had what tasted like a bechamel base with melted cheese but looking back I’m thinking it was probably just bricks and bricks of Velveeta. I thought it was delicious but sadly it fell out of rotation over the years.
