Homo for the Holidays

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

I imagine many, if not most of us, have fond memories of Holiday meals with the family when we were growing up. Now that we are all grown up, what do you do for the holidays? Do you have family near by for the "big meal"? Do you celebrate with friends?

What was your favorite and least favorite parts of the Thanksgiving feast when you were younger? What did you have to have in order for it to be thanksgiving to you?

Growing up in Texas with a mother from Arkansas, we definitely had more of southern twist on some things. Our stuffing was cornbread based. Our pies were pumpkin, pecan, and fudge. The fudge pie was so decadent. Unfortunately, the recipe for it went to the grave with my mother. The sweet potatoes were candied, with marshmallows melted on top. The green bean casserole had the Durkee's fried onions. The cranberry sauce was straight out of the can.. then cut into slices. Oh, I almost forgot the giblet gravy. You had to take the giblets and the neck meat from the cooked turkey, add in some of the "juice" from the cooked bird, then thicken with cornstarch.

Who else wants to share some of their own Thanksgiving memories....

[Guest hitoallusa]

My favorite Thanksgiving dish is stuffings.. A little bit of turkey meat with stuffings is so delicious to me. Once I had been invited to a friend's place and they fried a turkey. It was so good. I'm not sure it was the best turkey but it was the first time I tried fried turkey.

[RA1]

I have fond memories of a very similar menu. Baked turkey, cornbread dressing (not stuffing, my mother cringed at the thought of undercooked stuffing), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and giblet gravy. No pies in the last 20 years, no ones waist would stand for it but fruit salad made with coconut was plenty for a "near" dessert.

When my mother got too old to make this meal, I took over and have cooked it for Thanksgiving and Christmas ever since and will do it again this year. However, only my sister and I are left to enjoy it so we will + some family friends.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest EXPAT]

While I love my family, my favorite Thanksgivings were when my best friend in NYC cooked Thanksgiving for our group of friends. To me that was my chosen family.

This year I'm going back to help celebrate my father's 90th birthday. The fact that he is still around is a miracle all in itself.

[Guest hitoallusa]

EXPAT you are such a terrific son! I bet your father is proud of you. Happy birthday to your loving father~~~~.

[Ojibear]

Happy Thanksgiving to my American neighbours. In Canada we have Thanksgiving in October (don't know why), but possibly because winter comes earlier up here. My family's Thanksgiving meal was a mixture of American (turkey and stuffing,ham), French Canadian (tortiere, i.e. meat pie), and Native Canadian (fried bannock). My parents and most of my siblings are gone, but my sisters and I get together a remember our dearly departed.

[TampaYankee]

I imagine many, if not most of us, have fond memories of Holiday meals with the family when we were growing up. Now that we are all grown up, what do you do for the holidays? Do you have family near by for the "big meal"? Do you celebrate with friends?

What was your favorite and least favorite parts of the Thanksgiving feast when you were younger? What did you have to have in order for it to be thanksgiving to you?

Growing up in Texas with a mother from Arkansas, we definitely had more of southern twist on some things. Our stuffing was cornbread based. Our pies were pumpkin, pecan, and fudge. The fudge pie was so decadent. Unfortunately, the recipe for it went to the grave with my mother. The sweet potatoes were candied, with marshmallows melted on top. The green bean casserole had the Durkee's fried onions. The cranberry sauce was straight out of the can.. then cut into slices. Oh, I almost forgot the giblet gravy. You had to take the giblets and the neck meat from the cooked turkey, add in some of the "juice" from the cooked bird, then thicken with cornstarch.

Who else wants to share some of their own Thanksgiving memories....

My memories are almost exactly like yours down to the cornbread stuffing and giblet gravy. No fudge pie though. I would like to try that.

Otherwise, we differ only in the candied yams. We took our sweet potatoes straight out of the oven, out of their skins and applied plenty of butter. A little salt was optional, especially if you heaped on the butter.

My mother is long gone and I don't have the legs to make a Thanksgiving dinner anymore, which i did for years. However, I still make cornbread dressing and pick up a roasted chicken at the supermarket along with some sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Not a bad compromise as far as compromises go in senior years.

[Guest NCBored]

I don't have very detailed memories of our family Thanksgivings while I lived at home - roasted turkey, dressing, some sort of sweet potatoes & canned cranberry sauce are all I really remember. In later years, my sister & I would return home the weekend after Thanksgiving and my father would cook the meal, which meant that I was on my own on the actual Thanksgiving day.

My third(?) boyfriend had no family in the area, so I started what became a tradition of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. I roasted a turkey, made a soup, a salad, a sweet potato dish, another vegetable dish, a pumpkin or sweet potato pie and a pecan pie.The first few years I experimented with different side dishes, dressings and cranberry sauces/relishes.

Eventually I settled on a menu. I dropped the soup (a wonderful carrot bisque with mushrooms & smoked bacon). The salad was mixed greens, blanched green beans, red onion, toasted walnuts and blue cheese crumbles with a vinaigrette. The turkey is rubbed with an herb mix of rosemary, basil & oregano. The dressing is made from the Pepperidge Farm cornbread mix, to which I add lots of sautéed onions, celery, mushrooms & chopped giblets, and lots of sage. My cranberry sauce is made with fresh cranberries and fresh ginger. The sweet potato dish I've settled on is slices of sweet potatoes & apples baked with a maple syrup glaze. I cook a mixture of collards and mustard greens, seasoned with bacon. For dessert, I make a pecan pie (using a recipe from one of my aunts - although I think it's about the same as the one on the Karo syrup bottle) and a pumpkin pie (I have 2 recipes - one is more heavily spiced than the other, which relies more on butter for richness,)

The boyfriend relationship lasted only a year, but we have remained close friends for almost 30 years and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for us until 2 years ago, when I brought my father to live with me. Now I cook the dinner for my father and my sister, who is divorced.

I guess the required dishes for me are dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

[Guest tomcal]

My thanksgiving dinners are still the same. My mother who is a amazing cook, is still healthy and alive at 96 years old but can't prepare the big meals anymore so I do it. My kids and their significant others are there and we do a traditional turkey, with wild rice(Minnesota tradition)the canned jelled cranberries,

sweet potatos and a amazing fruit salad. Usually there is another couple or two depending on what friends are in town or not getting together with family, so usually around 10 of us.

[AdamSmith]

My turkey day meal is the traditional fare, with one twist -- for cranberry sauce, try it uncooked.

1 bag (12 ounces) whole fresh cranberries
1 orange
1 cup sugar

Quarter the orange, removing any seeds. Leave the rind on -- do not peel. Combine all ingredients in food processor and chop fine. Transfer to glass or ceramic serving bowl, cover and let stand 24 hours before serving. Refrigerate after that; will keep for 2 weeks. Leftovers can be combined with mayonnaise and used as a dressing for leftover turkey sandwiches.

[Guest CharliePS]

When I was a child, we alternated Thanksgiving dinner at our house or at my aunt and uncle, who lived around the corner, and my grandparents usually joined us. It was always turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, creamed onions, green beans, steamed cauliflower, baked sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and homemade cranberry sauce, followed by pumpkin pie. In those days, I didn't like any vegetables except the onions (still don't like sweet potato), so I took token amounts and filled up on stuffing. As an adult, I alternated dinners between my parents or my partner's family (my brother-in-law and his partner did a goose one memorable year). When I was living in London, a visiting friend (with more money than I) took me to Simpsons-in-the-Strand for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Another year I was living in Czechoslovakia, and my American roommate and I went to a good restaurant in Brno; they had no turkey, so we had baked carp instead.

Now my spouse and I live far from any family, and neither one of us feels like cooking a big meal, so we usually go out to a restaurant on Thanksgiving, where the quality on holidays can be hit or miss. I still order something traditional, but my spouse prefers to order something lighter, like fish.

[RA1]

CharliePS-

I think you need to invite me over to cook a decent holiday meal for you and your spouse. I will admit that I will serve some vegetables but otherwise you should be satisfied. My main concern is you guys going out for a holiday meal which I have done before but only under duress aka business. Otherwise, home cooking is the best, whichever definition of same is your preference.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest CharliePS]

CharliePS-

I think you need to invite me over to cook a decent holiday meal for you and your spouse. I will admit that I will serve some vegetables but otherwise you should be satisfied. My main concern is you guys going out for a holiday meal which I have done before but only under duress aka business. Otherwise, home cooking is the best, whichever definition of same is your preference.

Best regards,

RA1

Of course, a homecooked meal is usually better (unless the cook was my grandmother, whose children used to joke about the one time she made a good one), but if you cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner for us, then I would feel obliged to offer to do the cleaning up, which is one of the main reasons why I didn't want to cook in the first place.

[RA1]

Well, I usually wash any dishes that will not be used during or after the meal + store all the leftovers in various containers ASAP. I have a thing about food being either hot or cold and not in between. So, at the very worst, you and your spouse might be expected to wash a few dishes used to eat the meal. Likely those few can wait while we have another glass of wine and use the dishwasher at a later time.

No worries. I am obligated for 2013 so the very first time I might be available would be the holidays of 2014.

Best regards,

RA1

[Suckrates]

I cook myself a Traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but never eat it that day because I hate hot turkey. I love it COLD. So on thanksgiving I eat all the trimmings with strip steak, and eat the turkey next day on a sandwich.....

I make my stuffing outside the turkey, in the form of a pie, and slice it... It has carmelized onions, dried cranberrys and cashew nuts, and can be eaten cold as well. .

[AdamSmith]

I cook myself a Traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but never eat it that day because I hate hot turkey. I love it COLD. So on thanksgiving I eat all the trimmings with strip steak, and eat the turkey next day on a sandwich.....

That is a brilliant idea. I feel the same way about turkey.

[RA1]

Interesting. Many years ago, because our grandmother got up so often to look after Christmas dinner, the family decided we would have Christmas dinner the day before. That started over 30 years ago and we continue it today. On Christmas day we can have nuked plates or sandwiches, whatever anyone wants without spending very much time in preparation.

Best regards,

RA1