Americans! Thanksgiving!

24

Replies

  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    Did anyone mention pumpkin pie?
  • StellaRose227
    StellaRose227 Posts: 43 Member
    For those of you who like the canned cranberry sauce: During the rest of the year, if I start craving Thanksgiving type foods, I'll make meatloaf out of ground turkey, bell peppers, onions, and Stovetop cornbread stuffing mix. Then top the whole thing with half a can of cranberry sauce. It's awesome. My husband will eat the leftovers on yeast rolls (the kind that are frozen as single rolls) and says it's like a whole Thanksgiving dinner crammed into one sandwich.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
    After Dinner left over: One slice rye bread, several slices turkey, swiss sheese, stuffing, gravy. Pop in the microwave for a minute, or maybe a little less. Warmed open faced sandwich. yum.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
    And remember, Calories eaten on Thanksgiving DON'T COUNT.
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
    Mmm, Thanksgiving food! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

    I come from a big Southern family. Our stuffing isn't stuffing. We call it dressing. It's cornbread based and baked in pans before being cut into squares for serving. Because there are so many of us we usually have 2 turkeys, 1 brined and roasted and one deep fried along with a Honey glazed ham. We have a Jezebel sauce with the ham, which is one of my favorite parts of the meal.

    My family doesn't do the marshmallow topped sweet potatoes. We have a family recipe that has shredded coconut in the sweet potatoes and is topped with a cooked down mix of maraschino cherries, crushed pineapple, and pecans that's been dyed bright red. It is absolutely my favorite Thanksgiving food.
  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,472 Member
    anewday23 wrote: »
    Almost everyone has the following menu:
    Roasted turkey with stuffing
    Mashed potato with turkey gravy
    Cranberry sauce (canned usually)
    Sweet potatoes (the mini marshmallow recipe is super traditional)
    Green bean casserole (Campbell's recipe usually)
    Pumpkin pie

    Of course everyone does it a bit differently but this is the most traditional American spread.
    This is pretty legit. Add in some rolls, cheesy potatoes, wine and bloody marys
  • AngryViking1970
    AngryViking1970 Posts: 2,847 Member
    anewday23 wrote: »
    Almost everyone has the following menu:
    Roasted turkey with stuffing
    Mashed potato with turkey gravy
    Cranberry sauce (canned usually)
    Sweet potatoes (the mini marshmallow recipe is super traditional)
    Green bean casserole (Campbell's recipe usually)
    Pumpkin pie

    Of course everyone does it a bit differently but this is the most traditional American spread.

    Yep. Holy hell, I can't wait for Thanksgiving.
  • zichab
    zichab Posts: 1,493 Member
    edited September 2015
    I leave out the rolls and make corn bread - so yummy with fresh salted butter. Apple pie is also traditional for Thanksgiving, at least in the northeastern U.S., because we have plenty of beautiful, freshly harvested apples to use.

    What most Americans will not believe is how much turkeys cost in Europe! My daughter-in-law loves American Thanksgiving dinner and she makes it at Christmas when we are all together. In Netherlands, she orders the turkey a week ahead and for one that is 12-15 pounds she pays 120 Euros, which is $130.00! Hopefully, they are a bit cheaper in the UK :)
  • michaelafoor916
    michaelafoor916 Posts: 710 Member
    you MUST have pumpkin pie lol just sayin' it's not thanksgiving without the pumpkin pie.... oh and stuffing. my two favs
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited September 2015
    cityruss wrote: »
    Hello.

    I'm over here in the UK, and as a family we like to do big celebration dinners, you know, Halloween, Easter, birthdays, Christmas, new year, Chinese new year, Diwali, basically anything we can have a food fest about.

    One such thing we have never attempted before is a Thanksgiving dinner, and this year I wish to change that.

    I've found plenty of menus online, but I'd love to here from some real life Americans as to what they eat, and how I can create a proper authentic Thanksgiving dinner.

    Also, please tell me this is a proper authentic Thanksgiving staple..

    http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/sweet-potatoes-with-marshmallows

    Thanks.

    :# It's interesting how many people are saying that's a favourite recipe for thanksgiving... it sounds gross to me hahaha (no offence).

    Canadians have Thanksgiving too! And it'll be at the same time as yours.

    Typically we'd eat:

    Turkey with gravy and or cranberry sauce
    Mashed potatoes (other might do scalloped potatoes or lemon potatoes)
    Stuffing
    Green beans
    Creamed corn (or corn on the cob)
    Buns and butter
    Pumpkin pie for dessert! With whipped cream on it, of course. And usually served warm with vanilla ice cream on the side.

    My family also adds in cabbage rolls. I'm not sure if that's our German coming through though.
  • NicoleL874
    NicoleL874 Posts: 675 Member
    kristydi wrote: »

    Our stuffing isn't stuffing. We call it dressing.

    The distinction is important. My grandmother always said even if the recipe is the same...if it's in the bird it's been stuffed. If it's cooked OUTSIDE the bird, it's been dressed. I like the texture/consistency of dressing much better than the wet, weird, sogginess of the stuffing. *shudder*
  • mygnsac
    mygnsac Posts: 13,413 Member
    edited September 2015
    It's just my Dad and I now so the last few years he and I have just gone out to a restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner. Been nice, but it's nothing like the big homemade spread. When my Mom and I cooked the Thanksgiving meal, our typical meal was:
    • Roasted turkey
    • Turkey gravy (boil the turkey neck and innards to make a broth and use that along with the juice in the turkey pan after the turkey has cooked to make the gravy.
    • Canned jellied cranberry sauce (we were never whole cranberry people)
    • Homemade cornbread stuffing/dressing (some regions call it stuffing even if it's not being stuffed into the bird, some call it dressing). We cook up a batch of cornbread the day before Thanksgiving to use in the dressing the next day. We stopped stuffing dressing into the bird in the 90s.
    • Mashed Potatoes, mashed with evaporated milk, and with butter, salt, pepper to taste.
    • Roasted veggies, usually brussel sprouts, carrots and/or butternut squash
    • Campbell's cream of mushroom soup green bean casserole
    • Yams (we usually eat them plain, but for the holiday our favorite recipe is to boil 6 medium sweet potatoes till tender, peel, mash with 1/8 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and pineapple juice from canned pineapple to taste (the pineapple juice adds a tang and breaks up the sweetness), mix in chopped walnuts, spread in casserole dish and top with pineapple rings, put a large marshmallow in the middle of each ring and a halved maraschino cherry on top of each marshmallow, bake at 400 degrees until the marshmallows have browned up). This is always a big hit at holiday potlucks at work.
    • Dinner rolls
    • A few homemade pies, usually a pumpkin pie (my Dad's fav) and a chocolate cream pie (my Moms fav) and a lemon meringue pie (my fav)


  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    you MUST have pumpkin pie lol just sayin' it's not thanksgiving without the pumpkin pie.... oh and stuffing. my two favs

    I don't like stuffing. Or I guess it's the way my husband makes it...

    Definitely want to have cornbread on the menu this year. It's seriously one of my favorite things ever.

    And pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert.
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    you MUST have pumpkin pie lol just sayin' it's not thanksgiving without the pumpkin pie.... oh and stuffing. my two favs

    I don't like stuffing. Or I guess it's the way my husband makes it...

    Definitely want to have cornbread on the menu this year. It's seriously one of my favorite things ever.

    And pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert.

    I do dressing. My mom used to make a cornbread and sage sausage dressing which is one of my favorite things ever. I make my own version of it now, which isn't as good as hers, but my family loves it.

    I have a food microbiology background. I just can't do stuffing very well. I worry too much :).

  • noclady1995
    noclady1995 Posts: 452 Member
    anewday23 wrote: »
    Almost everyone has the following menu:
    Roasted turkey with stuffing
    Mashed potato with turkey gravy
    Cranberry sauce (canned usually)
    Sweet potatoes (the mini marshmallow recipe is super traditional)
    Green bean casserole (Campbell's recipe usually)
    Pumpkin pie

    Of course everyone does it a bit differently but this is the most traditional American spread.

    Pretty much this! We brine our turkey because it just gives it that much more flavor. We make the gravy out of the drippings from the turkey. We don't really like pumpkin pie, but always have one anyway, in addition to maybe an apple pie or some other pie. And don't forget the ROLLS and BUTTER!!! Oh, and for the stuffing, we usually just make the kind that comes in a bag/box. I can't wait until Thanksgiving!!
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    Oh. I guess dressing and stuffing is kind of different. One's a side dish! So edit my post before to say dressing.
  • janiep81
    janiep81 Posts: 248 Member
    My mom makes the best stuffing/dressing around. There are cornbread dressing people (often southerners) and white bread dressing people(often northerners). My mom, a native of Louisville, KY, a hybrid southern/midwestern town, combines both! Its brilliant. She sautees onions and celery, combines Stovetop stuffing and a whole loaf of white bread cut into cubes, adds copious amounts of poultry seasoning and chicken broths, bakes and bakes and just keeps tasting it until its just right. I've never tasted another recipe as good as hers. My husband (who obviously wasn't raised with the recipe) agrees. Her dressing is the best!
  • MsJulesRenee
    MsJulesRenee Posts: 1,180 Member
    edited September 2015
    Cranberry Apple pie! tasteofhome.com/recipes/cranberry-apple-pie

    We make cranberry sauce with crushed pineapple and raspberries in my house. Not as tart as the plain cranberry version and the kids like it better.
  • kbolton322
    kbolton322 Posts: 358 Member
    Here in Texas I make inject my turkey's with a mixture of seasonings and fry(not greasy at all) them, mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, green been casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls. I also bake a nice big mix of pies like cherry pie, pecan pie, buttermilk pie, and pumpkin pie.
  • LaceyBirds
    LaceyBirds Posts: 451 Member
    I grew up in the 60s with a mother that didn't make many "recipes" - much of our food came out of cans. Sometimes, our traditional Thanksgiving foods are looked at askance by visitors (and I'm sure will be by readers of this thread), and as the years pass, the kids in the family are replacing most of the canned foods with "real" foods.

    If I had it my way, I would still do it my mom's way - it's what I grew up with, what I like, and what is "traditional" for me. Here it is, sad as may be :wink::
    • Turkey stuffed with simple bread dressing - torn up loaves of bread browned in scads of chopped onions, in Crisco and, if available, bacon grease. Soaked in the turkey juices, it is yum - we always fight over who gets how much of the limited stuffing. :)
    • Mashed potatoes with real butter and reams of turkey gravy.
    • Canned Princella cut sweet potatoes - a couple of large cans poured into a large bowl with all the juice, sprinkled with plenty of brown sugar, dotted with butter, and smothered in either mini or large marshmallows (depending on if we remembered to buy them before the stores ran out - and they do run out).
    • Green beans. I don't like green beans, so no clue how they are cooked.
    • Birdseye creamed onions - frozen.
    • Canned cranberry jelly, sliced. The best part of the tradition is trying to get them out of the can in one perfect piece, accompanied by the familiar and satisfying "thwoop" sound they make when they come out of the can. :smiley:

      r3zn7226t49l.jpg
    • Rolls - different kinds, Hawaiian sweet rolls occasionally, but I prefer buttermilk biscuits from the tube.
    • Pumpkin pie. Always pumpkin pie.

    All this must be accompanied by (mostly the men) watching American football. And followed by everybody, after finishing dinner, loudly proclaiming, while patting their bellies, that the tryptophan in the turkey is making them sooooo sleepy, and several folks taking a nap. Without this last part, it is not a true American Thanksgiving. (Shhhh . . . the tryptophan part is false - it's the sheer volume of food that does us all in - but don't tell anybody). :smiley:
  • LindaSmith108
    LindaSmith108 Posts: 19 Member
    yusaku02 wrote: »
    anewday23 wrote: »
    Almost everyone has the following menu:
    Roasted turkey with stuffing
    Mashed potato with turkey gravy
    Cranberry sauce (canned usually)
    Sweet potatoes (the mini marshmallow recipe is super traditional)
    Green bean casserole (Campbell's recipe usually)
    Pumpkin pie

    Of course everyone does it a bit differently but this is the most traditional American spread.
    This is pretty legit. Add in some rolls, cheesy potatoes, wine and bloody marys

    We have a fairly simple Thanksgiving dinner. The kids and their families come over.The food is fairly tradional,some of it from a box or can (what can I say, child of the 60s). Of course we have turkey but a must have is a big bowl of Stove Top stuffing. We have real mashed potatoes and gravy, Princella canned sweet potatoes, drained and rinsed that are mashed with a little nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice. We also always have my grandmother's macaroni and cheese casserole, Campbell"s green bean casserole, canned cranberry sauce and at least a pumpkin pie. If I feel ambitious, I'll also make an apple and a coconut custard pie. There are always at least 2 cans of black olives, a big bottle of dill pickles and some sweet pickles (the grandkids will have most of these gone before dinner). We don't have any bread or rolls but once in a while we'll have mashed rutabaga or peas and onions. This is our traditional dinner for all the holidays. If I changed it at all my kids would mutiny.:) We usually eat around 2:00 by the time all the kids are here. They usually go to work or their in-laws (for a second dinner or dessert) around 5 or so. If my husband and I haven
  • lizzocat
    lizzocat Posts: 356 Member
    at my house we do turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, gravy, popovers. Depending on who is coming, we sometimes add in sweet potato casserole and creamed spinach. And of course, dessert!
  • kristinels
    kristinels Posts: 315 Member
    VeryKatie wrote: »
    My family also adds in cabbage rolls. I'm not sure if that's our German coming through though.

    In my family (also of fairly predominant German heritage), cabbage rolls are for New Years! Lol! :P Although, we make what I think is the 'Czech' version of cabbage rolls with sauerkraut, crushed tomatoes, and kielbasa. They're absolutely delicous.

    I'm SO ready for Thanksgiving now! I'll be Googling some of the menu items you all have listed - it's nice to change things up from time to time - and some of those dishes sounded so yummy. In my family, it's tradition to - of course - burn the dinner rolls. We always forget about the damn rolls... Lol!

  • KellieTru
    KellieTru Posts: 285 Member
    salembambi wrote: »
    A Canadian Thanksgiving must imo is

    Nanaimo Bars
    Butter Tarts

    Yesssssssss!
  • rune1990
    rune1990 Posts: 543 Member
    Does any other eastern-ish coast Canadian have the infamous mashed turnip with brown sugar and butter? Only ever served at thanksgiving lol.

    And yep, pumpkin pie and butter tarts for desert :)
  • trisH_7183
    trisH_7183 Posts: 1,486 Member
    Roast turkey breast
    Sage Stuffing with walnuts
    Mashed potatoes with real butter
    Home made noodles in home made chicken broth
    Deviled eggs
    Home made cranberry relish
    Home grown corn (froze)
    Asparagus
    Hot rolls

    Pumpkin & apple pie with whipped cream
    Candied nuts
    Coffee,tea & milk
  • KellieTru
    KellieTru Posts: 285 Member
    rune1990 wrote: »
    Does any other eastern-ish coast Canadian have the infamous mashed turnip with brown sugar and butter? Only ever served at thanksgiving lol.

    And yep, pumpkin pie and butter tarts for desert :)

    I'm not east coast but we do the mashed turnip always with Turkey...not just at Thanksgiving :)
    For our Thanksgiving dinner (yesterday) I did something different. Tried a butter cup squash mash. Split it in half, removed the seeds, coated the cut sides with a small amt butter, sprinkled with sm amt brown sugar, added s&p. Placed in container cut side up and foiled the top...baked approx 1 hr @350F. Scooped flesh out of the skin and mashed. Delicious!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    rune1990 wrote: »
    Does any other eastern-ish coast Canadian have the infamous mashed turnip with brown sugar and butter? Only ever served at thanksgiving lol.

    And yep, pumpkin pie and butter tarts for desert :)

    I've never had butter tarts. Now I feel deprived.
  • vicky1947mfp
    vicky1947mfp Posts: 1,515 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    rune1990 wrote: »
    Does any other eastern-ish coast Canadian have the infamous mashed turnip with brown sugar and butter? Only ever served at thanksgiving lol.

    And yep, pumpkin pie and butter tarts for desert :)

    I've never had butter tarts. Now I feel deprived.

    I believe a butter tart is about the same as our pecan tarts or pie. But without the pecans.
  • ettaterrell
    ettaterrell Posts: 887 Member
    My fav things is asparagus casserole, green bean casserole and one thing that is a must is DEVILED EGGs!!!
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