What do you Americans eat for Thanksgiving??
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Finally spoke to my mother yesterday about the menu, and talked her down from ALL the traditional stuff to something more reasonable (there's going to be 8 of us there):
- Turkey
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Roasted asparagus with balsamic reduction
- Corn casserole (family friend is bringing this; it's not traditional for us, but we're skipping stuffing because of it)
- Some kind of fake turkey for my sister-in-law who is vegetarian
- Probably some kind of bread product (usually Americanized croissants)
- Whatever pie my dad feels like making
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We are usually turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, some sort of new recipe, pumpkin pie and apple pie
for christmas, it's usually ham, mash potatoes, green beans, salad of some sort. and lots and lots of cookies.0 -
Thanksgiving: turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, corn, carrots, cranberry sauce, rolls, and lots of different dessert options including pumpkin pie, cookies, cheesecake, etc.
Christmas Eve: lasagna, stuffed shells, salad, rolls, desserts (cookies, pie, etc)
Christmas Day: usually a roast of some kind
Easter: ham0 -
Finally spoke to my mother yesterday about the menu, and talked her down from ALL the traditional stuff to something more reasonable (there's going to be 8 of us there):
- Turkey
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Roasted asparagus with balsamic reduction
- Corn casserole (family friend is bringing this; it's not traditional for us, but we're skipping stuffing because of it)
- Some kind of fake turkey for my sister-in-law who is vegetarian
- Probably some kind of bread product (usually Americanized croissants)
- Whatever pie my dad feels like making
Yay for corn casserole (aka corn pudding)! It almost rivals the dressing as the best part of the meal IMHO. Don't skip the dressing . . . have both! My SIL makes it every year and we scarf down the entire dish. Very high calorie and high fat, but super tasty!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wow! So would you all say Thanksgiving is the biggest feast of the year or still Christmas?0
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Pizza, ice cream and chips0
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mrsmackieblacky wrote: »Wow! So would you all say Thanksgiving is the biggest feast of the year or still Christmas?
In our family it is both on a pretty equal basis. Thanksgiving is all about the food. Christmas is the food plus a bunch of other things.0 -
Pie choices are regional. Some southerners like sweet potato pie, pecan pie, key lime pie.
Choices for stuffing (or dressing as we call it) are also regional -- cornbread, rice, oyster, sausage.0 -
Everything that isn't nailed down
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Pie choices are regional. Some southerners like sweet potato pie, pecan pie, key lime pie.
Choices for stuffing (or dressing as we call it) are also regional -- cornbread, rice, oyster, sausage.
I am in the upper midwest and my family heritage, food wise, tends towards the English/Scottish and German side so we always do a basic sage and onion dressing without the giblets.0 -
Kidding aside, usually
A turkey
Stuffing or dressing (two names are used interchangeably for old bread sopped in broth and spices)
Cranberry sauce or jelly (Sauce is thinner and probably has cranberry pieces in it..jelly is the consistency of jam)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (turkey gravy)
Usually some type of yam (Sweet potato) dessert, usually candied with brown sugar and often with pecans or marshmallows
Dessert is usually pumpkin pie or pumpkin something else (pumpkin parfait for example). There usually are a couple other options..fruit pies, maybe a pecan pie or sweet potato pie0 -
mrsmackieblacky wrote: »Wow! So would you all say Thanksgiving is the biggest feast of the year or still Christmas?
It's a big country and I think Christmas traditions vary a lot more than Thanksgiving. Some people do a big dinner on Christmas or Christmas Eve, some don't.
In my area Thanksgiving is definitely the biggest feast of the year for most people. Christmas is usually spread out for weeks with various parties and gatherings. And Christmas day/eve is a smaller more intimate dinner.
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I ate at one of our cities' treasures yesterday and it is advertising an American Thanksgiving dinner, very close to the Canadian one.
http://highleveldiner.com/whats-new/0 -
I'm a Canadian who lives in Alberta (western side of the country at the foot of the Rockies). We had Thanksgiving in early October probably because our harvest and autumn hits earler up here - it snowed a couple of inches last night.
We had the stereotypical Turkey, stuffing, gren bean casserole, turnip and carrot casserole, salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, and ham, with pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.
We'll probably do the same for Christmas unless we decide to go with a traditional meatless (excluding the fish) Ukranian dinner; typically a turkey dinner is less work so I do that. LOL
We're also having turkey dinner this weekend for my inlaws whom we haven't had a holiday with in a ouple of years. Turkey dinners are work, but they are worth the leftovers.
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The more traditional foods for Thanksgiving like turkey, potatoes. pumpkin, cranberries, etc. are all foods most readily available in the fall, especially in New England and the upper midwest. The traditional "turkey with all the trimmings" dinner was popularized around the turn of the last century and solidified by this Norman Rockwell magazine cover called "Freedom from Want":
Before this, dinner was usually whatever was available either from the family farm or what hunters were able to get. The "First Thanksgiving" was most likely to be venison, game birds, shellfish, and berries and grains found in the forest.0 -
"What do you Americans eat for Thanksgiving?"
Everything in sight, plus more. He, he0 -
It really depends on the family. Turkey, dressing ("stuffing"), and pumpin pie are going to be served up on most tables. Potatoes of some sort and cranberry sauce often make a showing. After that, you never know. Anything is possible.
Everyone eats themselves sick and then many people watch football.
It a more an excuse to see family that you haven't seen in a while than it is a celebration of America or pilgrims with giant belts. I like the decorations, though.
When I was young, we had ham for Christmas. When I got older, we had pizza. As an adult, I did the ham thing with potatoes, Mac n cheese, apple dish and green beans.0 -
What I find very interesting is that we have this picture of turkey, potatoes, green beans, pumpkin, cranberries, etc all being eaten in a New England setting. Most of the foods we associate with a traditional American Thanksgiving (except cranberries) are actually indigenous to Central and South America and were introduced to the colonies by the explorers. Turkeys (Mexico along with the Southern forests of the US), potatoes (Chile) , green beans (Peru), pumpkins (Mexico), etc. Cranberries are originally from New England (especially the boglands of Massachusetts and southern Maine) but are now grown in a number of places, Wisconsin being the biggest producer.
Turkeys were already making their way north by the time North America was being explored and the first European settlers were establishing towns. They are really smart, wily birds that spread quickly. They were almost completely wiped out in my state and were re-introduced in the mid 1970's. Now they are a major pest.0 -
Finally spoke to my mother yesterday about the menu, and talked her down from ALL the traditional stuff to something more reasonable (there's going to be 8 of us there):
- Turkey
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Roasted asparagus with balsamic reduction
- Corn casserole (family friend is bringing this; it's not traditional for us, but we're skipping stuffing because of it)
- Some kind of fake turkey for my sister-in-law who is vegetarian
- Probably some kind of bread product (usually Americanized croissants)
- Whatever pie my dad feels like making
Yay for corn casserole (aka corn pudding)! It almost rivals the dressing as the best part of the meal IMHO. Don't skip the dressing . . . have both! My SIL makes it every year and we scarf down the entire dish. Very high calorie and high fat, but super tasty!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha, my mom and I were being lazy. Turns out that my sister-in-law is not being lazy and will bring stuffing. So both for us!0 -
Finally spoke to my mother yesterday about the menu, and talked her down from ALL the traditional stuff to something more reasonable (there's going to be 8 of us there):
- Turkey
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Roasted asparagus with balsamic reduction
- Corn casserole (family friend is bringing this; it's not traditional for us, but we're skipping stuffing because of it)
- Some kind of fake turkey for my sister-in-law who is vegetarian
- Probably some kind of bread product (usually Americanized croissants)
- Whatever pie my dad feels like making
Yay for corn casserole (aka corn pudding)! It almost rivals the dressing as the best part of the meal IMHO. Don't skip the dressing . . . have both! My SIL makes it every year and we scarf down the entire dish. Very high calorie and high fat, but super tasty!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha, my mom and I were being lazy. Turns out that my sister-in-law is not being lazy and will bring stuffing. So both for us!
Woohoo!0
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