What do you Americans eat for Thanksgiving??

We have all this for Thanksgiving:

• Turkey
• Ham
• Rolls
• Homemade stuffing
• Fruit Salad
• Peanut Butter Pie
• Dirt Cake (Oreo Pie)
• Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows
• Corn and Green beans
• Pumpkin roll
• Mash potatoes
• Brown Gravy

We go all out at Thanksgiving because it's one of the only times we can have all the family together. My grandma is going on 80 years old and she gives us money to make some of the items. My duty this year is the turkey, stuffing, and dirt cake. She wants us all to enjoy ourselves while we're there together for those few hours.

We also eat Turkey for Christmas because turkey is only 88 cents a pound during November and December.

Thanksgiving, for me is : Roasted turkey, sausage stuffing, gravy, some type of venison (usually grilled back straps), green bean casserole (so good), cheesy potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls (yeast) or Hawaiian (a little sweeter),Sweet potatoes (yams) not sweetened, and for dessert pumpkin pie. This has been our menu for 45 years (since I was a kid, and now into adult hood). I would not have it any other way. Christmas is pretty much the same except no turkey, its ham.

Pumpkin pie is not a stereotype....it's an American tradition!! Classic Thanksgiving dessert. Of course, we eat it all year...yummy!!

mrsmackieblacky wrote: »

When you say rolls do you mean like bread buns?? Thats strange to me to have a bread bun with what we call "Sunday dinner". Also do you eat pumpkin pie or is that a stereotype??

It's a dinner roll, maybe like a very small bun.

Pumpkin pie, or some form of pumpkin dessert, will usually be found. We're picking ours up this week from the local butcher shop/bakery, then freezing it until the night before.

My dinner is usually smaller than average...turkey, mashed potatoes, and some type of vegetable casserole. Then the pie and date pudding.

My in laws are children of Italian American immigrants to the Bay Area. This is their meal:

- Assorted focaccia from a bakery in North Beach, San Francisco. Also, an antipasto platter with cured meats, cheeses, olives, etc.
- A green salad with freshly picked Dungeness crab meat (not possible this year; crab season is indefinitely closed due to high bacteria)
- Very high quality homemade meat & cheese ravioli from a small local factory. Served with a special sugo my MIL makes.
- A roasted turkey with my MIL's chestnut stuffing.
- Oven roasted sweet & white potato wedges.
- Green beans.
- Several pies, usually pecan & pumpkin.

My family is very traditional.

We have:

• Turkey (cooking method will vary)
• Dressing (aka stuffing) (actual recipe will vary)
• Potatoes (may be mashed or au gratin or scalloped)
• Some kind of veggie (NEVER green bean casserole)
• Corn pudding
• cranberry sauce (I live in Wisconsin which is the #1 cranberry producing state so we have lots of cranberry stuff: juice, sauce, wine, cranberry apple pie, etc)
• dinner rolls (my specialty, I vary the recipe)
• Pumpkin pie
• some other pie or dessert for those who do not like pumpkin

ETA: we usually do not do turkey for Christmas dinner. We are more likely to have ham, a good beef roast, or something extra special like lobster and steak ("surf and turf") for Christmas dinner. More often than not, we will have turkey for Thanksgiving, beef for Christmas, and ham for Easter. We did sometimes have turkey for Christmas dinner while growing up because it was the least expensive of all of the "fancy" meats and money was tight.

Thanksgiving in my Southern family is the mid day meal and includes

Roast and fried turkey

Honey glazed ham with Jezebel sauce (a sweet /spicy horseradish sauce)

Cornbread dressing

Gravey

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potato casserole

Cranberry relish and sauce

Broccoli and cheese casserole

Mac and cheese

Rolls

Lots of dessert choices but always pumpkin pie and pecan pie

For dinner we eat leftovers with turkey and ham sandwiches.

Christmas is much more casual for us. As a kid we'd have a big breakfast then kinda snack through the day. Now, with my hubby and kids we usually have cinnamon rolls for breakfast then have family over for soups and sandwichs or finger foods. We also usually have hot drinks like cocoa and spiced cider with Christmas cookies.

nicolebaugh518 wrote: »

mrsmackieblacky wrote: »

When you say rolls do you mean like bread buns?? Thats strange to me to have a bread bun with what we call "Sunday dinner". Also do you eat pumpkin pie or is that a stereotype??

Yeah. Most people eat pumpkin pie, but I don't find it appealing. I prefer sweet potato pie

Can't stand either. This is why we always have 2 desserts: pumpkin pie and something else. The something else more often than not is apple or cranberry-apple pie. I'll probably make a cranberry cheesecake this year.

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.

auddii wrote: »

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!!!!!!!!!!!

Pizza, ice cream and chips

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.

RodaRose wrote: »

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.