Thanksgiving is less that two weeks away. Believe it or not, for someone who enjoys cooking as much as I do, this year will be the very first Thanksgiving I have ever made a dinner myself.
Growing up, we always went to my grandmother's house for an awkwardly formal meal. You could always hear the sound of cutlery on the plates and people swallowing. She'd make oyster dressing and because her husband was diabetic, there was no sugar in the whipped cream. Afterwards, we would head to my maternal uncle's house where things were more laid back, buffet style. My aunt always made corn (frozen) and served it in a ceramic dish shaped like corn. Here, nobody bothered with actually making whipped cream; they just bought Cool Whip. The food wasn't meticulously home made the way it was at my grandmother's, but it was more fun.
For the past five years or so I've joined my boyfriend and his family and we'd all go out to eat. Yes, I said it. We went out to eat - in a restaurant. The Madonna Inn, in San Luis Obispo, California to be more precise. There we sit in booths the color of Pepto Bismol in the midst of a forest of fake Christmas trees and eat a "Tom Turkey" dinner that comes with all the fixings. After dinner we'd take home styrofoam containers of chocolate silk or pumpkin pie.
It seems a lot of people find making a traditional turkey dinner to be a chore and have no interest. Watching various food programming all week there were numerous shows promising the ultimate bird, the perfect side dishes, tips on how to get the entire meal made in one hour, suggestions on how to use help from the grocery store (just buy the pie and make the whipped cream). It made me wonder about all of our traditions. Where do you all spend the holidays, with friends or family or both? Do you actually design a menu and create an elaborate sit-down dinner for 12 or is it more of a pot luck buffet? Do you go out to eat? How many of us use frozen corn or boxed stuffing mix? Come on admit it. No one is judging. (Well, a few of us might judge) As food lovers, do we feel pressure to really put on show and make THE PERFECT Thanksgiving meal?
I have never created the whole Thanksgiving meal myself, since usually we go to my grandmother's as well for a very protracted day of eating, nibbling, eating for real, then filling up the corners and rolling away dazed and stuffed. It's pretty amazing. As long as there are giblets in the stuffing, properly cooked inside the turkey, I am happy.
But I also do a Thanksgiving potluck with some friends the weekend before, and this year I'm bringing dessert, I think.
I want to know what everyone feels is absolutely obligatory to a Thanksgiving meal, too. I'm tempted to dump the pumpkin pie this year....
Grant, I loved your description of the Thanksgiving at your grandmother's, which reminded me of the scene in Annie Hall when Woody Allen has an awkward meal with Diane Keaton's super-WASP family....
Growing up (and at more recent Thanksgivings), the biggest problem was everything being served at once. As Americans we are accustomed to this, but come Thanksgiving, it really backfires. So if I host I will try to pace the food serving.
My chief departure this year will be the stuffing: I recently made stuffing for chicken at the last minute because I was handed a stale loaf of otherwise marvelous rosemary bread. I decided to add nothing to it, just stock from the giblet and neck to moisten. The result was outstanding.
despite growing up with parents who cooked and wrote cookbooks, the first meal i ever cooked was senior year at college. it was thanksgiving for the guy i had a crush on and all his friends. the guy and i ended up dating; i think that may be why cooking the meal holds a special place for me. it's also the one holiday meal in my mother's family that you don't miss. when i cook my basic meal is turkey, ham (i used to cook but now i buy a honeybaked), roasted baby vegetables (squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, etc) with olive oil and salt, gravy (no flour, i use pan drippings & wine), smashed potatoes (some combo of sweet & yukon gold with boxed chicken broth), fresh cranberry & orange sauce (i'll cop to trader joe's here), wild rice with mushrooms, stuffing with sausage & smoked oysters (i make), green salad, cheddar cheese and walnuts, apple pie with streusel topping, pumpkin roulade, pecan pie with ginger ice cream and lots of red wine -- all served buffet style. when it's the year of my mother's family (every other year), jello mold (i think faith posted about it the other day) and rented tables are a given and there will be at least ten other desserts (my mother and one of my cousins compete to see who can make the most), we will all crowd into the kitchen while the turkey's being carved and pick at it and later, although we will all complain about being stuffed, we'll all end up eating turkey sandwiches at midnight.
i love thanksgiving and the crazy messy familiness of the whole thing.
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday for 2 reasons: least commercial and food, food, food!
My cousins and their families all meet at my house and while the grownups cook, the kids meet upstairs to figure out a show to put on after dinner. This year we're having: butternut squash risotto to start, a smoked turkey, a traditional turkey, a ham, brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar, spinach gratin, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatos, and two types of stuffing and cranberry, manderin and madeira sauce. And don't forget the highlight every year -- my cousin's gravy with creme fraiche and port -- so delicious you could drink it from the gravy boat.
For dessert: pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate hazelnut tarte, tarte tatin, homemade whipped cream and chocolate truffles.At some point we go out for the obligatory walk around the block to revive ourselves from our food coma. It continues the next day with lots of turkey and stuffing sandwiches. Love my family and love the day!
There are just three of us and every year we say we are going to a restaurant and at the last minute I say I just can't do it and go to the store for the last fresh turkey. I only do turkey, stuffing, mashed pots, and green beans though. I'll buy a pumpkin pie and get spray whipping cream. Nothing fancy, nothing lavish but just perfect.
Thanksgiving is my wife's favorite holiday--I like it a lot too. Although I cook, this day is hers. I make a salad and garlicky mashed potatoes. She does the rest--turkey, a cold sweet potato soup to begin, pumpkin pie, hazelnut cheesecake and, instead of stuffing and in deference to her eastern European heritage, kasha. One taste of kasha and gravy, and no one complains about the lack of stuffing.
for the past few years, some friends and I have had a rotating "orphan thanksgiving", where we basically get together at 10 am for mimosas and attempt to cook about an hour later. Frankly, I'm ready to take over the pastry department, because last year's pies (NOT mine!) were terrible, if made with good intentions.
This year, I'm thinking screw tradition!- I'll make tortilla soup and miso/walnut green beans and dumplings and tortas (with chorizo for meatatarians, avocado for veggies), and ozgood pie and perhaps a chestnut panna cotta. Sadly, there will only be 3 of us, but I plan on eating more than my share.
As we've gotten older, Thanksgiving has become very important in my large family (7). Since even the youngest of us is now going to college, we're all split up and all over the state of Texas, so Thanksgiving is one of the very few occasions that we all see each other at one time.
The food is always traditional. We all have our favorites and the sum of them all creates a large meal. I demand green bean casserole, another sister demands green rice, another wants mashed potatoes, another wants Granny's strawberry jell-o salad, and the last sister will want to manhandle the turkey with an injector. Mom wants the bizarre canned cranberry sauce, Dad wants his pecan pie...
Usually, I help Mom with all the cooking, but this year I'm waylaid by illness, so hopefully another sister will step up to the plate.
i come from a mixed religious background, so thanksgiving became our family's priority holiday.
until recently, we did do the traditional turkey and sides every year, but then my parents decided to retire to the caribbean, where my mother had lived for many years as a child.
it is an american territory, so the supermarkets do order in the traditional foods, but we're having fun playing with mahi-mahi and mango and avocados and black beans and coconut rice. fortunately pumpkin (or calabacita) is also native, so i still get to have pie. and honestly, i don't like turkey all that much anyway. :)
(for what it's worth, we have deep-fried a turkey, and it came out moister and more flavorful than i've ever had it before, so don't dismiss it as a fad.)
I used to do all the traditional things - turkey, stuffing, all the extras - and it just got to be too much. I do a meal now, but it might be lasagna - anything to not be in the kitchen the whole time, rather than socializing with my kids and friends! We do make sure we observe one tradition - Fran's chocolates makes a huge chocolate turkey, and we have the traditional post-dinner hammering of the turkey, to the delight of my (now) 12-year-old.
Love reading about everyone's Thanksgiving. It's my husband's and our grown kids' favorite holiday--no obligations except to visit, play football, watch football, and eat.
We make sure we have everyone's favorite dish, so our menu is turkey, sausage-apple-mushroom stuffing, my husband's incredible mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted yams, candied yams, three kinds of cranberry sauce, rolls-either homemade or from our favorite bakery, olive salad, and the obligatory crudites and antipasti. We eliminated vegetables and dessert a couple of years ago, since no one really cared about those.
The funny thing (to me) is that I don't like Thanksgiving dinner, but everyone thinks my stuffing and gravy are the best ever. I usually eat everything but the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. My favorite thing is the cold turkey sandwiches afterwards.
No veggies?!?!? Thanksgiving is supposed to about the abundance of the harvest - mainly veggies. I am disappointed that you would eliminated what is supposed to be the star of a traditional thanksgiving dinner. shame on you. =(
PS: I'm a vegetarian so I'm a bit biased. Sorry.
well, hear it guys - We do not celebrate Thanksgiving. I am a native American.
Only one other year did I host any part of Thanksgiving at my place, and it was just the dessert part, back in 1998, when I had a smaller apartment.
So this is the first time it will ever be where the whole thing is at my place and it's only going to be 5 people for dinner, and then another will join us for dessert.
I'm cooking practically none of it; one of my friends will do some of prep at his place, and then schlep that to my house to actually cook it.
Dessert is going to be pumpkin pie from Sarabeth's with cream that we will whip ourselves.
Our family has a tradition of planting the year's garlic on Thanksgiving day. Everyone plants a clove or two after dinner, these harvest into bunches the following year.