[resident1fan]

So thanksgiving is quickly approaching us, so the question of the day is how do you mix the holiday up? What exotic twist do you guys apply to the traditional "thanksgiving" dishes? I grew up with parents that always made a plain dinner so recently I just started making home made gravy, from stock fat and a thickening agent. So basicly I would find any different traditions or dishes interesting.

thanks in advance

[greyeaglem]

Thanksgiving is the one holiday we don't mess with. We make the same things every years because we all like them. I have one sister that always tries to "shake things up", and it just irritates the rest of us. One year she put garlic in the mashed potatoes (not good with turkey gravy). Last year we made the mistake of letting her do the green bean casserole. She "tweaked" it and no one was happy. No one said anything to her face, but there was talk of where we were going to bury the body. We always have turkey (masterfully cooked by my brother-in-law). Sometimes we have duck too. There's always a second meat as my step dad doesn't like any kind of fowl. This can vary from ham to prime rib to BBQ ribs. Then there's mashed potatoes, dressing, cranberry fluff (a salad made of ground raw cranberries, crushed pineapple, grapes, marshmallows, whipped cream and walnuts or pecans), and either green bean casserole or scalloped corn. Other dishes may be added, but the core things never change. There's always pumpkin and pecan pie, and whatever other pies or desserts anyone feels like bringing. Olives, both black and green and and pickles. There's enough chaos and insecurity in the world. Thanksgiving dinner is not to be messed with. The sister who always wants to change things says we always eat the same thing every year. The rest of us say "Yeah, that's the point".

[indianwells]

I'm always over in the US at Thanksgiving but there are only 4 of us so I don't buy the whole bird. I find the smallest crown I can and roast that. We have roast potatoes, veggies, cranberry sauce, gravy and Yorkshire pudding!
Not a fan of turkey to be honest, would rather have roast beef but when in Rome and all that, we like to join in the celebration.
Definitely going to try and make a green bean casserole this year.

[HappyFood]

We always try to make a meal made almost entirely from foods indigenous to the Americas. Not very hard, I must say, as most traditional Thanksgiving foods feature indigenous foods.

I hate that yucky green bean casserole the fried onions that everyone makes and do one that my Mom always made with french-cut beans, ricotta, sour cream and Swiss cheese. I know, not indigenous, but everyone likes it so I keep making it.

Other dishes I like to include are: spicy succotash, fresh corn spoonbread, or macque choux. Wild rice is also really yummy cooked with wild mushrooms and cattail roots (when I can sneak into the swamp and dig some up.)

My partner complains that Thanksgiving dishes while always good with complex flavor, tend to be too heavy on the carbs. Well, why not just eat more turkey to balance it all out?

[Suzanne]

For the past few years, we've had a pescatarian guest, so we do sauteed marinated squid! Not that I'd expect anyone to do only that, but the year I did that plus turkey, all the squid got eaten up!

People who come to my house expect me to do something "different" and I'm happy to oblige. The year I had to make everything kosher (no dairy products, no pork), I made mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk instead of butter/cream. Wow, was that good! And when I was expecting a vegan to join us, the soup was a mushroom-chestnut puree (mushroom stock, mirepoix, lots of fresh and dried mushrooms, all blended together).

I too like to make succotash, with beans, corn, and squash (the Three Sisters) plus Jerusalem artichokes and lots of chopped onions. When I made it in a kosher version, I added chopped kosher smoked turkey; when I can use nonkosher ingredients, it's either smoked pork or smoked turkey. Even in a vegetarian or vegan version without the meat, it's substantial enough to be a main course.

Now I have a stovetop smoker, so I'm thinking about making a smoked turkey breast instead of a whole bird (too much for just the few of us). I've been practicing and had some really good outcomes, esp. since I've got a farmers' market nearby where I can get excellent fresh turkey.

[Pete]

I'm one of those that fall into the "don't mess with it" crowd. I cook/smoke the turkey on the weber. We serve mashed potatoes, dressing, corn, another vegetable, usually beans of some sort buth changes up a little, homemade noodles (if we are with my parents as my dad makes the noodles), cranberry relish, gravy, pumpkin and pecan pie. Pumpkin pie is always on the menu but sometimes we change up the pecan pie. The one place where things change up and we get creative is with the relish tray. Pickled eggs, pickled beets, pickled onions, dilly beans and other various items make the rounds.

We change up Christmas dinner quite often but Thanksgiving is very traditional in our family. We still don't let dad forget the year, when we owned the restaurant, he did a turkey roll and an abridged menu for T-day. We closed the restaurant and the last thing he wanted to do was cook. He never made that mistake again!!!

[bubbamom]

I'm in the "don't mess with a good thing" group. Our Thanksgiving dinner is pretty much the same every year (I fear a lynching if there were any major changes) and includes oven roasted turkey, dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes (not the marshmallow type, but cooked with orange slices, brown sugar and butter) home made gravey, buttercup squash, rutabega, home made jellied cranberries, cranberry relish and, of course the pies - pumpkin, butterscotch and apple. To top off the meal, there's plenty of hot coffee, Frango mints and salted nuts. The meal is the same regardless of the number of family and friends are together.

[DC Sunshine]

Why sugar with vegetables?

Being from outside the US, and not brought up in the tradition of Thanksgiving eating/cooking, I can't understand why sugar is involved with the cooking of say, sweet potato or pumpkin. It's just an honest question, I'm curious is all...my palate can't begin to imagine the result of that combo...maybe I should just try it and hush up lol

[bughut]

You've brought up a subject i've often wondered about DC. BTW this is not a rant, and i'm certainly not knocking the food in America. I've enjoyed enough of it for years.

...But I do wonder why so much of the food is sweet... It seems sugar is added to things i wouldnt ever expect. ie sliced bread is actualy sweet. (Unless of course you but artisan breads ) And far more sugar than seems required is added to recipes.

I do like glazed carrots, but on the whole, veges with sugar and marshmallows just seems a bit OTT.

My youngest (16) is on holiday from school for a fortnight, and he's been creating some lovely dishes. His Risotto Milanese the other day was fabulous. He made sweet potato pie today which was a great success, but we all agreed it was way too sweet. I dont think the pie would suffer from reducng the sugar by half, as its basically a custard. But if you know better, do tell.

Finally, I just googled Thanksgiving to see when it was and i find that Canada has one too on the 12th October. News to me. So happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends on Monday.

Do you celebrate the same as Americans?

[TheKitchenSink]

I come from a diverse background. One way my family mixes it up each year is by incorporating different ethnic dishes. Usually, we have a bunch of different cultural palates being represented but I could imagine it being fun to focus on one culture each year - say this year we'll put an Italian spin on the meal, next year it'll be Spanish...something like that.

[phatch]

I don't mess with the Thanksgiving recipes much. that's for other times of the year and for dealing with leftovers.

Seriously, why do so many people only cook turkey once a year? Lots of good ways to eat it and reasonable pricing is available year round if you frequent ethnic markets.

[KYHeirloomer]

>and reasonable pricing is available year round if you frequent ethnic markets. <

Or even supermarkets, Phil.

Day in and day out, turkey is probably the least expensive protein going. Last whole turkey we bought, sometime back in early summer, was 78 cents/lb. Friend Wife recently bought a turkey breast and paid 98 cents---about what we pay for chicken. I'll be smoking that this weekend.

We do eat it year round, except at Thanksgiving. Only time we have turkey then is if we're invited to other people's. At home we do Thanksgiving based on it's orgins---a celebration of the bounty of the earth. Generally that means dishes based on fish, game, and edibles we've foraged, and veggies from our own garden or otherwise locally grown.

I do find it a source of some amusement that the Thanksgiving dishes we associate as "traditional" mostly date from the post-WW II period.

[OregonYeti]

I don't mess with the "core" things for Thanksgiving. These are turkey, turkey gravy, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turkey dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans with slivered almonds, rolls, pumpkin pie and whipped cream (I don't always make all of these). I'll usually do a few things extra that are different--side dishes or desserts or something like that.

As far as sweet veges--I am not a fan of adding sugar to veges, though I add a little maple syrup to sweet potatoes. Marshmallows--never, though my wife is used to those. She can make her own stuff if she wants to use marshmallows I find a lot of pies are made too sweet for my taste--especially pecan pie, for some reason.

Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite desserts, if it's made the way I like it. I like to eat it warm, with whipped cream on it.

[Pete]

When I lived in Atlanta I had a large group of friends that were from other places also, so for Thanksgiving I would invite them all over (anywhere from 15 to 30 people throughout the day). I would make the turkey, the gravy, and the dressing, then I asked everyone to bring their favorite dish from their home Thanksgivings. Used to be a blast seeing what people brought.

[MikeLM]

THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO MESS WITH. THIS IS AMERICAN

We have the same menu our parents had. Once a year is not exactly repetitious. We have a farm-raised, fresh turkey with my mother's Missouri/southern dressing of stale cornbread, bagged croutons, herbs, and Brazil nuts smothered in my Mother-in-Law's giblet gravy. Mashed potatoes, candied sweets (no marshmallows), green beans (no fried onions), and pumpkin pie.

This is a tribute to our family heritage, and we ain't going to fool around with it. It would be disrespctful.

Mike

Afterthought...
In 2005, Rotary celebrated its 100th anniversary, with 40,000 people from all over the world at their International Convention in Chicago - where Rotary was founded.

My Hinsdale IL Rotary Club hosted a catered barbecue for about 400 people from overseas and then, as a special event, invited about twenty people from overseas to a member's house for a traditional and complete... American Thanksgiving Dinner. (This was in June.) Our club provided the whole thing, as described above. We brought the dressing and gravy. It all went over very well, although the weather wasn't quite typical.