Thanksgiving pet peeves!

I've only one: Football! Everything else about it is the bomb!

Thanksgiving is the only holiday in America whose sole purpose is gluttony. It exists for no other reason than to celebrate food. It provides a forum for all cooks---good ones and not so good ones---to strut their stuff.

Blunders? Of course there are blunders. They give us something to laugh about, and to remember in following years. And let's not forget the immortal words of St. Julia: Don't be afraid. You can always eat your mistakes.

BTW: Whole berry cranberry sauce is available in cans. You don't have to buy that jellied stuff if you don't care for it. And nobody says sweet potatoes have to be that cloying, sugary glop with marshmallows melted on top. There are lots of ways to make them savory.

http://www.rlrubens.com/Thanksgiving.html

But just to let myself get trolled for a moment ...  it's possible, if you look around and order in advance, to find *very* tasty turkeys, and you could probably get away with a couple smaller turkeys rather than one of those disturbingly massive animals.  A lot of us cook stuffing in its own pan for the reasons you mention.

And sweet potatoes...  yes, many of the recipes are unspeakable.  But they're lovely things!  Try them with ancho chiles, for example.  I've found that as long as you have copious amounts of the standard ritual foods at Thanksgiving dinner, you can innovate almost any side dish and the traditionalists will be too stuffed to care.  

Only had the luxury of being in the USA or Thanksgiving once.  My pet Peeve is virtually nothing Open on the Thursday.

My daughter was in a Hockey Tournament in Pitsburgh Thanksgiving weekend.  The team all left here roughly the same time and convoyed it down.  We arrived in it just in time for  dinner.  checked into the Hotel and met in the Lobby.  Hotel restaurant closed, Spent the next 3 hours driving around looking for someplace to feed 15 Girls and 25 parents with no luck.  Finally about 9:30 we pulled into a gas station and emptied them out of frozen burritos, corn dogs and anything else that could be heated up.  My daughter was less fortunate being slow to decide.  She got one of those mini boxes of Corn Flakes as everything else was gone.

I know I've mentioned in one way or another about my wife's family and their approach to food.  Gee, I really looked forward to those Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with the canned veggies, the instant potatoes, gravy from a packet, the overcooked and under seasoned turkey - you get the idea.

They've come around to real mashed potatoes, fresh veggies, letting me do the turkey and such.  I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I think they enjoy fresh food, fresh herbs and seasonings, food that hasn't been cooked to death, good stuff, I've made a difference.  I've not made any progress on restaurant choices though, they still stick with Sizzler, Chili's, Olive Garden - no interest whatsoever in trying something new and different.  Known national chains, no surprises.  So it goes.

Love pumpkin pie?  Hate sweet potatoes?  Ever had a sweet potato pie?

mjb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derrick Young 

Only had the luxury of being in the USA or Thanksgiving once.  My pet Peeve is virtually nothing Open on the Thursday.

 

My daughter was in a Hockey Tournament in Pitsburgh Thanksgiving weekend.  The team all left here roughly the same time and convoyed it down.  We arrived in it just in time for  dinner.  checked into the Hotel and met in the Lobby.  Hotel restaurant closed, Spent the next 3 hours driving around looking for someplace to feed 15 Girls and 25 parents with no luck.  Finally about 9:30 we pulled into a gas station and emptied them out of frozen burritos, corn dogs and anything else that could be heated up.  My daughter was less fortunate being slow to decide.  She got one of those mini boxes of Corn Flakes as everything else was gone.

Don't Canadian stores close in October for your Thanksgiving???

Some do, most don't now though.  Are Thanksgiving is also a Monday off Work  making for a 3 day weekend.  No matter what on the Monday 95% of the restaurants are open. 

As big as a pain in the rear eating Thanksgiving dinner in a gas station was it makes for fun stories years later and the overall atmosphere of your Celebration was incredible over the weekend.  So many parents blew the bank at "Black Friday Sales".

I admit it: my pet peeve about Thanksgiving is turkey. Other than that, I'd agree with the whole marshmallow horror, which is also horrible when done to squash. The rest is fine, but this is hardly my favorite eating holiday. The only time I've really loved Thanksgiving food was the time my parents were in Europe so we could go nuts -- and the kids hadn't been born, so we could go nuts on spices and stuff -- and we had a whole pack of friends over for Turducken. Good stuff!