Thanksgiving!
It's almost Thanksgiving. This morning, I was watching the Today show, and Martha Stewart was showing Katie Couric how to make twice baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. She also had a spread of various other Thanksgiving sides. Katie was surprised to note that Martha had mashed potatoes as well as the sweet potatoes, and Martha said you have to have both. Katie said she usually chooses one. Guess what? At our house, we have neither! No one except my dad likes the sweet potatoes, so those got the boot a while ago. (sorry, Papa.) And we have rice instead of mashed potatoes. I asked my parents why once, and the answer was, as is the answer for many of life's questions, I suppose, "because we're from Louisiana."
Last week, when I was in Austin, my aunt was talking to my cousin about their Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently, no one except my aunt eats turkey, so they decided to have a ham with crawfish stuffing.
Martha said on the Today show that people don't like to have their Thanksgiving foods messed with. I think that's true! We have turkey, rice, stuffing, gravy, fruit salad, bread, broccoli with cheese, cauliflower with cheese, cranberries, and carrot souffle. I think that's it... family, did I leave anything out? I don't even like some of those foods, but it seems like it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a carrot souffle to not eat. For dessert, my mom makes pecan pie. I don't like that, either, (I don't like pie in general) so there's always some other dessert for me and my sister. When we were little, it was the ice cream cones decorated to look like pilgrims and turkeys from Baskin-Robbins. I miss those. Hey! Maybe I'll have that this year.
I've been abroad for Thanksgiving 4 times. Twice in France, once in Germany, and once in Korea. 3 times I did a traditional Thanksgiving, even though in France, we used turkey breasts that looked like boneless chicken breasts one time, and in Korea, we had to fry the turkey because they don't have ovens in Korean homes. Once in France, Jayne came to visit (actually, she came both Thanksgivings in France), and we went out for fondue instead. I was living in a dorm, and it would have been impossible to cook, since I had one pot and no fridge. We were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at Paris's TGIFriday's by some students in my class, but that just seemed sad. So instead, we chose to eat something we knew we'd love. Melted cheese.
What is everyone else's favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
15 Comments:
I've already eatten my turkey for the year--at a party at my school. This is good, because for the last few years my Thanksgiving tradition has been to visit my husbands three aunts, who are nuns. This is always a fun trip--but convents these days are pretty much like retirement communities, and the cafeteria there is full of nursing-home food. Seeing family is worth giving up a good meal, especially since we usually end up at my parents for Christmas, and so I get my fill of traditional foods then.
Katie, that's a really cool tradition! I bet the aunts/nuns really appreciate your visit, too.
As I was reading your blog, I was thinking about how we cooked those turkey cutlets for the first Thanksgiving I was there and then had fondue for the second. I have to say, if I can't have my normal turkey dinner, fondue is an excellent substitute, especially when the wine comes in baby bottles and you get to climb over the dinner table to get to your seat! So much fun!
I totally agree! I'm going to stick to that... if you can't get your regular thanksgiving dinner, go with fondue!
Oh, now I totally want to go back to that place. I didn't have time when I was in Paris over the summer, boo.
I am all about the stuffing for Thanksgiving and my Grandmother makes it best. She gave me the "recipe" but it never EVER tastes the same unless SHE makes it. I swear she left out some secret ingredient. If I am going to see her sometime soon after Thanksgiving I always request she bring me stuffing and I trade her for it (usually with a flourless chocolate cake [that requires almost $30 of chocolate] as she is a chocaholic)
Molly, that is so true! Sometimes, your favorite foods only taste good when made by the person you remember making it.
Twice when I was growing up my family decided to "skip" the traditional Thanksgiving. Instead we went and stayed in a very nice hotel for a few nights (a huge treat for us) and ate Thanksgiving dinner in a restraunt. It was great.
We have NO family living anywhere near us, fortunately every year some nice family takes pity on us and invited us for dinner :D
Amie, the hotel thing sounds so fun! Relaxing for everyone, and you can leave the dishes to someone else.
We don't do Thanksgiving here... Christmas is the big thing. It's summer so Christmas lunch is usually lots of cold roast chicken, a big ham, salads, and a hot Christmas pudding (with brandy butter). If we have Christmas at my uncle's house, then we have more of an English-style meal (his wife is English) with hot roast turkey, bread sauce (yum!), stuffing, roast potatoes, the lot.
Paisley, your Christmas dinner sounds yummy.
Since I work on Thanksgiving a lot, I miss my family's gathering. I will miss my aunt's mac n cheese. I know, it's weird. Not a traditional Thanksgiving food. But there you have it.
My mom and I make the dressing together while the parade is on. We never have time to toast the bread first, so we lay it out on the kitchen table and turn the ceiling fan on, which dries it very quickly. Unconventional, yes, but it gets the job done.
Jasclo, maybe you can get leftover mac & cheese? Not the same, I know, but better than nothing!
Anon., that is an interesting trick. I'll remember it if I'm ever in a situation that calls for it :-)
Only if I make it myself. Most of my family is about 2 hours away. Actually, I should probably get that recipe, huh? It's just never the same when you have to make something yourself. It tastes better when someone else does the work. ;)
yep, that's so true!
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