Wednesday, November 26, 2014

THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

We'll be busy with last minute Thanksgiving preparations today, and of course Thanksgiving cooking, who are we kidding, eating tomorrow...

The First Thanksgiving, painting by J.L.G. Ferris, 1932, image courtesy of Houstonlibrary.org
We have a question for you...what kind of food traditions do you have (if any?) for Thanksgiving?  I ask because yesterday at work, one of my dear coworkers mentioned that they had to have noodles at their Thanksgiving table.  I said "noodles, with sauce?"  "Nope, just plain, thin, buttered noodles" she said.  It was a tradition of her Grandmother and they continue it now.  They still have dressing, turkey and all the other usual dishes, but there have to be noodles on the plate somewhere.  We thought that was very sweet...

So that got us wondering, what traditions do you have for your Thanksgiving meal?


31 comments:

  1. The usual turkey, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls.....no imagination here lol.

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  2. All the usual with our family recipes but every holiday we also make onion rollups. These are green onion (the smaller the better) rolled up in Buddig corned beef (2 slices now, or some sliced thin from a deli) that has been spread with cream cheese. We used to have spiced crabapples but since we moved to TX we can no longer find them anywhere. They are whole crabapples with the stem, not the sliced apple rings.

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    1. Wow, that sounds fun! And do you know I don't think I've ever eaten a crabapple.

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  3. We have turkey and dressing and all the other traditional dishes, but I always make a small meatloaf, too. My son loves it, and it's the only time of year he can count on getting it. It's in the oven now and will make the trip to his house tomorrow morning.

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    1. Aw, now that's nice. I like that you have that tradition and I KNOW your son loves it. :-)

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  4. Buttered homemade noodles sound really good!

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  5. Coming from a German family, we always have sauerkraut. A few friends find that offensive! LOL!

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    1. Now that's a great tradition. Nothing wrong with that!!

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  6. i make a very traditional meal but am amazed at what some people make! my friend was making cole slaw for the dinner she was going to tomorrow. cole slaw? i would never think of cole slaw for thanksgiving. we grabbed a pizza this evening and the waitress told me she was about to buy kielbasa and perogies for her dinner. weird. it's interesting though!

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    1. OMG, do you know I went to the grocery store today (it's Sunday) to get some makings for dinner one night this week and I was in the salad section. They had no cole slaw bottle sauce, no pre-shredded bags of slaw mix, no pre-made cole slaw, nothing. I thought of your comment. That must be more popular than we realize, ha.

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  7. I usually fix a turkey. Favorite Young Man adores stuffing. When we lived in Western Maryland, the natives had to have sauerkraut on Thanksgiving. You can't pay me to eat sauerkraut. I thought it an odd tradition.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Another comment about sauerkraut, Interesting traditions. Stuffing is so good isn't it? Yum!

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  8. Generally speaking "Thanksgiving" isn't celebrated in Australia but I believe we should adopt this tradition and the sentiment that accompanies it.
    (Hope you didn't eat too much!)

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    1. LOL! We sometimes forget that it's a uniquely American holiday. It's such a nice holiday actually...the meaning behind it, being thankful for family, friends, etc. Adopt away! Ha.

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  9. Always gotta have deviled eggs to go with the traditional holiday food items along with plenty of appetizers; before, during and after while watching the parade on TV and watching the football games. It's an all day and evening affair here.
    In the evening the Christmas decorations come out, so everyone is involved in decorating the tree so gotta have plenty of snacks / appetizers while listening to Christmas music.

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    1. Oh my gosh, I forgot about deviled eggs. Those are one of my favorites, but alas, we don't do it that often. I will have to remember that for next year. Maybe that can be one of our 'new' traditions. Sounds like you have a nice family day. Hope it was full of special memories.

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  10. I miss the oyster dressing my mom used to make. She and I are from Biloxi so seafood entered her family's world. My PawPaw was a fisherman. My mom has retired from cooking ANY big meals and has repurposed her Thanksgiving tradition to have others prepare amazing food at fine dining establishments in the Houston area. They don't do oyster dressing but lordy they can put on a spread that has you glad you've put your own traditions on hold. Mmmmm Mmmmm good!
    On s side note, though VERY important, I'm very grateful that I have you two in my life!

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    1. Do you know I've never had oyster dressing? I've heard of it for years. Did you ever get the recipe from her? Have her write it down now, or do like I do 2nd Man, I get my computer out while we are sitting on the couch and I say "SO...that dinner...what was the first thing you did?" and I transcribe it step by step. Get the recipe and if you don't ever feel like making it, maybe someday we can have 2nd Man make it for you. :-)

      Thank you much, you are greatly loved by us as well. :-)

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  11. I have an Italian heritage and we always had eggplant parmigiana on the Thanksgiving table along with the traditions items. I still make it today, makes me think of family members that have passed.

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    1. Yum! I love eggplant parm the rest of the year, how special to have that as part of your Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing!!

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  12. Gotta have Braised Red Cabbage using red wine and red wine vinegar with a bay leaf, a few cloves, and of course, a sliced apple or two. Almost forgot a little sauted onion in bacon fat in the cabbage too.
    The rest is the traditional fare. I'm still stuffed and hope you are too. M

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    1. OK, now I think I should write this down. Sounds wonderful!!!

      Just now (Sunday) coming down off of being stuffed, ha.

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  13. Other than the turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet grave with diced boiled eggs, white potatoes, sweet potatoes (not a casserole), green beans, and other vegetables, we have a Jello tradition. Mama bought an apple-shaped bowl in a Goodwill Store in about 1057. From then until about 1990, she made a Jello salad that I still make--black cherry jello, banana strawberry jello, diced Delicious apples, sliced bananas, and fruit cocktail. We always made sure she was going to make it even when we were grown, married with children and had moved away from home. We ate it on our dinner plate, dessert plate and later. The bowl must have held a gallon. She also made enough pies for each person to have his or her own. She carved our initials in the pie when she took them out of the oven. Even though there were five children and mama and daddy, seven people, she usually made a dozen oumpkin pies, our favorite dessert. We did have other desserts.

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    1. I thought I said PUMPKIN pies that she carved our initials in.

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    2. Wow, what a nice memory (and some great food). I love that you still do that to honor your Mom. I'm sure she is smiling with you at Thanksgiving. And a dozen pies? Really? Wow!! She was quite the cook!!

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  14. Just the usual turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans, pie, etc. But the dressing is the star of the show in our family. It has to be made with the family recipe and, now that our parents are gone, that is my assignment. And it HAS to taste just like our parents' dressing did. So - no pressure whatsoever! Thankfully :), it turned out fine!

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    1. That's so neat. I love that you carry on a family tradition of making something exactly the same way. And yeah, I bet no pressure, ha. 2nd Man made up a new dressing this year, it had dried cranberries, pecans, green apple, sausage, cornbread etc. It was very yummy. That might have to be our new tradition, ha.

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  15. My table has standard fare, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries. One slightly uncommon dish is scalloped oysters. My mother used to make them and only she and I would eat them. She died about 15 years ago and so now I pretty much have them to myself--which leads to an oyster hangover as I cope with the leftovers... :-) It's definitely a once a year dish.

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    1. Scalloped oysters? I've never heard of that. Sounds yummy. Thanks for sharing that. I'll have to google it to see what it's all about. ;-) Thanks again!!

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