I so love Thanksgiving!
Of all the holidays we celebrate this is about the only one that is basically secular. Everyone, no matter their religious beliefs(or lack thereof)can/will celebrate it on an equal footing. It's all about thankfulness and appreciating family ties and those pretty much transcend the ideological differences that our chosen religions possess.
I have a confession to make....
I am not a big fan of turkey as a food myself.
Ok, I DO love fresh hot roasted turkey slices right from the bird. But once it has sat for awhile or has been refrigerated, I don't want it.
Now, it's not about having an aversion to leftovers.
It's the smell of turkey.
Maybe it's just me and my strange sense of smell but "not-just-out-of-the-oven turkey" has an odor to it that I can't abide.
So every year I pack off as many turkey leftovers as I can get away with to the BIL and I eat some other protein or just eat the side dishes whenever I have to serve the leftovers from Thanksgiving.
But another funny thing about me, while I can't abide " NOT fresh hot turkey from the bird", I can eat SMOKED TURKEY until I burst!
Maybe it's the southerner in me....loving a food smoked that I can't stand not smoked.lol
I continue to prepare/serve turkey at Thanksgiving because well, it's pretty much expected and traditional. And the family likes it.
And it's the most frugal meat protein around at the Holidays.
I would much prefer having "Chinese Turkey"(aka duck), like the family in "A Christmas Story" have on Christmas....minus the head.
With Thanksgiving right around the proverbial corner I was curious about everyone else's Turkey Day meal and traditions.
So I have a little survey for y'all. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on today's topic.
1. What is your preferred menu for Thanksgiving dinner and why?
2. Do you cook/host the meal or do you gather at someone else's house for dinner? If you cook, how many will gather around your table to eat?
3. What time do you generally sit down to eat?
4. Do you have any traditional dishes you serve/have served and what are they? (These can be regional dishes or family traditions or what you feel are the national dishes everyone eats.)
5. Do you have any non-food Thanksgiving traditions?
6. If you could only have 5 food/beverage items at your Thanksgiving meal, what would they be?
7. What was your worst and/or best Thanksgiving day and why?
Next time I'll give you my survey answers.
Sluggy
I worked for the local school cafeteria for years, and when the turkeys were in the oven, you dare not open the oven,especially if kids were present. You've never heard such goings on.Gagging,groaning,commenting,
ReplyDeleteon the smell.I read once that poultry gives of a gaseous oder when cooking. I believe it. My husband will upchuck if he smells it cooking. Go figure.
Our family, both nuclear and extended, aren't big on annual traditions. Sometimes we have a Thanksgiving gathering and sometimes we don't. We just play it by ear each year. We all seem to like it that way, but it makes your questions difficult for me to answer. :)
ReplyDelete1. What is your preferred menu for Thanksgiving dinner and why?
I've never really thought about a "preferred" meal. We usually have a large traditional turkey meal when we have a gathering, but when there is no gathering, we scale it back quite a bit. I've served chicken, cornish hens, and even ham instead of turkey at Thanksgiving.
2. Do you cook/host the meal or do you gather at someone else's house for dinner?
If you cook, how many will gather around your table to eat?
Again, this depends on if there is a gathering at all and who wants to host. When we host, we cook for anywhere between 5 and 15. The host usually provides the meat, soft drinks and a side or two. The guests provide everything else, including alcohol if they want it.
3. What time do you generally sit down to eat?
Ours is always mid-day meal.
4. Do you have any traditional dishes you serve/have served and what are they? (These can be regional dishes or family traditions or what you feel are the national dishes everyone eats.)
When we host the meal, we have deep-fried turkey instead of oven-roasted, pumpkin roll instead of pumpkin pie, boxed stuffing instead of homemade, and at least two kinds of cranberry sauce (jelled from a can and homemade).
5. Do you have any non-food Thanksgiving traditions?
I can't think of any at all.
6. If you could only have 5 food/beverage items at your Thanksgiving meal, what would they be?
Iced tea, mashed potatoes, boxed stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, and turkey or some other meat.
7. What was your worst and/or best Thanksgiving day and why?
I can't think of any that stand out in either regard. There isn't a lot of drama in our family. No exciting announcements or drunken scenes here; ; it seems everything plays out basically the same way every year. That's probably a good thing.
1. What is your preferred menu for Thanksgiving dinner and why?
ReplyDelete**Roast Turkey because you just can't get the pan drippings any other way to make fabulous gravy. Always have to have a big pan of mixed wheat and cornbread dressing. I don't care for that soggy mess stuffed into a turkey. Good dressing has a crispy crust on top. That's also a Southern thing!
2. Do you cook/host the meal or do you gather at someone else's house for dinner? If you cook, how many will gather around your table to eat?
***I always cook and I always host. We usually have anywhere from 8 to 20+ people here.
Everyone is welcome.
3. What time do you generally sit down to eat?
**Totally depends on which games are going to be watched that day and what time they are being played. : )
4. Do you have any traditional dishes you serve/have served and what are they? (These can be regional dishes or family traditions or what you feel are the national dishes everyone eats.)
***Always turkey, gravy, dressing, some type of potato, sweet potato, cranberry, several vegetable dishes and some fruit thing that everyone ignores. Then the pies. Real whipped cream.
5. Do you have any non-food Thanksgiving traditions?
**Watching football and going around the table and saying what all we are thankful for in the past year.
Also, there is a lovely international peace market held on Friday after with lots of homemade food, live music and vendors from all over the Americas with beautiful handmade wares. We always go wander around there and pick things out for each other for Christmas.
6. If you could only have 5 food/beverage items at your Thanksgiving meal, what would they be?
**If I could only have 5, hmmm. That's tough. Turkey, gravy, dressing, cranberries and mashed potatoes. I guess it wasn't really so tough after all!
7. What was your worst and/or best Thanksgiving day and why?
** I can't think of a worst. They have all been good. Thanksgiving is a great day for family and just hanging out in the kitchen.
Can't wait to hear your answers to these questions!
1. turkey, greenbean casserole, brocoli casserole, oat rissoto with dried cranberries, cranberry slush, sweet potato casserole, corn, black and green olives, maple pumpkin cheese cake.
ReplyDelete2. We typically host. For my hubs family, they always come here because we have the biggest house and most are staying over here. (about 18 people) Also because my mil lives with us, so everyone treats it as if it's home...
For my side, we usually host too, because we're right smack in the middle of where everyone lives. But it's held at a rented hall nearby. This year, so far, we have 68 coming.
3. On Thanksgiving day, around 2pm. That way we can make it to church in the morning and still get the food on by that time. AND work time for nap in afterwards. TRUST ME, I need one by that time.
For my reunion party, it's always on Friday night after Thanksgiving.
4. Brocoli casserole and bean gunk (gb casserole)and a rootbeer keg at my family reunion.
5. Putting out our freaky pilgrim glow molds on the lawn.
6. pumpkin pie, um times 5.
7. The worst one was when we were first married and we went to hubs family, then rushed to mine 2 hours away and then had to rush back because mil wanted to get a family portrait. We didn't get a meal... We ate chips from the gas station.
1. What is your preferred menu for Thanksgiving dinner and why?
ReplyDelete**Pretty traditional here - turkey (oven roasted), stuffing/dressing (usually some of both), gravy, mash, something green like b-sprouts or salad, usually no dessert. As for why, I guess it's the epitome of comfort food because it's been so traditional every year since I was tiny.
2. Do you cook/host the meal or do you gather at someone else's house for dinner? If you cook, how many will gather around your table to eat?
**Long gone are the days of heading to the grandparents (mine or our son's), so we stay home and DS comes over.
3. What time do you generally sit down to eat?
**Around 7-ish -- depends on when the food's ready and what games are on :)
4. Do you have any traditional dishes you serve/have served and what are they? (These can be regional dishes or family traditions or what you feel are the national dishes everyone eats.)
**Nothing beyond what I listed in #1. DH and I spent one Thanksgiving at a friend's house in Brooklyn where they served lasagna, and insisted it was quite the typical T-day tradition, not just in their family. I'd never heard of that before - did the Pilgrims have lasagna? :)
5. Do you have any non-food Thanksgiving traditions?
**Same as LisaPie -- watching football and going around the table to say what we're Thankful for. This year should be interesting :)
6. If you could only have 5 food/beverage items at your Thanksgiving meal, what would they be?
**Some sort of bird (I've done roast chickens on T-day and had duck before and loved 'em all), some potato, some green veg, stuffing/dressing, wine
7. What was your worst and/or best Thanksgiving day and why? Seriously can't remember a worst, which is good. Since it's very family oriented, I would have to say the best ones were when my mom was still alive - happier days.
Nice poll!!!
Oh, I meant to add that I know what you mean about turkey leftovers smelling a little ... funky - that may just be because there's still a bit of residual gaminess to them even though they've long been domesticated and farmed and probably genetically engineered, etc. I don't like the smell either, but I can eat it if I put it in a sandwich with mayo and mustard, or just cut it up and cook it in some other casserole (we have a couple good ones for using up leftovers like that).
ReplyDeleteOne more add-on comment - now that my son has announced his vegetarianism, I felt compelled to warn him that I love him dearly but there will be no Tofurkey ever at my T-day table :) He laughed and said no problem, he'll happily eat all the sides. So it's all good (whew!).
ReplyDelete@ I'm So Pretty: At least he can eat the side dishes. My daughter and son-in-law are keep to a vegan diet. My side dishes usually have dairy or animal ingredients (eggs, bacon fat, bacon or ham), so they can't even eat the side dishes. I guess they are cooking at home this year for Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely opposed to their diet as they both are noticeably healthier since they have been on it, but I won't cook to accomodate it, either. Vegetarian I will do...vegan, not so much.