My Thanksgiving Survey Replies...

1. What is your preferred menu for Thanksgiving dinner and why?
*Crispy Roasted Duck, homemade stuffing(with sausage meat/walnuts/mushrooms), sweet potatoes, green beans, roasted fall veggies, au jus rather than gravy, Aunt Ollie's recipe potato rolls, cranberry glop from the can, sparkling cider, pumpkin pie and cheesecake.

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 cook.  If I can get help cooking, all the better but I don't expect help or anyone to bring any food.
Since the kids are teens with jobs, they may or may not be here when we eat the meal.  The most if family is in town is 9, the least is 3.  We usually have about 6-7.


3. What time do you generally sit down to eat?
*Since I don't relish getting up at the crack of dawn to start cooking for the day, we try to eat around 1 or 2(usually more toward 2).  We'll have a light late breakfast so we are hungry by 1.  Dinner is "go grab something for the fridge" at whatever time you want it.

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.)
*The jellied cranberry glop in the can is traditional from when I was a wee one.  #2 son likes it so we keep it, even though I've tried to serve 'better' versions of this dish over the years.  The family just doesn't take to them.
The other family traditions are my stuffing(my mom's recipe which I have changed over the years and made my own)and my Great Aunt Ollie's potato roll recipe.  Aunt Ollie left this Earth about 10 yrs. ago at the age of 98.  She was a good old country cook, who cooked on a wood cookstove until she was 96.  Have to have the potato rolls....if not on Turkey Day then on Christmas.

5.  Do you have any non-food Thanksgiving traditions?
*I've tried a few activities but nothing catches on.lol  The last one was to pass out paper and pencils and have everyone write down something they are thankful for.  Someone reads them all out loud before we eat.....this way we keep from embarrassing the teens since the 'thankfuls' are anonymous.
The only other tradition is to play board games after the meal, while the testosterone laden people watch football....**Sluggy rolls her eyes....**lol


6.  If you could only have 5 food/beverage items at your Thanksgiving meal, what would they be?
*Pumpkin pie, stuffing, potato rolls, roasted fall veggies, duck...then hook me up to a cardiac monitor. lol

7.  What was your worst and/or best Thanksgiving day and why?
*I can't think of a Thanksgiving day that sticks out in my mind as being the 'best', but any from when my mom was alive and we had extra relatives &/or friends there would qualify.
 
I do have a worst Thanksgiving however.....this was during my sophomore yr. in college.  I was 19. My family life was non-existent at this point so there was no going home for Turkey Day....besides, I couldn't even afford to take the Greyhound bus there.  So my BF(now Hubs)asked his parents if I could come home with him for Thanksgiving.....and they said no!  As BF told me, they didn't want 'strangers' at the house for Thanksgiving.lol  And yes, I had been to their house before at least twice before this time.
So BF did NOT stay at school with me, he went home and left me there alone.  It's a wonder I stayed with him and married him after that, huh?lol
I remember my Thanksgiving that year was spent alone in my apartment, watching the parades on a tiny 10" screen tv I owned.  I walked down to the A&P and bought myself a Thanksgiving meal...one of those turkey roll things, a frozen Stouffer's spinach souffle and I stopped at the bakery on the way home with my cart and bought a slice of something sweet...it wasn't pie because they didn't sell them by the slice and I couldn't afford a whole pie, and I might just have eaten the whole thing if I could have afforded it...I was that depressed.lol
I was approached by an old drunk on the way home from the grocery store and he panhandled me for a dime to "buy a cup of coffee".
Frankly, I couldn't spare a dime for him and I was in shock that someone had actually asked me for money, since I was destitute enough myself to be doing the asking.lol
After I got home, I just sat down and cried big time.
Alone and being accosted by bums on Thanksgiving. lol
I sure felt low and sorry for myself...


I am happy to say that things have improved since then. 8-)


Sluggy