Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving dinner traditions


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I was reading blogs yesterday and also talking to my sisters at one point or another during the day and evening. In doing so, I've come to realize that not everyone has the same food traditions at Thanksgiving. Depending on what region of the country you're from, the food traditions vary. One thing that I got to wondering about was if we had had a green vegetable on our table at Thanksgiving time when we were kids. So I asked Bev and Debbie and they said they could not remember any green vegetables being served. Our Thanksgiving feast consisted of Turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade noodles, yeast rolls, and pumpkin pie. And there was plenty of EVERYTHING! Oh, and Dad always made oyster dressing, too. Yum! Me and my siblings each loooooove oyster dressing, but our spouses do not, which I think is interesting. So every year, at Christmastime, I make each of my siblings a small dish of oyster dressing.
Now that I am grown and married, I've always fixed green beans with our Thanksgiving dinner. Not green bean casserole because my guys don't care for it. But I love vegetables of every kind and always fix alot of them for me and Ed.
Bev and I were talking last night and she shared with me that one of her co-workers, who is not a native Ohioan, said that although they usually had homemade noodles at Thanksgiving, they would never think of putting them over the potatoes and stuffing because that would be putting a starch on a starch. Wellll....yeah. *smile* At least, that is what we've always done in my family.
Soooooo, what are some of your Thanksgiving family food traditions?
If Daniel has turkey, noodles,mashed potatoes, and rolls, he is in food heaven! Oh and lots of butter for the rolls, of course. He doesn't eat anything green or orange! When he was little, I made him try sweet potatoes because I felt as a good mother, I should make him at least "try" different foods. Well, he gagged and choked and with little tears in his eyes he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, please don't make me eat orange potatoes again, please?" That was the last time I ever made him try something he didn't want.
So, please, share your family food traditions!

5 comments:

Tersie said...

My little family is building its own brand new holiday traditions this year. It will be my two daughters and myself for Thanksgiving. We plan on staying in our PJs all day, watch the Macy's parade. I'll make a turkey breast and some "traditional" trimmings. No pumpkin pie. I am the only one who absolutely loves it. My youngest claims to love it, but only eats the whipped cream. The oldest can't stand it. So I'd end up eating the whole thing myself. No ... I certainly don't need that!! lol! Instead I got a chocolate silk pie that I'm sure the kids will be more than happy to substitute for the pumpkin. I'm looking forward to starting some new traditions this year. Happy Thanksgiving!! *hugs*

Anonymous said...

My daughter is complaining because I`m serving tooooo many starches, I said ..so you don`t have to eat them all....ha ha
I always have my potato salad along with sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes...and plenty of dessert.......don`t forget the turkey of course...Have a good One!

Anonymous said...

We have turkey and cornbread stuffing (I use Pepperidge Farm -- good stuff!). We usually only have mashed potatoes and gravy on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like sweet potatoes, but no one else does, so sometimes I have them, sometimes not. I vary the vegetables -- sometimes green bean casserole, sometimes a vegetable medley. I was thinking I ought to make a salad to have something fresh, but we have so much with so many leftovers as it is. And pumpkin pie, of course, and apple pie.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Gene Holley said...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! As long as we have homemade cornbread dressing, I don't care what else we have! My wife makes a great Broccoli Salad with raisins, sunflower seeds, onions, bacon and a sweet/vinegar dressing that I always request. MMMM....now, I'm hungry!

Jewel said...

Tersie...staying in your pj's all day sounds wonderful to me AND the chocolate silk pie. Yum! May you and your sweet daughters have a restful holiday season!!

Stace....I forget sometimes that the holidays we observe here in the US aren't worldwide. *feeble grin* I'm going to put up a post that will explain our Thanksgiving holiday,k? That will just be easier than trying to explain it here! *smile*

Wow...all of those potatoes, anonymous, and I do love potatoes. My sister Debbie reminded me that we always had potato salad on Thanksgiving along with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Wow. That IS alot of starches! LOL

Barbara....my guys aren't crazy about sweet potatoes either, so I don't fix them. I use boxed stuffing mixes most of the time, but make my own at Thanksgiving.

Bro. Holley...The broccoli salad sounds wonderful and refreshing after all of the "starches" we've all been talking about! *smile*
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!