Strange Thanksgiving food

[cronewitch]

What is the strangest meal you every prepared for Thanksgiving?

Mine was meatloaf. My ex and I were going to be home alone so making a turkey and all the trimmings was too much. I decided to ask him what he wanted for Thanksgiving thinking if he said Turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy I could skip all the side dishes I didn't want. He didn't like stuffing for example so I would just skip that part and i don't like green olives so if he didn't say that I just wouldn't buy them. He said meat loaf, not understanding the question. He said I never made meat loaf and he liked meat loaf. No reason you have to have turkey so I made meat loaf.

[milee]

When DH and I were first married, his company moved us several states away.  It was too far and expensive to travel to see family, so for several years as newlyweds, we had Thanksgiving just us.

TMI WARNING....

Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves being all alone, we decided to make our own fun Thanksgiving tradition, so I'd buy top quality filets, make Béarnaise sauce and asparagus to accompany them and we'd have naked, candlelight Thanksgiving.  I still think about that whenever I eat Béarnaise sauce.  Good memories.   

[swamp]

Did you body paint each other with the bernaise sauce?  If not, not nearly TMI.  

[milee]

Nov 24, 2013 10:49:42 GMT -5 swamp said:

Did you body paint each other with the bernaise sauce?  If not, not nearly TMI.  

No, just ate it, so I guess it was fairly tame.  Other than the fact that we were naked. 

DH is English and hadn't celebrated Thanksgiving much before, so made a point to ask if this was "traditional." 

[Deleted]

I don't think it was particularly strange, but after the divorce I made chili Thanksgiving evening when my kids would come over.  They had had Thanksgiving dinner already once or twice.

I only stopped when we started having grandkids.  Babies and chili aren't a good combination.  Pregnant women and chili weren't even a good combination although I did start making a soup, too, to have options.

I think I'll go back to that when the grandkids are much, much older.    It was easy and unstressful.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Personally, I think Gluten free stuffing is a strange Thanksgiving food.    My DH thinks canned, jellied cranberry sauce is a strange Thanksgiving food. 

I'm fine with the gluten free stuffing, by the way.  We made our own last year and have done a trial run already this year.  We've also got some "real" stuffing for the rest of the guests.  I am/do refuse to give up the aforementioned canned, jellied cranberry sauce.  DH has decided he can live with that. 

[kittensaver]

I think mac and cheese is a very strange Thanksgiving food . . . but what do I know

[Apple]

I'm sure I just ate potato chips the year I was sick and couldn't make the trip to meet up at my sister's house (two hours away).

When my son was 3, then-husband had just left that summer, and my family wasn't doing any get-together, but I didn't want my son to miss out on the traditional dinner.  So, I bought a rotisserie chicken and dressed it up just like you would with a turkey.  Made mashed potatoes, stuffing, the chicken and a pie.  He was young enough not to know the difference between a "really small turkey" and a chicken, so for him, it was the really fancy Thanksgiving everyone else got.

[Deleted]

Vegetarian turkey or tofu turkey.

Never again, give me the real stuff!

[Deleted]

Vegetarian turkey or tofu turkey.

Never again, give me the real stuff!

[NastyWoman]

I have never understood the idea behind tofurkey to be honest. If you don't want to eat turkey, don't eat it. No problem, but why try to fake it? There is no law that says that unless you eat something resembling a turkey you can't have a family gathering and meal giving thanks.

[MarleyKeezy78]

That sounds tofunky to me 

[thyme4change]

I have a good friend whose kids are the same age as mine, but she has multiples - so she has 4 kids...and is a widow.  I don't know what they did for Thanksgiving, but the first year for Christmas, they had soup, the second year hamburgers.  On the third year one of the kids asked if I could make them a meatloaf - I said "Meatloaf isn't very special, can I make you something special?"  And my friend answered "Meatloaf is a huge step up, and all the kids agree on it, and think you make the best meatloaf."  So, I made them a meatloaf.  

[Regis]

My grandmother on my dad's side used to make duck for Thanksgiving.  And my grandmother on my mother's side always made dressing with oysters in it.  I still love me some good oyster dressing!

[thyme4change]

Nov 24, 2013 14:48:08 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Vegetarian turkey or tofu turkey.

Never again, give me the real stuff!

My biggest problem with the vegan lifestyle are the number of foods that are suppose to resemble other foods - and they are all made from soy.  I know there is a little controversy about eating soy - but even without that, all diets that are heavy in one type of food don't appeal to me.  I like variety, variety, variety.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Nov 24, 2013 14:48:08 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Vegetarian turkey or tofu turkey.

Never again, give me the real stuff!

Nothing like a Thanksgiving Dinner that "Jiggles"

[dnvr]

We had a very traditional Thanksgiving two weeks ago with all the fixings when lots of relatives were able to be in town. DS and DIL always go to her family get-to-together early on the day, and then our house later. So this year we decided to go crazy. We will have be having homemade waffles, hash browns, bacon, and yogurt parfaits. We're all very excited.

[raeoflyte]

The year I was pregnant with ds Dh's family decided to do a Chilean thanksgiving with all the foods they grew up with. I love empanadas, but my.morning sickness kicked in to high gear that weekend and Dh made some kind of fish soup. Worse was the (no idea how to spell it) charkey Kahn that looked and as far as I was concerned smelled like vomit. Only plus I guess is that I didn't help with any part of meal prep or clean up that year.

[Deleted]

Thanksgiving is not a holiday here. I tried celebrating it with friends but finally gave up many moons ago when some guests "got lost" and showed up at 10 pm. 

So now we have a Thanksgiving chicken instead of a Thanksgiving turkey. LOL. The Americans here either do what we do, or one of them doesn't work, or they do a real Thanksgiving (ie with a turkey) on the following Sat or Sun instead. A colleague at my old job organizes a huge Thanksgiving feast, on the Saturday. 

We do Thanksgiving on the day, but with a very small turkey chicken . And sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce, and DH's pumpkin pie. 

[Deleted]

Honestly, Debt, I think turkey is over-rated.  I'd like cornbread dressing, green beans, gravy, and pumpkin pie.  Oh, wait, that is the menu for Friday. 

[Regis]

Nov 24, 2013 19:54:08 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

Thanksgiving is not a holiday here. I tried celebrating it with friends but finally gave up many moons ago when some guests "got lost" and showed up at 10 pm. 

So now we have a Thanksgiving chicken instead of a Thanksgiving turkey. LOL. The Americans here either do what we do, or one of them doesn't work, or they do a real Thanksgiving (ie with a turkey) on the following Sat or Sun instead. A colleague at my old job organizes a huge Thanksgiving feast, on the Saturday. 

We do Thanksgiving on the day, but with a very small turkey chicken . And sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce, and DH's pumpkin pie. 

Our church delivers Thanksgiving meals to the less fortunate in our area.  My oldest son and I delivered nine baskets yesterday - six with turkeys and three with chicken roasters.  I think chicken is gaining popularity as the meat of choice for Thanksgiving.

[NancysSummerSip]

Baked ziti for Thanksgiving. And that's along with all the other traditional foods.

The ziti tradition was one my parents picked up from Italian friends, who served a pasta meal the night before Thanksgiving. They loved the ziti recipe - it was simple, it served a lot of people and as good as it was when fresh, it got better a day or so later. So my mother started making it, and it eventually migrated from the day before to Thanksgiving itself. One of the few items I kept from her kitchen after she passed away is the black enamel ziti pan she used. I don't think I'll ever give it away.

[lynnerself]

I had an Italian friend. Their family had homemade raviolis at every Holiday.
Thanksgiving Turkey and ravioli
Easter  Ham and ravioli
Christmas Prime rib and ravioli

[greeniis10]

Nov 25, 2013 13:50:03 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

I had an Italian friend. Their family had homemade raviolis at every Holiday.
Thanksgiving Turkey and ravioli
Easter  Ham and ravioli
Christmas Prime rib and ravioli

If the family all gets together to make the ravioli, then that in itself is part of the holiday/celebration, IME.  Lots of work, but fun!  One of those meals that takes WAY longer to make than to eat, though.

The only "different" holiday food we have are tamales.  Traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, but tamales are always on the menu.

[chen35]

I have a friend who is going to make a meatloaf and sneak it in with the other dishes on the table on Thanksgiving. Everyone will be wondering 'who brought the meatloaf'.
I think it's hilarious, but then I'm immature like that.

[chiver78]

Nov 25, 2013 13:50:03 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

I had an Italian friend. Their family had homemade raviolis at every Holiday.
Thanksgiving Turkey and ravioli
Easter  Ham and ravioli
Christmas Prime rib and ravioli

yup....that was my godmother, back in the day. it was fun - we'd all pitch in to help

[Cookies Galore]

Nov 25, 2013 13:50:03 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

I had an Italian friend. Their family had homemade raviolis at every Holiday.
Thanksgiving Turkey and ravioli
Easter  Ham and ravioli
Christmas Prime rib and ravioli

My stepmom does that. South Philly!

[milee]

OMG, I just remembered a traumatic Thanksgiving memory from childhood.  This thread reminded me...

No idea what possessed her, but one Thanksgiving my grandmother (who was otherwise a reasonable cook) decided to make a "wonderful dish her friend at the garden club had brought." We were assured we'd love it and that all the other women had "raved" over it. What ensued is what we still - 25 years later - refer to as the "tomato jello incident."

Grandma brought out this strangely reddish orangey jiggling shiney and thoroughly unappealing molded dish that had tomatoes, cucumbers and olives suspended within it.  My sister gingerly poked it, shuddered at how it wiggled and inquired, "Grandma, what is that?"

Grandma: It's a sophisticated dish called aspic.

Sis:  Oh! You said a bad word!  And why would we eat THAT? 

Grandma:  No, not a bad word, aspic.  Aspic.  It's jello.

Sis:  Jello?  With tomatoes and olives?!!!?  What flavor jello?

Grandma:  Uh, I think I used Orange.

And yes, it was as awful as it sounds.  I'm still traumatized all these years later.  And remember, I'm a pretty adventurous eater.  Horse is OK, tomato jello not so much. 

[cronewitch]

I have a jello dish that was my grandmother's. I asked her for the recipe for that jello with the pineapple and cottage cheese she always served in the green dish with the little handles. She claims she only made it once but I remembered it from childhood. She gave me the recipe and the green dish, I love the green dish but don't make the jello. It had mayo in it and grandpa hated mayo and wouldn't have tasted it if he knew. So it was funny because he loved the jello. He also didn't eat ketchup so my dad would make thousand island dressing with mayo and ketchup in it and grandpa loved it. He came in the kitchen once when dad was making it and saw what was in it so wouldn't ever eat it again.

[Deleted]

Mom raised us pretty omnivorous, and I've eaten some questionable stuff to be polite.  The highlight was the bee larvae an organic farmer urged me to try.  They're just a wet squish.  I'm comforted by that fact in case of a zombiepocalypse.

Strangest Thanksgiving meal was probably the one my Aunt M hosted.  She's first generation Thai, and cooked the turkey wrapped in banana leaves in a pit, and had corn in the ice cream.  Pretty good, but definitely not the normal fare.