Wickeds, what is a dish your main characters traditionally eat at Thanksgiving? Something beyond turkey and potatoes.
Sherry: Since Sarah is eating at the DiNapoli’s house there are a lot of Italian dishes along side the traditional turkey and sides. Sarah can’t resist Angelo’s award winning lasagna but wonders how she will be expected to eat anything else.
Edith/Maddie: Robbie Jordan’s boyfriend Abe told her not to be surprised that his father always prepares fried catfish with Cajun sauce along with turkey for the Thanksgiving table. Since she loves the crispy Southern treat, she’s not complaining. Instead of turkey dressing, Mac Almeida’s family has a tradition of serving Cape Verdean Arroz de Marisco, a delicious rice and seafood dish. And Mac’s grandmother Abo Reba makes a mean southern spicy kale side dish.
Liz: Maddie’s mom is a health nut and loves to try new dishes that she reads about. This year, along with the traditional turkey, she’s making a vegan mac and cheese side dish, with cashews and almond milk, nutritional yeast, soy sauce and lots of roasted veggies. And of course, gluten-free pasta!
Julie: Lilly makes a cranberry jello mold. It has raspberry jello, cranberry sauce, pineapple, apples, a dab of mayo and cream cheese. She makes it because it is delicious, and it often horrifies her guests. She enjoys keeping people on their toes. Lilly is Maddie’s mother’s worst nightmare.
Jessie: Since Beryl is not a cook and is often away from the States when Thanksgiving rolls round, more often than not she either makes a meal of local fare or makes the best of things with a tin of beans settled next to a campfire. Edwina is a Brit and is not sure what all the fuss is about. She always lays on a spread at Christmas.
Barb: At Julia’s mother’s house Sonny and Chris are having some kind of manly competition that involves brining the turkey and cooking it on the barbecue. Julia wishes they would just put the bird in the oven, for heaven’s sake. They’re having oyster stuffing since the best oysters come from the Damariscotta River nearby. (Expecting pushback from people from Massachusetts to Louisiana on that assertion.) Did you know one of the largest rutabaga farms on the East Coast is in Corinth, ME? Of course, as the farmer jokes, not many people like rutabaga so it doesn’t take much to be the biggest.
Readers: What’s on your Thanksgiving table?
With just hubby and I, there is no set meal for the holiday. We have had everything from tacos to steak. We do have turkey and dressing, but not necessarily at Thanksgiving. We have the traditional meal when the craving hits us even if it’s July or February. This year’s meal will depend on if the weather cooperates. We’ve discussed smoking some meat, but if weather is off it will probably be lasagna this year. Regardless of what we have on the table, our hearts of full of thanksgiving for our many blessing.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
I always want to remember to have turkey and stuffing during the year, but somehow I never do.
How perfectly marvelous! Since over the years, I’ve hosted a lot of Thanksgiving feasts, I usually ask people to bring the one dish to share that they would miss the most if it didn’t appear on the table. Some beautiful corn and other vegetable dishes have appeared, some lovely variations on Mac and cheese, phenomenal turnip greens, a cranberry charoset, and a few cans of cranberry jelly have all graced my table. For me, I really love my own cranberry sauce.
That’s how Bill’s Italian-American family ended up always requesting my grandmother’s rutabaga. My sister-in-law asked me to bring the thing I would most miss. I love good cranberry sauce. My mother-in-law used to make the best, and fortunately my sister-in-law now has the recipe.
I’m going to the home of some friends and the only thing they want me to bring is my ukulele.
A musical Thanksgiving! We had one one year and I will never forget it.
As boring as this may be, my Thanksgiving table is pretty much the standard fare. Or at least it was at home. I don’t do Thanksgiving dinner at home anymore, I end up invited to a family friend’s home instead. But the menu pretty much remains the same.
Turkey, potatoes, veggies (which I don’t eat), stuffing, gravy and rolls. Desserts come later and include pies, cookies, brownies and other such things.
But I get a pretty good meal (usually a couple of helpings) and then leftovers for home. So a day of food and football is A-OK with me.
I got an apple pie for the dessert table and bought a jar of gravy for my eventual leftovers plate and that’s the extent of what I needed to do for tomorrow’s festivities.
The leftovers are the best part.
I’m going to my brother’s house for Thanksgiving, which is a pot luck dinner. I’m taking my usual: roasted cauliflower and Brussel sprouts with garlic and rosemary.
Yum.
My table is generally pretty traditional, although we’ve scaled down this year since there are only five of us: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (with a few lumps, as requested by The Girl), green beans, rolls, cranberry jelly (from a can, specifically requested this year) and pie for dessert.
We have homemade cranberry for the feast (see above) but I had Bill buy canned for the sandwiches the next day.
It’s just three of us so turkey with gravy, green beans, two kinds of cranberry sauce – home made and jellied from a can for my boyfriend, plus peach pie for dessert
Peach pie! That’s different.
When I lived in Minnesota in the ’70s, wild rice seemed exotic, and when we vacationed in Canada, we brought back maple syrup as a rare treat. Still good, but hardly exotic. 😉
My daughter and I ate in a pancake house in Surfer’s Paradise in Australia and they made the biggest deal about their real maple syrup. One person’s exotic is another person’s everyday.
For years, there were just the three of us and we always got a Jennie-O turkey roll and then all the usual trimmings. It was great. Now we have a couple of relatives come over and we keep it simple with a small ham, various sides depending on our mood. The SIL brings a traditional family corn casserole and the desert. It’s nice to have a small family gettogether, but I really miss the turkey roll!
Corn casserole sounds interesting!
We are pretty traditional. Nothing too surprising or out of the ordinary at our table.
Have a lovely Thanksgiving.
Thanks to my mom’s Italian family, our Thanksgivings were a feast of wedding soup, pasta, homemade meatballs, sausage, Bracciole – and eventually a turkey that nobody ate because we were too full. All these meals sound great! Barb, there’s a bad oyster shortage in Louisiana thanks to oyster beds damaged by either climate change or pollution. It may take a few years for the oysters to come back – if they come back at all.
My husband’s family’s Italian-American Easter is like that, which happens to be the day I met them. I was tearing into the lasagna, which was the third course or so, when my husband quietly put a hand on my arm and whispered I should slow down because there was a full meal still to come.
By the end of the nineteenth century there were no oysters in the Damariscotta River because the sawmills used in boat-building had dumped so much sawdust into the river. But now they are back in a big way, though almost all are farmed.
Our dinner is pretty traditional— turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
That sounds like my family growing up, though take away the ham and add rutabaga.
We cut our rutabagas with the game saw. Worth every bit of effort it takes, and we have to use the game saw for something! Love mashed rutabagas with parsnips.
Last year was hot dogs for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to go traditional, turkey and all the fixings. Just finished making a cherry pie and cranberry sauce.
My characters are all Floridians, Hank and Hayden are both divers and live in the Keys. They are having grilled Florida lobsters, crab stuffing, ambrosia, green bean casserole, and key lime pie for dessert.
I just finished peeling and cutting the rutabaga. I had to get my son to make the first cut to halve it. After that I was okay on my own. I approve of all your characters’ dishes, except, of course, the lobster!
We have a huge Italian/French family.. everyone brings something.. (most of us bring more than just 1 something..lol), so there is not only people everywhere, but Tons of Food!!!..Y’all all have a Blessed Thanksgiving and be safe in your journey to/from! xoxoxo
Your “nontraditional” caught my eye. My kids hate turkey and usually we make a roast chicken, but this year, my husband has to work, so we just ordered the grocery store’s pre-done Thanksgiving dinner, which comes with… Turkey. So by request, I’m going to make some (I’m rather shuddering at this, honestly) potato / bacon / cheese thing my daughter has asked for. Apparently, you line a pie dish with a bacon lattice, then scallop potatoes and top the whole thing with cheese…? Sounds sort of like a cross between a myocardial infarction and potato skins. So, anyway, I’ll be making that. 🙂
Oh, and pie. Much pie. And sweet potatoes for my son.
Brian and I will be eating the turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.
Your daughter may have just started a whole new Thanksgiving tradition in your family. Good for you for giving it a try.