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It’s time to get you guys more involved in what goes on here…I mean it’s hard sometimes for me to come up with the whole post, it’s holiday time, I have to plan, shop and cook, I have a job and that means I have to be at the office and also out showing apartments…and I’ve been babysitting Finley a lot lately because Mommy and Daddy are running around Manhattan checking out schools and getting checked out themselves. Soooo now you see why I need to you to participate, contribute and literally help me out.
I’m going to start this off but I’m warning you I don’t think I’ve had too many NON-TRADITIONAL dishes at Thanksgiving over the years. On the other hand since I was born as a third generation American of Italian and German heritage, ethnicity did play a role in any holiday meal. Let me think….well when I was a little girl and we would go to my Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, what I remember was not eating any turkey. It’s not that there wasn’t a turkey, at least I think there was, but I don’t remember eating because by the time Grandma served it I was too full. Why? Because Grandma always served Ravioli first!!! I don’t remember if there were Meatballs and Sausages too, but I wouldn’t be surprised!
Then when I used to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my first husband’s family, there were definitely some traditional to them – NON-TRADITIONAL dishes on that table. There were a lot of things stuffed besides the turkey; We had Stuffed Artichokes and Stuffed Mushrooms which were stuffed with basically the same bread stuffing that was in the bird! Now I can see some of you trying to picture this because in your house the stuffing was probably made with cubes of crouton-like bread and how do you get a cube into an artichoke leaf? Physics dictate you can’t and you can’t! But my mother-in-law’s stuffing basically consisted of grated Italian bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese and chicken broth. She did add a small amount of sauteed onion and celery but not enough to alter the consistency of the dressing which was pretty much porridge-like – now you see how you could mush it into the artichokes and plop it on top of the mushrooms?
Then there were several years when I spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Marian and my cousins in New Jersey. Dinner was fairly traditional in that there were Mashed Potatoes, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Creamed Onions, Turnips…and Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage. My uncle was German and hence the cabbage.
Over the last several years I’ve kept a pretty traditional Thanksgiving table with tweaking the standards and adding other vegetable sides, keeping the desserts traditional-well traditional for my family anyway. I’m saying that because as I’m typing I realize that I often make a Pumpkin Cheesecake as well as a Pumpkin Pie. That’s a tradition I kept from my mother-in-law and it is dee-lish-us!
And now it’s your turn. Let’s hear what NON-TRADITIONAL dishes have become a tradition at your Thanksgiving Dinner table. You can comment or feel free to email me at pbenjaytoo@gmail.com
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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Thanksgiving in my family is more traditional. Christmas is the big celebrations. It is just my brothers, mother, and I we would have the norms. If we have a big family Thanksgiving celebration someone always bring jerk pork and chicken. My cousin make her famous “cheesy bake macaroni”, lol, it is famous in my family because it is really good and really cheesy. My mother make Rum punch and a few norms.