Pbenjay's Blog

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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

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