Please visit the other Fun Monday participants. Julie, at another chance ranch, is hosting Fun Monday for the month of November. I’ll be hosting in December, and I’m still gathering topics to choose from. This week her topic is: Tell us about your Thanksgiving Day meal. Do you have your menu planned? Do you have the traditional turkey dinner, or go a bit more non-traditional? What is your favorite go-to dish for Thanksgiving? Any recipes you’d like to share?
Every year my mom, or one of her sisters, rotates the Thanksgiving meal. I’m not sure why one of her brothers doesn’t pipe in and host, but whatever. This year is my mom’s turn. I’m very thankful for that. I can go early and help, and Keeley will have a safe place to play, Matt is comfortable there, and there’s tons of places to take a walk if they get bored. My mom just redid her house, and I know she is proud of it. They had lived with ‘less’ for too long, including her living in the basement so the remodel could happen. Yuck. I’m very thankful that she has a nice place for her and dad to retire. On to the questions…
The meal is potluck. This year my mom is making the meat and potatoes. Usually, if she didn’t host, she’d make stuffing and noodles. Also when she did host, besides the meat and potatoes. That is a lot. I am thankful this year that my aunts are taking over those 2 ‘heavy’ jobs. That way, mom will be less stressed. In that way, I’d say our food is traditional. Turkey (sometimes ham if anyone brings it), mashed potatoes and gravy (real, not instant), noodles, stuffing/dressing whatever you want to call it– NOT in the bird, usually some sort of additional vegetables, deviled eggs, salads, fruit stuff, and hunks of meat and cheese with crackers for appetizers. My brother always brings that. Usually because he’s hungry before any of the food is done. This year it will be a challenge keeping Keeley out of that, last year I don’t think she ate much ‘food’ because she’d filled up on that stuff! Then there’s the pie. Mm, pie. Sometimes someone brings browines or something, but with us, it’s all about the pie. I had an uncle that always said he had 2 favorite kinds of pie, hot and cold. It’s a running joke that we love to tell at the holidays. If you peeked in on us you might find: raisin, apple, cherry, peach, pumpkin, and more. Yes ALL those pies. Did I mention.. probably 40 people will be there?
My favorite go to seems to be green bean casserole. We pre-cook the green beans (with a little bacon grease– or bacon oil if you want to be Rachael Ray about it) before putting them in the casserole. That way, they’re warm, they’re flavored completely, and they just seem to ‘do’ better overall. I always get compliments on the green bean casserole.
I’m not sure I have any recipes to share, but I am unlike most people in this: I don’t do a turkey sandwich leftover with dressing and cranberries for dinner that night. Nope. It’s either the whole plate full of food re-done, or it’s turkey with miracle whip to dip it in, along with side dishes, or if we’re not lucky enough to take any home, something crunchy like chips.
Another tidbit: My husband basically can’t taste sage, so for the most part, dressing doesn’t taste like anything to him. Last time mom made it, for a church dinner, she put in extra sage. I think it was a new bottle, too. Lol. Wowza. He could taste it then. It was still super good, just really zinged your taste buds.
The coolest part, though, is seeing who watches football after dinner, and how quietly they can shout because the old guys are already taking a nap. Some young guys, too. Some people go out and PLAY football, and still others go for a walk to burn off those calories (yeah right, did I mention the PIE!), or sit and chat about old times. I love being around my extended family. They gossip about people I don’t know, and laugh. Oh do they laugh. They tell old stories and make new ones. It’s great, really. The year Keeley was born, we missed out, and I made my own Thanksgiving dinner. We watched the parade on tv, and she took a nap while we ate. Bless her heart. No chance of that this year.. however, forgive me for sharing.. this was her ‘back then’.
She was still getting breast milk in a bottle most of the time then, and wearing ‘sposies’ because we hadn’t ordered her cloth yet… oh how times have changed. Lol. This year, you’re most likely to see something like this…
We are thankful, for our new house, for food to eat, for the paychecks that keep coming, for projects to keep us busy, for love, for life. We are thankful.
Jo
I think your uncle is going to live in on my family. I’m sure we’ll be adopting that line ourselves, it describes my husband so perfectly. Pie is his #1 favorite dessert.
I’ve never done the great big huge 40 people Thanksigiving thing. I come from a small family that lives far apart so most of my Thanksgivings were just the 4 of us. I think it would be fun to have so many people around so there’d be someone to do something with no matter what your preference, sleep, football, walk, games. The only drawback I can see to such a large gathering is the lack of leftovers. 🙂
Sayre
FORTY PEOPLE!!!! That’s a lot of people for dinner… like a church social! Potluck is definitely the only way to go with crowd like that!
Because my inlaws are in their 80s and quite infirm, holidays are always a toss up. You never know for sure that it won’t be their last holiday. We don’t ask them to cook or host – both are beyond them at this point. So it’s us or the brother-in-law and sometimes, the rest of the family comes up from South Florida but we never know for sure until the last minute. It makes planning really hard.
faye
In my younger years I had an extended family with about your number of people, Jill. Tables were set all though this long living room. It was crazy, everyone brought something and we had a chance to catch up, meet the new babies, etc. Kind of like a Highland Gathering! Question: did your husband draw baby dandling instead of KP the year you all had Thanksgiving alone? And you’re right we have many things to be thankful for–health, home, enough money, good dog, friends.
Teri
What a wonderful day!
It sounds almost exactly like ours except with half the people.
Kimi B
WOW. 40?? We are lucky if we end up with all 14 of us.