I can honestly remember the first time I had GBC. I was in middle school- I know, right?! My mother NEVER made anything casserole-y so I was like a kid in Candy Land. Now I find it to be gloopy and quite sad. But you’re right Mary, those onion things should be on everything.
Canned cranberry sauce! My MIL has the nerve to serve it sliced with the little rings from the can still on it. WTF? Cranberry sauce homemade is so easy and with a little orange zest - very yummy! She is a lovely woman and quite possibly the nicest MIL in the history of the world but she can stick that canned cranberry sauce in her ear! 🤮
Mashed potatoes. Which I do love btw. Just not at Thanksgiving. I think this goes back to my childhood because we never had them at the holiday table... I get weirded out seeing them as an adult now if I’m at someone else’s dinner. (But a big fat buttery YES to sweet potato casserole all the way!!!!).
Oh no! I came here to say the sweet potato casserole is barfy. Give me fried crispy sweet potatoes all day (maybe not on the Thanksgiving table), but no to mushed-up sweet taters.
Yes! I came to say the same thing. I don't know if it's a Southern thing, but we never had mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving - they were a year round food - and it seemed strange when my ex in laws were super into mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, as is my current partner's family. For me, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to enjoy foods that I don't eat at any other time of the year.
Get the dead bird off the table! I've hosted a lot of Thanksgivings for our large family (30-45 people each year) and cooking turkey for that many people and trying to get it right, brining, roasting, aromatics, dry brining etc.
I adopted a vegan diet three years ago and if family wants turkey someone has to bring it. It's life changing not worrying about the turkey. 🤣
Is this a midwestern thing? My ex insisted on a jello and pistachio concoction that was truly odd! There was no mayo involved but I can see it happening 😩
I love it all. I'm a sucker for Thanksgiving and eating like a bear preparing for hibernation.
My enthusiasm for all Thanksgiving table scraps is also consistently reflected in my annual New Year's Resolution to trim the holiday weight that I so thoroughly enjoyed packing on.
I’m a chef (Nancy, please stop saying that you don’t need to go to culinary school- as I teach the culinary arts and it is an important aspect of a multitude of things you’ll never learn just by learning on the job- whew!! Been waiting to get that one off my chest!!) so the expectation is that I want to cook it all…because anyone else’s food will pale in comparison. That’s pure bullshit. I don’t want to cook….just enjoy the fruits of everyone else’s labor. This sounds ugly, but I wouldn’t mind the whole feast thing go away altogether. No one seems terribly grateful for all the work that goes into the meal.
All in all tomorrow, I’ll have put in an easy 4-6 hours of labor into making the food- and I’m not making desserts. Dinner will be eaten in less than half hour. Not worth it at all.
Kinda like the hassle of snow skiing. At least being from a very flat place (Texas) getting to the mountain, gear rental etc etc…just to WHOOSH. Is it worth the headache for the WHOOSH? Or in this case the pumpkin pie? 🤣
Our typical thanksgiving meal includes grilled NY strip steaks, grilled, oven roasted potatoes, steamed fresh green beans and homemade biscuits. We are only traditionalists when it comes to pies: apple and pumpkin, both with homemade crusts. At this moment the pumpkin pie is in production so it can chill overnight in the refrigerator. Fortified whip cream will be available tomorrow.
They can take everything except the Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with lots of butter! apple pie and a nice bottle of wine… this year my pick is a local winery “Auburn Road”, in New Jersey, “spirit animal hummingbird” it’s named lol
I generally love everything except the turkey (which I don’t mind, but don’t wish to fill up on). Alternately, I’d get rid of bread/rolls. I mean who wants to fill up on those carbs?
I’m not a huge turkey fan, although I can eat it once a year without complaining. When it’s just my husband and I, I roast a chicken instead. The thanksgiving ‘tradition’ I always skip is Black Friday - especially the version where you leave the thanksgiving table and go straight out to shop. No thanks. Also, I don’t watch football, if you call that a thanksgiving tradition. If others want to watch, that’s fine - I’ll just read my book. Thanksgiving is a tough holiday for us, anyway. Our adult son died 3 years ago the 21st of November. So, it’s hard for us to be thankful this week. We try, though. Nick’s second favorite holiday (after the 4th of July) was Thanksgiving, so we try to observe it properly in his memory.
Holidays are so intense when missing a loved one at the table. I’m sending you roast chicken and good book vibes. And yes, SKIP the doorbusting of it all!!!
I'm not sure about eliminating things. I mean, there are things I like and things I don't and some of the things I don't like, other people love. Look, for me, it is not much Thanksgiving if there is no turkey or pecan pie. I don't want to lose those, but nothing is lost to me in adding in other things. I think that would be my focus. What should be added in? The great thing about American Thanksgiving is that it is one of the great civic holidays that welcomes everyone. Family and friends together, shared food, abundance, and generosity are its themes, but it can have any kinds of trappings and inclusions, and it regularly benefits from innovation and additions. Salvadoran pupusas? Sure! Curry and Dal? I say yes. Peanut stew from Mali? Bring it on. Delicious comfort food of all stripes belongs. Now, some stuff is not going to work at every table. I have roots back into the Midwest where jello-molds are at every major celebration and observation. Largely I am a "no" on them, but if a portion of my table wanted them, I just don't banish things. I might not provide it myself, but I am not rage quitting Thanksgiving dinner over them. I did, as a college student, once bitterly complain that my Mom hadn't made rolls (didn't have to be from scratch, just heat up some rolls!) one Thanksgiving, and that was ungrateful of me. After all, the necessary turkey and pecan pie was there. So my Thanksgiving for my largely vegetarian family (but NOT ME) will be a Tofurky, mashed potatoes, vegetarian mushroom gravy, rolls (which I am baking from scratch), a green salad, roast Brussel sprouts (for my wife), orange/cranberry relish (ditto; from Trader Joe's), vegetarian "stuffing", a vegetarian shepherd's pie (an innovation I added some years ago, when I might not get turkey (and I am not a Tofurky fan)), pecan pie (using a recipe Nancy suggested), pumpkin pie, apple pie (lots of pie preferences at our table and everyone wants just the one they want), and yes, a turkey breast I picked up to roast for me and my daughter's boyfriend (and will derive some non-vegetarian gravy from that too)). Also whipped cream AND vanilla ice cream for the pies (it is a matter of everyone's particular tastes and, of course, abundance). Everyone's drinks to their taste. So, I have nothing to take away from anyone here. Open to adding more, particularly as our circle grows greater and more people might come to the table.
For me Thanksgiving is about adding more and being more open.
But, I get that everyone has something they don't want to have, and don't want to deal with leftovers they don't want to eat and all. Maybe I am just privileged not to have to deal with that too much at home at the moment.
Also, a coworker highly suggested putting your favorite Thanksgiving leftovers into egg roll wraps and frying (dipping in the gravy or cranberry sauce) for the day or two after. I don't think I will manage that this year, but, he did have me at "fried."
Cranberry sauce. After seeing it come out of the can all congealed and holding the shape of the can. Yuck.
And not a food, but feel compelled at the Thanksgiving table to say what I am thankful for. I have no problem saying what I’m thankful for all day long any other day, but I don’t feeling like I have to say something.
Thanksgiving is over so maybe this is out of date, but despite all the denigration of Ben Franklin's bird (that he wanted to be our national symbol), our turkey was magnificent. We didn't roast a whole bird, instead buying parts. The dark meat was deep fried (an electric turkey fryer is a wonderful device), and the boneless breasts were cooked sous-vide., then had the skin crisped in the oven. All the turkey was brined in an apple-sage brine.
Sous vide is a really nice cooking technique and here it gave us a flavorful and very moist breast that wasn't tough or dried out.
And instead of green bean casserole we had spicy green beans with tomatoes (an Indian dish)
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and one of the things I am thankful for is this podcast, website and comments section. Nancy and Sara, you are the best.
That naughty boy looks just the atrocities in an Australian or New Zealand cookbook from the 1950s-1970s. I'm old enough to remember aspic salads at kiwi Christmases in the 1980s and being freaked out by them, as they genuinely resembled canned jelly meat for dogs. Kinda has a neat retro "martinis, lucky strikes and life choice regrets" vibe to it all, though.
Green bean casserole can fuck right off. I could eat those little fried onion thingys for days though tbh...
I can honestly remember the first time I had GBC. I was in middle school- I know, right?! My mother NEVER made anything casserole-y so I was like a kid in Candy Land. Now I find it to be gloopy and quite sad. But you’re right Mary, those onion things should be on everything.
Hahahaha I also do NOT approve of gbc.
Canned cranberry sauce! My MIL has the nerve to serve it sliced with the little rings from the can still on it. WTF? Cranberry sauce homemade is so easy and with a little orange zest - very yummy! She is a lovely woman and quite possibly the nicest MIL in the history of the world but she can stick that canned cranberry sauce in her ear! 🤮
Turkey
Me too!
haha!
Mashed potatoes. Which I do love btw. Just not at Thanksgiving. I think this goes back to my childhood because we never had them at the holiday table... I get weirded out seeing them as an adult now if I’m at someone else’s dinner. (But a big fat buttery YES to sweet potato casserole all the way!!!!).
I never ‘waste space’ with mashed potatoes. They can be gone on the Thanksgiving table.
Oh no! I came here to say the sweet potato casserole is barfy. Give me fried crispy sweet potatoes all day (maybe not on the Thanksgiving table), but no to mushed-up sweet taters.
Hahahaha, honestly, I think I love sweet potato casserole because of the brown sugar/pecan topping more than the actual potatoes!!
Yes! I came to say the same thing. I don't know if it's a Southern thing, but we never had mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving - they were a year round food - and it seemed strange when my ex in laws were super into mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, as is my current partner's family. For me, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to enjoy foods that I don't eat at any other time of the year.
Get the dead bird off the table! I've hosted a lot of Thanksgivings for our large family (30-45 people each year) and cooking turkey for that many people and trying to get it right, brining, roasting, aromatics, dry brining etc.
I adopted a vegan diet three years ago and if family wants turkey someone has to bring it. It's life changing not worrying about the turkey. 🤣
Nothing is more disgusting than that bird carcass! What you have to do to prepare it? I feel nauseous just thinking about it. Never again!🤢
The mayo jell-o bowl!
What the what?! I need more details of this horrific thing.
Is this a midwestern thing? My ex insisted on a jello and pistachio concoction that was truly odd! There was no mayo involved but I can see it happening 😩
It's a 1950s hold over!
I love it all. I'm a sucker for Thanksgiving and eating like a bear preparing for hibernation.
My enthusiasm for all Thanksgiving table scraps is also consistently reflected in my annual New Year's Resolution to trim the holiday weight that I so thoroughly enjoyed packing on.
I’m a chef (Nancy, please stop saying that you don’t need to go to culinary school- as I teach the culinary arts and it is an important aspect of a multitude of things you’ll never learn just by learning on the job- whew!! Been waiting to get that one off my chest!!) so the expectation is that I want to cook it all…because anyone else’s food will pale in comparison. That’s pure bullshit. I don’t want to cook….just enjoy the fruits of everyone else’s labor. This sounds ugly, but I wouldn’t mind the whole feast thing go away altogether. No one seems terribly grateful for all the work that goes into the meal.
All in all tomorrow, I’ll have put in an easy 4-6 hours of labor into making the food- and I’m not making desserts. Dinner will be eaten in less than half hour. Not worth it at all.
This is always my biggest issue with the day! We spend so much time between shopping and prepping and then it is inhaled in 20 minutes.
Kinda like the hassle of snow skiing. At least being from a very flat place (Texas) getting to the mountain, gear rental etc etc…just to WHOOSH. Is it worth the headache for the WHOOSH? Or in this case the pumpkin pie? 🤣
You need to try X-country skiing or Snowshowing very enjoyable and if you live in a snowy area gear always in your car and jump out and enjoy !!
The searing misery of putting myself through another year of compulsory familial chaos.
Turkey. It's so over-rated. We usually do brisket, but this year I am making Beef Bourginon.
Turkey! Chicken instead, please.
Love the photo!
Segregated kids tables
Candied yams. So redundant when you have pumpkin pie! And yuck. Marshmallows are not food.
Hard disagree until that last sentence…🤌🤌🙌
Ha!
Nothing it is all prepared with love and one can pick enjoy what the want.
Happy Thanksgiving! And thank-you Sarah and Nancy for always interesting content.
Can you please come to my thanksgiving? You seem a lovely guest!
Our typical thanksgiving meal includes grilled NY strip steaks, grilled, oven roasted potatoes, steamed fresh green beans and homemade biscuits. We are only traditionalists when it comes to pies: apple and pumpkin, both with homemade crusts. At this moment the pumpkin pie is in production so it can chill overnight in the refrigerator. Fortified whip cream will be available tomorrow.
Wow, those are all great choices!
They can take everything except the Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with lots of butter! apple pie and a nice bottle of wine… this year my pick is a local winery “Auburn Road”, in New Jersey, “spirit animal hummingbird” it’s named lol
Cranberry sauce. 🤢
applesauce. I do not like applesauce. But I will eating stuffing for days, especially if it is made with challah.
Applesauce🤯 definitely not a Texas table! And damn, challah dressing? 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌❤️❤️❤️
I generally love everything except the turkey (which I don’t mind, but don’t wish to fill up on). Alternately, I’d get rid of bread/rolls. I mean who wants to fill up on those carbs?
I’m not a huge turkey fan, although I can eat it once a year without complaining. When it’s just my husband and I, I roast a chicken instead. The thanksgiving ‘tradition’ I always skip is Black Friday - especially the version where you leave the thanksgiving table and go straight out to shop. No thanks. Also, I don’t watch football, if you call that a thanksgiving tradition. If others want to watch, that’s fine - I’ll just read my book. Thanksgiving is a tough holiday for us, anyway. Our adult son died 3 years ago the 21st of November. So, it’s hard for us to be thankful this week. We try, though. Nick’s second favorite holiday (after the 4th of July) was Thanksgiving, so we try to observe it properly in his memory.
Holidays are so intense when missing a loved one at the table. I’m sending you roast chicken and good book vibes. And yes, SKIP the doorbusting of it all!!!
It’s a hard holiday indeed, I wish you peace
The holiday tradition I would love to get rid of is the hyped up over-consumption that happens immediately following the holiday!
I'm not sure about eliminating things. I mean, there are things I like and things I don't and some of the things I don't like, other people love. Look, for me, it is not much Thanksgiving if there is no turkey or pecan pie. I don't want to lose those, but nothing is lost to me in adding in other things. I think that would be my focus. What should be added in? The great thing about American Thanksgiving is that it is one of the great civic holidays that welcomes everyone. Family and friends together, shared food, abundance, and generosity are its themes, but it can have any kinds of trappings and inclusions, and it regularly benefits from innovation and additions. Salvadoran pupusas? Sure! Curry and Dal? I say yes. Peanut stew from Mali? Bring it on. Delicious comfort food of all stripes belongs. Now, some stuff is not going to work at every table. I have roots back into the Midwest where jello-molds are at every major celebration and observation. Largely I am a "no" on them, but if a portion of my table wanted them, I just don't banish things. I might not provide it myself, but I am not rage quitting Thanksgiving dinner over them. I did, as a college student, once bitterly complain that my Mom hadn't made rolls (didn't have to be from scratch, just heat up some rolls!) one Thanksgiving, and that was ungrateful of me. After all, the necessary turkey and pecan pie was there. So my Thanksgiving for my largely vegetarian family (but NOT ME) will be a Tofurky, mashed potatoes, vegetarian mushroom gravy, rolls (which I am baking from scratch), a green salad, roast Brussel sprouts (for my wife), orange/cranberry relish (ditto; from Trader Joe's), vegetarian "stuffing", a vegetarian shepherd's pie (an innovation I added some years ago, when I might not get turkey (and I am not a Tofurky fan)), pecan pie (using a recipe Nancy suggested), pumpkin pie, apple pie (lots of pie preferences at our table and everyone wants just the one they want), and yes, a turkey breast I picked up to roast for me and my daughter's boyfriend (and will derive some non-vegetarian gravy from that too)). Also whipped cream AND vanilla ice cream for the pies (it is a matter of everyone's particular tastes and, of course, abundance). Everyone's drinks to their taste. So, I have nothing to take away from anyone here. Open to adding more, particularly as our circle grows greater and more people might come to the table.
For me Thanksgiving is about adding more and being more open.
But, I get that everyone has something they don't want to have, and don't want to deal with leftovers they don't want to eat and all. Maybe I am just privileged not to have to deal with that too much at home at the moment.
Also, a coworker highly suggested putting your favorite Thanksgiving leftovers into egg roll wraps and frying (dipping in the gravy or cranberry sauce) for the day or two after. I don't think I will manage that this year, but, he did have me at "fried."
Very nicely said.
Cranberry sauce. After seeing it come out of the can all congealed and holding the shape of the can. Yuck.
And not a food, but feel compelled at the Thanksgiving table to say what I am thankful for. I have no problem saying what I’m thankful for all day long any other day, but I don’t feeling like I have to say something.
Thanksgiving is over so maybe this is out of date, but despite all the denigration of Ben Franklin's bird (that he wanted to be our national symbol), our turkey was magnificent. We didn't roast a whole bird, instead buying parts. The dark meat was deep fried (an electric turkey fryer is a wonderful device), and the boneless breasts were cooked sous-vide., then had the skin crisped in the oven. All the turkey was brined in an apple-sage brine.
Sous vide is a really nice cooking technique and here it gave us a flavorful and very moist breast that wasn't tough or dried out.
And instead of green bean casserole we had spicy green beans with tomatoes (an Indian dish)
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and one of the things I am thankful for is this podcast, website and comments section. Nancy and Sara, you are the best.
Sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce!
Details, details. All this fretting about what is or isn't on the menu. With the following image, I will simply wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, from me and my revolting quadruped of a roommate, Snarky the Bandicoot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/143hhcfJ9coeSiphfGpDBA78-T50PGjGN/view?usp=sharing
I hate turkey, seriously. 🤷🏻♂️
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229938/kellys-ham-jell-o-salad/
That naughty boy looks just the atrocities in an Australian or New Zealand cookbook from the 1950s-1970s. I'm old enough to remember aspic salads at kiwi Christmases in the 1980s and being freaked out by them, as they genuinely resembled canned jelly meat for dogs. Kinda has a neat retro "martinis, lucky strikes and life choice regrets" vibe to it all, though.
Every aspect of aspic gives me the jeebies!!! What a great last line right there! Happy thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
Yams…so gross. But I will die on the GBC hill!!!! What kind of Americans don’t appreciate vegetables drowned in “cream-of” and fried onions
I will gladly take your yams!!