Come November, when the leaves leave the trees and the air turns chilly, I start craving turkey.
I’m not a huge fan of turkey the rest of the year, but come November, I have a hard time waiting for Thanksgiving. But if I cook a turkey, I can’t just have turkey.
One thing that is is must with turkey is stuffing. Born in Houston and raised on Tex-Mex and Southern cooking, I have to have my mom’s Cornbread Oyster Stuffing. The only other thing that I absolutely have to have is cranberries. I will eat the ones out of the can if forced to, but I like fresh ones made into relish. And since we’re going this far, might as well have pumpkin pie with whipped cream. My husband though will have to have mashed potatoes, a vegetable and rolls.
So by the time I cook turkey…I’ve cooked a Thanksgiving dinner. This year my brother is coming for Thanksgiving so we’ll also have yams with marshmallows, brown sugar and butter. And heck it would be fun to have a Jello salad. My favorite is one made with orange sherbet and mandarin oranges.
My brother is like me and hates waiting for the holiday so he often makes a pre-holiday dinner. I’m tempted, but fortunately Thanksgiving is next week so I can wait. The turkey is still frozen anyway.
I don’t know about you, but for me Thanksgiving is one of those holiday meals where so much of what I want has to do with what I had growing up.
So what are you cravin’? What will you absolutely have to have next week?
Thanksgiving…my son’s favorite meal (which he regularly requests for his birthday dinner) is turkey and stuffing. I love turkey and eat it all year, but for Thanksgiving I must have stuffing, lots and lots of stuffing…..oh, and zucchini muffins.
recipe for zucchini muffins, please!
LOL Deb, turkey and stuffing. They really do go together. The zucchini muffins sound wonderful.
I love the turkey leftovers too: pot pie, enchiladas, sandwiches.
We have certain dishes that are required at particular family meals; my siblings and I have actually informed our mother that holiday meals are not times to test new things. Thanksgiving has to have pecan pie, broccoli rice casserole, cornbread dressing (not stuffing), mashed potatoes, corn, turkey, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Like you I prefer fresh homemade cranberry relish, but my uncle MUST have the canned cranberry jelly. There’s always one sitting in a dish, can lines still visible. We also must have rolls, but lately we’ve been slacking and getting those either at the Mennonite bakery or Ryan’s Steak House, which has amazing ones. If I make homemade rolls, it’s usually the refrigerator rolls that use both yeast and self-rising flour, and are baked in muffin tins. We do have a variety of other side dishes, but those core elements have to be there or There Will Be Trouble. 😀
I love the full Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed putting it together, along with making yeast rolls from the old family recipe. Then I realize that I had MOUNDS of leftovers. Giblet gravy. Cranberry salad. Green bean casserole. Stuffing. The only things that disappeared were the turkey, rolls, and pie. So I asked the family. Turns out my picky eaters wanted turkey sandwiches and pie. That was their favorite part of Thanksgiving. I’m a little heartbroken, but frankly? It’s a whole lot easier and very little cleanup thanks to throwaway turkey pans and paper plates. I still make the hot rolls, along with cinnamon rolls, and roast a breast instead of the whole turkey (they don’t like dark meat either 😆 ). With the first grandbaby on the way, I’m tempted to reinstitute the family dinner at the table rule. Evil mommy that I am…
LOL Susanna!! I had to laugh about telling your mother not to try new things. I’ve heard that a bunch from families!!
So tell me what is the difference between cornbread dressing and stuffing? We always called it cornbread dressing too.
Also laughed about the canned cranberry jelly. My mother would cut on the can lines. 🙂 That is one thing I changed from my mother’s meals. I like REAL cranberries now. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Well, to me the difference between dressing and stuffing is whether it goes in the bird. I think it is also a regional thing, though. Southerners tend to call it dressing as a matter of course. We do a cornbread dressing that bakes in a 13×9 pan. That’s another Southern thing – rarely will you find regular bread dressing on a Southern T’giving table. We do real cranberries too, either the fresh-grated-cranberries-with-citrus thing or the boil-’em-up traditional relish. Along side the canned jelly. 😀
Thanks Susanna for clearing that up. When I moved to Montana and called it dressing, they all thought I meant salad dressing. 🙂
I do think it is a southern thing.
You dinner sounds wonderful!!
Silver, reinstate it for the grand baby!!! You do have picky eaters. Geez.
I love the dark meat. I forgot about the giblet gravy. My husband and I love it but the kids want to know what’s that in the gravy?
Hard to please everyone, that’s for sure. 🙂 But you should have what you want on Thanksgiving. You can always freeze some of it for yourself later. 🙂
Wow, you have made me hungry.lol Yes, I am looking forward to turkey. Turkey, dressing, gravy, some of my other favorites is cranberries and I do love sweet potatoes. For dessert it will be banana pudding, pumpkin pie and maybe a butterscotch pie. I always try to fix one new recipe during the holidays, not sure what that will be.
Geez Katrina, you made me hungry reading your list! I love the banana pudding and butterscotch pie. I can’t let my husband so that or he’ll think we should do that as well. 🙂
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is one of the best times for tradition and no I don’t want someone tring new recipes either. But for the family gathering there will be both Turkey and ham, since there are some family members who do not like turkey. Then the sides will be mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, giblet gravy, dressing ( please do not adulterate with oysters!) made with white bread only, green bean casserole, broccoli rice casserole, corn (that had been put up from the summer garden), sweet potatoes ( there is a small dish without marshmallow for me), and then the desserts of pumpkin pie, apple pie, and cheesecake. When the family gathers there will usually be 20-30 people so there is usually very little left over.
My post went postal to you Linda! It’s at the bottom!!
My mouth is watering. I usually start craving the turkey too early in the season and buy a small breast to cook. And then we have to have mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing, so I end up doing the same thing! My mother and I were on the phone two weeks ago and after a lot of talking in circles we finally agreed to do Thanksgiving at my place. THEN she told me they were on a restricted diet (by choice!) and they wouldn’t be able to eat any traditional T-giving foods except turkey. I said, “Great! Bring what you need to eat. I’m making the full spread.”
Good for you, Kendra. Don’t you hate it when people are on a diet and you’re cooking!!
Glad you’re going for the whole spread!!
My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the pumpkin pie! Especially if my grandma makes it. And makes a homemade crust. My aunts pumpkin pie is good but not the same as grandmas! 😉
LOL Linda. What no oysters in the dressing? 🙂
It sounded like you were feeding an army and then it turns out you are. 🙂 It makes me hungry just reading about it!!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
LOL Erin. Nothing like grandma’s pie. I love it. My grandmother Johnson was the pie maker. My dad couldn’t be happier when she made him her chocolate cream.
Have a great Thanksgiving!!