Yes, its time for my annual discussion of what friends, Staff Goddesses and strangers I accost on the street are serving for Thanksgiving. I have a tedious endless fascination with this topic. Everyone I ask says, “The usual.” then proceeds to describe a meal that almost always has a twist or two. It is the twist or two that pull me into each family’s story.
Another reason for my abiding fixation interest in this meal? My family of origin Thanksgiving menu was so bizarre unappealing unique that I am still puzzling over the menu sixty years later. There was rice. Rice was king. And also Queen. There were peas in a boiling bag from Green Giant and also corn in a bag. There was a spicy fruit compote. There were blueberry muffins from a box mix. There was a dry turkey. However there was no gravy, no mashed potatoes, no stuffing and no pies. For a family that never missed dessert and also sported some very good cooks, the whole thing was odd.
Joining Jim’s family I relished the inclusion of the regular suspects: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and pies. Jim’s father particularly loved mince pie, and I made this for him with a green tomato mincemeat I canned up each summer. However his Aunt Ruth’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie was the real star of the pies on offer.
The one puzzle in the Sheehan meal was the appetizer of black olives from a can and celery sticks served in a cut glass dish. I could not imagine wasting space in my stomach on these options, but they always vanished at a Sheehan Thanksgiving. Later I learned this was a very traditional southern New England Thanksgiving thing. Go figure.
After thirty plus years hosting Thanksgiving, the baton has passed to my children, and I am free to put my energy into asking even more people about their Thanksgiving menu.
At my granddaughter’s last soccer game of the season, I asked various spectators what they were serving. One woman’s menu included moussaka for her grandfather from Greece. Another spectator described Thanksgiving as a warm up for the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. Fish dishes are sampled at Thanksgiving to see if they make the cut for the Feast. One man I asked, someone I have known for many years who therefore was probably not too surprised by my odd question could not recall what they ate last year or any year. Some people really don’t find this a topic of general interest.
Turning my attention to Staff Goddesses, one who returns to her childhood home in Connecticut each year said her mother always serves roasted vegetables including broccoli and cauliflower as well. Our roast vegetables include butternut squash, carrots and parsnips so these cruciferous veggies were a new idea. As with my Connecticut family of origin, they also have frozen corn as a side. Her family also has no pie except for pumpkin now added in because her husband missed it. Apple crisp is the dessert du jour which suggests to me that her mother knew my mother as this was the kind of dessert we had in lieu of pies.
Staff Goddess Sam had a southern dad. She spent her childhood Thanksgivings in North Carolina, and the meal included cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecan pie. As Sam grew up in puritanical more restrained Massachusetts, the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes was the thing she remembered most as she had never seen marshmallow fluff on a vegetable. As an adult Sam either cooks from her amazing vegetable garden or she and her mom’s family get Chinese take-out as her mom is from Hong Kong. She stressed that after they stopped going to North Carolina when her grandma died, the menus became very free flowing from year to year. Turnip pudding with Chinese mushrooms and hoisin sauce are one of the few dishes that make the cut each year.
Another Staff Goddess participates in enormous family Thanksgivings of forty or fifty people. Mushroom Wellington sits alongside the two turkeys. There are a few rules for the gatherings. Rule #1 is that there will be petit pois a.k.a. little peas WITHOUT onions. Onions are for Christmas which is a meal that also must include a peppermint roll cake which this Staff Goddess loathes but which the family cannot live without. I haven’t mentioned her name as I don’t want her to have to go into the witness protection program because she told me that she hates this dessert. The pies are the focus at her Thanksgiving and the list of pies is long. Maple Cream Pie takes center stage . I am hoping for the recipe. Rule #2 is that pies must be made from scratch. There was a problem with jello instant pudding used in a chocolate cream pie recently, and everyone hopes that was a one time thing. Rule #3 is that there must be cranberry sauce from a can with the ridges still on it AND fresh cranberry compote.
Staff Goddess Emily grew up on a dairy farm in Walpole NH and now is married to a dairy farmer in our town. She goes to her grandmother at HER dairy farm in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. Emily is usually given the assignment to make rolls and some years this has involved making eight, ten, twelve dozen rolls.
Em’s Grandma keeps a very tight rein on the menu, and this year she has given Emily the assignment of BOILED carrots. She told Emily there is to be no roasting of vegetables. The carrots can be served with butter but NO ROASTING. The meal begins with a relish tray that includes gherkins. I could not pry out of Emily what else went on this relish tray. Like the Sheehan black olive and celery dish, it’s clearly a dud. There are mashed turnips, mashed potatoes mashed without the skins thank you very much, turkey, gravy, boiled creamed onions, sausage stuffing made with Pepperidge farm stuffing mix thank you very much and big rolls. While her husband’s family likes small rolls, Em’s family likes big rolls. She noted that they like big everything. Emily makes such amazing bread that I know from experience her rolls are beyond delicious whether big or small. I am not clear why Emily has been set free from roll duty this year. It is good news for Em but bad news for everyone else.
All in all, respect for Great Grandma who is so clear about what she wants and deserves at her Thanksgiving table.
I have still got another week to accost people and ask them what their Thanksgiving menu is. Wish me luck! And please email us your menu and family Thanksgiving meal traditions. I love hearing from you! This is a holiday we all share and I love that about it!