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April 2019 Moms
mrstmoose
member
Thanksgiving thread!
mrstmoose
member
What are your family's Thanksgiving traditions?
What normally makes an appearance?
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
Random?
What normally makes an appearance?
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
Random?
Re: Thanksgiving thread!
What normally makes an appearance? All the usuals: turkey, ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, deviled eggs, etc. This year I'm going to try to make some gluten free pies as my SIL has celiac.
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? Strawberry "salad." My mom makes it. It's frozen strawberries (thawed), strawberry jello mix and whipped cream and she uses the mixer to mix it all together. Sounds weird but it's mine and my brother's favorites.
Random? I got nothing.
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? The only thing i can think of it that they don't include anything pumpkin or yam/sweet potato. And while i'm not a fan of pumpkin, i love the yams/sweet potatoes with the marshmallow topping but since i would be the only one eating it i don't make it. Although we started adding in a pumpkin pie the last couple of years for my DH since he likes it. Also when my sister and i got old enough to drink we started our own tradition of starting thanksgiving with mimosas.
Random? Does anyone else drink like 3 bottles of sparkling cider on Thanksgiving? I love that stuff so much.
prevously helloblueeyes
Me:32 DH:33 Married:04/2012 DD:07/2014
BFP 8/14/2018 #2 due 4/18/2019
Turkey, dressing, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, baby red potatoes in a cheesy cream herb sauce, asparagus soufflé, rolls, and fresh green beans with white wine garlic sauce are the staples at my mama’s Thanksgiving. (At the in-law’s, it’s very very meat-centered, with turkey cooked 2 different ways, ham, and pork tenderloin.)
The only “odd” tradition we have is that we don’t turn on the television at all when we’re at my mama’s on Thanksgiving. My family have never been big fans of football, so we just focus on family time and eating! I love it. It’s so much more peaceful and easy to talk when the tv isn’t blaring over the noise of kids! I will say that most of our husbands turn on a game at some point on their iPads and watch bits of it together, but it’s definitely not a huge focus of the day.
Okay, I adore that terrible canned cranberry sauce that ::shlurps:: out of the can and has permanent lines on it. 🙈 My grandmother always served it in the fall, and I loved it as a child and still do.
What normally makes an appearance? again, the usual. we skip on the ham. turkey is the main show for us. @thatbaintforbetty, I'm like your mom and prefer to roast a turkey, otherwise we have to make gravy out of packaged powder. but I lost that battle this year, and we are deep frying. we try to take turns every year on fried vs. roast. my husband always insists on making cranberry sauce from scratch, but I hate cranberry sauce, and there is always a shit ton that we end up throwing out. hoping I can convince him to stop making it.
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? my family isn't the only one that does it, b/c I grew up w/ a lot of other mixed families. but we used to always have something japanese on the table. whether it's yakisoba, or my mom's fried rice, or her egg rolls (which technically aren't japanese, but you get the idea). most years we manage to convince her to put her macaroni salad on the table (japanese-style means fruit cocktail mixed in- it's my fave!)
Random? also, @thatbaintforbetty, all of our family is out of state so we keep thanksgiving pretty casual w/ just us, and usually a friend drives in from dallas to spend it w/ us. the first time she spent the holiday w/ us, we started a tradition of drinking creamsicle cocktails (vanilla cream vodka & oj- out of pint glasses) all day long. I'm not typically a fruity alcohol kinda girl, but I make an exception for this friend, and for thanksgiving. (except this year
What normally makes an appearance? All the normal thanksgiving fixings and usually some type of seafood dish
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? Seafood. Oyster stuffing, crab cakes, and my mom's crab dip.
Random? I went to college in the south and spent Thanksgiving with my roommate one year. Her family deep fries the turkey and it was sooooo fucking good! I've tried multiple times to persuade my mom to do this but she refuses. Her family also grilled out (too cold here to to do this) and they made homemade jalapeno poppers which were awesome!
prevously helloblueeyes
Me:32 DH:33 Married:04/2012 DD:07/2014
BFP 8/14/2018 #2 due 4/18/2019
What are your family's Thanksgiving traditions?
We always get together at my parents house, most of the sisters/wives spend the morning cooking while the brothers/husbands split and stack wood for my dad for the winter (he rents a wood splitter just for Thanksgiving).
We also end up going to my DH's grandparents house later for their meal, because they live close. It's exhausting going to two houses/meals in one day though (plus my family's meal is delicious and from scratch, whereas most of DH's grandparents meal is from cans).
What normally makes an appearance?
Roasted turkey, homemade gravy, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls, strawberry frozen dessert, cranberry sauce (from a can), punch, some variety of pie or dessert. We usually have fresh fruit and some kind of dip as appetizers (my sister makes a buffalo chicken dip) since we end up eating around 2pm, and most of the kids are starving before then. My dad insists on having seasonal wine even though half of my family doesn't really drink (including him).
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
The strawberry frozen dessert mentioned above. Not sure when my mom started it, but it's been a tradition for as long as I've been alive at least (youngest of 8, so maybe it only came about for me and my next oldest sister, who knows).
Random?
All of this talk is making me super hungry for Thanksgiving dinner, and I don't even eat turkey/gravy/stuffing, haha.
What normally makes an appearance? The staples are turkey, mashed potatoes, butternut squash soup, green bean casserole, and some salad. We change up the other sides each year - this year farro and brussels and probably a salad.
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? My in-laws love beets and they do beets each year and I take like....one and begrudgingly eat it.
We watch the parade. Eat food. Put up our Christmas tree and go shopping.
What normally makes an appearance? Turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, stuffing. pumpkin pie
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? Christmas tree maybe?
Random? Honestly my favorite part is shopping lol. We usually start at target and go right after open, we never wait in long lines there and its fun. We don't do the whole stand in like for 6 hours for a tv.
BFP: 8/11/18 Due: 4/26/18
Sportsball (usually soccer, sometimes ultimate, never football) with teams ranging from about age 4 to age 80. People go on the field as they arrive according to ability - balance the varsity players and the incompetent ones (🙋♀️👶) and let the rest of the teams be uneven. People go off the field to eat and talk. Game ends when the majority of players are hungry.
Raw bar. Plus cheese, raw veggies, savory tarts, hot dips, etc.
40-50 people or so, including my kid’s third cousins, a handful of students who couldn’t go home for the holidays (or don’t have this holiday in their country), close family friends of someone, etc.
Massive quantities of veggies done right, plus some turkey on the side. And a lot of wine and beer.
Dessert bar: typically 5 or 6 tarts/pies/cakes plus freshly whipped cream. And ice cream.
Either: we take over 4-6 lanes at a bowling alley for a few games AND/OR musical talent show (bring your guitar, flute, recorder, or whatever...the host will provide the piano). There’re usually some pieces sung in parts from the college a capella crowd. Not musical? Your charged iPhone will helpfully provide lyrics to the sing-along crowd. (This talent show also has a habit of making an appearance at Christmas, with an emphasis on carols. Summer talent shows are usually less music, more drama.)
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
The talent shows. Honestly, I think it happens because we tend not to have TVs except in small corners.
**ETA: how could I forget that when there’s a critical mass of children there are Thanksgiving pageants with construction paper hats and shoe buckles?? Always depicting the Pilgrim story but also slightly different year to year. Notable versions include: The Year Most Pilgrims Died On Stage, The Year We Had a Dream Sequence, The Three Years The Eldest Grandchild Tried To Quit As Director, The Farming Year, and The Year We Attempted a Musical.
What normally makes an appearance?
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
Random?
DS-9/2012
DD-7/2015
We host my parents, in-laws, our siblings, and other random family members. I started this tradition when I was pregnant with DD because I love hosting (but we always go to others houses) and wanted one holiday that I could bring both sides of our family together.
What normally makes an appearance?
Everything lol. We feed 20-30 people depending on the year so lots of food.
turkey
ham if the turkey isn’t big enough
stuffing(2 kinds)
grean beans (casserole or with bacon)
sweet potatoes
mashed potatoes and gravy
carrots
rolls
salad
appetizers
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
My grandmas cranberry jello(FYI it tastes way better than it sounds). We have it at every major holiday growing up and now, but anyone outside of my family thinks it’s weird and won’t try it. It’s lemon jello made with ginger ale with crushed pineapple and cranberry jelly mixed in. Then you too with a whip cream/cream cheese mixture
Random?
Is is it bad that I’m happy/relieved that my sister and her son won’t be coming this year.
She a) has a great knack for starting drama and ruining family dinners b) expects everyone else to watch and take care of her son while she lounges on my couch and my mom and I do all the work c) couldn’t even manage to bring rolls last year without ruining them d) eat an insane amount of bread and then complains about being sick (she’s actually allergic to gluten but won’t change her diet).
What normally makes an appearance? All the usual Thanksgiving stuff - I must have jellied cranberry sauce and pecan pie.
Random? My granny's stuffing recipe is my absolute favorite.
Cook together: I lb. of sausage, 1 onion, 1/2 cup to a cup celery
Mix together: sausage, onion, celery, 1 bag cornbread stuffing, 1 bag of regular stuffing, 1-2 eggs, chicken broth (enough to make it wet and stick together).
Make into patties and cook in cast iron skillet on stove top until brown.
It's usually soft on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside and sadly I almost never have leftovers.
Mainly, “The macys day parade” as we call it. The dog show is also usually watched if possible. We always do turkey and candied yams and and a pie. Sometimes things change but those don’t.
My dad cooked the meat usually and my mom did the sides and I helped, now that they’ve moved, we are having great people over. Actually of the 7 adults coming (our toddler and a baby also) they are all introverted except for me. It should be really chill and fun. Everyone is contributing and I’m cooking the turkey for the first time. Not too worried. I think I’ll brine it? Hmm
What is something you've only seen your family make/do? I don’t know that we have any special things, cheesy broccoli casserole instead of green bean casserole is a recent change. And my husbands family cooks their cranberry sauce from scratch which is good and also unlike anyone else I know.
Random? I love the parade, we have to stream it on the computer we decorate for Christmas in the following days after thanksgiving and I usually go Black Friday shopping later in the morning on Black Friday and look at things, people watch and rarely make a purchase.
What are your family's Thanksgiving traditions? Cooking together and hanging out in the kitchen, the parade and football, sometimes a small family football game, depending on who’s there that year.
What normally makes an appearance? Turkey, often ham, gravy, scratch cranberry sauce, green beans with almonds or bacon, carmalized brussle sprouts with pecans or creamy Brussle sprout casserole, baked root veggies and squash, salad, and antipasto spread, shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, sweet potato with marshmallows, sausage and fennel stuffing, and butternut squash lasagna. apple pie, coconut cream pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, whipped cream.
Butternut squash lazagna
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/butternut-squash-lasagna-recipe-1943375.amp
We feed 25-35 peeps
Random? N/a
DH and I always go to his parents house for Thanksgiving. His brothers and their wives come too and sometimes a friend or two. And everyone's dogs come to every holiday get together which is really overwhelming. There are 7 total when everyone brings their dogs, plus one cat.
What normally makes an appearance?
Turkey, stuffing, green beans, etc.
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
Last year we tried quail as a second meat option.
My brother-in-law's wife brings a dish called Pink Stuff. I'm not sure what's in it besides marshmallow and foods that dye the fluff pink and some other fruits. We don't eat it as a dessert though, it's part of the main course. It can be found on google.
Random?
I'm wondering about all the change that will come with our April baby. It will be my in-laws first grandchild. What worries me the most is if the dogs will be aggressive towards the baby and if DH and I will need to hold or wear our son or daughter 24/7 when we visit. And of course I'm not looking forward to the UOs of my brothers and sisters in law who don't want kids yet when we visit. I had one terrifying dream of letting my child cry it out while we were with the family and my sil getting angry that i didn't make our baby stop crying and she picked up my child by its head. I don't think anyone would do that, but I do know that DH and I have different views on parenting than his siblings based off some conversations we've had and I'll need to stand up for us around our family. We are very non-confrontational so I'm not looking forward to those moments.
@katlarissa My mother served canned cranberry every Thanksgiving! I was the only one who didn't like it. My in-laws don't eat it so we never see it, but I miss it as one of my memories of being with my mom. ❤
@snowhite12 I love that you guys have seafood on Thanksgiving!
@lyse01 Your Thanksgiving tradition sounds really fun!
@gollygeeitsamy Stuffing with some crunch sounds like a good idea, I would want to try that.
What are your family's Thanksgiving traditions?
Growing up we always had cinnamon rolls for breakfast so I will be continuing that his year. Sister has celiac so will be attempting some gf ones 🤞
What normally makes an appearance?
turkey (dh has been sous-viding it for the past few years and it’s so good),
mashed potatoes, stuffing, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, rolls, apple crisp
What is something you've only seen your family make/do?
Not sure we have anything...
Random?
Did a turkey trot last year with my parent’s dog and she wore a turkey for the entire 5k
BFP: 8/11/18 Due: 4/26/18