Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is a pretty laid back affair at our house, it always has been.. After all these years I must confess that as much as I love to cook, I have only made Thanksgiving dinner once or twice. Its a tradition to go to my moms house.. She loves to cook and does it so well that why change .. I do help by bringing side dishes and dessert.

My SIL family is from Germany and does not celebrate Thanksgiving so it is the one holiday that my side of the family is always together for.. My neice won't be with us this year though as she if off serving our country.. (THANKS Crissy for this and all you do 365 days a year btw),

Usually we lay around and watch football then retire early or the guys go home without me cause the stores open early and we girsl always head to the stores at 5:30 a.m. More for the fun than the shopping.. but we always get some of that done also.

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"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole."

"JustMom"

We do the individual thanks and blessing cup, which we pass around. Now I'll tell you about a somewhat new tradition that I'm not proud of.
Neither my sister on law or I (the main cooks) can brag about our mashed potatoes, so...About 10 years ago we started using the instant flakes. We add sour cream and REAL butter. NO one has ever mentioned it- not sure thay have noticed! And it cuts down on the workload!
We usually have a family dinner with relatives, but now that I have 3 drivers who have friends who drive, of course, we have a crowd after dinner.
We make 5 pumpkin and 5 cherry pies each year and the teens all take them to the Ronald MacDonald house.

This is the 2nd year that we haven't gone home(to NY). My family has a tradition of hosting a huge touch football game at Ajax Park near my uncle's house(kind of like the Kennedy's expect we are in the 'hood). We have a pot luck brunch and then about 20-30 friends and family head to the park for the game. The games can get pretty serious, my uncles played college and semi-pro football and my grandfather was a coach. We have had a few broken bones, busted lips and some hurt feelings. But we have a ball!

Another tradition that I will miss, is the Thanksgiving morning fight with my mother when she decides that I know absolutely nothing about preparing a meal and that I need to do things her way...according to her schedule because it is her kitchen...and if I don't like I can go eat at White Castle. Then she gets mad because the boys and I are going to play football instead of helping her peel yams.

We tease my Mom about all the fuss she goes thru for holiday meals, the table settings, the center piece, the crudite...put I really do miss it. I just can't deal with traveling during Thanksgiving, the traffic is horrific.

This year the boys really wanted to stay in MD, so they can visit with their friends. So we are going to my girlfriend's mini-mansion in Leesburg. My friend and I decided that neither one of us felt like busting any pots and pans this year, so we ordered our dinner from Whole Foods...all we have to do is throw the bird in the oven. I am going make some of my famous macaroni and cheese but no collard greens. Then we are going to kick back and watch the games in her home theatre.

GO NAVY!!!

I have always been the cook. When we were still in Washington State, my parents and brothers and sisters (with family's) always came to our house for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners. I love cooking for a crowd and love having a party! I still have not learned how to cook for only two...

Since we have been in California, I have continued to cook with a variety of family and ALWAYS a group or two of family-less friends for dinner.

This year, with both boys off to college and not able to come home, we are going to a friends house in Idyllwild, our local mountains. It will be different and sad for me.

Funny how I still bought the .49 turkey at Stater Bros to put in the freezer for a later date. And I also bought a fresh one to fix here over the weekend so we wouldn't be without our traditional feast items. This is definitely a different and melancholy year for me.

Since I have always been the gourmand in our family, (other than my mothers traditional sage dressing), I end up pushing the envelope with traditions. www.Epicurious.com is my favorite website (other than the hsbaseballweb) and I find different things to make my menu unforgettable. Especially to my kids chagrine. No one here will ever let me forget the ****ake mushroom and raisin dressing. Ah well, we learn from our mistakes!

Catch Mn- does that mean that you disaproove of my instant mashed potatoes? Hope your day turns out well!

No, just because I use epicurious doesn't mean I won't eat anything and everything that is put on the table by someone else!

I have no pretentions of being a food snob. Quite the opposite! I eat it all. I just don't cook it all. And yes, I use butter instead of margarine...but just because I think it tastes better!

Catch Mm- Thanks for the link- I've been reading it as I am waiting up for my teens to come in- I extended curfew to 12:30 tonight. I actually found a recipe there that I've been looking for and will use Thurs!

When we got married, my husband told our parents that the big holidays would be celebrated at our house ... and reminded them that they all knew where we lived. Since his folks and my mom live in Riverside and we have always been just 30 miles away, it makes it a lot easier on all of us to have a central location for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

So, with that decision, I had to learn to cook for Thanksgiving. (History: When I was growing up, my mom didn't really cook anything too complicated, and we spent most of our Thanksgivings at her brother's house ... except for the few years we ate at a restaurant because nobody invited us to dinner ... ) Anyway, my husband is a good cook and taught me everything he knew. Now, I pretty much do the whole thing myself ... and I can't wait till AJ gets married and his wife learns how to make Thanksgiving dinner because after 27 years (less 3 times we ate out), I am ready for a permanent break. (When I mentioned that to his girlfriend ... she said she didn't know how to make a turkey but that wasn't a problem because her mom LOVES to make Thanksgiving dinner.)

We have two main food traditions ... one is brought to us by Marv's mom ... a family favorite mushroom/onion gravy made from the drippings. (I don't do mushrooms, so AJ, my mom, and I just have the plain stuff.) The second is my favorite ... the dressing ... a traditionally flavored bread dressing with a long grain/wild rice mixture added to it ...

Who carves ? Well, I cook the whole darn thing ... my husband better do something, don't you think?

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C'mon guys ... let me out !!!
I just wanna see a game !!!
H-mom
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We learn a lot from crayons:
some are sharp; some are dull; some are pretty;
some have weird names; all are different colors.
And they all have to learn to live in the same box.

I have been cooking for 29 years...since my Mom was obsessive/compulsive the only thing we were allowed to do was the dishes...her kitchen was her domain...so I married Chef Boy-ar-dee(thank god since this is the woman who put broccoli in tupperware in the oven to warm and it caught fire ) funny I could start an IV or insert a foley catheter but I just could not heat broccoli...well I figured I had better learn quick or else he was divorcing me for some greek cutie from a village who would slave over the stove...since we are from such vastly different cultures our meals have always been a blend of what each of us has been accustomed to...we have the traditional turkey and the rest but we have cheese pie, feta in our salad and a wondeful dessert called galatoborico...which is filo dough and a tapioca filling with a drizzled sugar sauce on top...absolutely marvelous but a killer on the hips...growing up we ate around my fathers schedule on the fire department...that meant w could be eating at noon or as late as 8 but we ALWAYS waited for my father...as 2 of us went into nursing my poor mother had to compromise herself and try to adjust to all the work schedules....somehow she always succeeded...I,too, have been presented with the same fate as my husband cooks for the elderly and will not be home till 3 so we are eating at 4....something I have always wanted to do was to eat at Plymouth Plantation as they serve meals there all day....maybe in my twighlite years this may happen...so for now I am simply happy that sonny will arrive via US Air at 7 tonight and we will all be together at 4 tomorrow afternoon...have a blessed and safe day all

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

We still go to my moms, and nobody can wait. Why is it someone else's cooking always tastes better? We share the potato peeling duty, and add real butter, sour cream, and a titch of garlic. My moms sage dressing and gravy are the best. My sisters and I share the other sides and we all make a pie. Pumpkin of course, an apple this year, and the ever popular family secret... french silk. A 1/2 pound of butter, sugar, unsweetend chocolate, and lots of eggs, etc. It absolutely melts on your lips.

My husband does the carving and we share the cleanup. Then it's football and board games.

No shopping for me the day after, It's just too frustrating. This year we will be cutting 230 pounds of "rocky mountain oysters" in preparation for the 1st annual testicle festival for sons summer team fundraiser being held on Sat. We've got our work cut out for us.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are blessed.

"There's no crying in baseball!"

My favorite holdiay...

...When decorating, remember...Mother Nature does it best. We go out into the woods and gather all our decorations...

...Cut out a small circle in a bunch of small gourds and insert a votive...

...The smell of yeast dough rising in the early am and fresh cinnamon rolls in time for a late breaKfast...

...When you go around the table to say what you are most thankful for...Just tell everyone you are really, really thankful you didn't get caught...

...Try and remember to remove the neck and giblets prior to cooking...

...Ours is a Tradtional American Holiday...We are a family who will sit for dinner at the same time as many...halftime. (Wouldn't have it any other way)

How to cook a Turkey
1. Go buy a turkey
2. Take a drink of whiskey (scotch) or JD
3. Put turkey in the oven
4. Take another 2 drinks of whiskey
5. Set the degreeat 375 ovens
6. Take 3 more shiskeys of drink
7. Turn oven the on
8. Take 4 whisks of drinky
9. Turk the bastey
10. Whiskey another bottle of get
11. Stick a turkey in the thermometer
12. Glass yourself a pour of whiskey
13. Bake the whiskey for 4 hours
14. Take the oven out of the turkey
15. Take the oven out of the turkey
16. Floor the turkey up off the pick
17. Turk the carvey
18. Get yourself another scottle of botch
19. Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass ot turkey
20. Bless the saying, pass and eat out.

oh, and make sure you cook a really big bird so there is no need to cook for many, many days..

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By the time you learn how to play the game...
You can't play it anymore ~ Frank Howard

Catchersmom...I think we have the same mother..LOL

GO NAVY!!!

Chill - I will try your turkey cooking tips this year. Do you think it will work as well with champagne?

P.S. Who updated the emoticon screen - there's a new one in there that surprised me...

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"Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God's help or a new pitcher. Thank you. Alexander. Age 10"

Centerfieldsmom,

The French silk pie sounds delicious. Melts on yor lips or on your hips!

I don't actually eat such things as French Silk anymore....I just rub it directly on my thighs, as it saves time.

The one meal my mother could make was the holiday feast, and she made exactly the same menu as her own mother...which is, of course, pretty much the menu I serve:

a 1940's lime jello-cream cheese-pineapple-pecan concoction which appalled my English husband when he first saw it, and which has since become his favorite.

roast potato & biscuits

one heavily basted turkey (a slight variation from Mom's...I don't dry it out)

my contribution: rice and brocolli in a bichamel-cheese sauce

cranberry sauce is put on the table, because my husband enjoys a tiny bit, and because I've got Grandma's really cool silver cranberry-sauce server!

good, old-fashioned Midwest dressing: bread, sausage, celery, onions, & egg, seasoned. My son starts talking about it around Hallowe'en and it takes what goes into the turkey plus what gets cooked up in a large casserole to satisfy him. And by lunchtime on Friday, it will be gone. This year he's challenged me to make enough for him to take back to school with him.

He'll be home tomorrow --- hooray!



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From 'Nice Guys Finish Last' by Leo Durocher:

Baseball lives at the center of a never-flagging whirl of irreconcilable opinions.

Okay....I'm still laughing about the "Testical Festival"!!!!

I'm cooking Thanksgiving this year....I cook every other year. My table is ALREADY set (guess I'll have to blow off the dust when it's time to actually eat!) and the BIG dilemma was trying to coordinate my 6-year-olds paper mache' pumpkin into my "elegantly" designed centerpiece. We finally succeeded in creating something we were BOTH happy about!
We have TWO traditions when it comes to the food served for Thanksgiving. #1 is a dish called "Oysters Cormier" which is a recipe from the husband's side of the family that is a MUST HAVE....or I would be disowned! #2 is that my entire family INSISTS on the canned cranberry sauce! You know....the kind that slides out of the can and has the ridge lines that are the perfect diameter for slicing perfectly sized slices of the sauce?!? One year I made the tremendous faux pas of making REAL cranberry sauce.....they only recently allowed me to make Thanksgiving dinner again! My family can ALWAYS expect to find something "new" on my Thanksgiving table...as I LOVE to try out new recipes....this year it is a sage dressing with sausage and dried cherries. Of course, I will ALSO have the traditional dressing to satisfy the less adventurous. I guess we really do have a #3 tradition....to eat so much that we have to unbutton our trousers while we all retreat to the family room for the traditional Thanksgiving Day WALLOW-fest! Gosh.....I'm getting excited already (seriously! lol)....I can hardly wait!

Regarding the French Silk Pie girls....moderation is the key I just have one piece but cut it BIG!

"There's no crying in baseball!"

What's wrong with the canned cranberry sauce? Nothing better on hot rolls with lots of butter -- and in turkey sandwiches on Friday!

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"Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God's help or a new pitcher. Thank you. Alexander. Age 10"

Okay, URKMB, tell me how to make turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce. I am not kidding. My son once told me his friend's mom made them and they are great, but honest I don't know what all goes on them besides the turkey and cranberries? Don't Laugh, just write recipe please.

cal 2004- This is my Mom's- UKMB may have a different version. Start with Toast- has to be toast or it will get too soggy. Then add mayo, turkey, (light or dark), a medium sized slice of cranberry, a little salt, leftover stuffing, little more mayo, 2nd piece of toast.!

amom is on the right track as far as I'm concerned -- Here's my version:
2 slices of good bread, toasted and buttered lightly, mayo, turkey, a slice of cranberry sauce, a small scoop of stuffing, salt and pepper to taste, and lettuce. Mustard if you must. This is not the accepted California version I must add, but more of a culinary tribute to the many happy (cholesterol-laden) years I lived in the midwest ! Not too bad Anyone else have anything to share?

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"Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God's help or a new pitcher. Thank you. Alexander. Age 10"

Gosh....the canned cranberry sauce got me to thinking about my Granny who used to fry up the left over stuffing in bacon fat until it got a nice golden crust on it....then topped if off with a dollop of gravy and a nice slice of cranberry sauce on top! Cholesterol heaven! hmmmmmmmmm. I had completely forgotten about that! If you could only see the smile on my face!

luvbb ---
Ah yes, I remember those days... my (ex but still wonderful) mother-in-law used to keep a tub of lard by the stove for just that type of meal...

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"Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God's help or a new pitcher. Thank you. Alexander. Age 10"

Thanks all 3 of you! Looks like I'll be adding a few pounds after Thanksgiving, all under the guise of trying to make the perfect sandwich for my children Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Wait a minute, this is hsbaseball, right? The only holiday family tradition in our house, the last few years, is to be covered in red dust. I haven't had a decent holiday meal since my son started playing baseball! This year we spent Thanksgiving on the road headed down to Southern California for the Brea Thanksgiving Classic and had turkey dinner at Coco's Restaurant! Wouldn't change it for the world. My only son is growing up much to fast and the 8 hours of uninterupted alone time spent traveling, along with witnessing him participate in a great weekend of baseball....priceless!

Can't wait to see where we are headed for Easter!

There is no other way to play than all out.