A Little On The Side(s)
I have posed a little pre-Thanksgiving question over on F*book. (They have this cool “My Questions” app that lets you ask your friends a question on the sidebar of your profile. I know, I know… but I’m a widget & social media junkie.)
I realized, as the responses started flooding in, that I have a lot of people reading my blog that I’d like to have answer the question too. So take a second, answer the question below, include a recipe (or not) and I’ll share the lot with you here mid-next week.
So here we go,
What is your favourite Thanksgiving side dish, appetizer or dessert?
Favourite dish would have to be stuffing. But, what really makes that meal special is a gravy that can tie everything together. It’s the difference between ‘having turkey tonight’ and Thanksgiving.
I’m a stuffing gal too, but only the kind my MIL makes. After thanksgiving I love myself a turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing sandwich.
This year I’m making dessert: apple crisp. I have an awesome recipe, but, sadly, I can’t share it with you. Sorry. 🙂
Funny, I never really think of stuffing as a “side”, I guess “in-side” counts. But if you are going to tell me “stuffing” is your favourite side I want more details – is this a whitebread stuffing with frozen mixed veg, or a sausage stuffing with apple & cranberry?
Me, I make mine with cornbread, dried cranberries, onions, carrots and celery. But more on that when I share recipes.
It is a tie between my mom’s turkey and her stuffing. The turkey is wrapped in bacon (yes the entire thing) and then cooked. It is so good. So moist. The stuffing is meat stuffing. Made with spicy Italian sausage, bread crumbs, onion and cooked inside the bacon-wrapped turkey. So good.
The really best thing is to eat the stuffing cold the next day with left-over (warmed up) gravy.
Oh, and no apples or cranberry in this stuffing. This stuffing is all about the meat.
So, serious… you guys just eat the turkey and the stuff crammed inside it? Your mommy (and MIL) is going to get an earful about making you eat your greens!
Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving in my family until my mom makes her famous green jello salad. Seriously. She inherited the recipe from my Gram/her mom-in-law back in the early days of my parents’ marriage, and it’s been present at every turkey-related dinner ever since. In my mom’s defence, for at least the last 10 years she has tried to cross it off the menu, but as soon as one of my sibs catches wind of her foul plan, we gang up on her and sad-face her into it. The recipe is very simple – 1 pkg. green jello (oh okay, I know it’s lime, but we just call it green), 1 container cottage cheese, 1tbsp. mayonnaise (hellman’s style, none of yer miracle whip disgustingness), salt & pepper to taste. Make the jello as per package instructions. Stick it in the fridge for a bit, until it cools off but hasn’t yet started to gel. Stir in the cottage cheese, s&p and mayo, and voila. Pour into awesome tupperware jello mold (my mom has one that looks exactly like this: http://www.jennieshortridge.com/Library/jellomold.jpg, except the middle part on ours has been held together with duct tape since 1994). The most fun – aside from eating it, of course – is decanting this sucker onto a serving plate. There is NOTHING else in the world that comes close to that crazy sucking sound/plop. Good times.
Well,we also have yorkshire pudding, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes and roast carrots. The key to this is that we put gravy on the whole lot! Only way to do it. Marc was shocked the first time he experienced this. I simply thought it was normal. This isn’t that thin pale gravy – this is thick and meaty. Wow, I’m getting homesick. Unfortunately I won’t have any of this deliciousness this year…
I’ve never had jello salad – not a British food. Reminds me of that odd salad – mandarin oranges, coconut, and sour cream.
Given that I grew up with Turkey at both Christmas and thanks giving (not to mention Easter) my favorite side dish has got to be stuffing. Stuffing with gravy. mmmm. Which reminds me, evidently in Newfoundland, French fries with Stuffing (stovetop) and gravy is a popular snack. Elgin Street Diner should really market that as a Newfy Poutine.
Newfoundlanders… so like us, and yet so different too.