Holly Holiday: Thanksgiving Menu Thoughts

I live one to two holidays in the future at any given time. I’ve always been pining away for future holiday fun, but at my job, it’s just gotten worse. I did a Black Friday ad a couple weeks ago. I’m scrounging together November-December events for a calendar for our next pub.

So of course I’m thinking turkey.

I was Pinning some stuff this morning and I came across this link to 60 Thanksgiving side dishes. It got me wondering…

If you cook a big Thanksgiving feast, or other BIG holiday meal, what are your essential side dishes?

For Thanksgiving, I absolutely must have turkey gravy, cornbread dressing (our’s is made pretty simply), cooked cranberry sauce, canned cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and those cheapie brown n’ serve rolls. It does feel a little odd without some sort of sweet potato dish, but I honestly don’t care for them too much. Our Thanksgiving is pretty basic, but we take a few detours off of PURE simple once in a while for surprises.

dootsiebug

September 25, 2012

Uncategorized

cooking, holiday, menu, thanksgiving

2 responses to “Holly Holiday: Thanksgiving Menu Thoughts”

KathyRo

September 25, 2012 at 2:06 pm

Well I wasn’t thinking about Thanksgiving before but now I am.

We have a lot of excellent cooks in our family so Thanksgiving always has a lot of dishes. There’s nothing simple about our Thanksgiving and I’m never unhappy about leftovers because there’s so many choices it doesn’t feel like the same meal all the time.

So my (greedy) answer to which side dishes are essential is “ALL OF THEM!”. But here are the top 4:

1) Stuffing w/gravy. Thanksgiving is just an excuse to make stuffing and gravy as far as I’m concerned. I don’t even like turkey much. It’s just the conduit to stuffing and gravy.
2) Tiropites, spanikopita, dolmathes. These are Greek dishes ( our family is Greek ) and at least one will make an appearance at Thanksgiving.
3) Candied yams/sweet potatoes. Oh my lord how can you be indifferent about this?? (But no marshmallow topping please.)
4) Pumpkin pie. There are not a lot of pumpkin pie fans in our family but every year I make one even if it’s just for me.

Reply
1. dootsiebug
  
  September 25, 2012 at 11:13 pm
  
  I think sweet potatoes are way too sweet. I like glazed carrots with Thanksgiving when we bother with them, and sweet potatoes + glazed carrots is like hanging out for a week in a candy shop. Haha
  I love the addition of Greek dishes at your table! What a wonderful tradition, and tasty, too! 😀
  
  Reply