Thanksgiving is a great time for making fun crafts with the kids, telling friends, how much they mean to you, and having the family over for eat-till-you-roll-off-the-chair dinner.
My most memorable, and least traditional, Thanksgiving dinner was some years back, when my husband spent the holidays in Denmark with me, a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. There were no decorations and it was really just a regular, boring Thursday. Nevertheless, Brett, my husband, decided to invite my parents over for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. Wow! Other than the fact that he didn’t have any Thanksgiving recipes (perhaps recipe cards would have come in handy then), there were just a few little problems…
He set out on his own to buy a turkey, sweet potatoes, cream of mushroom soup for the green bean casserole, and all the other fixings. Now, mushroom soup is far too soupy and not nearly creamy enough in Denmark; and Danes are completely unaware that there are other potatoes than potatoes, so the sweet potatoes were also a no-go. But these minor ingredients and the complete lack of Thanksgiving recipes could be worked around with a little improvisation — it was the turkey that proved to be the biggest challenge.
A turkey is called a “kalkun” in Danish. However, some lady at a supermarket told my unsuspecting husband that it was called an “amerikansk kylling” (ie. an American chicken). I’m sure that most butchers would have figured that one out, except that Brett couldn’t pronounce the “y” correctly, and so he pronounced it “killing.” It’s bad enough that he was walking around asking for an “Amerikansk killing,” but since the word “killing” actually means “kitten” in Danish, people must have thought him completely mad and quite cruel too. Especially when he specified that it had to be fresh.
He finally ended up buying a large, frozen hen that we had to try to defrost in just a few hours. Nevertheless, it turned out to be absolutely lovely, if perhaps far from traditional.
I’m sure that stuffed hen isn’t on anyone’s top 10 Thanksgiving recipe list, but the following dishes are top notch traditional favorites on Thanksgiving tables across the country.
- Turkey, turkey, and more turkey! It’s turkey day, and only one lucky bird (well, actually two) will go free.
- Pumpkin pie, from scratch or from your favorite bakery, is a perfect Thanksgiving dessert.
- Cranberry sauce. My husband hates it, but perhaps that’s because his mom is a true devotee of the cylindrical (canned) version
- Cornbread Stuffing — but which kind? Martha Stewart offers this Cornbread Sourdough Stuffing, or perhaps something with a little Southern flair.
- Mashed potatoes are a must, whether they be plain potatoes, garlic potatoes, sweet potatoes, or low carb mashed “potatoes.”
- Corn is one of the original foods of the Americas, and still a favorite on the holiday table.
- Homemade rolls smell delicious and can be so hard to keep one’s hands off, just as they come out of the oven.
- Turkey gravy — mmmm, graaavy! Even the most messed up turkey, will be a hit when smothered in homemade gravy
- Apple pie is as American as Thanksgiving. Every family has a superb apple pie baker, but it never hurts to try someone else’s perfect apple pie. Or maybe your family is a little on the nutty side…
- … and would rather finish dinner with pecan pie. Or do like my family and have multiple pies with ice cream, whipped cream, and any other tasty cream that we can come up with.
Don’t have your own bunch of traditional family recipes; print these recipes on a stack of recipe cards ‘cause they are keepers. Happy Thanksgiving!
Tags: Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Crafts, Thanksgiving Dinner, Thanksgiving Recipe
