Author Topic: Favorite Thanksgiving Food  (Read 12500 times)

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2006, 07:20:06 am »
I looked it up at wikipedia. It seems to be similar to the cranberry jelly we eat together with venison.
So I think it has a sweet and fruity taste, doesn't it?

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2006, 09:06:31 am »
I looked it up at wikipedia. It seems to be similar to the cranberry jelly we eat together with venison.
So I think it has a sweet and fruity taste, doesn't it?

Yes, it's just a sweetened and jelled condiment.  Not very sweet.  It has a tartness.  It's a condiment, to be eaten with the turkey, but like most Thanksgiving day food, almost everything can be and is eaten together.  Some people make their own cranberry sauce, but it's more like a chutney in consistency than a sauce.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #22 on: November 15, 2006, 11:40:58 am »
Yes, it's just a sweetened and jelled condiment.  Not very sweet.  It has a tartness.  It's a condiment, to be eaten with the turkey, but like most Thanksgiving day food, almost everything can be and is eaten together.  Some people make their own cranberry sauce, but it's more like a chutney in consistency than a sauce.

I guess what Del's calling a chutney is what folks in Central Pennsylvania would call a "cranberry relish." Around here it usually consists of ground cranberries and apples, with a little orange thrown into the mix, and sometimes walnuts. I think some recipes also call for using Jello, but I don't think my mother or my grandmother ever included Jello when they made their own cranberry relish.

Much to be preferred to the jellied stuff that comes out of a can.  :P  ;D
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #23 on: November 15, 2006, 04:33:33 pm »
Thank you both Del and Jeff  :-*
Yup, my accosiation was right. I think I'd love cranberry sauce (or relish or chutney).

Offline cmr107

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #24 on: November 15, 2006, 05:09:19 pm »
I voted for mashed potatoes. I've been the mashed potato maker in my family since I was like 13. My mom always made really good ones, then she taught me. Tell you what, mine might be better than hers!  :P

I also really love turkey, but I couldn't vote for two things. And here's what will make ya'll think I'm crazy - I don't like gravy!

Goodness, I can't wait for Thanksgiving. I haven't had a day off from school since Labor Day, and I haven't been home since September either! One more week...

Offline dot-matrix

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #25 on: November 16, 2006, 03:12:03 am »
My Mama was a Southern Belle so we have some different traditions in our family, one of my fav's are the mixed greens with turnips...Mama mixed Turnip Greens, Collard Greens and Mustard Greens and cooked them with peeled and diced turnips, salt pork, pepper and a little vinegar.  She was also a great bread baker so it's not a holiday for me without Mama's greens and dinner rolls :D

Thank goodness I paid enough attention to learn how to prepare a pale but passable version of both before I lost her.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #26 on: November 18, 2006, 10:22:53 pm »
I have kind of an urgent question: Does anybody have any ideas for a nice main dish to replace turkey for a 10-year-old vegetarian? My son has been a vegetarian since April. What happened was, he found an injured bird, kept it a few days, nursed it back to health. And then, suddenly and mysteriously, he found it dying. He held it in his hands until it died, and ever since that he's been a vegetarian.

I eat meat myself, but I'm proud of my son for having the discipline to have stuck to his vegetarianism for seven months, with no sign of wavering. But I know Thanksgiving will be tough. Obviously there are side dishes: potatoes, rutabaggas, green vegetable, pie ... But skipping turkey, dressing and gravy won't be easy.

Does anybody know of any tasty Thanksgivingish vegetarian main dish? I'm thinking maybe something that might involve pumpin or yams, maybe seeds or nuts, other vegetables .... cheese is OK (he's not a vegan -- yet!) ... any great ideas?

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #27 on: November 18, 2006, 11:31:23 pm »
Katherine, do you have any of the Moosewood cookbooks? (Or could you find them in a local library?) I've got a stack of them (I like vegetarian cooking), and there are a lot of possibilities.

Chilean Squash (cooked squash or pumpkin, onion, red & green bell peppers, garlic, cumin, eggs, corn, chili powder, cheddar cheese, coriander, salt, and a tiny bit of cayenne and black pepper) sounds kind of like what you're looking for... if he eats eggs?

There are a lot of different vegetarian stew possibilities, and also vegetarian versions of shepherd's pie, that are pretty good and might be Thanksgiving-ish enough.

I once made vegetarian spanikopita for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2006, 02:12:55 am »
Chilean Squash (cooked squash or pumpkin, onion, red & green bell peppers, garlic, cumin, eggs, corn, chili powder, cheddar cheese, coriander, salt, and a tiny bit of cayenne and black pepper) sounds kind of like what you're looking for... if he eats eggs?

There are a lot of different vegetarian stew possibilities, and also vegetarian versions of shepherd's pie, that are pretty good and might be Thanksgiving-ish enough.

I once made vegetarian spanikopita for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work.

Thanks, Mel! Good ideas. I don't have the Moosewood Cookbook, but I'm semi-familiar with it and could probably find the recipe online. The only complicating factor is that whatever I do I'll probably have to do in my mother-in-law's kitchen.

But you know what? I bet if I just do something -- show that in some way I'm supporting his choice -- it will be good. He's not that fussy about food. But the main thing is, I want to make him feel good about being so disciplined and sticking to his principles.

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2006, 06:18:24 pm »
Thanks, Mel! Good ideas. I don't have the Moosewood Cookbook, but I'm semi-familiar with it and could probably find the recipe online. The only complicating factor is that whatever I do I'll probably have to do in my mother-in-law's kitchen.

Do you have a crock pot you could bring? It would be pretty easy to make a vegetable stew (or maybe something with vegetables and a legume and a grain, like rice & beans or corn & green beans or something, to make the complete protein stand-in, in case your mother-in-law is skeptical about the whole no-meat business). If you had a crock pot, you could just chop the vegetables (or even use frozen ones plus potatoes plus spices -- like cumin + oregano + garlic, something mild but with lots of flavor), plug in the crock pot, and let it sit in some out-of-the-way corner.
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