Random Poll o' the Week: Regional/Cultural Thanksgiving Dishes

 We don't call it stuffing...we call it dressing.  At my "traditional" Thanksgiving meal, we have turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn on the cob, homemade rolls, Waldorf Salad, candied sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  There is always at least one "new" dessert every year.  ;).   I firmly believe that if a certain dish makes it Thanksgiving for you, you should have it! My favorite that I HAVE to have is the Waldorf Salad!! But I have tweaked the recipe so that I can have it.  I wish each and everyone of you a blessed Holiday season !!  

I agree. Food is a way to carry on traditions and to show our love for one another. So having your favorite holiday dishes is not bad! You may have to make some adjustments, but it's not bad at all!

Now do you do the marshmallow on the sweet potatoes? My family doesn't but my stepsister came up from NC and made them and she did and we were like "WHAT is THAT?" LOL!

We don't do pumpkin pie, only sweet potato.

 Yes...marshmallow on top !!!

Yes we don't do pumpkin pie either just sweet potato pie which I don't eat anyway. But my college boys have convinced me to make a pecan pie! Now that's my favorite! I was all good until they mentioned it. I'll be having a piece of that though. Hoping I won't be too sick! LOL

Growning up in the Italian household, Turkey was always kinda the back drop. I dont think I had stuffing and sweetpotatoes until I was almost 20!!

We always had "Meatball Soup" which I guess most people would know as Italian Wedding Soup. The tradition was always helping my grandpa make the meatballs.

something else my mom always had me make (to keep little hands busy while she was in the kitchen) was to stuff dates with peanut butter and roll them in sugar. Thats true love right there.

This may sound ridiculous but we have a tradition with black olives. All the kids put em' on all 10 of their fingertips and we do a silly kid/grandkid photo. ;-) 

Having been married to a vegetarian for 27 years our tradition is nut loaf. We only have it for the holidays and it's yummy stuff.
We eat a lot of greens but make them without any meat but with a lot of curry spices.

I am in the south and my people are from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.  I qualify.

We never had collards or mustards at Thanksgiving because they are New Year's Day food along with black-eyed peas, hog jowl and cornbread.

Thanksgiving is the turkey/stuffing/gravy/sweet potatoes/mashed potatoes/cranberry sauce feast.  The green vegetables vary but are always there to make the grown-ups feel better about that planned carb coma .

More than a dozen years ago my brother created a casserole for Thanksgiving.  It is the famous "Onion Casserole".

three large sweet onions
two 8 oz bricks of white cheese (less oil)  Not white cheddar
  I use mozzarella, monterey jack, brick, swiss, or muenster, etc.
bread crumbs
heavy whipping cream (pint)

Slice the onion thickly and separate rings.  Slice the cheeses in 1/4 inch hunks.
Layer a large casserole dish with onions, cheese, bread crumbs.  Repeat until all used.  The mound is piled high in the middle but it all cooks down into cheesy goodness.  Pour the pint of heavy cream over the whole thing and bake at 350 for an hour.  On gourmet days I might add sliced fresh mushrooms. 

This year is my first first Thanksgiving without my brother.  He lost his battle last year on Black Friday.  This year, I bought THREE kinds of cheese to use because he was bigger than life like that!

Enjoy the ones you love.  I sure did and still do!

I do collards and black eyed peas at New Year's too! Health and wealth baby!

I'm so sorry to hear about your brother but overjoyed that his memory will live on in your food traditions as well as many other places, I'm sure!

The fact that you even know what hog jowl is makes you certifiably country...not Southern but COUNTRY....lol.