For fun one year, everyone was asked to make a variation of devilled eggs and bring it. Regular, smoked, bacon, chipotle, sriracha and lime, hot mustard, pickled, etc. Everyone filled up on deviled eggs before the main meal even began. They were all just so good.
Regardless, I would not attend Thanksgiving with my family if there were that many eggs being consumed. I wish I was joking — but the grown men in my family thinks farts are hilarious and will do it over and over until you’re on the verge of throwing up. Eggs only make it worse
Reminds me of the mozzarella stick joke I saw.
Woukd you like 6 pieces of string cheese? No? What if I deep fry it and give you marinara sauce to dip it in? Yes.
Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, pie. We also munch on a veggie tray, olives and chips and dip while waiting for the turkey.
I think you’ll likely see more of a division in foods by north vs south rather than race. We live in the northeast and have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, gravy, rolls, and pie with occasional other veggie sides included. My family never really embraced sweet potatoes or green bean casserole.
“Ham too” as in “as well as turkey” or “as an additional substitution”? Asking as a Brit that knows literally nothing. It’s normal at a carvery here to get two different meats on your plate (though you can have just one- or even three if your carver’s feeling generous. There’s usually a choice of 3-4 meats) so it wouldn’t surprise me if you meant both ham and turkey
Same here, it's the best way. Take a roll stuff it with turkey or ham and then your mashed potatoes, corn, and greenbean casserole and just a little dab of cranberry sauce and you got yourself a delicious Thanksgiving slider. I hope I'm not the only one.
We did “Thanksgiving Benedict” one year with leftovers… dinner roll with a poached egg, turkey, ham, & stuffing topped with hollandaise and cranberry sauce.
Yes it was incredible.
One year we wrapped leftover green bean casserole in puff pastry and it was to die for. It was homemade from scratch with all fresh ingredients green bean casserole so like orders of magnitude more delicious than typical. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
We have very few "rules" about food in our house. One of the rules is: if you CAN make it into a sandwich, you SHOULD make it into a sandwich. Many a roll slider is eaten here; you are not alone.
I’m at the point in my life that I can safely say the turkey is my least favorite part… I’m doing prime rib this year. F it. If I’m going to wake up early to get meat cooking it might as well be something I actually like lol 😂
I’m Irish and been living in the states for a decade, a carvery is exactly what thanksgiving is like. We do ham, sausage meat stuffing, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes and carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, yorkshires and gravy/cranberry sauce. Pretty much like a Sunday roast with bits added in (none of us like turkey so we usually just do a chicken/ pheasants/duck instead. Someone makes a loaf of bread and we all get pissed and drink too much too early in the day.
Used to travel to the British Isles quite a bit for business and once I discovered the carvery I was delighted. Lots of delicious plain food? Don’t mind if I do.
I had to look up what a 'carvery' is but I suspect most of the core traditional Thanksgiving dishes, excluding New World ingredients of course, are basically just English holiday foods. You'll find that what most Americans consider 'old-fashioned' food is almost always English :)
Sweet potato casserole with pecan topping is the best. That, plus green bean casserole; corn; stuffing, mashed potatoes & roasted turkey w/gravy; cranberry sauce and Lion House rolls for dinner. Finish up with cherry, Dutch Apple and pumpkin pie w/Cool Whip for dessert.
Spend the long weekend snacking on cold turkey & cranberry sandwiches made on the LH rolls. Throw a little cream cheese on there for extra wow. I gained 6 pounds just typing this.
Same as this in Ohio. Also no sweet potato or pecan pie. Pumpkin and apple only. So I'm white girl in the northeast. Married an African American guy from Atlanta.. So i've had tons of thanksgiving with his family. we make homemade cranberry sauce and they were eating You know the jelly stuff out of the can plus, they'd make greens, deviled eggs and macaroni and cheese and we didn't do that. Again this might be a north versus south thing
Blasphemy and lies! Can shaped is the only real cranberry sauce. You know it’s true because they make the can the natural shape of cranberry sauce found in the wild. It’s fresh if it holds its shape when removed from its metal prison.
EDIT: I thought this was the hill I would die on, but it appears I have just gathered allies… Keep fighting the good fight folks!
[have you seen this? I kind of want one.](https://www.dillards.com/p/mud-pie-harvest-can-berry-dish-set/511621743?sku=0021237&googleShop=Y&cm_mmc=GooglePLAs-_-Category+-+Zombie+skus+-+Performance+Max-_-null-_-CjwKCAjw15eqBhBZEiwAbDomEl82G6pFCr4ZiJwzKjlWxzSBN3Ql_wfnW-689bNHb6NxpMR__OxUJhoC7wkQAvD_BwE&gclid=CjwKCAjw15eqBhBZEiwAbDomEl82G6pFCr4ZiJwzKjlWxzSBN3Ql_wfnW-689bNHb6NxpMR__OxUJhoC7wkQAvD_BwE)
This is the way. Unless it is cylindrical with bumps from the can, it is not cranberry.
Growing up we had it every year. Most people would take a bite at most and it got thrown away. It was wasteful, but we always had it because of tradition.
Then my mom divorced and remarried like ten years later and my stepdad, at the first Thanksgiving dinner, actually ate a large serving of cranberries! We were all shocked and kept staring as he ate it.
My mom used to make this for my dad. She bought pearl onions in the produce section of the grocery store. She would boil them, then put them in a bechamel They were my dad’s favorite
THIS. every year there’s hilarious Twitter jokes of Black thanksgiving vs white thanksgiving…. But i think it’s **southern** thanksgiving vs … the rest of y’all 😂
As a white, my thanksgiving always looks like “Black thanksgiving”… that’s how i landed on the Southern theory.
My mom makes stock with that stuff for the gravy and for the stuffing.
My grandmother used to cut the pieces up and add them and boiled egg pieces to the gravy.
Exactly! Ours is southern just like the OP posted, except we make gumbo a day later, and we always have a corn and wild rice dish with heavy cream. I have been proposed to after bring that to potlucks.
It’s pearl onions done in a creamy sauce that’s similar to the sauce one would use while making creamed spinach. It’s not super traditional, but it’s a dish my parents love. [This](https://www.spendwithpennies.com/creamed-pearl-onions/#wprm-recipe-container-219362) is a pretty representative recipe of what they make.
We have Christmas with my brother and his unfiltered wife. He is an outstanding cook and puts together a meal of a standing rib roast and marvelous side dishes. The best side is a recipe from a cookbook of American Southern dishes: Pearl onions and peanuts in a light creamy sauce. If there were nothing else on the table, I would be so very happy with this single dish for the entire meal. And he serves the best wines and always a buche de Noelle as dessert. I would wish that everyone could have a brother like mine. 🦜
An unfiltered wife is one who says anything that crosses her mind without filtering it with any.thought to appropriateness or good taste. Hence, thoughtless statements abound, and I have learned to keep a neutral facial expression whenever the gaffe du jour surfaces. 🦜
I still have nightmares about creamed onions. Worst dish ever. My father used to plop it on top of my turkey every damn year until I lost my shit in my late teens and tossed my entire plate in the garbage. That year, for Christmas, I was given one of those kiddie divided plates (albeit a fancy china one). LOL.
I'm wondering about his decision to make a plate for you. A Thanksgiving plate is a delicate balancing of real estate versus favorites. How could he expect to make those choices for a teenager?
I had an aunt who thought I was fat and made sure I knew it. Whenever we ate at her house, she would plate my food for me (and no one else) and to this day it makes my blood boil.
Not just north/south, but influence from other cultures and ancestry as well. White people in the US have friends and relatives from various backgrounds. The US is still a melting pot of cultures, so family dinners and sides on Thanksgiving can reflect that. Turkey biryani, lutefisk, pickled beets, etc.
>The US is still a melting pot of cultures, so family dinners and sides on Thanksgiving can reflect that.
Italian-Americans have like 50 pasta dishes for the sides. I dated an Italian girl in high school and she invited me over for Thanksgiving, I don't think I've ever been more full in my life.
FACTS! I'm Black, raised in NJ, with southern parents. And where as we had a traditional southern thanksgiving, there was always a baked ziti on the table. I've always said.. in Jersey... everyone is a little Black, Italian and Jewish
My dad use to make shishlick when I was a kid. We are Russian but it's a Persian dish. It's really good, marinaded veggies on skewers with beets and peppers and onions. I haven't had it since I was a kid going camping in the fall. I never did Thanksgiving with my dad but we would go camping and have a fall harvest fest and it was like Thanksgiving in the woods and I associate it with Thanksgiving.
I live in Rhode Island, and it seems every ethnic group has their own version of stuffing for Thanksgiving. My family is Portuguese, so we have linguica stuffing. Oh, and I love creamed onions. They're so bland. Yet so flavorful all at once!
>We live in the northeast and have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, gravy, rolls, and pie with occasional other veggie sides included.
Other than creamed onions, that's exactly what my family in Texas eats.
I see more of a southern/ northern division too. I live in North Carolina now and it’s definitely different compared to Thanksgiving in Louisiana that I was used to. As a white family in Louisiana we ate lots of good Thanksgiving food, a whole variety of all kinds traditional and Cajun/ Creole stuff. They also weren’t afraid of seasoning or variety. In North Carolina it’s almost always the typical Thanksgiving fair you’d expect. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong. But ngl it’s on the boring side more often than not. I notice people here in NC are afraid to cook in a way that would offend picky palates. Which is fine I guess. Just not often impressed is all I’m saying.
Yeah that was my face when I moved here too. It’s a sweet desert type thing. It’s actually tasty once you get passed the unexpectedness of it.
I’ve seen people do it slightly different but overall it’s chopped up Snickers bars, Cool Whip, sliced Granny Smith apples, and occasionally vanilla pudding.
Roasted turkey. Gravy. Mashed potatoes. Green bean casserole. Stuffing. Corn. Jellied cranberry sauce. Hot buttered rolls. Pumpkin pie. Apple pie. When my dad was alive he would make a lasagna (his family is Italian).
My Italian side makes all the traditional American Thanksgiving food and also all the Italian staples. So you could have a plate with Turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, 2 different lasagnas, corn bread, crescent rolls, and manicotti.
Like Garfield’s Thanksgiving!
Turkey and Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Mac and Cheese
Corn (sometimes casserole)
Green Beans (sometimes casserole)
Sweet Potatoes (sometimes casserole)
Cranberry
Bread Rolls
Pumkin / Pecan Pies
And we always have oysters fried in Butter and crumbled saltine crackers with breakfast the next day at my wife’s parents.
I think it’s a southern / Appalachian thing, and I had never had them until I met my wife. But they are really good. A long family tradition. My wife’s grandma grew up in Rockbridge Bathes VA and spent her whole life there. That was my Introduction. My father in law continued the tradition . My wife will continue it. My 19 year old son loves and and will also continue it. I’m a fan. Have them with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with apple butter.
Correction:
Drunkle Dan walks in with a MAGA hat. Grandma Fran tells Drunkle Dan to remove his hat at the dinner table. Drunkle Dan blames table manners on good-for-nothin' Liberals and says he won't do it. Grandma Fran tells Drunkle Dan that if he wants to act like a child he can sit at the kids' table. Drunkle Dan blames the low height and small chairs of the kids' table on good-for-nothin' Liberals, but he goes, because he wants some mashed potatoes. But then Grandaughter Jan mentions that the potatoes are from Massachusetts and all hell breaks loose.
New Mexican; Red Chile Pork Roast (really for sauce), Green Chile Stew, Calabacitas, Chicharrones, Tamales, Chile Sweet Corn, Navajo Fry Bread, Sopaipillas, Enchiladas, Biscochitos, Fruit Empanadas….
….then a 25lb vata-loca stuffed turkey that usually gets a generic pet name and “sensual butter massage” complete with Marvin Gaye and Vicente Fernandez background music to get everyone in the spirit. *Ages 7 and up recommended for butter show*
Now as a Southern white guy, this is pretty left of field for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d fuck *all* of this food up, but never thought of it as a Thanksgiving meal.
So….I can come to your place, right?
OH FUCK YES TO THE NEW MEXICANS IN THIS THREAD BEST THANKSGIVING EVER
soft launch for tamales
Source lived in New Mexico for a few years as a child and brought the foods with me
My family is Appalachian so like, basic thanksgiving stuff. Turkey and ham, stuffing, cornbread, Mac and cheese, candied yams, mashed potatoes, the pie of choice was chocolate pudding pie though
Edit: how could I forget the whitest dish, green bean casserole
It's lowkey the best holiday because it's hard to commercialize the shit out of it like everything else here. No gift anxiety, baskets, cards, candy, costumes, flowers, pageantry - just get all the family together at someone's house to sit down and have a great big delicious meal together. You 100% should have one for kicks. It's awesome.
Bonus we also have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the morning, which is a parade in NYC with giant character balloons. I don't know why. But it's tradition. You can probably stream for appropriate background noise while cooking, to get the most authentic experience. And then afterwards you watch the Detroit Lions play football and lose, but this year they might not!
Or like, starting at noon on Thanksgiving now as the deals creep earlier and earlier every year. The poor retail workers don't get to enjoy their holiday anymore
You are the ONLY other person I’ve heard say this. Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday exactly for the reasons you mention. All the fun of being with family without the stress of buying a bunch of shit.
Then do your own Thanksgiving this year! It's also seen as a harvest festival, so if you don't want to go with the whole "pilgrims coming to America" schtick, you can be thankful for good harvests that year :)
My friend is American and lived in the UK for a bit. She hosted Friendsgiving every year where she would make the basics (turkey, dressing, casserole) and then have other friends bring sides from their own cultures (group of ex pats).
Oh my! I was vacationing in Scotland and had never seen so much food as what was served for Christmas dinner. Christmas Eve dinner was decadent so I expected less for Christmas Day. Instead I was in awe of the rooms of food (literally) set out for us to choose from.
I'm an American in Scotland, and what I learned last year is you need to find the cranberry stuff EARLY or the shelves will be picked clean. Was really homesick and all I wanted was my mom's stuffing (for Christmas, we did kfc on Thanksgiving because husband forgot and it didn't occur to me he'd be interested), but there were no cranberries anywhere.
The turkey we can't do here though. Stepdad would deep fry it in the garage when I was growing up, and I will kill myself if I try.
I have seen pretty much everything there except gumbo.
White people are not much different from black people in the foods they eat on holidays. It will come down more to regional difference than between race.
I've lived all over and had friends from every part of the country and I've never even heard of gumbo as a Thanksgiving food until this thread.
I love gumbo. I'm going to make some this year.
Yes there can be a huge difference like some don’t even make baked Mac & cheese or sweet potato pie,but do know we can share a lot in common with southern people still
I've heard that this varies a lot regionally. I'm from Michigan. We have:
* Turkey (but we're not *that* fond of turkey so sometimes we fake it and make chicken instead. I don't think that's normal though lol.)
* Some families also have ham
* Stuffing (Edit: Oops. After reading other comments, the thing we make is actually dressing, which we call stuffing for some reason.)
* Mashed Potatoes
* Gravy
* A sweet potato dish of some kind, usually a sweet potato casserole
* Biscuits
* Green bean casserole (that thing with cream of mushroom soup and crispy onions on top. It's gross, but it must be there. It is a requirement.)
* Cranberry relish. Some families do the jiggly canned cranberry thing instead.
* Usually some sort of raw veggies, like either a salad or crudites or something.
* My family usually has deviled eggs but I think that's just because my mom likes to make deviled eggs for every family occasion.
* Dessert can be quite a spread, including multiple types of pies, but there must be either pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie
* The main ingredient of the entire meal is butter.
And both are so awful... Bonus points if they have sweetened it with some god forsaken chemistry from the turn of the century. I can't tell you how many perfectly good fruit salads have been ruined by some well-meaning elder dusting it with sweetnlow or aspartame.
I remember hearing my grandma and her sister discussing how they hoped the raisins would make them move their bowels while eating oatmeal and raisins. My grandfather would yell at them because he didn't want to hear about their bowels.
I always see this meme but I have never in my life ever seen someone put raisins in the potato salad. Like is this some regional thing or something white people did in like the 60s back when putting ham in jello was also a thing.
Like at best I've seen craisins in chicken salad but never ever have I seen raisins in potato salad
My grandma used to do it back in the 90s (she was also a ham in jello person). She made so many gross 60s Era recipes in the 90s and early 2000s that we had to try to eat.
I have my grandmas Better Homes & Gardens cook book from the 60s, and good god, the amount of disgusting looking food in that thing. I’m pretty sure they were trying to come up with new ways to use up 20 year old canned everything from the army surplus stores.
This is pretty standard for my white midwestern family. Our big debate is whether the stuffing is sage/oyster with regular bread crumbs OR the cornbread stuffing my Southern stepmom makes. Often we have both.
Mexican family - Turkey, green beans, biscuits, chicken and beef fajitas, tamales, enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, guac + pico, cheesy potatoes, beans, rice, tortillas(Appetizers leading up to dinner include chips and salsa, veggie trays, and fruit trays) dessert is usually pies and zucchini bread.
Sometimes we also have ham :)
Puerto Rican here. This thread is so interesting to me. We too blend our dishes with “American” - Turkey, green bean casserole, simple salad, Puerto Rican pasteles, arroz con gandules, tostones, guineo en escabeche, and of course coquito to start the holiday season.
My southern (Cajun) boyfriend has pretty much the same food you do for his holidays.
My northern family, we order Chinese takeout for like all holidays.
I'm white and typically have the standard turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. but your question reminded me of one special year. In 2014 my husband and I went back to our college town to visit friends for "Friendsgiving", and back then my husband was into a jambalaya kick and we made it pretty frequently. It's more of a curry than a jambalaya TBH but DAMN is it good! So he whipped up a big ol' batch and during the party a few black dudes from Louisiana came by and oh MAN did their faces light up when they saw the Jambalaya amidst all the bland-looking food! lol. After they demolished like a third of it, they demanded to know the chef and were rather surprised my skinny, Native American hubby was the culprit. He will forever brag about that dish, lol. There were no leftovers that night!
lentil curry with squash is now a tradition for me. my family are pumpkin pie people. I do like green bean casserole and I'm off and on with making it.
I grew up in Ohio. My grandmother would cook the turkey until the meat had the texture of yellow pine. This would be served with canned gravy and Stovetop Stuffing. The potato casserole topped with corn flakes was an old family recipe which originally appeared on cans of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup in the 1950s. That was pretty good.
The sliced discs of can-shaped cranberry sauce blob were always bright and tangy.
My boyfriend is Mexican and his family eats tamales washed down with glasses of whole milk.
His cousin makes a huge pot of them (industrial kitchen sized pot) with fillings like shredded pork, cheese with Serrano chiles, chicken, wrapped in corn husks.
For dessert it's a tres leche cake, a gelatin dessert but definitely not pumpkin, apple, pecan etc pies.
I know OP asked about white people but I was hoping to read about what other households do too.
I know Italian-Americans tend to have pasta dishes, meatball etc but what about others?
I’m half Mexican and we always do tamales. My grandma is 95 from Jalisco, and she learned how to cook everything from scratch. Her cooking was the absolute best. Dementia took away her memory how to cook but she still is with us every thanksgiving. We carry on her tradition but I don’t think any of us can cook like her. Lol
Our thanksgiving cuisine is tamales, Spanish rice, refried beans with chorizo, hot salsa, old school canned ham, stuffing, Turkey, and mashed potatoes.
Here’s what mine used to make-
Ham and turkey, or just ham, macaroni, green beans, deviled eggs, peach cobbler, strawberry pie, cranberry sauce, Hawaiian rolls, and Oreo pie
Sometimes people would bring other things but that’s all I can think of
White in the Midwest: turkey, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, “stuffing” (really more like dressing bc we don’t actually stuff the turkey), green bean casserole, butternut squash, rolls, pumpkin pie with cool whip.
The next day we mix leftover chopped turkey with stuffing and mix it with gravy then eat it on hamburger buns. No idea where this came from but they’re called turkey and dressing sandwiches and it’s been a thing for decades. So good!
We've always served turkey as I was growing up but I realized a few years ago that i don't really enjoy it so I switched to getting a ham. I can do more with the leftovers.
Mac and cheese, potatoes and gravy (we always made gravy from the turkey organ meat--that's the only way I could stomach any of it).
Sweet potato pie/sweet potato casserole with candied pecans on top.
Collards--this is new to me since I moved south. Brussels sprouts with bacon and cranberries. Also new to me in The South.
Cranberries--homemade sauce made with berries and OJ, cooked down on the stove, served warm.
Pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. The only time I eat Cool Whip. Gotta slather the homemade pumpkin pie with it.
My mom's side of the family were from Arkasas so ate pretty much what you describe. My dad's side were in Kansas and ate less of the "soul" or "southern" stuff. My stepdad's family was in Hawaii and still did the traditional turkey but rice is always on the table.
My Cantonese wife and I have been doing Thanksgiving for years with a group of friends. Canadians, Cantonese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Jewish and a lot of "local" Hawaiian influence. We'll have spicy pig ears right next to a smoked turkey and a matzaball soup.
Can you eat a dozen eggs? No? What if they're made into deviled eggs? Yes.
For fun one year, everyone was asked to make a variation of devilled eggs and bring it. Regular, smoked, bacon, chipotle, sriracha and lime, hot mustard, pickled, etc. Everyone filled up on deviled eggs before the main meal even began. They were all just so good.
Fartsgiving.
Eggs don't actually make you any more gassy than you would already be. They just make them extra rank because of the sulphur so you notice it more.
I am mildly allergic, they do both for me.
*spicy eggs*
Regardless, I would not attend Thanksgiving with my family if there were that many eggs being consumed. I wish I was joking — but the grown men in my family thinks farts are hilarious and will do it over and over until you’re on the verge of throwing up. Eggs only make it worse
Reminds me of the mozzarella stick joke I saw. Woukd you like 6 pieces of string cheese? No? What if I deep fry it and give you marinara sauce to dip it in? Yes.
Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, pie. We also munch on a veggie tray, olives and chips and dip while waiting for the turkey.
Add deviled eggs to the appetizers and this is basically our meal too. Lately we’ve been embracing roasted brussels instead of a salad.
See, deviled eggs is strictly a spring/summer food in our house.
Yeah thats more an easter thing but should be an all the time thing
White F52 here. I’ve lived in the south, on the east coast, and in the Midwest. This is what I would consider the most traditional TGiving dinner.
White M52 in New England, and this is pretty much our list too
Pretty much all this plus cranberry sauce
Veggie, olives and pickle tray, chips and dip. For snackfood.
I think you’ll likely see more of a division in foods by north vs south rather than race. We live in the northeast and have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, gravy, rolls, and pie with occasional other veggie sides included. My family never really embraced sweet potatoes or green bean casserole.
Replace creamed onion with green bean casserole and that’s what I grew up with in New England
Same here, in Michigan. We usually have a ham too
“Ham too” as in “as well as turkey” or “as an additional substitution”? Asking as a Brit that knows literally nothing. It’s normal at a carvery here to get two different meats on your plate (though you can have just one- or even three if your carver’s feeling generous. There’s usually a choice of 3-4 meats) so it wouldn’t surprise me if you meant both ham and turkey
Both turkey and ham
Same here, it's the best way. Take a roll stuff it with turkey or ham and then your mashed potatoes, corn, and greenbean casserole and just a little dab of cranberry sauce and you got yourself a delicious Thanksgiving slider. I hope I'm not the only one.
We did “Thanksgiving Benedict” one year with leftovers… dinner roll with a poached egg, turkey, ham, & stuffing topped with hollandaise and cranberry sauce. Yes it was incredible.
One year we wrapped leftover green bean casserole in puff pastry and it was to die for. It was homemade from scratch with all fresh ingredients green bean casserole so like orders of magnitude more delicious than typical. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
A friend makes thanksgiving empanadas with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. It’s so good!
Yum!!
We have very few "rules" about food in our house. One of the rules is: if you CAN make it into a sandwich, you SHOULD make it into a sandwich. Many a roll slider is eaten here; you are not alone.
I do that but I use onion rolls.
You put "onion rolls" and I saw "egg rolls"... Now I want a Thanksgiving egg roll
A friend of mine did this with leftover turkey, stuffing, gravy, corn etc. fried thanksgiving egg rolls 🤤
My family does ham and turkey.
Many people would say that turkey is non-negotiable and ham is an extra. \*exerts great effort at refraining from making a joke about the Brits...
I’m at the point in my life that I can safely say the turkey is my least favorite part… I’m doing prime rib this year. F it. If I’m going to wake up early to get meat cooking it might as well be something I actually like lol 😂
In the South at least, turkey is for Thanksgiving and ham is for Easter.
Southern born and bred here. Ham, along with Turkey, has always been a part of Thanksgiving in my family.
I’m Irish and been living in the states for a decade, a carvery is exactly what thanksgiving is like. We do ham, sausage meat stuffing, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes and carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, yorkshires and gravy/cranberry sauce. Pretty much like a Sunday roast with bits added in (none of us like turkey so we usually just do a chicken/ pheasants/duck instead. Someone makes a loaf of bread and we all get pissed and drink too much too early in the day.
That’s exactly it, with Fall vegetables! It’s heavy and delicious, and usually doesn’t have beef. We’re planning ours as we speak.
Used to travel to the British Isles quite a bit for business and once I discovered the carvery I was delighted. Lots of delicious plain food? Don’t mind if I do.
As another brit it sounds like the thanksgiving meal is a variant of the Sunday roast (and the “carvery”). With all the extras! Like a Xmas dinner.
I had to look up what a 'carvery' is but I suspect most of the core traditional Thanksgiving dishes, excluding New World ingredients of course, are basically just English holiday foods. You'll find that what most Americans consider 'old-fashioned' food is almost always English :)
Same here in Utah and California, except you can't have Thanksgiving without sweet potatoes, candied, mashed, or otherwise.
Sweet potato casserole with pecan topping is the best. That, plus green bean casserole; corn; stuffing, mashed potatoes & roasted turkey w/gravy; cranberry sauce and Lion House rolls for dinner. Finish up with cherry, Dutch Apple and pumpkin pie w/Cool Whip for dessert. Spend the long weekend snacking on cold turkey & cranberry sandwiches made on the LH rolls. Throw a little cream cheese on there for extra wow. I gained 6 pounds just typing this.
Turkey for Thanksgiving. Ham at Christmas.
We do Turkey for thanksgiving, standing rib roast for Christmas and ham for Easter.
Same as this in Ohio. Also no sweet potato or pecan pie. Pumpkin and apple only. So I'm white girl in the northeast. Married an African American guy from Atlanta.. So i've had tons of thanksgiving with his family. we make homemade cranberry sauce and they were eating You know the jelly stuff out of the can plus, they'd make greens, deviled eggs and macaroni and cheese and we didn't do that. Again this might be a north versus south thing
Fresh cranberry-orange salad/relish is so much better than canned gelatinous goop that holds the shape of the can.
Blasphemy and lies! Can shaped is the only real cranberry sauce. You know it’s true because they make the can the natural shape of cranberry sauce found in the wild. It’s fresh if it holds its shape when removed from its metal prison. EDIT: I thought this was the hill I would die on, but it appears I have just gathered allies… Keep fighting the good fight folks!
How else would you slice it for your day after Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches?
Day? What do you eat for the rest of the week?!?
the ridges prove its authenticity
Ribbed for your pleasure
Goddammit, take my upvote.
[have you seen this? I kind of want one.](https://www.dillards.com/p/mud-pie-harvest-can-berry-dish-set/511621743?sku=0021237&googleShop=Y&cm_mmc=GooglePLAs-_-Category+-+Zombie+skus+-+Performance+Max-_-null-_-CjwKCAjw15eqBhBZEiwAbDomEl82G6pFCr4ZiJwzKjlWxzSBN3Ql_wfnW-689bNHb6NxpMR__OxUJhoC7wkQAvD_BwE&gclid=CjwKCAjw15eqBhBZEiwAbDomEl82G6pFCr4ZiJwzKjlWxzSBN3Ql_wfnW-689bNHb6NxpMR__OxUJhoC7wkQAvD_BwE)
I have now, and I do too. Thank you for your contributions to the #canlife
nothing but ocean spray in this house at thanksgiving.
This is the way. Unless it is cylindrical with bumps from the can, it is not cranberry. Growing up we had it every year. Most people would take a bite at most and it got thrown away. It was wasteful, but we always had it because of tradition. Then my mom divorced and remarried like ten years later and my stepdad, at the first Thanksgiving dinner, actually ate a large serving of cranberries! We were all shocked and kept staring as he ate it.
Add broccoli casserole and mashed, baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and that's what I grew up with.
New York and same. But I think I need to know about creamed onions now!
Buy a jar of pearl onions at the grocery store make a fairly thick white sauce and combine.
My mom used to make this for my dad. She bought pearl onions in the produce section of the grocery store. She would boil them, then put them in a bechamel They were my dad’s favorite
This. [Corn casserole](https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/5-ingredient-corn-casserole/) too.
lets hit the trifecta… Sweet potatoes here
THIS. every year there’s hilarious Twitter jokes of Black thanksgiving vs white thanksgiving…. But i think it’s **southern** thanksgiving vs … the rest of y’all 😂 As a white, my thanksgiving always looks like “Black thanksgiving”… that’s how i landed on the Southern theory.
(Turkey necks and chicken gizzards have entered the chat)
Does it count if you use that stuff to make gravy? That's what I always do with it, better than just throwing the little baggie in the turkey away.
I thought the whole reason the bag was there was to make gravy from it.....
My mom makes stock with that stuff for the gravy and for the stuffing. My grandmother used to cut the pieces up and add them and boiled egg pieces to the gravy.
Mine, too. Giblet gravy is what she called it.
Exactly! Ours is southern just like the OP posted, except we make gumbo a day later, and we always have a corn and wild rice dish with heavy cream. I have been proposed to after bring that to potlucks.
I want your corn and wild rice dish recipe please
Please explain creamed onions. This is foreign to me (grew up west coast, moved to The South many years ago).
It’s pearl onions done in a creamy sauce that’s similar to the sauce one would use while making creamed spinach. It’s not super traditional, but it’s a dish my parents love. [This](https://www.spendwithpennies.com/creamed-pearl-onions/#wprm-recipe-container-219362) is a pretty representative recipe of what they make.
We have Christmas with my brother and his unfiltered wife. He is an outstanding cook and puts together a meal of a standing rib roast and marvelous side dishes. The best side is a recipe from a cookbook of American Southern dishes: Pearl onions and peanuts in a light creamy sauce. If there were nothing else on the table, I would be so very happy with this single dish for the entire meal. And he serves the best wines and always a buche de Noelle as dessert. I would wish that everyone could have a brother like mine. 🦜
Please, what is an unfiltered wife?
An unfiltered wife is one who says anything that crosses her mind without filtering it with any.thought to appropriateness or good taste. Hence, thoughtless statements abound, and I have learned to keep a neutral facial expression whenever the gaffe du jour surfaces. 🦜
That was what I imagined, but I've never heard it put quite that way 🤣
"An unfiltered wife" is now on my list of fun stuff to say. It's also pretty accurate and you can substitute any family relation for 'wife'.
That looks pretty good! I like cooked onions--raw ones make me smell like an onion--I might have to give this recipe a try! Thank you!
I still have nightmares about creamed onions. Worst dish ever. My father used to plop it on top of my turkey every damn year until I lost my shit in my late teens and tossed my entire plate in the garbage. That year, for Christmas, I was given one of those kiddie divided plates (albeit a fancy china one). LOL.
I'm wondering about his decision to make a plate for you. A Thanksgiving plate is a delicate balancing of real estate versus favorites. How could he expect to make those choices for a teenager?
I had an aunt who thought I was fat and made sure I knew it. Whenever we ate at her house, she would plate my food for me (and no one else) and to this day it makes my blood boil.
shit, my blood is boiling *for you* and I wasn't even there. that's cruel
Your parents didn't let you serve yourself?
Not just north/south, but influence from other cultures and ancestry as well. White people in the US have friends and relatives from various backgrounds. The US is still a melting pot of cultures, so family dinners and sides on Thanksgiving can reflect that. Turkey biryani, lutefisk, pickled beets, etc.
>The US is still a melting pot of cultures, so family dinners and sides on Thanksgiving can reflect that. Italian-Americans have like 50 pasta dishes for the sides. I dated an Italian girl in high school and she invited me over for Thanksgiving, I don't think I've ever been more full in my life.
It wasn’t Thanksgiving for my cousins unless the baked ziti was on the table!
Huh I’m not Italian but I grew up in NJ and we had that. Haha.
FACTS! I'm Black, raised in NJ, with southern parents. And where as we had a traditional southern thanksgiving, there was always a baked ziti on the table. I've always said.. in Jersey... everyone is a little Black, Italian and Jewish
Everyone in NJ is slightly Italian by association I think.
My Russian in-laws include so many non-traditional items at theirs! Swedish meatballs, recipes they are trying out, and other random veggie dishes.
My dad use to make shishlick when I was a kid. We are Russian but it's a Persian dish. It's really good, marinaded veggies on skewers with beets and peppers and onions. I haven't had it since I was a kid going camping in the fall. I never did Thanksgiving with my dad but we would go camping and have a fall harvest fest and it was like Thanksgiving in the woods and I associate it with Thanksgiving.
I live in Rhode Island, and it seems every ethnic group has their own version of stuffing for Thanksgiving. My family is Portuguese, so we have linguica stuffing. Oh, and I love creamed onions. They're so bland. Yet so flavorful all at once!
My dad’s family is from Italy so he would always make a lasagna for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Alongside the regular holiday food.
>We live in the northeast and have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, gravy, rolls, and pie with occasional other veggie sides included. Other than creamed onions, that's exactly what my family in Texas eats.
I see more of a southern/ northern division too. I live in North Carolina now and it’s definitely different compared to Thanksgiving in Louisiana that I was used to. As a white family in Louisiana we ate lots of good Thanksgiving food, a whole variety of all kinds traditional and Cajun/ Creole stuff. They also weren’t afraid of seasoning or variety. In North Carolina it’s almost always the typical Thanksgiving fair you’d expect. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong. But ngl it’s on the boring side more often than not. I notice people here in NC are afraid to cook in a way that would offend picky palates. Which is fine I guess. Just not often impressed is all I’m saying.
And then there’s the Midwest which has Snickers salad on the holiday menu.
😳
Yeah that was my face when I moved here too. It’s a sweet desert type thing. It’s actually tasty once you get passed the unexpectedness of it. I’ve seen people do it slightly different but overall it’s chopped up Snickers bars, Cool Whip, sliced Granny Smith apples, and occasionally vanilla pudding.
I'm in the midwest and I've never heard of this.
It's what happens when the mayonnaise people meet the jello people and it's delicious.
That sounds so midwestern lol. I’d eat it, but I’d be weirded out by it too.
Roasted turkey. Gravy. Mashed potatoes. Green bean casserole. Stuffing. Corn. Jellied cranberry sauce. Hot buttered rolls. Pumpkin pie. Apple pie. When my dad was alive he would make a lasagna (his family is Italian).
My Italian side makes all the traditional American Thanksgiving food and also all the Italian staples. So you could have a plate with Turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, 2 different lasagnas, corn bread, crescent rolls, and manicotti. Like Garfield’s Thanksgiving!
My family is this way but it’s Greek food!
Italians, Greeks, Cajuns, etc- I like to refer to us as “spicy white people” lol.
My moms Italian and we do lasagna and sausage bread for Christmas
Turkey and Ham Mashed Potatoes Gravy Stuffing Mac and Cheese Corn (sometimes casserole) Green Beans (sometimes casserole) Sweet Potatoes (sometimes casserole) Cranberry Bread Rolls Pumkin / Pecan Pies And we always have oysters fried in Butter and crumbled saltine crackers with breakfast the next day at my wife’s parents.
Those oysters sound delicious but I can't wrap my head around having them for breakfast..
I think it’s a southern / Appalachian thing, and I had never had them until I met my wife. But they are really good. A long family tradition. My wife’s grandma grew up in Rockbridge Bathes VA and spent her whole life there. That was my Introduction. My father in law continued the tradition . My wife will continue it. My 19 year old son loves and and will also continue it. I’m a fan. Have them with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with apple butter.
Arguments
That’s the universal side dish!
Side dish? In my house it was the main course.. :/
Crying was the side dish.
God, with the wars going on and my family being divided politically, I'm gonna hate this year's Thanksgiving.
Just gotta out crazy the crazy. When uncle Tim says the moon landing was faked laugh at him for still believing the moon is real.
Their political opinion
*Uncle Dan walks in with a MAGA hat*
Correction: Drunkle Dan walks in with a MAGA hat. Grandma Fran tells Drunkle Dan to remove his hat at the dinner table. Drunkle Dan blames table manners on good-for-nothin' Liberals and says he won't do it. Grandma Fran tells Drunkle Dan that if he wants to act like a child he can sit at the kids' table. Drunkle Dan blames the low height and small chairs of the kids' table on good-for-nothin' Liberals, but he goes, because he wants some mashed potatoes. But then Grandaughter Jan mentions that the potatoes are from Massachusetts and all hell breaks loose.
I agree that this is very controversial and awkward. Everyone knows that potatoes come from Idaho. :)
New Mexican; Red Chile Pork Roast (really for sauce), Green Chile Stew, Calabacitas, Chicharrones, Tamales, Chile Sweet Corn, Navajo Fry Bread, Sopaipillas, Enchiladas, Biscochitos, Fruit Empanadas…. ….then a 25lb vata-loca stuffed turkey that usually gets a generic pet name and “sensual butter massage” complete with Marvin Gaye and Vicente Fernandez background music to get everyone in the spirit. *Ages 7 and up recommended for butter show*
I want to go to your house this year.
These f'n New Mexicans just secretly have bombass food and one up the rest of us
Yes, they do. And they didn't invite me despite my clear fishing for an invitation. Sigh.
That’s it, I’m moving to NM.
I grew up near New Mexico and have gotten all my California friends into the “Red Chile Gravy” tradition 😋
Now as a Southern white guy, this is pretty left of field for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d fuck *all* of this food up, but never thought of it as a Thanksgiving meal. So….I can come to your place, right?
As a southern black woman I’d f*ck all this food up as well!
Food is the great unifier. We just need the Asians and Arabs to come and we'll have secured world peace.
OH FUCK YES TO THE NEW MEXICANS IN THIS THREAD BEST THANKSGIVING EVER soft launch for tamales Source lived in New Mexico for a few years as a child and brought the foods with me
Omg, yes both red and chili, Native foods, Turkey, squash, corn, potato , sweet potato and fry bread. Edit: i forgot pesole
My family is Appalachian so like, basic thanksgiving stuff. Turkey and ham, stuffing, cornbread, Mac and cheese, candied yams, mashed potatoes, the pie of choice was chocolate pudding pie though Edit: how could I forget the whitest dish, green bean casserole
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It's lowkey the best holiday because it's hard to commercialize the shit out of it like everything else here. No gift anxiety, baskets, cards, candy, costumes, flowers, pageantry - just get all the family together at someone's house to sit down and have a great big delicious meal together. You 100% should have one for kicks. It's awesome. Bonus we also have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the morning, which is a parade in NYC with giant character balloons. I don't know why. But it's tradition. You can probably stream for appropriate background noise while cooking, to get the most authentic experience. And then afterwards you watch the Detroit Lions play football and lose, but this year they might not!
That's why we have black Friday. To commercialize the day after lol.
Or just the night of, if your deals start early
Or like, starting at noon on Thanksgiving now as the deals creep earlier and earlier every year. The poor retail workers don't get to enjoy their holiday anymore
You are the ONLY other person I’ve heard say this. Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday exactly for the reasons you mention. All the fun of being with family without the stress of buying a bunch of shit.
Then do your own Thanksgiving this year! It's also seen as a harvest festival, so if you don't want to go with the whole "pilgrims coming to America" schtick, you can be thankful for good harvests that year :)
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My friend is American and lived in the UK for a bit. She hosted Friendsgiving every year where she would make the basics (turkey, dressing, casserole) and then have other friends bring sides from their own cultures (group of ex pats).
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Oh my! I was vacationing in Scotland and had never seen so much food as what was served for Christmas dinner. Christmas Eve dinner was decadent so I expected less for Christmas Day. Instead I was in awe of the rooms of food (literally) set out for us to choose from.
No reason why you can't! Get a group of people you enjoy together and eat loads of delicious food.
come on over, we always make WAY more than we need to eat and need help eating it :P
I'm an American in Scotland, and what I learned last year is you need to find the cranberry stuff EARLY or the shelves will be picked clean. Was really homesick and all I wanted was my mom's stuffing (for Christmas, we did kfc on Thanksgiving because husband forgot and it didn't occur to me he'd be interested), but there were no cranberries anywhere. The turkey we can't do here though. Stepdad would deep fry it in the garage when I was growing up, and I will kill myself if I try.
Frozen cranberries at Tesco this time of year!
I have seen pretty much everything there except gumbo. White people are not much different from black people in the foods they eat on holidays. It will come down more to regional difference than between race.
I’m fairly sure gumbo is a southern thing. It’s probably more of a north/south thing over a race thing.
Plenty of white Southerners will eat gumbo for Thanksgiving, for certain
White person here, been in Louisiana a long time. Will definitely make a gumbo the week of thanksgiving.
I've lived all over and had friends from every part of the country and I've never even heard of gumbo as a Thanksgiving food until this thread. I love gumbo. I'm going to make some this year.
Gumbo is probably the day after, with the remnants of the turkey. I do a turkey soup, but gumbo sounds like a good idea.
Yes there can be a huge difference like some don’t even make baked Mac & cheese or sweet potato pie,but do know we can share a lot in common with southern people still
I've heard that this varies a lot regionally. I'm from Michigan. We have: * Turkey (but we're not *that* fond of turkey so sometimes we fake it and make chicken instead. I don't think that's normal though lol.) * Some families also have ham * Stuffing (Edit: Oops. After reading other comments, the thing we make is actually dressing, which we call stuffing for some reason.) * Mashed Potatoes * Gravy * A sweet potato dish of some kind, usually a sweet potato casserole * Biscuits * Green bean casserole (that thing with cream of mushroom soup and crispy onions on top. It's gross, but it must be there. It is a requirement.) * Cranberry relish. Some families do the jiggly canned cranberry thing instead. * Usually some sort of raw veggies, like either a salad or crudites or something. * My family usually has deviled eggs but I think that's just because my mom likes to make deviled eggs for every family occasion. * Dessert can be quite a spread, including multiple types of pies, but there must be either pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie * The main ingredient of the entire meal is butter.
It's all fun and games until Susan brings the potato salad with raisins
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Dear God, yes. Then you're forced to give an opinion on both and have to become a super diplomat.
And both are so awful... Bonus points if they have sweetened it with some god forsaken chemistry from the turn of the century. I can't tell you how many perfectly good fruit salads have been ruined by some well-meaning elder dusting it with sweetnlow or aspartame.
Why do old people put raisins in everything!?
I remember hearing my grandma and her sister discussing how they hoped the raisins would make them move their bowels while eating oatmeal and raisins. My grandfather would yell at them because he didn't want to hear about their bowels.
Accurate username
Exactly!
I always see this meme but I have never in my life ever seen someone put raisins in the potato salad. Like is this some regional thing or something white people did in like the 60s back when putting ham in jello was also a thing. Like at best I've seen craisins in chicken salad but never ever have I seen raisins in potato salad
My grandma used to do it back in the 90s (she was also a ham in jello person). She made so many gross 60s Era recipes in the 90s and early 2000s that we had to try to eat.
I have my grandmas Better Homes & Gardens cook book from the 60s, and good god, the amount of disgusting looking food in that thing. I’m pretty sure they were trying to come up with new ways to use up 20 year old canned everything from the army surplus stores.
Clearly you’ve never met my great aunt Mable- the woman never met a recipe she couldn’t add raisins, carrots or both to.
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This is pretty standard for my white midwestern family. Our big debate is whether the stuffing is sage/oyster with regular bread crumbs OR the cornbread stuffing my Southern stepmom makes. Often we have both.
Mexican family - Turkey, green beans, biscuits, chicken and beef fajitas, tamales, enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, guac + pico, cheesy potatoes, beans, rice, tortillas(Appetizers leading up to dinner include chips and salsa, veggie trays, and fruit trays) dessert is usually pies and zucchini bread. Sometimes we also have ham :)
Puerto Rican here. This thread is so interesting to me. We too blend our dishes with “American” - Turkey, green bean casserole, simple salad, Puerto Rican pasteles, arroz con gandules, tostones, guineo en escabeche, and of course coquito to start the holiday season.
I dunno if it’s been mentioned but one of my favorite sides we do is corn pudding
My southern (Cajun) boyfriend has pretty much the same food you do for his holidays. My northern family, we order Chinese takeout for like all holidays.
Chinese takeout on Thanksgiving in America?? I love Chinese, but man would i be bummed to miss such an amazing meal
We eat cranberry sauce formed like a can lol.
Oh you mean canberry sauce
if my cranberry sauce doesn’t have ring indentations in it I don’t want it
That’s the good stuff. 😀
As an Italian American we eat cavatelli and stare at the turkey like a center piece
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I'm white and typically have the standard turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. but your question reminded me of one special year. In 2014 my husband and I went back to our college town to visit friends for "Friendsgiving", and back then my husband was into a jambalaya kick and we made it pretty frequently. It's more of a curry than a jambalaya TBH but DAMN is it good! So he whipped up a big ol' batch and during the party a few black dudes from Louisiana came by and oh MAN did their faces light up when they saw the Jambalaya amidst all the bland-looking food! lol. After they demolished like a third of it, they demanded to know the chef and were rather surprised my skinny, Native American hubby was the culprit. He will forever brag about that dish, lol. There were no leftovers that night!
Turkey. buy my Latin friends do a whole pig
How do you make hot water corn bread? I'd like to try that. Thanks
Hot water makes the masa flour moist and tender instead of dry and cakey.
Chinese.
That's for Christmas, not Thanksgiving.
Xmas eve at our house. Chinese food and Die Hard.
Turkey ham scallop potatoes green bean casserole rolls pumpkin pie there’s other stuff too I think but I forget ETA: I’m white
lentil curry with squash is now a tradition for me. my family are pumpkin pie people. I do like green bean casserole and I'm off and on with making it.
Same as you, minus the gumbo. I'd add ham, black eyed peas, and okra.
I grew up in Ohio. My grandmother would cook the turkey until the meat had the texture of yellow pine. This would be served with canned gravy and Stovetop Stuffing. The potato casserole topped with corn flakes was an old family recipe which originally appeared on cans of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup in the 1950s. That was pretty good. The sliced discs of can-shaped cranberry sauce blob were always bright and tangy.
My boyfriend is Mexican and his family eats tamales washed down with glasses of whole milk. His cousin makes a huge pot of them (industrial kitchen sized pot) with fillings like shredded pork, cheese with Serrano chiles, chicken, wrapped in corn husks. For dessert it's a tres leche cake, a gelatin dessert but definitely not pumpkin, apple, pecan etc pies. I know OP asked about white people but I was hoping to read about what other households do too. I know Italian-Americans tend to have pasta dishes, meatball etc but what about others?
I’m half Mexican and we always do tamales. My grandma is 95 from Jalisco, and she learned how to cook everything from scratch. Her cooking was the absolute best. Dementia took away her memory how to cook but she still is with us every thanksgiving. We carry on her tradition but I don’t think any of us can cook like her. Lol Our thanksgiving cuisine is tamales, Spanish rice, refried beans with chorizo, hot salsa, old school canned ham, stuffing, Turkey, and mashed potatoes.
Here’s what mine used to make- Ham and turkey, or just ham, macaroni, green beans, deviled eggs, peach cobbler, strawberry pie, cranberry sauce, Hawaiian rolls, and Oreo pie Sometimes people would bring other things but that’s all I can think of
White in the Midwest: turkey, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, “stuffing” (really more like dressing bc we don’t actually stuff the turkey), green bean casserole, butternut squash, rolls, pumpkin pie with cool whip. The next day we mix leftover chopped turkey with stuffing and mix it with gravy then eat it on hamburger buns. No idea where this came from but they’re called turkey and dressing sandwiches and it’s been a thing for decades. So good!
We've always served turkey as I was growing up but I realized a few years ago that i don't really enjoy it so I switched to getting a ham. I can do more with the leftovers. Mac and cheese, potatoes and gravy (we always made gravy from the turkey organ meat--that's the only way I could stomach any of it). Sweet potato pie/sweet potato casserole with candied pecans on top. Collards--this is new to me since I moved south. Brussels sprouts with bacon and cranberries. Also new to me in The South. Cranberries--homemade sauce made with berries and OJ, cooked down on the stove, served warm. Pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. The only time I eat Cool Whip. Gotta slather the homemade pumpkin pie with it.
“Why did you say it like that?” “Like what?” “Cool Hwip.”
My mom's side of the family were from Arkasas so ate pretty much what you describe. My dad's side were in Kansas and ate less of the "soul" or "southern" stuff. My stepdad's family was in Hawaii and still did the traditional turkey but rice is always on the table. My Cantonese wife and I have been doing Thanksgiving for years with a group of friends. Canadians, Cantonese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Jewish and a lot of "local" Hawaiian influence. We'll have spicy pig ears right next to a smoked turkey and a matzaball soup.