Thanksgiving/Christmas food

Britbox · #1 6th November 2006, 09:31 AM

Just wondering what everyone else has for the festive season..Maybe trying to pick up a few alternatives to what we normally have on Christmas day..

Typically, I would do prawn cocktail (with king prawns ..YUM!) to start, or for those of my family that don't like fish, something like garlic mushrooms, or a consomme...Then it's roast turkey with all the trimmings, roast potatoes, seasonal veg, including sprouts, which I LOVE, and everyone else hates

and they insist on the obligatory Yorkshire pudding.,,,Oh, not forgetting the sage and onion stuffing, and those little cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon, that are SO tacky, but everyone eats!...,,,For afters, we have Christmas pudding, with brandy butter, or for those that don't like that, strawberry trifle with fresh cream, and mince pies with ice cream, of course, everyone has a cracker, and HAS to wear the hat, while they eat their dinner

...I've done that for over thirty years, so I'd love to surprise them all with something totally different....Any ideas for a more exotic menu?

Donna1969 · #2 6th November 2006, 10:09 AM

Thanksgiving for us includes..of course turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, carrots and celery, pearl onions (yuck..mom always makes that), stuffing..but the bread kind..NO meat in it, a lasagna (gotta have that..being Italian

), peas, greenbeans (lots of veggies), butternut squash, pies of all kinds, puddings, ice cream, coffee.

Christmas is usually a mishmash of different foods. Baked spiral honey ham...ohhhh yumm!, again with lots of veggies..pretty much all the veggies we have at T-giving, salad, bread/rolls, huge tossed salad, cookies, pies, cakes of all kinds, all sorts of beverages..without liquor and with.

but Marion, I can tell you from experience..us kids WANT the same foods you' Moms have always done for holidays..we look forward to it. A few Thanksgivings back my Mom decided to "mix it up a bit" and made different dishes or changed the way she prepared dishes, WE WERE NOT HAPPY! I look forward to the stuffing and candied yams all year..that year she added a few ingredients to the stuffing that she never did before...ewwwww! yuck!! Then I looked for the yams..where the h*ll were they i asked..mom pointed to a bowl of rust colored..slop..yeah, she decided to mash sweet potatoes instead..she also changed the way she made gravey and added a few "exotic" dishes to our menu..my sister, me, our daughters and my hubby all told my mom..never ever ever change the dishes, we love it the way it always is. She too thought we might be growing bored of the same old, same old..ohh no, we love it!!

Louise501 · #3 6th November 2006, 03:20 PM

Yep, it's the same for us altho' we don't have a starter, I get the ready to bake turkey breasts from marks and sparks rather than a whole bird, little sausages, that gorgeous ready made chesnut stuffing, roast pots, sprouts, carrots, peas....yorkshire puds. Then later Christmas pud, mince pies, trifle....cheese and biscuits, chocolates. I love the traditional Christmas lunch, I can't imagine cooking anything else!

Beau's Mommy · #4 6th November 2006, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donna1969

but Marion, I can tell you from experience..us kids WANT the same foods you' Moms have always done for holidays..we look forward to it. A few Thanksgivings back my Mom decided to "mix it up a bit" and made different dishes or changed the way she prepared dishes, WE WERE NOT HAPPY!

I must agree with Donna on this one!! My mom changed things up ONE Thanksgiving, and never again!

My mom passed away 12 years ago and my brothers and I have been trying our best to recreate that same style of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The old saying rings true for us...."if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

tianthai · #5 6th November 2006, 11:01 PM

I usually spend Christmas with my Spanish family in Spain. We usually do Tapas, we can be as creative as possible, from deep-fried almonds, cooked shrimps, cheese, olives, Russian eggs, Spring Rolls, croquettes, salmon cakes, tomatoes-mozzarella, Serrano ham and many more (I am too hungry to write them all LOL). We are about 30 and everybody brings something. There are a lot of Gin-Tonic, wine, Cava, Anis del Mono, coke, water and etc.

Then we usually have roast beef for "real meal", then Turron (at least 5-10 different kinds of Turron).

Every year we do the same, the party starts at 3pm on December 25th and it last until December 26th around 7am.

We come to Barcelona from everywhere in the world to be together.

I must always have Pumpkin Pie on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we move around so much, we never held Thanksgiving Dinner at home. When we lived in the US, we usually were invited for Thanksgiving dinner at family or friends'. Now we are outside of the US we usually spend Thanksgiving at the restaurant. Last year we were in Shanghai, that was the worst turkey in my life, the pumpkin pie was a shock. This year we are in Singapore so we are going to try the restaurant at the American Club here to get to feel the real Thanksgiving dinner.

dharmadoodle · #6 7th November 2006, 07:07 AM

Mum's is the same as Marion's, & you can't beat that. Christmas dinner is not the same anywhere else.

We don't have starters, unless you count wine/champagne etc.

Mum adds sausage meat to the Paxo sage & onion, & Yorkies are a must. She always has to have some sort of chocolate afters for me, coz I don't like Christmas pud.

Dad always cooks pork along with the turkey, & he always cooks the turkey late on Christmas Eve while slowly getting drunk - A bit like that Floyd chef.

Sometimes you really miss living at home with the folks.

We all wear the hats too throughout dinner - It's law.

Emily_7538 · #7 7th November 2006, 07:56 AM

Thanksgiving:
Turkey, stuffing, dressing, ham mashed potatoes, broccoli and chese, shells and cheese, rolls, yams, macoroni salad, rolls, cornbread, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, cake, gravy, and whole lots more that I can't even think of.

For Christmas we go somewhere else to eat, so it varies.

Madison's Mom · #8 7th November 2006, 05:49 PM

We normally have the usual turkey, stuffing (no sage YUCK), noodles, mashed potatoes, green beens, stuffed mushrooms (YUM), rolls and several deserts.

One year I tried prime rib, yorkshire pudding etc...... I melted the meat themometer in the meat, filled the house with smoke, dogs would not even eat the pudding......... Had to have the boyfriend get his checky thingey to see how done the meat was....I think he used the tool on fridges

Many this year I will just have my daughter go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and say the heck with the whole thing!

kt_brandy · #9 7th November 2006, 09:25 PM

ok, i've taken over christmas now since mum passed away - dad used to do a bbq till i took over a bbq just wasn't christmas in my opinion so we have yummo Prawns and sauce for starters, Pork slow cooked in the BBQ, baked vegies of all kinds - potatoes, pumpkin, onion, squash and greens, then dessert is the traditional plumb pudding which is boiled for 4hrs about a month in advance and then re-boiled christmas day for 2 hrs and i have to say this is my favourite served with warm custard and ice cream yum yum (reminds me i have to make the pud very soon)

i married into a danish family so we celebrate with them on christmas eve and their meal is much the same except they have carmelised potatoes which is the spuds rolled in brown sugar until they carmelise and they are yummy, they also have cuccumber thinnly sliced in a vinegarette sauce and the same is done with red cabbage I don't like those but hubby loves them and their dessert is a rice cream dessert and there is a game that goes with it, you hide a almond sliver into the pudding and everyone has to see you do it then it is stirred through and you have to eat this dessert until it is all gone and if you get the almond you have to get it out of your mouth without anyone seeing you and once all the dessert is gone if you haven't been found to have it you get a pressie usually chocolates the dessert has a cheery sauce with or without the grog its really yummy.

**Jan** · #10 8th November 2006, 06:37 PM

Our Christmas dinner always consists of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams and assorted veggies with plum pudding (with whipped cream and hard sauce), minced tarts and triffle for desert. It's pretty much the same on Thanksgiving except that we have pumpkin pie for desert.

luckysuz30 · #11 8th November 2006, 09:45 PM

Our Thanksgiving is always the traditional turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, dressing, etc. Last year my mom had just started watching all the Rachael Ray cooking shows and cooked the traditional stuff using Rachael Ray recipes and ....yuck. It was edible, but we banned her from trying out any new recipes on Thanksgiving day. ha ha

Christmas is different every year. We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas eve due to my older step-brothers and step-sisters having children and living out of town. Some of the stuff we've had over the years include mexican food (enchiladas, tacos) italian (lasagna, spaghetti) homemade pizzas, hot sandwhiches, shrimp (garlic, breaded), horseshoes (local meal that is 2 pieces of bread with 2 pieces of meat (hamburger, chicken, turkey) on top, then covered in french fries and cheese sauce), BBQ on the grill, etc. Due to my parents being divorced and both remmarried I usually end up eating at 4 different houses in 2 days so it's nice to have the change.