Thanksgiving traditions

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching for us Canadians (sorry to my American friends who have awhile to wait), and I am thinking about the FOOD! I know that people in different areas have varying traditional dishes for Thanksgiving, so I wanted to share mine. The pictures below are not my creations, but they are what we would typically eat on Thanksgiving. Click on the images to go to the recipes on their original sites.

The turkey is the highlight of the Thanksgiving dinner. We stuff it and roast it in the oven. The smell is amazing. I almost want to be the one to host Thanksgiving  just so that my house can smell like roasted turkey (notice I said “almost”). When we get together for Thanksgiving, we all bring something, but the host typically makes the turkey.

We are a bunch of carbaholics in my family, so we generally do extra stuffing outside of the turkey. My Mom makes great homemade stuffing, but mine generally comes from a box. Someday I will get brave enough to make my own stuffing from scratch, because it is sooo good.

This is my husband’s favourite dish at our family gatherings. He loves my Mom’s layered salad. It is similar to this, but not exactly the same. I will have to get pictures of hers the next time we have it.

I have loved pistachio pudding since I was a kid. Adding marshmallows makes it that much better when you’re a kid, and even when you’re a grown up 🙂

I am the master at Candied Yams in our family, if I do say so myself. My secret is a little bit of cinnamon mixed in with the sweet potatoes when I mash them. Mmmm…I can’t wait to have these.

For those who don’t like the Candied Yams, we like to have some white potatoes too…and like I said before, we are carb people. I roast mini potatoes after coating them with olive oil and sprinkling some vegetable spice or salt on them.

The roasted vegetables are usually my contribution to the meal too. I use vegetable spice on them as well, and I use a variety of vegetables.

This wasn’t typically a regular part of our holiday meals, but after years of hearing my American friends talk about their green bean casserole, I had to try it. I know why they rave about it, because it’s delicious and I think it’s a great addition to our Thanksgiving dinner.

Pumpkin pie is my favourite dessert. I have an October birthday, so I often choose to have pumpkin pie instead of cake as my birthday dessert…and it’s another reason I love Thanksgiving.

I have never been a huge fan of apple pie, unless my Grandma made it. She made the perfect crust, and even after she developed diabetes and started making a sugar free version of her famous apple pie, it was still the best. I miss her, and I think of her every time we have apple pie…even if it isn’t as good as her pie was. Apple pie reminds me of my Grandpa too. He always said “Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze.” LOL…he always had funny things like that to say.

So that is a typical Thanksgiving dinner in my house. We usually eat at an “off” time too…generally around 3pm. How does your family do Thanksgiving and what are your typical dishes?