Thanksgiving -
Main Course: Smoked Turkey, Dressing, Gravy, Green Beans, Squash Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Corn, Rolls
Dessert - Green Salad, Pecan Pie, Blueberry Yum-Yum, Cakes, and Cookies

Christmas -
Main Course: Smokes Turkey and Spiral Slices Ham (because I refuse to eat ham), Dressing, Gravy, Potato Salad, Green Beans, Squash Casserole, Corn, and Rolls
Dessert - Ambrosia (oranges, juices, coconut, peacans, cherries, & apples), Green Salad, more Yum-Yum, Cakes and Cookies



1) Dressing in my family is always a cornbread dressing baked outside of the bird and a modified gibblet gravy - no actual inards, only turkey or chicken meat and a hard boilded egg.

2) Jellied can - just plop it onto the plate and serve

We're turkey people. Ham is for heathens.

I've always been afraid of trichinosis.

BTW, Cooking stuffing inside the bird is ASKING for food poisining. Take a microbiology class. You'll never again eat stuffing that was cooked inside a bird. Its rare the the center part of the stuffing gets above 165 degrees. (the temp where most bacteria die). Had a professor tell me once (in the micro class) that you could kill your entire family by picking your nose, wiping the booger inside the stuffing inside the bird. The bacteria would incubate in there and would be so numerous they coudl kill an entire family.

Yeah, I never ate in the bird stuffing again. Neither should you.

we have three pans of dressing-one is oyster, one is regular, one is sausage(ground spicy sausage-jimmy dean) all corn bread based. we do not stuff the bird, except for onion and celery in the cavity to add flavor.

jellied cranberry sauce

Out, cornbread, no "goodies."

Quote:

2) Cranberries: Whole or the Jellied Can?

Neither. We usually have a cranberry salad of some kind. And I'll admit it -- I love Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish that Susan Stamberg features every year on Morning Edition. Horseradish just makes everything taste better.

The reason I asked my dressing question is because we may as many as four different dressings at each Thanksgiving - and everyone tries to "convert" the others to their line of thinking. We have:

1) In the bird
2) Out of the bird
3) Cornbread & Sausage
4) Stuffings Balls (that always sounds so gross to me!)

I'm an out of the bird and/or cornbread dressing person - I LOVE the cornbread, but it's so rich, I only eat a little. But I could never, ever eat the dressing from in the bird - even if it was cornbread!

As for cranberries, we've gone from the gelled to the berries. It's really a yummy difference! At times, we dress it up by making a cranberry salad, but again, there's still those who "need" the gelled style.

1. Out!! Cornbread, no sage, with ground pork, baked in a casserole so it's nice and crusty brown on top. I've tried and tried to make mine as good as my grandmother's was, but I think it's not because she used so much bacon fat to saute the onion and green pepper.

2. We buy both so everyone is happy. :) I prefer whole.

Stuffing should always be prepared out of the bird, for the reasons lifesaver mentioned.

I posted about Christmas dinner already, so I'll add what my family does for Thanksgiving. Dinner is always turkey, stuffing (bread stuffing cooked outside the bird), green beans (again, ick), mashed potatoes, jellied cranberry sauce. Dessert was ALWAYS ice cream cake, because my birthday falls on or near Thanksgiving. I've finally been able to convince my folks to serve pie, as I'd rather have the traditional pie than ice cream cake, but I still ask for a candle in my piece of pie. :p

Hehe - When I was about 12, my parents hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the family. My mother put the turkey in the oven in plenty of time. About an hour before it was due to come out, she checked on it, and it was still raw! Turns out the oven was set to "keep warm", which overrides the temperature setting and keeps the oven at 150 degrees. Dinner was late that year...

We usually have Christmas eve dinner after midnight Mass in the French tradition of seafood and champagne (usually oysters, shrimp, scallops, and salmon along with a seafood soup. Then on Christmas afternoon we usually have goose or ducks and slow baked virginia ham.
Along with this we always have corn bread stuffing with vidalia onions, bacon, pecans, and brandied plums; grilled asparagus; roast yams; oven baked new potatoes in pan dripping; and sometimes wild rice; all accompanied by a bordeaux blanc and a full bodied red like a Pommard. Then a cheese board with an assortment of cheeses and a good port and finally Christmas pudding with brandy butter, English sherry trifle and Champagne. This usually calls for a leasurly walk to shake things down and have a cigar and then back for New Orleans chicory coffee, cognac, and Belgian chocolates.
Way too much, but we all love it.
Merry Christmas all!

I want to Christmas at your house, dekeguy.

Christmas Eve:
We make a tourtière . A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with ground pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional Christmas and New Year's Eve dish in Quebec. You can take Mr. 1228 outta Montrèal (gladly!) but the tourtière stays! He makes a killer tourtière

Christmas Day
We do turkey
Cranberry sauce (I like the whole cranberries but everyone else liked the jellied)
stuffing (in the bird)
collard greens
macaroni and cheese
pumpkin pie
apple pie
chocolate pecan pie (or regular pecan pie)
green beans
garlic mashed potatoes

sometimes if we have guests, we will also do a ham

I am with You on that. If He wasnt in Vi. I would drive over!:)

Jill, Move To Kansas! Soon!!!!!!!!1:)

Off to Bookems soon, Whores De Vors tonight. He was at the Chiefs Game, We Won!

Ham Sun for Christmas! Bookems wife will fix enough for Big Care Package for Me! I love Her!:D Nice to Have Friends!:cool:

Will report in later and tell how full I am!:)

Predominantly we have Turkey but in the past we’ve had lasagna, honey glazed ham, pork tenderloin and roast beef. Personally I could care less what the main dish is, I’m more concerned about the side dishes. I love jalapeno cornbread.