Hi, friends!
Holidays approach, foods can be awesome, mediocre, or horrible.
Let’s talk side dishes. Specifically, sweet potato casserole (no I will not call it candied yams because they are not yams).
There’s one version I will begrudgingly eat, and it’s a version that has so much Jack Daniels in the recipe that you don’t really taste the sweet potatoes.
I tried to figure out how to do polls, let’s see if this works.
Stuffing is the best side.
I love stuffing w/ tons of gravy. I’m not sure why we only have it for Thanksgiving. Not a huge marshmallow guy but love sweet potato whatever you want to call it.
Now that I’m suited up for my Thanksgiving Challenge I was wondering the same thing about a lot of Thanksgiving staples. Dinner rolls used to be common at dinner tables and in restaurants year ’round, but now they seem particularly Thanksgiving-ish. If you enjoy homemade cranberry sauce, as I do, why not eat it more frequently during cranberry season? There are a million casserole recipes, but how many people make a sweet potato or a green bean one only for Thanksgiving, and then out of some kind of feeling of duty?
I once stuffed a pork loin with a bread-y, onion-y, red wine mixture and served it in a gravy-like sauce. Everyone at the table was scratching their heads. “Why does this seem so familiar? I know I’ve never had this before…” It’s because I served it in February, not at the end of November.
I feel like rolls are less common because they seem like frivolous, bland carbs and now so many folks are supposed to try not to eat carbs.
Like the mashed potatoes? Can’t skip those! But do you really need a bland roll?
When it comes to Thanksgiving rolls, I’m always reminded of this article from The Onion
https://web.archive.org/web/20210211041159/https://local.theonion.com/grandma-concerned-about-dinner-roll-count-1819571169
I do all the grocery shopping so when we are making the list & my wife put down rolls I questioned if we really need rolls. She could only justify it because you always have rolls. Nah, we skipped that.
I love green bean casserole and was actually about to name it my favorite side, tied with mashed potatoes. I am usually the one making it, but I typically only make it around the holidays because it’s kind of labor intensive for something that’s only a side. (I am not talking about dumping cream of mushroom soup into canned green beans with French’s onions, though I do have a soft spot for that version because I grew up with it.)
For me green bean anything is an abomination & traumatic. One of my oldest memories is nuns making me eat them when I hated them in preschool & I puked. Never could get over that.
I’m hardcore anti canned green beans, but I very much enjoy frozen and fresh.
Yeah, canned green beans have a particular taste and texture that I can definitely understand people not liking. I always do frozen myself, but I don’t turn down a casserole with the canned stuff. It’s almost a completely different ingredient though.
Hard disagree. Stuffing is the only vegetarian side I pass on. I just don’t get why people love soggy bread so much.
Edit: This was supposed to be a response to @Hannibal but it’s not looking like it now.
If the stuffing you are having is just soggy bread I would agree but my wife makes it with veggies & sausage & tons of rosemary & it is amazing. More like a savory bread pudding than soggy croutons.
I mean I wouldn’t say *just* soggy bread but that’s the part I don’t love. Certainly plenty of veggies and seasoning and stuff. No meat because my MIL is considerate, and my husband (who is also vegetarian) likes it. Everyone else at the table claims it’s good, so I think it’s just my preferences. I don’t love bread pudding either.
@BigDamnHeroes, your comment made me giggle, because when I got to your “I don’t love bread pudding either” line, I almost said “WOW someone’s MAKING IT WRONG!” out loud!😉😁🤣💖
Because I HAAAATE bread pudding–bilut I loooove stuffing–with the stipulation that the stuffing ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT be soupy like bread pudding!😉
The way I grew up eating it, it’s “soft” inside, but you take the aluminum foil off at the end of baking, so the top gets *just a bit crispy/crunchy” and the *inside* only ever had enough liquid to act as a “binder”, so all the edges and the bottom also get a slightly drier/”chewy” texture…
Nothing is “wet” like bread pudding, at any point in the process!😉💖
I only mentioned bread pudding because Loveshaq did. I wouldn’t say the stuffing is ever soupy, just soggy. (I suspect people that like stuffing would use other words instead, like soft or moist.) I have also had stuffing that is super dry and that isn’t really enjoyable either.
Thanksgiving sides: the side of the table that doesn’t defend racism or Trumpism or Jan 6th.
Oh, and sweet potato pie, the superior autumn pie.
Also, the lede image looks like it could well be Cousin Matty’s table.
YOU BETCHA! And can I point out that I would commit a criminal act to get my hands on that porcelain three-tiered tray with its elegant coppery-gold trim? Using it as a cracker/bread stand is sheer genius, and an idea that I will copy, because we actually have a similar three-tiered tray but it is an understated white and we haul it out at our Holiday Open House and I put cookies on it, divided by type, like the unoriginal thinker that I am.
The whole dinner/entertaining set is marvelous. If I had that giant bowl in the cabbage or Brussels sprout motif I would serve spinach and artichoke dip with every meal, and lots of it. Note too the trio of mini-tureens holding yet more dip, I assume, and their dainty spoons, which your civilized guests will utilize to add the dip to their conveyance of choice, like an item from the cracker/bread stand, or maybe applied deftly to fill the celery.
I was born at least 20 years too late.
I think that is soup, not dip. In fact, with dill garnish, I say it is a celery soup!
Hmmm. Now I am filled with self-doubt.
Since the trio has those little handles on each side, are you meant to tip the container to your lips at some point? That doesn’t seem…And then the giant cabbage is not holding spinach-and-artichoke dip but is in fact is the source of the celery soup?
I wonder, then, if this is a spread in a magazine or cookbook. It’s not a buffet at all, but rather photographic evidence of recipes discussed. How to make celery soup. How to prepare shrimp and make the sauce to go with it. To the right is a tray of hors d’oeuvres, see recipe. Up by the celery is a “fluff” dessert salad your friends will rave about, and we’ll show you how simple it is to make. I was wondering what was above the fluff salad. They look like giant home-made potato chips. Maybe they’re fried…what, I wonder? Those dollops of color intrigue. What secrets does that particular serving bowl hold?
@matthewcrawley, about a decade ago I fucking saw that gorgeous cabbage bowl at an antique store and I couldn’t purchase it that day (I forget why, but it was a valid reason) and to this day I regret not buying it
I just choked up a little bit. May there be another gorgeous cabbage bowl in your future very soon!
Sweet potato pie is by far better than pumpkin pie!
I don’t even know what a yam is, but I remember when I was younger, I would get lectured and even yelled at at times for saying “sweet potato”. I still don’t know why, but for some reason in the area where I grew up, there were a lot of people who had really strong feelings about “yams”
I think I was told(yelled at) that “there’s no such thing as a sweet potato, and they aren’t even potatoes, they are yams!”
for a while, I thought they were two really similar, but distinct vegetables, like, i dunno, carrots and parsnip? peaches and nectarines? I don’t even know… I think most people around here say “sweet potato”, and “sweet potato fries” are a fairly common side, so I guess that’s the accepted term/version locally?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Whoa. It seems like the opposite is true: https://ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/difference-between-yam-and-sweet-potato/
never had a thanksgiving dinner….from what i can tell..its pretty similar to christmas dinner tho…right down to the requirement for alcohol to deal with the questionable company and loaded conversations to be avoided
anyways….im generally a fan of all the parts of the meal that arent turkey…really not sure why everyone insists on getting those over grown chickens…
The TAILS are the best part of the Turkey, Farscy!!😉
You get yourself a tray full of *just* the tails, make yourself a 9″×13″ pan of giblet dressing,** and before you put the aluminum foil over the dressing, you lay all those turkey tails *on top* of your dressing & season them with herbs & spices…
As the dressing and tails cook, most of the fat will render out of tails, and soak down into the bread–adding TONS of flavor (because fat+spices & herbs!😉), and after an hour and a half, you remove the aluminum foil, let the thing bake for another 15-30 minutes un-covered, then you eat the dressing & just the turkey tails… you don’t need any of the terrible, dry white or dark meat from the rest of the bird😉
**dressing in this case is stuffing outside the bird!
And “Giblets” in case y’all don’t call them that over where you are, are chicken or turkey hearts & gizzards–cleaned, then fried up (with some chopped onions, Greek Seasoning, onion powder/granules, garlic powder/granules, salt, & pepper), then chopped into 1/2″-3/4″ pieces that you mix in with your shredded bread, broth, and herbs.
lol thanks 😀