^ Oops, realized cranberries are not unusual at all! But perhaps the absence of turkey is? Anyway, I love the idea of a holiday to give thanks. Every country should have one.

We are French, and didn't have a Thanksgiving tradition until we came here. We discovered that cranberries are delicious, so usually have it as a sauce with whatever duck or goose or capon (turkey is too dry). Except today: I made cranberry curd tart. Miam!

Anonymous wrote:Sauerkraut (Baltimore tradition).

That is unusual but understandable because Baltimore had a huge German enclave back in the mid-1900s.

Sauerkraut (Baltimore tradition).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm English, and bread sauce will ALWAYS be on my Christmas and Thanksgiving tables. It is absolutely essential in my book, I love it, but most of the time I'm the only one who eats any.

What is bread sauce?

Not IP, but I've never heard of bread sauce either. Found this online, but would like to hear from OP about what is in their bread sauce!

A bread sauce is a British warm or cold sauce made with milk, which is thickened with bread crumbs, typically eaten with roast chicken or also turkey

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in people’s thoughts—What unusual thing must always be will be at your Thanksgiving table?

For me it’s a relish tray with black olives right out of can and celery stuffed (must be 1/2 of celery stalks with peanut butter and 1/2 with soft cheese). The cheese can vary —- pimento, pub cheese or other. My mom always did this for every Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas. That made it a “special” thing.

A family friend had to have gravy topped with sliced hard boiled eggs.

What is yours?

Olives/relish tray / stuffed celery is not that strange. I think all the moms / grandmas read about it in the same 50s magazine and it became fancy.

“Relish trays” are one thing (hate that term), but I have never seen peanut butter or “stuffed” celery on one of them. Plain celery? Yes. A dip in the middle of the tray? Sure. But peanut butter celery is…not part of a relish tray.

I'm sure if you haven't personally seen stuffed celery as a Thanksgiving appetizer (I also hate the term relish tray--we didn't call it that) then nobody eats it. At all.
https://www.boston.com/food/food/2014/11/24/celery-and-olives-dominated-thanksgiving-for-nearly-100-yearsuntil-they-didnt/

I mean, thanks for an article about old-ass food trends that no one uses?

Don’t be a grump. I found it interesting

- not OP

+1 - It was surprising how fancy and novel olives and celery (eaten raw!) were and that they have stuck with so many of us to this day out of pure tradition. And the part about not needing a servant for these palate cleansers-- well, what a relief!

We are Indian-American. Mom served fried cauliflower as a vegetarian appetizer on every thanksgiving. Actually, she made huge amounts of fried cauliflower to make "aloo-gobi" for another potluck on the weekend. That was her signature dish. So, she made the fried cauliflower do double duty.

Fried cauliflower - use fresh cauliflower flowerets, make sure that it is dry, deep fry, drain the oil, sprinkle with salt, paprika and roasted cumin powder. A squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkling of chopped coriander leaves. It is fingerlicking good. No breading or coating of any sort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws always eat red cabbage cooked with apples and lingonberry jam and apple cider vinegar. I like it too and now know how to make it myself! It's a good contrast with other thanksgiving foods and fairly healthy.

That sounds amazing? Recipe/approximate proportions???

Sorry, the post above was a response to this one...a good recipe is
http://emtplate.blogspot.com/2008/11/rdkl-danish-red-cabbage.html?m=1

Thank you! I’m going to make that next year… or maybe tomorrow!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws always eat red cabbage cooked with apples and lingonberry jam and apple cider vinegar. I like it too and now know how to make it myself! It's a good contrast with other thanksgiving foods and fairly healthy.

That sounds amazing? Recipe/approximate proportions???

Sorry, the post above was a response to this one...a good recipe is
http://emtplate.blogspot.com/2008/11/rdkl-danish-red-cabbage.html?m=1

This is a good approximation of what we do http://emtplate.blogspot.com/2008/11/rdkl-danish-red-cabbage.html?m=1

Anonymous wrote:I'm English, and bread sauce will ALWAYS be on my Christmas and Thanksgiving tables. It is absolutely essential in my book, I love it, but most of the time I'm the only one who eats any.

What is bread sauce?

Celery + peanut butter + raisins sprinkled on = Ants on a log. A favorite when my kids were young.

I'm English, and bread sauce will ALWAYS be on my Christmas and Thanksgiving tables. It is absolutely essential in my book, I love it, but most of the time I'm the only one who eats any.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in people’s thoughts—What unusual thing must always be will be at your Thanksgiving table?

For me it’s a relish tray with black olives right out of can and celery stuffed (must be 1/2 of celery stalks with peanut butter and 1/2 with soft cheese). The cheese can vary —- pimento, pub cheese or other. My mom always did this for every Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas. That made it a “special” thing.

A family friend had to have gravy topped with sliced hard boiled eggs.

What is yours?

Olives/relish tray / stuffed celery is not that strange. I think all the moms / grandmas read about it in the same 50s magazine and it became fancy.

“Relish trays” are one thing (hate that term), but I have never seen peanut butter or “stuffed” celery on one of them. Plain celery? Yes. A dip in the middle of the tray? Sure. But peanut butter celery is…not part of a relish tray.

Not OP, but I grew up with stuffed celery on our relish tray too. Some with peanut butter, some with cream cheese.

We also put stuffed celery on our relish tray. It usually is some sort of blue cheese stuffing. We also, gasp, put cottage cheese on our relish tray!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in people’s thoughts—What unusual thing must always be will be at your Thanksgiving table?

For me it’s a relish tray with black olives right out of can and celery stuffed (must be 1/2 of celery stalks with peanut butter and 1/2 with soft cheese). The cheese can vary —- pimento, pub cheese or other. My mom always did this for every Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas. That made it a “special” thing.

A family friend had to have gravy topped with sliced hard boiled eggs.

What is yours?

Olives/relish tray / stuffed celery is not that strange. I think all the moms / grandmas read about it in the same 50s magazine and it became fancy.

“Relish trays” are one thing (hate that term), but I have never seen peanut butter or “stuffed” celery on one of them. Plain celery? Yes. A dip in the middle of the tray? Sure. But peanut butter celery is…not part of a relish tray.

I'm sure if you haven't personally seen stuffed celery as a Thanksgiving appetizer (I also hate the term relish tray--we didn't call it that) then nobody eats it. At all.
https://www.boston.com/food/food/2014/11/24/celery-and-olives-dominated-thanksgiving-for-nearly-100-yearsuntil-they-didnt/

I mean, thanks for an article about old-ass food trends that no one uses?

Don’t be a grump. I found it interesting

- not OP