For those who celebrate Thanksgiving as a family retreat and have tons of food on the table, which food item do you look forward to the most?

Gotta be the turkey, then the mashed potatoes, then the stuffing, followed by the cornbread. Ummmm um!!

The dressing.

Pecan pie. My favorite part of the dinner itself, though, is the leftover pot-pie we make out of all the goodies on the day after Thanksgiving. So yummy!

My favorite is making a one pan wonder dish with turkey, gravy, stuffing, potaotes, squash and what ever veggies all reheated in the same pan then put on a plate with cranberry sauce on top. That yummy mixure is so good as leftovers all heated together and with the cold tart cranberry sauce to give it the right tartness. mmmmm has my mouth watering from thinking of it.

Celery salad. I know I will hate it after but it’s really good.

The dressing has always been my favorite, with the mashed potatos coming in second.

I always look forward to the veggies. My mother makes at least a dozen different veggies. It’s insane, but really good.

Turkey dressing. No question! : )

We only make the few things we really like now. It’s just a few of us, so it is basically just a large dinner. Turkey, gravy (our gravy has some mushrooms and white wine) mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry mold, and pecan pie. I wouldn’t say I like one part more than the other, the food is just another meal for me, I don’t think thanksgiving dinner is that big of a deal. Oh, sometimes we get a honey baked ham, that is a treat we enjoy over the long weekend.

Sweet potatoes mashed, whipped, buttered, seasoned and slow cooked I don’t know why I only make them at Thanksgiving but I always have seconds (and usually thirds). Dry cured smithfield ham, I don’t consistently make this it depends on what everyone asks for, but I usually only get to make one a year so I look forward to it when I do. Wild mushroom stuffing, chanterelles, hen-of-the-woods, oyster, sulfur shelf pretty much whatever I can find that goes well together, can’t get enough of it!

But if I have to pick one thing and only one, home made pecan pie! I try to only make them when we have large gatherings otherwise I pretty much eat the whole thing myself over two days and then wonder why I didn’t make another!

Cornbread dressing, made the way my sweet grandmother taught me.

The day after… Turkey slices, cranberry sauce, and gravy, open-faced sandwiches on left over biscuits

Dressing. I love it and don’t make it any other time.

Pumpkin pie, hands down.

I make this amazing corn casserole (butter, sour cream, jiffy corn bread muffin mix feature strongly in it)..and that and the apple salad (like a Waldorf salad with mini-marshmallows in it) are my 2 favorite things.. Except..wait, it’s a three-way tie: the pecan & brown sugar crusted warm yeasty bread rolls we bake on Turkey day.. with butter melting in ‘em…

Baked home with bone in.

Pumpkin Pie.

A multitude of cheeses with quality sourdough bread.

My Dad just bought a pumpkin pie at Costco last week and we scarfed it down.

My Mom and I keep an ongoing envelope throughout the year and we fill it with potential Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

I went to a buffet at a casino a few weeks back and tasted the most divine mushroom in red wine sauce gravy ever. I’m trying to find a recipe online and then we’ll serve it with our mashed potatoes.

I will probably also make some kind of roasted vegetable medley. Most likely golden beets, parsnips, garlic and fingerling potatoes, maybe with a little bit of Balsamic vinegar.

Also, instead of the typical green bean casserole I’m looking to find or develop my own recipe that would be an artichoke heart au gratin casserole. Something that would have Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs on the top.

My Grandma used to make this amazing cottage cheese salad with pineapple and pecans. It was flavored with the powdered green Jello mix, so it was this lovely shade of pastel green. Unfortunately, being a vegetarian I don’t eat Jello anymore (because it contains gelatin). For awhile Hain made a vegetarian Jello made with agar that tasted exactly the same (although it was raspberry and made the salad pink instead of green). I almost wept when they stopped making it. So I’ve been on a quest to find something to get that same tart, fruity flavor to add to my salad. The gelling aspect is not important at all, because we just used the Jello mix for the flavoring, it didn’t make the salad set up or anything like that. So far I’ve tried cranberry juice (too thin and makes the salad watery) boysenberry syrup (didn’t taste right, too sweet and not strong enough and made the salad a weird grayish color) thawed out frozen sweetened pureed strawberries (still didn’t taste right, not tart enough and slightly changed the texture and made a weird, not quite pink color).

If anybody has any ideas, I’d be very appreciative. The salad can be either pink or green, but the flavoring has to be tart and fruity just like the flavor of lime or raspberry jello, but I don’t need anything that actually gels because it is only for the flavor (I could add food coloring to get the color) but otherwise the salad is simply cottage cheese, canned pinapple chunks and chopped pecans (plus the flavor that used to come from the jello). So I need something that won’t change the texture or make it runny or thin, and something that won’t leave the cottage cheese with a weird looking color to it. Thanks in advance : )

I might do a little experiment using lime Koolaid (although the thought of that kind of worries me, I don’t want a bunch of chemicals and fake sweetners or a bunch of sugar).

@Kardamom: about Jello/gelatin, my mom buys a vegie gelatin in the asian markets and it comes in tons of yummy flavors.

@Neizvestnaya And that is why I love you!!! There’s a really terrific Korean market in our town, where I buy tons of very inexpensive, but fabulously exotic mushrooms. I’ll be going there TODAY! Lurve to you, my dear : )

I’m literally giddy right now : )

Green bean casseroll, dressing, and my sister’s brownies.

The beer with a huge helping of weed on the side.

Butternut squash!

@Kardamom, here’s something to try. Very easy and also, yummie.
Vegan “Jello”
1 quart fruit juice
4 -5 tablespoons agar-agar flakes or 4 -5 teaspoons agar-agar, powder
1 pinch sea salt
chopped fruit
Directions:
1) Place liquid, salt and agar-agar into saucepan, stir to dissolve the flakes.
2) Bring to a boil, reduce flame and simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.
3) Place any additional ingredients (fruits, etc) into a shallow bowl and pour hot liquid overall.
4) Chill until jelled.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving foods is cranberry salad (made with “Jello.”)

I always make a gravy plate before I eat anything else. The plate has turkey, stuffing and potatoes. Then that is all covered with gravy. It’s my tradition.

Thank you @bkcunningham ! I shall be trying this out too. : )