What is a food you saw at a Thanksgiving table for the first time, and thought it odd?

Everyone thinks it’s strange that we always have potato salad at thanksgiving. I always thought it was a holiday dish until I married my first husband and I brought out traditional potato salad and everyone made fun of me.

I have to confess, I have never seen potato salad at a Thanksgiving table.

Stuffed grape leaves.

My ex-brother in law was from a Jewish family that escaped from Cairo Egypt in 1948; before that the family had been in Cairo for hundreds of years. Their special celebratory food was stuffed grape leaves. Doesn’t go with turkey at all.

I knew a family that was Irish-Catholic although there was an Italian grandmother on one side. Because of Nona they always had ravioli at Thanksgiving.

Would it raise eyebrows if I turned up with say, ooh I dunno…diddley-dee…a freshly scalped paleface?

You mean “scalloped,” right?

@Judi You’d used your time and effort to make a delicious potato salad, and you generously shared it with your husband’s family, and everyone made fun of you? Niiiice. No wonder he turned out to be your first husband instead of the keeper husband.

@Judi For what it’s worth, I was once treated rudely by a potluck dinner hostess (or at least I found it very rude).

I had to go to the party without my S.O., because he had another obligation that evening. When I handed my dish to the hostess, she asked me why I was alone. I explained that he and I had a schedule conflict – we’d each been invited to an event that same night – and we agreed to attend our own parties. She turned to the entire room and loudly said, “Can you believe that Lori came by herself? I’d kill him. I’d never put up with that.” I took my dish, which was elaborate and had taken all day to prepare, and calmly walked out. I didn’t engage her in an argument or cause a scene; I just let everyone watch me walk away quietly.

We do learn as we get older. When I was younger, I would have been hurt, become defensive, and tried to explain myself. Or, I would have quitely stayed and spent all night fighting back tears.

Wow! Good for you @SadieMartinPaul! Showed her up and you weren’t even on stage! What was the dish?

@Dutchess_III It was my very unusual recipe for White Lasagna. The concept is the same as ordinary lasagna, but it has chicken instead of beef, a stock-based white sauce instead of tomato sauce, and Swiss and gruyere cheese rather than the usual ricotta and mozzarella.

Although I’m a vegetarian, I make this meal for my omnivorous friends. It really does take all day. First, I need to make a fresh chicken stock. Next, I have to cook the chicken, grate the cheeses, and prepare a white sauce. Finally, everything gets assembled and baked. The dish is probably very caloric, but people literally make yummy noises when they eat it.

Oh it sounds so good. Boy, they lost out didn’t they!
I’ve been wanting to make homemade 5 cheese lasagna for about a week. Extra cottage cheese in it too.
How do you make your white sauce?

@Judi Both my mom (from Chicago) and my mother-in-law (from SC) make potato salad on Thanksgiving. This is the first I’ve heard if it being odd.

Cranberries shaped like a can

I had an aunt who would perennially bring a ground beef/pinto bean mixture to the Thanksgiving feast. It was delicious . . . just “odd” sitting among the usual suspects.

My family traditionally had potato salad at our TG gathering, but I’ve eliminated it from my menu.

Others would no doubt find our family tradition of clam dip weird.

I first thought stuffing (or dressing) was an odd duck. But it tastes delicious.

Vegetarian lasagna made with spinach and fried egg plant. In my college days I had some friends that invited a few people over to their home for Thanksgiving. They were vegetarians and the main course was the lasagna.

My Aunt always makes empanadas as an appetizer before dinner. They’re fantastic! She’s from Ecuador.

A whole oven-cooked turkey stuck all over with slivers of garlic! This may be a common thing to others, but for me it was very odd and I thought iruined the taste of the turkey.

@SadieMartinPaul , Well, it wasn’t exactly by choice that he was only my “first” husband. He passed away when we were in out twenties.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I’ve heard of garlic cloves stuck into roast beef, but never into turkey. That does seem odd.

We had a family tradition of Carrot Cashew Salad. You grind raw carrots and canned cashews fine in a food mill. Moisten with mayonnaise. Chill and serve. Odd, not unpleasant taste, but always did and still do find it odd. People didn’t take more than a tablespoon full and it just sat there in orange/tan lump. I suppose you just had a little taste now and then.

If carrot cashew salad was missing, there was hell to pay!

@ibstubro It does sound odd, but it also sounds like something I would enjoy.

My Grandma used to make this salad that apparently no one else, except my family has heard of or likes (only because they’re afraid to taste it). I didn’t make it for years after my Grandma passed away, because the original recipe calls for a box of green Jello. I don’t eat Jello anymore, because it’s not vegetarian, but I found a few companies that make a Jello substitute from agar (seaweed) that tastes and gels just like Jello. The only difference is that they don’t make it in green, so I use the raspberry one instead. Which is totally fine, because you get a pink salad instead of a green salad, but it still looks festive.

So you take a carton of cottage cheese, add a box of the Jello or Jello substitute (it is only used for the flavoring, it does not gel up in a mold) a small can of crushed pineapple (packed in its own juice, but drained, not the kind in syrup) and about a half a cup of chopped pecans and mix well. It’s better when you make it the day before, to let the flavors develop in the fridge overnight. We’ve always referred to it as Grandma Salad. And I’m craving it right now!

^^^^ No no no no no no! I’ve seen cottage cheese in jello! No non nonnoooo no O! No!

@Judi I apologize and beg you to forgive my tactless remark. But of course I had no idea, and I was just trying to show some snarky-solidarity about the potato salad incident. I feel very foolish.

@Kardamom You’re right, I’ve never seen anything like it. Let’s keep it that way. ;-) I never developed a taste for sweet cottage cheese. Or sweet rice.

Look at the recipe, @Dutchess_III there’s no liquid to gel. I’m not too sure she couldn’t have been making it all this time with Kool-Ade. lol

@ibstubro I thought about using Kool Aid, and have tried making it with jelly and syrup and other flavorings with no luck, the Kool Aid had way too much sugar and wasn’t quite the right flavor. I think the flavoring used in the Jello (yes this recipe does not gel, it’s just for the flavoring) is rather tart, I wouldn’t describe it as sweet. Thank goodness I found the Jello substitute at a Japanese market.

The very thought of a canned peach half filled with cottage cheese literally (yes, literally) makes me shudder.

@Kardamom, the woman who cooked the garlicky turkey was a sweet, kind, wonderful lady married to one of my childhood friends, but, bless her heart, she was a TERRIBLE cook.

@SadieMartinPaul, no offense taken.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room She must be like the woman who plays the wife of Police Constable Investigator Tom Barnaby on Midsomer Murders. His wife is a dear, supportive woman who couldn’t cook a decent meal to save her life. She also doesn’t know she’s a bad cook, so hubby is always making excuses (and praising her) for meals gone wrong. It’s very funny. Great mystery series too. I thank @gailcalled for the recommendation.

We don’t have Thanks Giving as such, but one Christmas dinner I remember was SO healthy it was absolutely boring. Low fat, low sugar, low everything. What was the point!

Some people find it strange that I serve macaroni and cheese at Thanksgiving. But everyone who eats it loves it and asks for it the next year.

To me, Thanksgiving isn’t complete without my homemade mac & cheese.

@Cupcake I’ve never heard of mac and cheese at Thanksgiving, but I’d gladly, gleefully, happily eat it! Yum!

I want Mac and Cheese and oysters.

I’m making Mac & Cheese to take to my work for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I usually make mashed potatoes, but someone else was bringing those, so I decided on the Mac & Cheese.

My mom made lasagna one year instead of a turkey for Thanksgiving. Our family made some comments about it, but they all loved the lasagna.

I’ve never been to a Thanksgiving without macaroni and cheese. We make macaroni pie, which is a baked macaroni and cheese dish. Sooo good.

Potato salad and macaroni and cheese are odd dishes on Thanksgiving? Crazy.

@livelaughlove21 Not odd food, per se, but I’ve never had either of those 2 items for Thanksgiving. They seem more like 4th of July food to me. I love both of them, though.

It’s what prompted my question about the 4th of July!

@Dutchess_III Ha Ha! Well, now it makes sense. I was wondering why you were asking about the 4th of July at this time of year. I figured you were just planning ahead for next summer.

@Kardamom What all do you make?

Well since I’m the vegetarian in the family, I make most of the Thanksgiving side dishes. So we have mashed potatoes (My Mom makes the regular gravy, and I make mushroom gravy) and homemade cranberry sauce, homemade apple sauce, roasted sweet potatoes (minus the marshmallows, which are not vegetarian) and yeast rolls. My Mom makes turkey, and if we’re having a big group of relatives, she might make a roast beef or a ham too. Then we mix it up each year with the vegetables. We sometimes make the green bean casserole, only a much Fresher Version or we might do Green Beans Almondine or maybe Brussels Sprouts Gratin (minus the pancetta) or Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic. Then we ususally do both a pumpkin and a Chocolate Pecan Pie

Unfortunately, none of this will be made this year. I’m going to be house sitting for a friend tomorrow and we just had a flood in our house last night, so parts of our walls are missing and we’ve got industrial fans blowing. We decided to go out for an early Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow. It’s the first time we’ve ever eaten at a restaurant for Thanksgiving. The upside is no dishes to wash.

Next week, we’re going to have a mini, homemade Thanksgiving meal at our house.

@Kardamom You’d probably be surprised by the size of our Thanksgiving meal. That just doesn’t seem like a lot of food to me. Not to mention the only thing I’d eat is the turkey, mashed potatoes (sans gravy), and a roll.

We make deep fried turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato soufflé, macaroni pie, potato salad, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, rolls, cookies, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. I’m pretty sure I missed a couple of things. To us, Thanksgiving isn’t complete without way too much fattening, delicious foods. That’s the south for ya.

I have something you guys might find odd. My mom always makes banana pudding on Thanksgiving and my sister makes taco dip. Weird?

@Kardamom Marshmallow fluff is okay though, isn’t it? Maybe a bit of that?

Yes. Marshmallow fluff (like they use in fudge) is OK, because it does not contain gelatin. : )

Just a BOAT load of sugar. Fact, 100% sugar!

Yes, @Dutchess_III but no rendered animal hides!

A dead bird with no head and crap coming out of it’s ass

Thanks, @anniereborn. I already ate, so the imagery doesn’t bother me?

@ibstubro I’m glad. But it’s true really.
I didn’t have a headless dead bird or crap today btw.