Thinking Ahead for the Holidays...

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LOL, Paula JoAnne wins the prize for most unusual holiday food! Well... probably... never know what some of us might decide to eat...

I would totally love to try bear and moose hams. Not really available in south Texas, though.

I get to make a Thanksgiving feast this year, which is very unusual. My husband's mama's one demand of me was that we always be at the big family Thanksgiving. It's the only time she "makes" everyone get together, which is good, because in the last 8 years her kids have rather scattered to the ends of the earth. It was "just" an 8-hour drive to her place for Turkey Day back then. Now it takes two DAYS. :

Two years ago, when I first knew about my allergies, I went and they didn't care about my allergies, and shortly thereafter I lost a baby.
Last year I miscarried on the second day of our drive out there.
This year I AIN'T GOIN'.
But hubby is. And maybe our dd. I'll be here, hugely pregnant, with my mom, ds, and possibly a couple of my mom's friends. I'll have to reign myself in and plan a SMALL feast. That is so hard! I'm not a big fan of turkey, and the properly-raised ones cost about $100. Um... no. But I really like being traditional... and Thanksgiving is all about turkey. So I don't know what I'll do.

I do know I'll be drowning everything in butter. :

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It's really not. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for the bounty of the earth, which you can do with ANY seasonal food.

My BFF and I were on the phone this morning discussing the menu plan for Thanksgiving (at her house this year). She wants to go more "traditional" and I'm trying to interject some new tradition - because green bean casserole with Campbells cream of mushroom and canned fried onions or canned sweet potatoes with marshmallows are both just

So we got about half the menu worked out before we got off the phone. My general rule of thumb is to think about the fresh foods available at that time of year, and start finding new and creative ways to utilize them. Rather than pumpkin pie, we'll be having pumpkin bread pudding. Rather than traditional "cranberry sauce" we'll be having cranberry salsa. Rather than the aforementioned sweet potato thing, we'll be having mashed potato and yams with garlic and parmesan.

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Very inspriational Cristeen!

We're having dinner at my mom's which we usually do, so I'm not 'in charge' of the meal, but I want to contribute since I love to cook so much. I was thinking I could bring the breads, since no one else would soak grains, and maybe a couple of desserts made without white sugar.

I'm definitely going to start thinking about some seasonal dishes that are out of our usual menu also. I"m with you on the canned yams and green bean casserole... ick!