So, Thursday is Thanksgiving, and for the 1st time, I will be cooking for the holiday as a result of staying in town and not flying home. I am grilling turkey breasts (because it's not blizzard like conditions yet) and I'm doing sweet potatoes and a corn dish that is a newer family tradition of mine.
Since Thanksgiving is a family holiday, many folks cook traditional fare related to their heritage of sorts. For example, I grew up with traditional southern black foods like Chit'lins (Chitterlings for you non-coloreds) and Collard greens as part of dinner. Lots of folks find that really weird (I do too. There's no real reason to choose to eat pig intestines, it made sense 200 years during slavery).
Upon looking up ideas for side dishes online, I noticed a lot of cranberry everything. I just find it funny no one gives a shit about cranberries outside of juice with vodka until this weekend, and then everyone and they mama wants to buy that damn can of cranberry sauce or make a cranberry chutney topping something. Then there's the, as I call them, "one-off" Vegetables. Shit like parsnips and brussel sprouts and cauliflower. Basically vegetables that you hear kids feeding to their dogs off the plate. Growing up, None of my friends ate any of this stuff for Thanksgiving. Mashed potatoes is a regular every day staple in most homes. (I grew up with baked potatoes) Macaroni and Cheese is a big thing in my family, Sweet Potatoes are a yearly staple as well. Most of my (white) friends say they don't care for sweet potato pies or whipped sweet potatoes. And I realised, once I looked up other recipes, that some jackass back in the day thought adding marshmallows to them would be a great idea. Wrong. All you need is butter, sugar, nutmeg and some vanilla extract. That's it. No cinnamon, No whipped cream and No Fuckin Marshmallows!
And what is the obsession with Stuffing and Casserole? Nothing sounds worse than dry ass cornbread mixed with veggies shoved in a turkey's hole. And it's not much better shoved in a baking pan either. Green beans were ment to be either boiled or fried and salted, not thrown in an oven with cheese and canned onion peels (don't even get me started with those flavorless pieces of nothing)
Whatever you and your family chow down on this Thanksgiving, I wish you all a safe, fun, and tastey holiday weekend. Watch some football and for fuck's sake, No Marshmallows!
I don't fit into any box culturally, however I am a white chick who makes some of the best fried chicken, greens, cornbread, etc you have ever had. I asked my family what they wanted for thanksgiving knowing I would commit to making all of it - turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken, greens, cornbread, green beans, stuffing, spaghetti & meatballs, sweet potato pie (who uses marshmallows - NASTY) pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce (from the can), bacon wrapped shrimp, and some drunken apples. Now - I can cook/bake my ass off. And some of this stuff is very easy, but for the love of god, green bean casserole or tater tot hotdish or whatever that crap is you are talking about above with the cream of mushroom - that just sounds disgusting. Period. Our house is blended culturally and ethnically, but good food is good food. Why do people have to go mess up some good shit?
ReplyDeleteamen. I know there are exceptions to every rule, but very few in this instance
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