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In reply to the discussion: Those who cook will understand. [View all]yellowdogintexas
(22,250 posts)The first time I had Thanksgiving with my husband's family, his mom's dressing was real close to my mom's. Mom put chicken broth, onions, celery, and an egg into a combination of crumbled cornbread and stale biscuits. No sage because she hated it. She scooped it up with a big cooking spoon into individual patties and baked it in an iron skillet. Those patties were really fairly good sized mounds- maybe 3/4 cup each. I loved the crispy edges and bottom. I have never seen anyone else (except my sisters) make it like that.
We never stuffed the turkey.
When we had a large family event with my dad's bunch, we always had: turkey, country ham, potatoes, mac/cheese, creamed peas and pearl onions, giblet gravy, homemade dinner rolls, scalloped oysters, asparagus casserole, pecan pie, my mom's frozen fruit salad (held together with whipped cream) German chocolate cake, my grandmother's brazil nut cake and coconut cake. We also had boiled custard with a bit of "flavoring" Kentucky straight bourbon) in the punch cup, and ambrosia made with fresh fruit. (tangerines, grapefruit, bananas, pineapple ) & coconut. I don't bother with ambrosia, but when I make coconut cake I mix crushed drained pineapple and extra coconut into the frosting that I use between the layers.
With 17 family members and when we cousins got older and brought our boyfriends & girlfriends we pretty much did away with a lot of it!