The short version of how I celebrate Thanksgiving goes something like this: In 1946, my grandparents began celebrating Thanksgiving at my grandfather’s older sister’s house. This is a tradition that our family continued for 60 years that grew from, Thanksgiving for six people — my great aunt, her husband, and their daughter, my grandparents and my great-grandmother — to Thanksgiving for 40 people — my great-aunt, her husband, their three daughters and their husbands, their nine grandchildren, their spouses and children, my grandparents, my mother and father, my brother and I, my Uncle, and various in-laws, friends and stragglers. This was how I celebrating Thanksgiving for the first 25 years of my life at a huge pot-luck with multiple table and many, many, many dishes.
Then, in 2006, exactly 60 years after it started, it stopped. It just became too much. My great-aunt’s daughters who had taken on the mantel of hosting, began downsizing, my grandmother, who’d also cycled through as the host wasn’t able to anymore, and just like that, the tradition ended and we splintered into smaller, satellite family Thanksgivings. For the record, we all miss that huge one but it’s a huge undertaking.
For the last 13 years, Thanksgiving has been a much smaller affair. Just my immediate family, sometimes, we have a few friends and stragglers, rarely are we more than 10 or 12. But because of the legacy of the huge pot-luck, we don’t have a strict menu and all of those you-gotta-make dishes that so many people have because at the huge Thanksgiving everyone brought something and there were multiples and variations and one-offs and “I tried something new” and “I’ll bring that this year” and it was always a wonderful and endless smorgasbord of turkey, sweet potato and yam dishes, salads and green beans, carrot molds and cranberry sauces, and pies cranberry breads and cakes because we have November family birthdays, and all sort of other things that would randomly appear like Swedish meatballs and cheesecake, likely out of the concern that there wasn’t going to be enough food, but there always was.
Anyway, the result of all of this is that, again, that there isn’t a deep attachment to specific recipes or preparations in my family and we change the menu up from year to year, the benefit of which is: I’ve tried out a lot Thanksgiving recipes over the last 13 years, here are some of my favorites.
What I’m making this year:
Fennel and Pear Salad with Parmesan and Maracona Almonds — A version of this
Julia Moskin’s Garlic and Ginger Green Beans — I don’t think it’s necessary to blanche them and this also prevents them from getting overcooked and soft, if you want to saute them and then warm them up in the oven
Mark Bittman’s Baked Broccoli Rabe with Parmesan — Similarly, I see no need to boil the broccoli rabe for 3 minutes before sauteing, I bake it for a bit longer, like 20 minutes instead
Deb Perlman’s Slow Roasted Sweet Potatoes — We do these on the grill, using the grill on Thanksgiving really helps free up the oven
Peruvian Purple Mash — I don’t have a recipe for mashed potatoes, I completely eyeball it but I’m going to try to keep track this year
Jeff Gordimer’s Glazed Grilled Carrots — Another thing we do on the grill
Melissa Clark’s Turkey with Anchovies and Garlic
Deb’s Pumpkin Pie
Something apple, last year, Erin McDowell’s ombre one, this year it may be Claudia Flemming’s Apple Crumb Crostata
And then, frequently, brownies, chocolate pound cake, or David Leite’s Chocolate Chip Cookies — There is usually a request for “real dessert”
Fruit Salad
Ice cream and whipped cream
Recipes that have cycled through and That We all liked that I’m not makIng this year, But that i recommend:
Alton Brown’s Cranberry Sauce
Julia Moskin’s Hashed Brussels Sprouts
Melissa Clark’s Brown Butter Corn Bread
Gjelina’s Roasted Yams
Kim Severson’s Roasted Potatoes with Thyme and Figs
Martha’s Butternut and Yukon Gold Mash
Butternut Squash Soup
Butternut Squash Risotto from the Union Square Cookbook
Four and Twenty Blackbird’s Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie
Joy Wilson’s Sweet Potato Pie
Martha’s Chocolat Kugelhopf