what do you consider a complete thanksgiving dinner?

Question

Or what dish do you look foreword to eating on thanksgiving?

Answer 1

OH!
I'm sooo glad you asked that. We have done Thanksgiving at my house for three years now with everyone flying in and I LOVE it!
Everybody expects turkey, and we're southern, so I make cornbread dressing. I do a ham too, for those who are above the mason dixon line and have married into us...but with those good old Mississippi sweet potatoes, butter and brown sugar w/ cinnamon on top around it.
You gotta do the veggies... peas, fried okra, lima beans, green beans,creamed corn, etc... and desserts you can't find room for are always on my table!
What a fun question! Now I'm hungry and looking forward to November.
Wish you could be here. ;)

Answer 2

My wife has continued a routine that our family has had for years on Thanksgiving. It's pretty "traditional".

The Monday before Thanksgiving I send out a letter to my friends from over the years. This has actually become an email and I simply thank them for being there for me all those years. We give an offering to a local Homeless Shelter and have that given in honor of someone different each year.

Our family starts this meal by saying a prayer where anyone has the chance to offer their own particular "thanks".

We have a turkey, mashed potatos, giblet gravy, rolls, sage dressing, cranberry sauce, waldorf salad, green bean casserole, sweet potatos with marshmellows. For dessert we have pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

We then are so stuffed that everyone sleeps all afternoon and in the evening we go to downtown Chicago and take pictures with our digital camera of all the storefronts that have been decorated for Christmas. My wife then creates pictures from these for our whole house for the Christmas season.

It is very cool.

The next day we shop till the last afternoon and then come home and watch Indiana basketball (we're all originally from Indiana)>

All weekend we eat leftovers from the Thanksgiving meal -- and try to take long walks several times to work it all off.

Great question.

Thanks fro allowing me to give you what we do -- and to relive it even during August.

Answer 3

We have the same spread every year.
Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli
My grandmothers stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Green Bean Casserole
Croissant rolls
Corn
Three Pumpkin Pies
Two Pumpkin Chiffon Pies
Apple Pie
Cherry Pie
But the best thing is having all of my family back home and being able to visit and share what everyone has been up to, and hit the sales the day after Thanksgiving!

Answer 4

In the end, the food doesn't really matter. It's the time spent with family and friends. Don't get me wrong, I love all the traditional trappings, but it's also fun to create new traditions of more personal nature.

My favorite 'traditional' food would be dressing and gravy, but it's still a complete thanksgiving dinner if we grill chicken & ribs, or even have a clam bake or seafood feast with boiled lobster, shrimp, and scallops.

Of further note, though I'm not overly fond of sweets, for traditional meal, I really do enjoy the pumpkin pie. And I'd about kill for a home-made mincemeat pie. I haven't had one of those since I was a wee lass.

Answer 5

Turkey
Dressing
Mash Potatoes and Gravy
Sweet Potatoes
Green Beans
Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

Answer 6

Turkey with Cornbread dressing
Cranberry sauce
Ham with pineapples and cloves
Potato Salad
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Fried Sweet potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Broccoli casserole
Green beans
Green bean casserole
Corn
Corn salad
Green pea salad
Deviled eggs
Rolls
Fruit salad
Pecan pie
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
German chocolate cake
Pineapple upside-down cake
Banana pudding

All homemade--I have a large family so everybody brings something that is a favorite of someones! Usually more than one of everything! With the meal and family, it's perfect. I hope this helps.

Answer 7

I like the stuffing/dressing. I like it when it soaks up the juices on the inside of the bird. Thanksgiving is about food, but it is also about getting together with family that you don't see that often. Don't forget the family. You could probably have cold Vienna sausages and still enjoy Thanksgiving. You could have steak and lobster to eat that day but If you are not sharing it with someone it really is just food instead of Thanksgiving.

Answer 8

Ours usually consists of Turkey 20 lbs or more, duck, dressing, mashed potatoes,cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, olives (my fave), veggie tray, asparagus, biscuits, acorn squash, ham, ham gravy, green been casserole, corn, cherry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and orange jello with baby tangerines in it and whip cream.
The meal starts with a prayer thanking god for our blessings, the food on our table and the health and happiness of everyone in attendance.
It's not complete without family and friends
And the watching of the Thanksgiving day parade and the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game.

Answer 9

Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and corn or wax beans, or whatever sort of vegetable people eat. That would be my favorite Thanksgiving meal, and it would also be complete.

P.S: You can drink anything you want during the Thanksgiving meal, but if you drink beer at my table, I'll throw you out before you get drunk and do something stupid.

Answer 10

Turkey, ham, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, green beans, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, whipped cream, hot rolls, relish tray, deviled eggs. Sorry I come from a big family, and we think Thanksgiving should be a all day feast.