My Family Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of all time!  Something about the fall smell in the air mixed with the smell of turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, etc. gets me so excited and in the family spirit.  I usually have Thanksgiving with my mom, dad, and sister and that is how I like it.  We make a whole smorgasbord of food and then relax with our desserts and drinks.

This year our Thanksgiving menu consisted of shrimp cocktail and stuffed mushrooms for appetizers and then our meal of Turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, rolls, broccoli puff, feta cheese, olives, cranberry mold, stuffed celery, and gravy.  I know it sounds crazy that we didn't have stuffing, but with all of the other wonderful food stuffing is not at the top of our list anymore. 

photo taken by Ariele Pappalimberis

When having a Thanksgiving meal you must all of the dishes being offered present on your plate, and that's exactly what I did.  I usually don't like my food touching each other, but in this case having all of the different foods come together is a must.  Now let's talk about the food!

photo taken by Ariele Pappalimberis

The Turkey, which is the most important part of a Thanksgiving feast, was one of the best that we have ever had!  It was so moist and the seasoning of spices and herbs that my mom puts onto the skin of the bird were unbelievable.  The way my dad carves the Turkey is perfect, making it possible for all of us to get tons of skin.  I personally only like the white meat of the Turkey, but sometimes I will dig into a leg or wing. 

The mashed potatoes that my mom makes are garlic mashed potatoes and they certainly compliment all of the other dishes present in this outrageous meal.  When waiting for the mashed potatoes to be mashed my mom beings to start cooking down the squash.  She does this by cutting up the squash into cubes and places them in a huge pan to boil and cook.  When they are softened she then mashes the squash and then goes into the pot with the potatoes and beings to smash those as well.  In any meal you are making timing is essential, but for Thanksgiving time is everything!  

photo taken by Ariele Pappalimberis

Now onto the broccoli puff.  This is a dish that I have mentioned before, and it consists of broccoli, cheese, and mushrooms all put into a casserole style.  When baking this dish make sure that before you take it out there is a golden brown layer right on the top of all of the ingredients.  If there is the dish is done, if not keep in the oven until there is. 

The dinner rolls that my mom uses are simply regular dinner rolls.  We usually get pumpernickel rolls, but this year we got white.  Make sure to put the rolls into the toaster or oven before you eat them.  Having that extra crisp on them makes a world difference.  The cranberry mold that my mom makes is comparable to a gelatin, but much better.  She puts apples into the mold and it adds a whole other level of texture.  The cranberry mold is a great dish to have at the end, for it cleanses your pallet and leaves you with a refreshing taste in your mouth. 
The celery pieces are stuffed with chive cream cheese.  This is a dish that we have been doing since I was a kid.  These along with the mold are a great end of the meal munchies. 

Feta and olives are a huge part of my life, being Greek and all, and they are always present at the dinner table.  This year instead of having the feta and olives as an appetizer we had them with our meal.  The feta is a great dinner roll stuffer and the olive is just a great side compliment.  As I mentioned above we do have gravy, but I do not eat the gravy.  I like my Turkey plain so that I can mix it with all of the other foods. 

Thanksgiving is one of the times out of the year where you can eat as much as you want and not feel bad about it.  It is also one of the times out of the year where your leftovers do not go to waste and you are sometimes more excited for that leftover open face sandwich you know you are going to get, rather than Thanksgiving day itself!