Time to Give Thanks and Let the Holidays Commence

Thanksgiving is upon us soon, Christmas decorations fill the aisles already, and there’s no slowing down from here on out for the rest of 2024. Luckily that brings a lot of great food options at home and out to shake up a bit of the traditional favorites.

Thanksgiving growing up was always hosted at my house, with a table set for at least 15 people, many times more. It always started with a can of Grands cinnamon rolls while watching the parade, staying out of the way of my parents trying to perfectly time when to rush to the turkey into the oven.

From that point on, family was walking through the door till the moment we sat down for dinner between 2 and 3 p.m.. Which was very early, but we never second guessed it. Probably because we were basically eating till 6 or 7 with four courses through dessert.

Yup, you read that right. Four courses. So how does a family stretch Thanksgiving to four course? A bit like this:

1. Ravioli with sauce, meatballs and sausage – every holiday with my mom’s Italian side started with sauce and a particular frozen ravioli. Tradition right from the jump – one that was argued over when they dared to leave it out one time. (That didn’t last long. Four courses it stayed.)

2. Salad with the fixings – lettuce dressed with a simple dressing, then we passed around any add-ins that were perfectly laid out on the lazy Susan: green and black olives, provolone cheese, pepperoni, artichokes, and I know I’m missing a few. (I was too busy putting the black olives on my fingers to care for it all).

3. Traditional Thanksgiving dinner – of course we had the usual Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, green beans, and various other sides each year. Many years where I was too full to eat much. That said, the star of this course was never the turkey… Yup. It was, and still is, the stuffing. This family recipe is worth the wait all year round. (And it’s caused many fights for the leftovers.)

4. Dessert – If you can believe it, I never loved dessert growing up. If there were ice cream and brownies, I was happy. I was either passed out on the couch by now or too full to care much. Safe to say, I have since flipped.

That is quite a lot to picture, and I’m sure everyone has their own variation of what Thanksgiving looks like in their house. Lately, the holiday has looked much smaller with my family, so we may be swapping out some of the “staples” for some things a bit more adventurous. Running out the day of Thanksgiving has always been a tradition as well, most recently to grab some Turkey legs to cook instead of a spoiled turkey. It always works out in the end.

What’s Cookin’

On the note of Thanksgiving ideas to break traditions, I’ve been fully captured by the 45+ minute YouTube videos from all the cooking channels sharing how they’re doing Thanksgiving this year. If I stay on social media long enough, it appears there are 100+ “perfect rolls” for this year. Not here to get sidetracked…

Here are two of my favorites so far that show everything they’re prepping for this year’s holiday meal, mixing in how to get ahead of the must-have staples along with new twists on the classics (spoiler: even swapping out Turkey for… chicken):

Alison Roman’s two-parter

“Here is this year’s version of Thanksgiving. What I wanted, what I craved, what I had the bandwidth for.” – pulled right from her newsletter. By now, her Thanksgiving videos are a tradition in themselves after a few years bringing us into her different homes to show a new look at the classics each year. That quote perfectly sums up what this meal should be all about. Do it your way for the classics and what you’re capable of, both more and less as needed. Every year is a new challenge. Lucky enough for us, there’s so much great content, there were two parts. Check out both part one and part two.

Sohla El-Waylly’s Chicken Switch-up (and more of course)

Sohla always has tricks up her sleeves, and this change to going for fried chicken with some major Thanksgiving-ish seasonings is an awesome way to switch things up for Thanksgiving OR Friendsgiving, as they suggest. Also a really cool twist on the rolls with some major layers baked in muffin tins. Plus, a Pumpkin Pecan Sheet Cake to change up the pumpkin dessert classic. This video is a fun watch overall, and all recipes can be found on NYT Cooking, as mentioned before a go-to.

I apologize for no pictures to fill the inboxes this week. Maybe social media is worth going on? I actually ran a poll last week when sharing about the Swedish cinnamon buns, asking people to vote on next flavors I should try because I love the technique. Some hot takes came with these votes. Cream Cheese Chai was the winner so that’s on the short list of next bakes. For Friendsgiving, I actually made the second-place idea, Lemon Blueberry. This one had lots of notes of the process needs to keep the blueberries in. But the judges (friends at Friendsgiving) were very pleased with the outcome.

Enjoy the calm before the storm next week ✌️