There will be no green bean casserole on any of our tables ever! No one likes it. We may have home canned green beans though fixed with onion and bacon. There will be cranberries, not all like them but several do. Always have candied sweet potatoes, most like those too. No marshmallows on top, but would eat them anyway if they did have. We like sweet potato casserole but do not make it to have for our family meals. I make it to take to our church dinners, less likely to spill getting there than the candied sweet potatoes. Never have yams! We shall have ham and turkey and maybe chicken and noodles too. Everyone pitches in and who knows what goodies will grace our table. Always have mashed potatoes and gravy and dressing. Just salt and butter and milk in our potatoes. Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sue

Canned green beans. One grandkid only likes plain green beans. Open can, heat. No seasoning. He was eating some fresh one time and liked them until the oldest one had to say "Oh these fresh green beans are good!" He did branch out and eat French cut one time when I picked up the wrong can.

I have to second the jellied cranberry sauce. Its not my favorite, but its not Thanksgiving for my husband without it. So the standards prevail on our table all around. But -- alternatives are allowed as additions, so one year we had a nice chunky tequila and jalapeno spiked cranberry sauce.

Canned jellied cranberry sauce is a must have. For me. No one else eats it. I've made homemade cranberry dishes but gave up on them because I like the plain stuff out of the can the best.

I have also made the green bean casserole thing when requested. Don't like it. Usually serve broccoli, asparagus sometimes or fresh or frozen sautéed green beans.

No brussels sprouts. I have eaten delicious brussels sprouts only one time. Have tried them a few times since but they have been mediocre, at best. Awful at worst. Pretty much done with ever buying them again.

I prefer plain roasted sweet potatoes w/ butter but DH likes them candied w/ the marshmallows so I make some of each.

Everyone else loves mashed potatoes so I make them but don't eat them. MIL always made chicken and noodles with holiday dinners but I never have. There's always too much food anyway. Family loves, loves chicken and noodles so when I make them, it's like An Event.

I don't know if I ever made that green bean casserole, but I have eaten it. Used to love the canned cranberry sauce, but my taste buds now want something different.

For years we contributed to a Thanksgiving feast with friends. Everything I made went over well, so they've become our new standards. ... Cranberry Jezebel, Chipotle Sweet Potato gratin, and Spinach Madeleine. No mashed potatoes, no gravy. Don't even do dressing anymore. I love the freedom!

Annie, Ina Garten's Cauliflower Gratin popped up in my FB newsfeed today by way of SmittenKitchen. Plan on trying it one of these days.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/cauliflower-gratin/

I cannot eat the gloppy green bean casserole. Never had it growing up. Was talking with my 84-year-old mother this afternoon. She's hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her house for almost 20 adults and children. She's making the bread dressing and mashed potatoes but is "forbidden" from making the green bean casserole again since she tried to modernize it a few years ago. Sadly we live far away from each other, so I'm never home for Thanksgiving.

This year it will be just the 2 of us. I'm having some serious health problems and DH has been the cook for 3-4 months. He's never roasted a turkey in his life. The two of us don't need a turkey, or the leftovers. So we've decided on duck legs with a red wine/dried fruit reduction, Boursin garlic mashed potatoes.

Still scratching our heads about the green veg. I love Brussels sprouts, him not so much so we'll keep our thinking caps on. But there will be no green bean casserole!!

Seagrass, these are both favorites in our house.

I sub balsamic vinegar in this one. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brussels-sprout-hash-with-caramelized-shallots-240411

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/warm-orange-ginger-brussels-sprout-slaw/7382/

I buy the Ocean Spay canned cranberry SAUCE, not the jelly. Several days ahead of time, I open the card and pour it into a bowl, breaking it up so it is "sauce-like". Then, I add freshly grated orange zest and some fresh squeezed orange juice. Cover it and put it in the refrigerator to "age" for several days so all the flavors come together. It's absolutely delicious!

Thank you, CindyMac. Those both sound delicious. He might be up for the challenge!

Since he's been retired, and especially since I've been ill, he has become very interested in cooking. But doesn't know the difference between a bean sprout and a pea shoot. I give him a grocery list but never know what he'll come home with but he's a good man and he loves me so for that I am constantly grateful.

Plllog, if I was to sneak crushed red pepper into the sprouts, half the family would be up in arms :-) "Spicy" is not in MIL's repertoire (grew up in the UK during WW2) so not only she doesn't care for it but two of her four children don't either. (The other two have been subverted by their partners :-) ).

Seagrass, I'm so very sorry to hear that you have been ill, I hope you get better soon, very soon. I'll be thinking good healing thoughts and sending them your way. Thank goodness for your husband, you won't starve at least.

I do love duck, though, and I also like brussels sprouts, although I don't care for them roasted, they seem to get too dark before they get done, even if I cut them up.

Thanks, Cindy, for all those recipes. The slaw made of sprouts sounds especially good, although brussels sprouts seems to be one of those things I just haven't been able to grow successfully.

Colleen, "subverted by their partners". (grin) Elery is trying but I just don't like very spicy food. I like a little spice, but I don't want the enamel on my teeth to bubble. Elery laughs at me because eating a bowl of chili will make me sweat! So, no crushed red pepper in the sprouts here either, although those Chipotle Sweet Potatoes that Cindy makes is something I love (with a bit of the chipotle cut back, of course, because I'm a wuss).

Annie

At the risk of sounding ignorant, how do you eat the cranberry sauce (canned or otherwise)? By itself with a spoon, similar to jello? Spread on bread or rolls like apple butter? Or some other way?

Well I smear it on the turkey with some gravy as well :-)

Next day, turkey, cream cheese, cranberry sauce and lettuce sandwiches, oh yeah!

Tishtosh, thanks for the recommend on the Ina Garten shallots. I have the fried foods holiday coming up, and was going to make latkes ahead. One always puts some onion in the oil, but I could make fried shallots and then use the oil. I wonder if they'd keep best in a vacuum sealed jar or in the freezer? I'm willing to try and throw them in a soup if they wilt and can't be saved by toasting.

Yes, cranberry sauce is a condiment for turkey and dressing. It's very good. Even the jelly kind. But not my mother's cranberry orange relish. It's delicious but I don't think the orange is nice on turkey at all! Cranberries are very sharp, so they cut through the fat and starch overload. People also eat it straight, and it's good that way, too, and is a good palate cleanser between bites of rich, sweet foods. :)

Regular cranberry sauce is mostly cranberries, cooked tender and breaking up, with the liquid. The cranberry jelly is the one that looks more like jello, and is just cranberries and sugar cooked down to nothing in water and strained, just like any jelly. It has a different texture, though. Not crystalline and translucent as grape jelly, for instance. The kind that is pushed out of the can to preserve the shape and ridges (which you can make at home if you have an empty can, but they'll probably figure it out if you skimp the sugar) is sliced to serve. Or just hacked. Think stick of butter on the table. :) Could go either way.

I love the Bobbie sandwich at Capriotta's that has turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo on a hoagie type roll. I don't indulge very often, but it is a favorite.

I do make the green bean casserole, but leave off the greasy onion rings. My recipe also uses frozen green beans instead of canned and I sauté diced onion and include in the casserole. For one or two holidays a year I can live with not everything being healthy. And I also love cranberries in about any form. My family will eat them quicker in a salad, so that is usually what we have.

I actually use the same recipe for cranberry sauce ( I call it whole berry) and jelly. I just strain the jelly. Same amount of berries, same amount of water and same amount of sugar....cook until all the berries pop...poof! Done! Rub through a sieve or a food mill if you want jelly. If you want to be sure it molds without "slumping" cook it about 15 minutes after the berries all pop.

Anglophilia, by the time you doctor canned cranberry sauce, you can make fresh. It is really as simple as putting the cranberries in a little water and sugar and boiling a few minutes. As Linda ointed out, just cook it a little longer if you want it really firm to mold, but once it starts to thicken, it's just a matter of preference. I usually make it the day before so it is out of the way.

For me, it used to be opening the can of cranberry jelly for my dad and the green beans for my brother (I didn't make then - he brought them and did his version with sour cream and grated cheese added). The day before my mom passed I didn't cook anything -- DH tired to help stay with the turkey dinner but forgot to put salt in the brine -- the turkey was undercooked, tasteless and just weird. The two years since, the didn't kill me was a reservation -- then we relax with a simple turkey dinner and football or movies over the weekend.

I tried making fresh cranberry orange relish one year. I was almost voted out of the family! Ocean Spray (and not the store brand) jellied (not whole berry) cranberry sauce is a must for us.

Diane, you are my dad's kind of gal. LOL That was his cranberry, so it was all I knew growing up -- and I didn't eat it. My mom and I made the fresh cranberry orange relish a couple of times, but we'd still have the can plus a homemade sauce too. Add one with port, wine or peppers and you can easily get to 3 or 4 on the table. I like all of them -- except the can.

I will be honest and tell you that I've only had it a handful of times when there wasn't any homemade -- the most recent was several years ago, left over from my dad's and we were out of the homemade. It tasted metallic -- like licking the bare can. I don't remember that from before, It may have been an old can or something wrong with it, but that was it for me. I can't go back.

So....your family hated the cranberry orange relish you made. Try making just cranberry jelly...or jam.
It's stupid easy, can be made months ahead and sooo much better than the canned stuff.
I make a couple of extra batches, put it into sterile jars and seal with parafin. I like it with roast fowl of any sort and also roast pork. And it never molds....too much acid and sugar to spoil.

My dad didn't like the cranberry orange relish. My mom and I did, but I still liked having the plain homemade too. I have thought about canning the plain cranberry sauce, but never found directions to and you can freeze extra cranberries and make it fresh anytime. My mom tried sealing strawberry jam with paraffin and most of it spoiled, so I do the boiling water bath. Either way -- it is, as you say, stupid easy and so much better.

I like the canned jellied cranberry sauce but usually don't serve it, those that like cranberries like the other recipe made on the bag or a couple other recipes. My Mother in Law used to serve Dream Whip on top of a slice of the canned jellied cranberry sauce.

Sue

I tried making raw cranberry-orange relish once - not so great = P

I love my homemade cranberry-orange sauce better than any other style. It's just fresh whole berries, 1 sweet orange, seeded & chopped fine, sugar & a little water, simmered until thick & mashed up a bit w/ a potato masher. I don't care if anyone else likes it or eats it - in fact I prefer it that way - more for me! I could (& do) eat it w/ a spoon by itself & maybe have a little turkey w/it too = )

I remember making brussels sprouts w/ roasted chestnuts 1 year for a holiday meal, but I'm not sure if was Thanksgiving. They're also very good halved & sauteed w/ browned butter & a little lemon zest...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/roasted-chestnuts-and-brussels-sprouts-recipe.html

There is almost no food that I do not like so it doesn't "kill" me to make anything. That includes all kind of green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes! Now that I am on a strict weight loss diet I would eat the bark off of trees and it would probably taste good!

Strawberry jam and cranberries are VERY different. Cranberries are vry acedic and really won't mold. The secret to jams sealed with paraffin is sterile! Boil the jars for 20 minutes, have all utensils also sterile, pour the hot preserves into the hot sterile jars and immediately seal with melted wax. You also need to be very careful that jam is not spilled on the inside of the jars preventing a good seal.
Here's another cranberry relish. Doesn't take the place of Jezebel or jelly but it's Go-od!

Mix together and serve with chips

Cranberry salsa BJ Irwin

1 12 oz package cranberries

chopped fine

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple with juice

1/3 cup cilantro…chopped

1 seeded jalapeno pepper and chopped fine

¼ c. onion chopped

¼ cup green pepper chopped

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar ( or less)

If you are going to make cranberry relish, make the one we always have had.

1 cup sugar - 1 cup water - 1 bag of cranberries.

Bring to a boil and cook until the berries pop.

I like to cook for a few minutes more. The longer they cook, the more they gel.

Let cool and refrigerate.

Don't add any weird stuff like oranges or bourbon or whatever.

This keeps for months in the frig.

ETA: This is the recipe that is on the Ocean Spray bag of fresh cranberries.

My dad loves food made with "cream of something" soup more than home made. He actually prefers some preservative, sugar laden goop to home made. Sigh. He's made it to 85 so far. He has a lot of health problems that would probably be less severe if he ate better, but he will never change. I think I will make some kind of green bean casserole for him this year, but I don't like the stringy french cut green beans so at least I will use frozen ones and some fresh sauteed mushrooms. And probably a bread crumb-Parmesan topping since he doesn't do onions. And I make the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows even though I hate that. You can barely taste them anyway, I think it is just their comforting pouffy presence he needs. I like wild rice with turkey but both DH and SO want traditional dressing, so there ya go, all the corporate concoctions are there. I make my own cranberry sauce, the orange kind which believe it or not, everyone likes.

I suppose it wouldn't kill me to make green bean casserole, but I don't eat it (vile stuff!) and my guests have never mentioned it, so I've never had to make it. The only thing I MUST HAVE for Thanksgiving is stuffing, my own recipe. I don't care what else is on the table at that point, because the stuffing makes up 90% of my meal. The other 10% is generally turkey skin and whatever green vegetable I made that year (always something fresh and vibrant, since I feel there is already a lot of creamy/rich/starchy on the table). Dessert is its own meal! I would also miss the presence of chicken liver pate and my cranberry sauce for my favorite post-Thanksgiving sandwich, but given enough stuffing leftovers I would probably survive.

lindac92 thank you, I would like the cranberry relish, but mom is 84, brother is 54, nephew is 14, and I'm not in the mood to fight that battle! I cook everything else from scratch, including the gravy.

friedajune, would you mind sharing the recipe for the CI Make Ahead Bean Casserole, please.

I see no reason to call foods that a lot of people love "crap" or other negative terms. Please let us all practice the spirit of Thanksgiving and refrain from making name calling comments. Let us all remember that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

I must have sage flavored dressing, and my son and I like the mincemeat and peaches garnish. Family loves the fresh orange and cranberry relish/sauce. We stick to the tried and true. DH always says I make too much food.

Maybe I missed something, but I haven't seen anyone calling anything "crap". This whole conversation started asking about those dishes you sere to make folks happy -- and those two seem to come up all the time. The marshmallows on sweet potatoes and the mayo/sour cream or cool whip and jello variations are another. I bet those four take well over 90%. But it's not Thanksgiving for so many folks without them, so we do them.

The funny thing is that a good turkey dinner is really not hard to make. The hard part is serving 3 different potato dishes, stuffing and dressing, 2 or 3 other vegetables, 3 or more cranberry sauces and a minimum of 3-4 desserts (pumpkin, pecan, apple and chocolate) just to cover all the essentials. Trying a new recipe would be on top of that. Then try timing them for the person who arrives an hour late with an unexpected and unprepared dish while people congregate in the aisles to chat. And then the clean up while everyone else visits and you get hot and splattered -- at least half of the crowd not even bringing their plate off the table. I spend days planning, shopping and cleaning and then clean up and everyone leaves about the time I finish. I don't get to visit with family I only see a couple of times a year. And that -- much more than a single casserole or a can of cranberry jelly, pretty well sums up why I make a reservation for Thanksgiving and cook a turkey dinner for the four of us over the weekend these last couple of years. I hit my limit.

Growing up, the green bean casserole never appeared on TDay in our family. Mom made it for other occasions, though. I liked it for the crunchy onions. I've never made it, myself.

At this point, what remains of immediate family live too far away from me, and while I love the bro, I'd seriously rather enjoy the ability to interact with him without some football games getting in the way, so I choose to visit with him at times other than thanksgiving. (Mind you, the family never had football interrupting social gatherings when we were growing up. TV was off. Neither parent cared for that sort of distraction.)

At any rate, I get together most years with one group of friends on the actual day, and another on the following Saturday. The hosts supply the turkeys, and everyone brings sides or desserts. At the one gathering, someone always has supplied a sweet potato casserole where one half has marshmallows, and the other half does not.

What I really miss is mother's stuffing/dressing - she used the turkey giblets, and enough of my friends get a bit freaked out by the notion of them in their food that the others of us just don't dare to make stuffing/dressing that way for these gatherings.

I haven't decided yet what I am making this year for either gathering.

To answer the initial question, No, i will never make anything from a can or processed foods. I've been making Thanksgiving 'traditionally' for 30 years for family and friends with whole fresh foods. But i have no issue with a guest bringing a family favorite topped with marshmallow or a bean casserole any way they like. Or tins of dinner rolls i will bake for them no issue. Pop-n-fresh. Jello salad, bring it on!...just don't expect me to purchase the ingredients and look up the recipe and make it.

My only requests over the years with a large crowd was vegetarian. No problem as 80% of the meal is veg and grains and i make for them a separate dressing with veg stock. Never minded that challenge. I made a beauty veg stock last weekend just in case i need it. Gluten-free is easy as well.

If an elder family member expects some of the dishes that became tradition in the late 50's-early 60's, with the canned food movement, i would try and please them if that is what they expect. Pleasing family for one day is no biggie. I could easily mash a couple sweet potatoes in a small casserole and top with butter and brown sugar....marshmallows...

Many of these favorites did not exist a decade earlier. Food magazines and advertising to sell canned foods and processed food created these casseroles to sell the product.

Green bean casserole is DH's favorite side, but very fortunately only on
T-day and his DD makes it for him so I don't have left overs to deal with. I don't eat that stuff - never liked it at all. Likewise
un-liked by us are sweet potatoes from a can of "yams" with marshmallows
goo on top. North Carolina's major crop for the world is sweet
potatoes. The best way for them is made into a pie with the same spices as pumpkin pie, or made into yummy oven fries, or
oven baked to soft and either served whole that way with butter and a
bit of brown sugar, and any left over pulp is pureed for knot rolls.

Commercial cranberry jelly or sauce is only used on leftover turkey sandwiches, with cold stuffing and mayo on squishy white bread.

I also make Thanksberry Jam. It's fun to gift someone and say "thanks berry much". Use it like any other jam, especially on morning toast or on peanut butter sandwiches. It's also good mixed with olive oil to make salad dressing! Here's the recipe:

Nancy's Thanksberry Jam

Cook 3# bag fresh or frozen cranberries with 6 cups peeled diced apples and 6 cups water until popped and apples soft. Put through food mill and back into pan. Add two 20-ounce cans crushed pineapple in their own juice, 1/3 cup lemon juice and 9 cups sugar. Cook to about 220F, thick and clear @15 minutes. Put in 7 sterilized pint jars (or 14 half-pint jars) and BWB for 10 minutes. Optional - add 2 cups chopped pecans with the pineapple for Thanksberry Conserve (don't add the "dust" from chopping - I use a medium hole sieve after chopping the pecans). I sometimes label that as Merry Berry Conserve to give at Merry Christmas time.

Nancy

Yummy!...I'll bet that would be good with a few jalapenos added too...or perhaps2 habaneros.

Oh, I agree, that sounds wonderful, and I just got an ad from Aldi, cranberries are on sale this week, 89 cents for a 12 ounce bag, perfect timing. I think I'd have to add pecans to half, just because it sounds like it would be perfect on a turkey sandwich, and on a chicken sandwich too.

Thanks, Nancy.

Annie

I've admitted to the occasional Whopper, and the (yearly) bag of Doritos, on this forum before. So, I don't fear repercussions - though my pants may disagree.

In any case, I tried the Green Bean Casserole, thirty years ago.

Something about the Pantone 448 C color of the beans, and the crispy maggots sitting atop, made for a forgettable dish. But then, I also hate turkey.

Our Thanksgiving feast will be the same as always, with traditional American dishes, to keep husbandman happy. And the usual Cuban trifecta (puerco asado, congrí, and tostones), to keep me happy ☺

Sol

OMG, I have to get to Aldis. Cranberries were something like 3 bucks/lb. at Meijers and I'm not buying enough of them to make stuff other than the sauce until they go on sale after Thanksgiving. Then I freeze them. But if they are .89, well that is another story. They should be dead cheap right now as they are in season.

I did call stuff "goop" and I was just being flip, I have no problem with that stuff, I'm not a food snob at all, although if I wanted to be healthy there are a lot of processed foods I would avoid over the long haul. But for one meal with family, I aim to please. In fact, I fix my dad some unhealthy processed food thing happily every weekend. One of my big hits was mac and cheese with velveeta, condensed milk, condensed cheese soup, and shredded cheddar, and a couple of eggs. Heart attack in a pan and loved by all. I get that to him that is luxury since growing up it was meager repetitive fare home made by my grandmother and the "modern" types of processed foods seem like luxuries to him. To me, the penultimate in luxury was Bubbies home made noodles! To dad, it is Campbell's! But even back then, my poor grandmother agonized over feeding my dad since he is so very picky. He was so skinny she was afraid social services was going to come after her, and she was the stereo-typical ethnic grandmother trying to always get him (and us) to eat all the time! Now I have inherited her pain on feeding her son, but I myself have the opposite problem, trying to NOT eat.

L, that's 89 cents for 12 ounces, not a pound, but it's still a darned good buy. I meant to stop and pick some up today and I forgot, so I have to still do that.

Annie

I stocked up at Aldi on the cranberries last week. I have six bags.

Sue

It's not really making the things (I love to make the desserts!), it's transporting the stuff. Often for desserts I make crème brûlée, or something else that's delicate and hard to transport.

I love green bean casserole, but I make it with fresh green beans plus a mushroom veloute sauce, and that's it. I only blanch the green beans, add the sauce and bake for no more than 15 minutes, so that the beans will still be crisp. I do hate canned green beans, as they are NOT crisp, and have a can flavor, unless they have been canned at home. My father preferred canned green beans and canned peas, but I cannot stomach either of those. They always had a tinny flavor and were too mushy.

I will not go near the sweet potato thing with marshmallows. I don't really like sweet potatoes except in tempura. In fact, I prefer green beans in tempura also, and so maybe I will make a Japanese style Thanksgiving dinner with sashimi instead of turkey, or maybe shrimp tempura. I could possibly make chicken tempura, but I'm not sure how it would hold together. I like broccoli tempura also. For dessert, I will probably make French vanilla ice cream with bits of leftover Halloween candy sprinkled in.

Tempura Thanksgiving sounds fab! (I love sweet potato and kibocha temura, as well as all the usual vegetables.) Sashimi doesn't sound so Thanksgivingish, though. The pilgrims cooked everything to death. :) If you want to do chicken, you could barbecue it Japanese style...

I could do a teriyaki chicken - I do not want to cook a turkey as I do not have room in my freezer (and it is quite large) for all the leftovers, although we could do one turkey breast or thigh. I pretty much excluded sashimi as I like to eat it the same day that I buy it, and I doubt the market will be open on TG day. We usually go to Marukai in West L.A. because it is easy to park and close enough to us. Mitsuwa in Mar Vista is closer to us, but the store is smaller, and the parking lot is a nightmare, possibly because there is a large food court inside Mitsuwa, and CVS next door.

Wondering why you think the Pilgrims cooked everything to death? It's fairly well known they ate raw oysters, and since the Indians showed them how to survive, they probably ate raw fish as well.

That's interesting, Linda! In that case, sashimi would be pretty traditional! What I know about pilgrim cookery comes from TV specials and reading old recipes and descriptions. Certainly not comprehensive. I seem to remember something about leathery smoked fish, but I could also be mistaken about that being the pilgrims.

Lars, I agree about the sashimi. I can actually eat top quality sashimi because it hasn't started to deteriorate, which is what makes the allergens, but I could never eat yesterday's! The teriyaki chicken sounds good. Or yakitori or some kind of teppanyaki. Any should go well with the tempura. :)

Nancy, Elery picked up some cranberries when he was in town and I made 9 half pints and a pint of your Thanksberry jam. The only difference is that I didn't put mine through the food mill, I just dumped everything in the pan and when the berries popped, I hit it with the stick blender. That made a thick sauce and it's delicious, so thanks again!

Annie

I only had tempura once, a Japanese friend came home with me for the weekend from college and we made tempura. I love it, and the sweet potatoes and green beans were fab.