I had a couple of questions regarding whether I was making pecan pie. I make that for Christmas/New Years, so my answer was 'no'.

If anyone came to my house when I was still cooking for Thanksgiving and asked for the iconic green bean casserole I would have told them to make it and bring it. I refuse to make or eat that glop.

I've had that happen in the past, on other occasions, but it's more, "Are we having X?" and I'll say, "Not this year," and entice them with a description of something special I'm serving so they'll still get to have a feeling of anticipation, rather than disappointment.

The bulk of the Thanksgiving dinner this year was made by someone who had never done it before, and is foreign born, so doesn't have a connection to the draw around your hand and make a turkey kind of traditional Thanksgiving. She's a good cook and I helped with a little advice like to put a lot more stock in the stuffing casserole. When, several days in advance of the date, I heard that one of the relatives just told her to open a can for the cranberry sauce, I took ownership and told her I'd make it--she was happy not to have another chore. I don't like canned cranberry sauce, and it's dead easy to make. I made both traditional and Jezebel, because that's what I wanted to eat, even if it was just a spoonful out of a whole dinner.

IOW, I'm with Seagrass! You want a particular dish? Bring it yourself!

I'm the one who has to have a dish, of canned jellied cranberry sauce, and so I take it with me to my DIL's sister's house. They make one of the fresh cranberry with orange, etc. salads. It's good, but not the same with the turkey and dressing.

I got around the dessert thing by simply not having any. There was so much other food that there wasn't any place to stuff things I really didn't want, into my body. So that's how I managed a relatively low carb meal.

(Yes, real whipped cream is far superior to Cool Whip...)

And then there's me....lactose intolerant....drooling over the real whipped cream wishing i had brought the crap artificial stuff, and eating the realw hipped cream and being sorry....

Martha, I agree about the manners for an actual guest, but I do think there's some latitude for a daughter of the house to ask her mom where an expected dish. Not accusingly or demandingly, but just to ask about it. And also fair for mom to tell a grown daughter to get her requests in on time or bring her own. :)

If you want Cool Whip in my house there's a national chain grocery store over on the boulevard open until 1 am. Help yourself. :)

Our request that our Official Smoker smoke a salmon to nosh on. He was glad to oblige.

LindaC, my daughter Amanda is lactose intolerant too, as well as being celiac, so there's real whipped cream for the rest of us, but "non dairy topping" for her. My brother, the heathen, likes Cool Whip better anyway, so she shares.

There will be 11 people here today and they are all family. I ask them if there is anything special they want, and everyone asks "are you going to make XXXXX?" Well, of course I am now, LOL. Since Amanda was just diagnosed as being celiac a couple of years ago, I'm still experimenting with the gluten free thing. I handed her a gluten free cookbook and told her to pick out dessert. She chose a sweet potato "torte", which seems more like a sweet potato pie with a sugar cookie type crust, baked in a springform pan. We'll see how that is.

I've made the green bean casserole thing, although I detest it. I tried one of the "homemade without canned soup" versions one year and if it's possible, it was worse than the original. Ugh.

Annie

Interesting about the lactose reactions. I thought there wasn't supposed to be any lactose in cream, or hard cheeses which are also all fat. Is there some trace amount that's enough for a reaction? Or some kind of general dairy reaction? Or a dairy allergy disguised as a specifically lactose one? I'm confused...

I do try to provide for my guests with difficulties, but since we don't eat a lot of whipped cream or any such topping, I've never made more than the small bowl of whipped cream. I could get some "whipped topping" if it were needed...

Plllog, I don't know about the differences in reactions, when her doctor finally diagnosed her with celiac he told her that reactions to dairy are common to people with that particular disease.

She has never been able to tolerate cheese well, even when she was a teenager she'd order pizza with "half" cheese, hoping to avoid the worst of issues. Ice cream, cheese, yogurt (which is something the doctor says many can actually tolerate), sour cream, all those are off the table, and now she's developing reactions to soy milk (which I think is vile anyway).

Anyway, the end result is no whipped cream for her. Today she had her gluten free/dairy free sweet potato torte without any topping, she said it was perfect the way it was. The texture was nice and dense and smooth, and made with coconut milk and freshly baked sweet potatoes that I ran through the food mill...

Annie

Thanks, Annie! I have all these different recipe files with different restrictions! Since Celiac is a thing with the wigglies in the gut, I can imagine how dairy in general could affect her, whereas the nuts and grains that alternatives are made of affect my lactose free people, who can have anything made with Lactaid milk (e.g., Lactaid ricotta) or cream.

Nice pie! Er, torte. I'm glad it turned out so well!

Dairy and nut free. This is great. Much better than the fake tub stuff. When I make this, I don't even make the real whipped cream.

Coconut Whipped Cream

1 can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight (Thai Kitchen)

1-2 tbsp powdered sugar (I use 2tbsp)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Open can of coconut milk and scoop out the white solid layer into mixing bowl. Discard the coconut water or save for another use. Blend the chunks of coconut milk 15 to 20 seconds and add powdered sugar. Blend slightly. Add vanilla and mix at high speed for 1-2 minutes until light and creamy. It can be made just before serving. It will keep in frig for two or three days, but may get hard and need to be rewhiped.

This only makes a small amount, so I use the hand mixer and not the big Kitchen Aid. I have doubled it.

We had a large extended family Thanksgiving. My daughter (27) was crushed to learn that I had not made one of my normal sides. Granted, she has never commented on it and my wife and I decided to rotate it out for a new side this year.

Luckily on Friday, we hosted a small Thanksgiving for my mother who has dementia and does not do well in large groups. I was able to run to the store and pickup the ingredients - as an only child, she is a bit spoiled.

The side dish was a mixture of canned cranberries, mandarin oranges and walnuts - so no trouble to fix. Yesterday she and her husband hosted a group of friends for a college football game. She took the leftover cornbread dressing and cajun fried turkey and made egg rolls. The leftover cranberry/orange/walnut mixture was blended and became the dipping sauce. I guess it will stay on our menu for the future.