Turkey white or dark with cranberry sauce - whole berries, and MY dressing. Do not put meat in dressing and expect me to eat it.

Mashed potatoes with goat cheese and sour cream - NO gravy.

Roasted brussels sprouts

Glazed carrots

Tossed salad

(sorry about all the vegies)

Dessert will be pumpkin pie if someone wants to bring it but I will be making fruit salad and gluten free apple/cranberry crisp with real whipping cream.

THis is something that I would try but I don't get having mac and cheese for holiday dinners. Definitely not offered here.

Thanksgiving is that same meal always holiday in my family. I always accept on my plate at least a little of everything (except store bought rolls) so as to be seen to eat everybody's food. Other than not having to have blobs of three different sweet potato casseroles, none of which are very good (though not horrid), having no other template for Thanksgiving, I can't really idealize it, but I love Amylou's magical set-up! So what else do we have? Turkey, stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, a couple kinds of cranberry sauce, salad and/or crudites, green beans, and another hot vegetable that usually has some kind of call back to indigenous foods. Sometimes succotash (with baby limas), or squash, but could be carrots, and I'm thinking of taking kohlrabi this year (my job is always to bring the guacamole, but sometimes I get to do the hot veg, too). I think I'm forgetting something. But what makes this ideal isn't the food on the plate but being with the family and expressing our gratitude for each other and the bounty of the season.

Small plate with small portions of dark meat turkey, cornbread stuffing, canned cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked sweet potato, Sister Shubert yeast roll, a few black olives, a raw carrot stick, and raw celery stick. For dessert many hours later: hot coffee and small slice of pumpkin pie.

I love Amylou's fantasy of perfect harmony, clean kitchen courtesy of someone else, and a perfect meal.

I like family style where people serve themselves from serving plates/bowls on the table, that way I can take what I like with an eye on my diabetes.

No Covid on my plate please.

Have to agree it's interesting what people consider FESTIVE food. I try and mix it up for my adult offspring but they INSIST on the tried and true. We add a dish here and there but the following are an ALWAYS: My perfect plate: A slice of dark turkey DH smoked on the grill. Stuffing cooked inside the bird (have to do this a head of time and freeze) as only DHs turkey is festive enough for THANKSGIVING. Giblet Gravy made with turkey drippings, Mashed potatoes rich with cream cheese, butter and cream, two kinds of home made cranberries, relish and compote. Fruit of the season salad, a rolled slice of lefsa sprinkled with butter dusted with cinnamon and sugar, Praline apple pear pie for dessert. When mine come they stay the entire weekend so there's plenty of time for pumpkin bars and pecan pie. As you can see we struggle with a green vegetable festive enough for the occasion.

DH came home and said turkeys were 39 cents/pound at the grocery store. Yay!

My perfect Thanksgiving plate would have turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, corn dish, broccoli, cranberry sauce -- all cooked how I like it, of course. And probably "green fluff" salad -- that concoction of cottage cheese, cool whip, lime jello, and pineapple. Dessert would come later, and would not include store bought pies of any kind.

Everyone's meals sound delicious.

We cook and eat for just us 2

White meat turkey, with gravy on it. I cook a turkey breast in the slow cooker.

Mashed potatoes with gravy and butter.

Scalloped corn

cranberry relish both jelly and chunky kinds

stuffing which is Stove Top

yams from a can

a dinner roll

apple rings, maybe a sweet pickle and olives

Later in the day a piece of pumpkin pie with Cool Whip.

Its just me and my husband now for more than a dozen years.

We have special Thanking pajamas we wear all day and watch 2 movies without fail, "Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"

Some years there is a football game my husband wants to watch, so we have to get the movies in at the right times.

I'm happy to not be invited to family gatherings anymore, Our day is peaceful, quite and less stressful. No travel, no politics, no colds and flu to catch.

The only food some people serve I find gross is that green bean, mushroom soup, dried onion casserole. Disgusting.

Hope everyone has a pleasant Thanksgiving Day and weekend.

Traditional bread stuffed turkey meal here. I cook it, but I don't like sweet potatoes or cranberries. They stay off my plate. A clean kitchen when you sit down to eat? Funny!

1 slice white turkey meat, smothered in turkey gravy

Real mashed potatoes with butter "in" them, gravy on top

Whole cranberry relish, put on top of the mashed potatoes

Bacon/celery/onion/sage/white bread stuffing, that was cooked in the turkey cavity w/ turkey gravy on it

Later.....pumpkin cheesecake with real whipped cream on top

My "perfect" plate would include slices of white meat turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce (any kind, canned or homemade), mashed yams with goat cheese, creamed onions and spinach soufflé (easier to make than it sounds). I skip the mashed potatoes - they are an everyday item and the meal is starch heavy enough! Dessert is optional for me but generally something on the fruity side......I am not a big fan of pumpkin or pecan pie or cheesecake.

This 'perfect plate' would only occur if I was cooking :-) Since it is usually a family meal hosted by someone else with a big house, my contributions are limited. So I eat a little bit of whatever is offered. We have vegans, gluten free and lactose intolerant family members so many of the traditional side dishes are modified beyond recognition to accommodate these dietary preferences. No actual "perfect plates" in my life!! 😒

The only thing on the communal table I generally avoid is a salad made from shaved Brussel sprouts. I like sprouts - a lot - but IMO they taste awful unless cooked.

Typically I have Crab Louis for Thanksgiving, or some kind of seafood.

If it has to be turkey, then I want the folllowing:

Dark meat turkey (thigh, not drumstick) with mushroom gravy

Cornbread stuffing with nothing sweet in it, like my mother and her mother made it

Cranberry sauce (from a can is fine)

Green beans with pearl onions and a fresh mushroom velouté sauce

Green salad (lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, artichoke hearts) with vinaigrette dressing

Lime pie (made with limes from my back yard) for dessert

I do not want mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, or yams on my plate. We've never had mac and cheese on Thanksgiving or any kind of pasta other than Spätzle, which I do like. I don't eat rolls or mashed potatoes when I have cornbread dressing, and I make cornbread dressing all year - not just at holidays. If there had to be another carb, it would be wild rice.

Weather has pretty much always been perfect at Thanksgiving, and that is one of the best times of the year to be in Texas.

For the people to be agreeable and getting along, I would not be in Texas. I spent Thanksgiving in Mexico City one year, and that was one of the best, but it was also good in San Francisco.

Turkey - both white and dark meat

Garlic mashed potatoes

Giblet gravy

green bean casserole

Sweet corn off the cob

bread - rolls or croissants

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream or warmed Pecan pie with vanilla ice cream

Ah ha! if ”ideal” gets to include how it's prepared, I want my mashed potatoes to be potatoes, not dairy products, and smooth, rather than full of skin or potato lumps (I have the CF approved gigantic potato ricer which makes lovely smooth potatoes in a snap, to the tune of ”We Must”). A tablespoon of butter and/or a small splash of milk for the whole bowl is okay, but I don't care for the greasy, gloppy all cream and butter goop. I like pepper, but am fine without it, and a pinch of salt is nice too, unless the gravy is salty, but I'd rather have no seasoning, no dairy at all, no gravy, pure potatoes than a puree with lots of cream, etc. Since I never get to make them for Thanksgiving, however, I'm at the mercy of whoever's cooking, so that's my ideal.

Dark meat turkey with homemade turkey gravy, Mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing with gravy, cranberry sauce, dried corn, hot roll with butter, crudite and green bean casserole. My plate would not be perfect without my loved family around the table. Oh and for dessert a homemade pie..could be any kind at all!

Dark meat turkey, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potato, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce and a cold broccolli salad made with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Homemade dinner rolls. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. Always a bowl of roasted nuts including chestnuts. When I was living with my parents we had all of the above but also had homemade pasta, usually ravioli, and a green salad.

For the two of us, roasted chicken, baked corn, sausage sage stuffing, green beans almondine, homemade crescent rolls, and pumpkin pie with sugar free Cool Whip.

I'll take a drumstick, please!

Thanksgiving dinner is my very favorite of the year. This year, we'll be with my many siblings and their families in Michigan celebrating. My favorite plate? Everything! White turkey meat, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, my homemade cranberry-orange relish, deviled eggs, Waldorf salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. And, wine! I think half the reason I love it so much is that DH and DD do not like ANY of the above except my cranberry relish, Waldorf salad, and the wine! And so, I sadly get these delicious treats but just once a year.

The same thing I've eaten every year since I was a toddler: turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, mashed rutabagas, yams, dressing, and creamed onions. The only thing I do differently is dessert. I switched from pumpkin pie to sweet potato pie several years ago, but last year I made pumpkin cheesecake and that's going to be our new tradition.

I like having a little turkey with my home made cranberry/orange sauce 😃 Gravy is for mashed potatoes and chestnut dressing - but I don't eat a lot of mashed potatoes @ the main meal - I prefer to have that later on as leftovers, swimming in turkey gravy. I like sweet potatoes - just not with a bunch of sugar on them. I bake layered sliced sweet potatoes and apples with orange juice, ginger, butter and maple syrup - not overly sweet. And I like green beans too.

I try to leave lots of room for pie (apple and pumpkin) & fresh whipped cream, so my plate is usually kind of skimpy, compared to everyone else's.

Ha - just remembered - was it the cooking forum that used to have a quote from Erma Bombeck @ the top of the page - about how gravy was considered a beverage in her family? 😄

Functionthenlook, you CAN buy just turkey or chicken skin. I was surprised to see it listed on a local poultry farm’s website not too long ago. Check out this article I just found. I love the skin too.

https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2012/11/16/3-ways-to-add-more-skin-to-your-thanksgiving-spread

Chickadee, no turkey farms here or up at camp. There are a couple chicken farms that sell directly to the public, but they only sell the whole chicken. I'll have to ask the butcher up at camp if he knows where I can get some.

Turkey, white and dark, with a multitude of sides. I love homemade cornbread dressing that is full of flavor from turkey broth, sage/poultry seasoning, celery and onions. Homemade cranberry sauce with orange zest and a hint of cinnamon. Deviled eggs are a must at our family Thanksgiving. I really don’t care about other sides, except I prefer green beans above almost anything else. I won’t turn down mashed potatoes (plain with just a little butter), sweet potatoes, good creamed corn or a family-favorite corn casserole. Dessert can be almost any kind of pie. Last year I made a brown butter bourbon pecan pie that was yummy. I may do that again and make a plain cheesecake with fruit. Rolls? Meh, just filler.

Mostly all of the above ,minus sweet potatoes! but found out that my silly daughter had been avoiding the GB casserole for 30 some years! Now I make sure I have enough home grown green beans mixed with mushrooms, onion, garlic, sliced almonds and parm!

Up in Canada, I have told folk, the best thing about American Thanksgiving are the SIDES. So now, I try to include as many sides as possible. They love this new tradition. Forget the turkey, lol …not really

My plate of favorites would include white and dark meat turkey, rustic (made with unpeeled potatoes that are not mashed until they no longer resemble potatoes) mashed potatoes with a bit of whole milk and butter, kasha (buckwheat) stuffing, fresh green beans with mushrooms, turnip puff, cooked carrots with a hint of maple syrup and browned butter, turkey gravy for the stuffing and potatoes, and a raw fruit salad with a touch of lime juice and honey.

I’m not much of a dessert eater, but I like a creamy lemon pie with a crushed animal cracker crust, usually called North Carolina lemon pie, I think. I may have to make one tomorrow.

I first had the kasha stuffing when I went home with a college friend for T-day and have made it since then. Wonderfully flavored with everything you’d put in a bread dressing, it is a delicious alternative to a festive feast. Buckwheat is gluten free for those that are interested, by the way.

• I do a dry salt and herb pack on my turkey breast overnight, rinse, dry and then smoke it in the smokehouse for about 8 hours. Very herby, baked of course. I bake sweet potatoes and then lightly spice and candy them (not really sweet). Baked very red sweet potatoes is important. I make cranberry sauce, Cornbread dressing with lots of sage, thyme and eggs. I use homemade cornbread. Giblet gravy. Pecan tart. No mashed potato-we eat that every week or pasta. If I had home grown green peas (frozen at the height of the season) I would have those. I dont get to garden anymore. Butter rolls. You roll out bread dough,cover with thin slabs of butter and fold and roll like half puff pastry. Cut into thick strips and tie in knots. Bake. you get lovely layers. With the price of butter this year a real extravagance. Pecan or hazelnut tart. Thanksgiving is something I would personally skip but I do my best with it.