 Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic is a Bay Area writer and editor. Her first book Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater's Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate, is a humorous non-fiction narrative and exposé on the lives of picky eaters. She previously coerced Anderson Cooper to overcome his dining issues and told us the most scientifically delicious snack shape. In my years-long quest to put my picky eating into remission, I'm proud to say that I had a list of once-hated green vegetables jockeying for attention at my Thanksgiving table this year. The two that won out are okra (simply sautéed and salted to perfection) and Brussels sprouts, which will be peeled down to individual leaves, sautéed with garlic, then gilded with a balsamic vinaigrette and a smattering of walnuts to comprise a warm salad. However, there are still some turkey day foods out there that get my gorge a-rising and chief among them is that Thanksgiving staple of my Minnesota childhood: green bean casserole. “They’re for the crunch!” someone once told me. You want crunch? How about, oh I don’t know, not cooking the green beans denture-soft‽ Now the grey-green beans in this dish are bad enough, but it was truly all over for me the first time I got a look at the secret ingredient keeping its gelatinous shape after it had been slurped out of the can and into the waiting saucepan. Note to special effects folks: nothing looks so much like actual barf than a cold can of mushroom soup, it’s got chunks and everything! (I'm also not the biggest fan of pumpkin pie ever since my older sister likened it to cat vomit but I am a kind host, so it will be there for the guest who adores it.) What's the Thanksgiving dish you simply dread? Please share your tales of taste and texture traumas in the comments below and we'll share them in an upcoming post. Previously - The psychology of food aversions and Food aversions: Your questions answered and A five-step plan for overcoming picky eating (a.k.a. an open letter to Anderson Cooper) All our best Thanksgiving advice and recipes |
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I like to dine on the tears of liberal trash and welfare mommas.
The democrats have only secured their fate, for America will not survive until 2013
We will be able to remake this country the way God wants it!
IT'S TIME TO BRING GOD BACK TO NEW AMERICA
If you don't like something, then don't eat it. But, please, do not criticize the cook if you're a guest in someone's house. Be polite and mind your manners. I've had enough of the vegan's dirty little comments and insults about serving turkey in MY home at Thanksgiving. She will never be invited back!
i wish there was a non meat and healthy alternative for all dishes
e
I don't care for sweet things with my real food, although once in awhile I will eat them for dessert if necessary to maintain the peace. But with my meal? Yecccchhh. So the sugary sweet yams are pretty offensive to me, and I absolutely DESPISE that crap that they call "ambrosia." Totally aside from being like eating candy with your stuffing, I mean, come ON, EWWWWWWW. Marshmallows. Fake whipped cream ("dream whip"). Canned oranges. Canned coconut. Holy gods, just kill me.
It ain't Thanksgiving UNLESS you have CHESTNUTS!
Or Chin Nuts for the ladies!
I dislike the dish in the photo. I don't get it. Why mess with perfectly good green beans by pouring goopy soup over them? I also dislike the sweet potato dish with the marshmallows. Again, why ruin perfectly good sweet potatoes with all that sugary stuff?
That looks like something my cat threw up on the floor this morning.
So why does it taste so good?
Unusual dishes I can live with. What I have a hard time with are the tree hugging, bunny h@mping liberal vegans who use this day as an excuse to pontificate their views.
Do they really? The vegans/vegetarians I know celebrate their bounty in their own way and do not ever set this day apart from any other day concerning carnivorous behavior.
FISH ON!
Yet you have no problem pontificating your views, right?
x2 !
Truth, you inbred fvck, how does this become political in what sadly passes for your mind?
"Truth" is offended and insulted by someone else's dining preferences because "Truth" in fact knows that he is an inferior person and is very insecure. All putrid behavior such as his arises from feelings of inadequacy. Vegetarians and vegans do not make a big deal out of their dining choices, although apparently the mere mention of them sets this guy off, yet he proudly boasts about his carnivore status as if there were anything honorable about it. He has never learned to live and let live, he has never learned that people are free to eat or not eat what they feel like, and their mere mentioning of it is not grounds for spewing venom. This always comes from feeling inferior.
"Vegetarians and Vegans do not make a big deal....."
Please read previous comments on this post before making a provably untrue statement ( notice I am not saying all Vegans, but contrary to your statement, they do ).
Has anyone tried monkducken for Thanksgiving? It is a chicken stuffed inside a duck then placed inside a monkey. This is roasted with water chestnuts and served on a bed of rice pilaf along with lima beans. When my gramma serves it I usually say I'm not too hungry.
Luksusowa makes a really good potato v odka that seems to add to the holiday festivities.
I still don't see many mentions of wonderful Thanksgiving V odka. I'll drink 8 ounces or so while preparing the dinner. Once all the food is done I don't really care if I eat any or not. Usually another glass of liquid refreshments suits me juuuust fine. : )
You want a fantastic turkey recipe? Check out 'Taste of the South' online, the Oct/Nov 2009 issue,or just search recipes for 'bring turkey'. I've made this twice before and I just put a turkey in the brine last night. It gives a moist, flavorful turkey meat that you just won't believe. Grind your spices, first!
My aunt and uncle make everything from scratch and cook their turkeys perfectly. I am a big fan of most veggies as well, and love trying new foods. However, my one caveat......
Why cook mashed potatoes with a bunch of mushrooms in it? As I said, I have a diverse palate ( or at least I like to think so ), but for me, mashed potatoes need to just be that, potatoes.
Its weird how tongues evolve, I suppose.....
Turkey gives me indigestion. Sad but true. I do miss it, watching the others feast feast while I pretend to be happy with my ham or piece of chicken...
If you want a really good green bean casserole, make it from scratch. make a roux using butter, flour and chicken stock until it is nice and thick, add plenty of ground pepper and a small amount of salt. Blanch the green beans for 3 minutes and then shock them in ice water. Drain the green beans. Saute baby bella mushrooms and minced shallots in olive oil and and butter until all the moisture cooks out of the mushroom. Spray the bottom of a 13×9 inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Add the green beans and the mushroom mixture to the casserole dish. Pour the roux over the vegetables and cook in the oven at 350° F for 50 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, add the french fried onion pieces to the top and cook an extra 10 minutes. It is the only green bean casserole anyone should ever eat. It is not like a salt lick filled with mushy vegetables like that campbell's garbage.
btw the green beans and the mushrooms HAVE to be fresh, otherwise, just dump it straight into the garbage
nothing on the planet is worse than fresh mushrooms that aren't.
Grandma always made homemade ravioli for thanksgiving along with all the rest of the trimmings and a turkey. Several hundred of them, filling made with home ground pork and herbs and bread, fresh made dough, fresh made sauce, and made on a hand carved ravioli maker board.
Now I make them, not as many and not quite as great, but still amazing. Take me about a joint and 8 beers though.
I love all of the traditional dishes thanksgiving has to offer. Too bad I'll be in jail for a possession of marijuana charge....*sigh*. LEGALIZE IT ALREADY!
My condolences on the pot charge.
The legalization thing is happening, albeit slowly
AMEN!. Preach on, my brotha!
Canadian here, even though our Thanksgiving was in Oct, ... I haaaaate cranberriessssssssssssssss
The alternative foods created to substitute my turkey, my mash potatoes and gravy, my gluten filled stuffing that I NEVER even cared for all the gluten it had before the libs pointed it out to me... the wheat based Hawaiian dinner rolls, the pumpkin pie, the sweet potatoe pies, etc. etc.
Thats what I dread, all those awful non-Thanksgiving phony replacement dishes.
Mind you, I actually do avoid as much gluten as possible, take care of myself BUT oh no, not on Thanksgiving, I WILL NOT let other tell me that I should change my Thanksgiving, I'm sorry, seeeyaa!
I don't eat meat, so I dread hearing about all of the turkeys that are killed to unnecessarily to feed peoples faces.
you know carrots die when you pull them from the ground right? Many insects only purpose on this planet is to provide food for other animals. Animals eat animals and things die in the process. You will die and be consumed by worms if you choose to be buried. Primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers. Its the way of life whether you see it or not. Certain creatures are meant to die so others can survive.
Pam u stupid ho learn the facts of life. Creatures eat other creatures to survive. Carnivores eat meat. Herbivores eat vegetation. Omnivores eat both.
"Pam u stupid ho" get over yourself. You are a putrid vile excuse of what doesn't pass for a human being. If you don't like vegetarianism, don't be one, but don't judge something you are too weak and stupid to even try. You have no excuse for saying something like that to a person who doesn't want to eat animals. Especially considering how fat you are.
"unnecessarily killed to feed people's faces."
Spoken like a true idiotic Vegetarian/Vegan on top of their high horse looking down on others. I bet you're the type that makes snarky remarks when people eat meat and begin to lecture them. You are the worst kind of people there are. I pray I never run into a person like you while I'm out eating, I may end up in jail and you in a morgue. Take solace in knowing that when you eat vegetables you take away the food source of fluffy bunnies, you sick freak. Then it's up to me to eat them and put them out of their misery.
Turkey Eater: OUTSTANDING comment! (as I spice and brine yet another delicious turkey...)
TurkeyEater – you're another ignorant and intolerant turd. Clearly a Republican.
My girlfriend and I are vegetarians. Being around people eating meat does not bother us
You know, once a year we get together to celebrate the things we're thankful for, and food is an obvious one for those of us who came from families, who generations ago, were suffering also. Many of these dishes came about as creative ways to prepare otherwise bland or common food. These are the modern-day workings of our ancestors' 'peasant dishes' that seem to carry on through the generations, and are a piece of history for many families. Every year at our gathering someone inevitably brings a nasty marshmallow-jello dish with suspended fruit or even vegetables, greasy cocktail weenies in runny bbq sauce, or the ubiquitous green bean casserole floating in cream of something soup. So what? These dishes cost a few bucks to make, and after our gathering our families go back to working to make this world better. That's Thanksgiving for me!
My favorite is the boned turkey stuffed with a pork belly....the pork bell has been seared on all sides. It is called a turporken. When baked the entire ball of meat can be sliced.....the juice can be used to make gravy called turporky....This goyische delight will warm many a belly come TG....
Since I am a Vegetarian the Dead Bird and Grease Sauce make me a little Woozy to smell so I try to stay upwind and just smile politely.
Grow a set, Fairyboy! The world would be better without such soft pathetic girly men like you.
Actually, Realman, you are the one who is dispensible. And despicable. Quit being such a fat sh*t and leave people alone to eat how they prefer. You must have been castrated as a child to be so insecure that you have to pretend that there is anything "manly" about being a carnivore. Your very behavior marks you as an insecure and inferior person. Even if you are fatter than a vegetarian.
I bet you dont have a single callus on your hands and you probably wear skinny jeans...
Such a troll. You should probably move out of your mom's house before you turn 45.
I can't believe we're all talkin' about food when the economy something!
What???
Next Thanksgiving topic:
"How many people this holiday season are guilty they are successful and/or have disposable income?"
i don't feel bad about that at all, Vlad
Green Bean casserole is enough to gag a maggot. I never eat marshmallow sweet potatoes are pretty bad too. Too sweet and unhealthy.
Check and check.
Thanks for your comment, stonrdude. and i agree with you about both of those. And I know this puts me in the minority, but i actually prefer something else besides turkey. I like turkey a lot, sure, but I probably eat it once a week anyways, so it's really not a special meal in my house.
Enjoy your holiday.
Sweet potatoes are good, yams are better, no need to add marshmellows. Green been cassarole is not that bad, but not that good either!
Brussel sprout are fantastic fresh, and I usually make stuffing from scratch, even my own stock.
This year I have multicolored carrots still in the partially frozen ground ready to go.
green bean casserole sucks
Green bean caserole is wonderful! But the sweet, syrupy marshmallowy yams suck.
Totally agree. It may be cool to say you hate green bean casserole, but there's a reason it's a classic. As for the yams, I just don't like sweet vegetables. Keep beets and glazed carrots away, too.
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar! Anything to do with marshmallows!
And check again.
I couldn't believe somebody hates simply salted, slightly salted okra. Also you seem to dislike anything without meat
Also, the sickeningly sweet yam/sweet potato dishes with marshmallows
Bleaurghhhh!
Cranberry sauce nauseates me, especially right out of a can and kept in that shape. I like the tarter homemade varieties occasionally but I avoid even looking at the canned molds.
Cranberry sauce nauseates me, especially right out of a can and kept in that shape. I like the tarter homemade varieties occasionally but I avoid even lo
Candied yams, mince meat pie and jello abominations.
As much as I love KFC, it was always funny to me for family members to bring a bucket of the colonel's best to our Thanksgiving meal. But I was thankful for it every year!
Which trailer park does your family live in? Just curios.
hahahahah I think your hilarious I love reading your coments thumbs up!!! : )
I can't stand anything that has to be covered in those crusty onion pieces like the green been casserole in the picture. Pearl Onions with those fried onion things on top are equally gross.
AMEN!
The Turkey. Everything else is fine. I'd rather have a ham or even a hamburger than turkey. Ribs would be fine, even ckicken or fish or pasta – anything but turkey.
Is it dry Turkey that bothers you Jim? A moist Turkey is great.
mmmmm...moist.
Fckuing weirdo
Jim – I dislike the turkey too. I'd much rather have a ham or a beef tenderloin, but the family insists that I continue to make it – and they rave about it – eww! I brine it the night before, I put garlic, fresh herbs (thyme and sage), quartered orange, quartered onion in the cavity and it comes out very moist and flavorful (according to family) – I just don't like turkey (or chicken for matter). So I don't eat it and stick to the side dishes.
There are people starving, and people who can't afford special food for Thanksgiving. The spirit of this article is something wrong with people in this country. This is a holiday about gratitude and abundance. A plate of plenty before you, and your thoughts are centered on "What DON'T you like"? Be grateful for the food you have. Be gracious if it's not to your taste. There is nothing to excuse the attitude here.
Dana, the reality of it is that there is almost always some type of food served that someone wont like. If you can't handle that little fact then maybe you shouldn't have read the story.
I would never complain about the abundance of food available or loved ones coming together to share it, but that doesn't mean I have to love every dish, even though of course I would never insult the chef and am grateful to be able to pick and choose! We are just sharing our preferences here, enjoy the spirit and share your least favorite dish. :-)
That's the nice thing if it's served buffet style or there are a lot of people – nobody notices if you bypass something that doesn't appeal to you. That includes the meat dishes. Nobody should be saying such mean things to the vegetarians – they are entitled to avoid the turkey just like you (whoever you are) can avoid the cranberries if you don't like them. You don't hear them calling you names for it. Just STFU and eat, already. And don't forget to give to those who are less fortunate.
You need some kind of ointment for your overly sensitive feelings. You can be thankful, charitable and still be gagged by a certain traditional dish. If you are so damn wound up about this, go collect all the candied yams from all the Tgiving dinners across the US and send them to countries in need. Until then, allow us to hate some of these ghastly dishes. Thank you!
exactly some people need to chill the hell out geez
You know, once a year we get together to celebrate the things we're thankful for, and food is an obvious one for those of us who came from families, who generations ago, were suffering also. Many of these dishes came about as creative ways to prepare otherwise bland or common food. These are the modern-day workings of our ancestors' 'peasant dishes' that seem to carry on through the generations, and are a piece of history for many families. Every year at our gathering someone inevitably brings a nasty marshmallow-jello dish with suspended fruit or even vegetables, greasy cocktail weenies in runny bbq sauce, or the ubiquitous green bean casserole floating in cream of something soup. So what? These dishes cost a few bucks to make, and after our gathering our families go back to working to make this world better. That's Thanksgiving for me!
My cousin's oldest daughter continually made this awful casserole with frozen hashbrowns, cream and cheese – YUCK! All I was interested in was a plain baked sweet potatoes but noooooooo, they had to be sweetened, glazed and topped with marshmellows. Is it a wonder that I always volunteered to work evening shift during the holidays?
god that sounds bloody awful lol
Since he was a kid, my husband calls green bean casserole "Cat Barf Casserole" (just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) because it looked like a cat had just eaten a bunch of grass and vomited it up. Now I can't look this dish without laughing and getting nauseous at the same time!
Call me weird, but I look forward to green bean casserole haha. It's one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Maybe you guys are just not making it right. The GBC my mom makes is amazing. I always look forward to the green bean casserole and the homemade mashed potatoes.
Green bean casserole may not be my favorite dish, but I have spent many holidays with many different families, and have noticed that more people like it or love it than avoid it. It is often the first dish to go, even before the mashed potatoes or stuffing. Either this writer has a relative who overcooks it or it simply doesn't appeal to her, understandable as we all have foods that don't appeal to us (personally okra and I do not get along).
You're weird. There, I said it. So, you take perfectly good, perfectly healthy green beans and dump a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup on top and then some potato chips or fake fried onions and then cook the crap out of them. This is not food....this is a shortcut. Just make some green freaking beans for chrissakes!
lmfao hahahahahhahaha
You're not weird. I love it.
Giblet gravy-barf!
Man I hate the poop dish! when that comes around i always pass it on, but my other family members cant get enough poop!
It's as good as catsasscoffee!
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas AND Easter since my husband threw me out I just work for holidays, often I have no choice but work for holidays. Once in awhile, but not recently does my employer give us a plate of Thanksgiving-ish food.
You people complaining about a family member's cooking?? Try not having anyone to cook for you, or cook for.
I used to make whatever everyone wanted, family would come to my house, since my ex and I had the nicest one, and they all said they loved it.
Bitter about a divorce are we? Were talking about T-Day foods we don't like, your ranting wont stop it.
Pick yourself up and invite some friends over for Thanksgiving. You'll have a great time and forget sh!thead more and more as each fun experience happens. Don't make the yams or GB casserole. Bird, Potatoes and gravy, rolls, punkin pie....guys will be lined up at the door.
Abe Lincoln established the Thanksgiving that we still celebrate today. Most people have been taught of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans gathering as the 1st celebration. The pilgrims fasted on Thanksgiving only to later feast with the natives. Then we but the hand that fed us. I dislike turkey necks by the way.
Give thanks, and eat what ever the heck you want. Its just another day after all.
Not big turkey fan, until last year. Daughter soaked it in a brine solution and it turned out so juicy and tasty. Like smoked turkey. You who do not like fresh cranberries might change if you tasted mine. Last year, huge crowd, had the cranberries in crock pot and people kept going back thru the day getting taste of it. Was big hit and a delicious smell of fall to boot. Don't like my veggies in processed food casseroles. Good fresh veggies and at the end of the day you will not feel ill.
Recipe of cranberries in crockpot?
Yes, please. I would love the recipe..
I second that! Make everything as fresh as possible. Nothing out of a can or a box, thank you.
over sugared and then sugared more with marshmallows......the sweet potato.... I love sweet potatoes but this dish is by far the worst of the worst..... with the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, then the marshmallows....I shudder just thinking about them....
I like to mix it up by serving pumpkin soup, and sweet potato cheesecake for dessert. Then nobody can complain about not getting their yams, and they're SUPPOSED to be sweet in the cheesecake (which I never eat anyway). Pumpkin soup is not full of all that marshmallow and syrup crap and is savory, so we get both pumpkin and yams but nothing disgusting.
I dont dread the food I dread the next day after thanksgiving all the food, long day(s) in prepping beer touch football in the backyard/ watching football pie cakes more food late night pie and turkey sandwich all this is fun but the body pay the price next day o well cant wait to next year
Green Bean Casserole... never had it , never will.... prefer my green beans whole, baked til crisp, wrapped in bacon slices...
Sounds very good. I'd eat the casserole too and it it delicious. The one in this picture though, something about those onions looks like frozen onion rings.
yummy that does sound good : )
well I hope they dont cut the grass go graze in the backyard elisy
Lutefisk. Yes, it can be served for Thanksgiving and there are evil people out that that feed it to their kids. It has been 20 years but it still triggers my gag reflex.
What a strange dish it is. With it's beyond bizarre preparation its a wonder that anyone ever discovers it wont kill you if you eat it.
Mince meat pie, hands down...Ick
Mince pie is my absolute favorite! Oh well, different strokes...
I know i wont be popular for saying so but white turkey meat is awful. It's dry and tasteless. I dont understand why people don't love the thighs...rich and tasty, melts in your mouth, delicious! And of course marshmallows on sweet potatoes..It's just wrong!
You are absolutely right. And to think that it's more expensive than dark meat. Turkey breast is just a vehicle for gravy.
If you're determining doneness by the little white popup thingy, the turkey will come out overcooked and horrible. If you use a remote probe and also brine the turkey, it will be awesome.
well who ever has been cooking the bird doesn't know what they are doing.
Learn to cook a turkey correctly and white meat is juicy and tasty. Same with sweet potatoes and marshmallows... has to be done right, or yeah, it's not so good.
The way to avoid this is to debone the turkey and cook the breast (white meat) separately and for less time. It cooks much quicker so cook it to 150 degrees or it will be dry. Thighs can go 160. Use the raw bones to make a stock that will make the best home-made gray you will ever have.
The only thing I don't like besides green bean casserole is salad. We eat salad almost every day of the year so the three big holidays are NO salad. Happy Thanksgiving!
My father in law asked me to gt all his kids over to his house or Thxgvng...and cook. I managed the first part (my wife's sibs have daddy issues) bu now I have to compete with an 80 year old for oven time. Lets just say 80 year old "Ma" is a bland and frozen/canned kind of cook. Has watched me cook and been passive aggressive at my home...now I'm in her kitchen...so I dread anything she is cooking. Apparently she cooked it ll a week ago and is just going to reheat.... Hence I am making 7 dishes for those who don't like 1960s broccoli casserole and Millionare pie (think foamy ambrosia salad frozen in a terrible cheap premade crust). At least she's nice...oh wait no she's horrible...ugh. Smile...cook...smile....eat...leave...
My mom has lost her ability to cook. She used to be great but is just terrible. Fortunately she is lazy and a lush so we'll cook while she bastes... I feel your pain!
One year at my alcoholic Aunt & Uncle's house my Aunt screwed up the food so badly (and has done this before) my Mom said "Hold on a minute". She put her coat on, went to the trunk of her car, and pulled out an entire, steaming hot Turkey with all the trimmings. Enough food to feed all twenty of us.
She had cooked the food earlier and set up trays to hold the food with lit Sterno cans under them in in her trunk after she got to my Aunts house. Mom saved Thanksgiving and we were all thankful that we didn't have to eat my Aunts cooking. I know why she did this but the fact that she did do it still amazes me to this day. Mom's a great cook, well except for her meatloaf, that really sucks.
Alcohol can make this almost bearable. I feel for you.
Lime Jello with Cottage Cheese and Pineapple Chunks.............GROSS!!!! But my Mother and Grandmother always made it on Thanksgiving.
Oh my gosh, I was having trouble coming up with a dreaded dish, but as i read through the blog, you nailed it! Absolutely the most disgusting dish in the world is the lime Jello w/cottage cheese/pineapple. Whoever dreamed that up in the beginning is a sicko!!!
I think that was a Redbook recipe from the early 70's
Oh I am with you there. Cottage cheese in jello = bad...cottage cheese in LIME jello= the worst! When I find something that resembles cottage cheese in my food, I know it's not suppose to be there..lol
Yep, most any of those colorful Jello amalgams add some nice visual something to the table as you sit down. But they're not worth eating. Waste of time.
LOL!!! That's as bad as "ambrosia!"
I like the greenbean caserole. But we make it with guyere cheese and cream of celery soup instead since the old mushroom/velveeta version was getting old.
You are trying to put a dress on a pig. Sorry.
Velveeta? There's no velveeta in green bean casserole!
Simple roasted sweet potatoes are great. When they are candied then topped with marshmallows, that is an atrocity.
Marshmallowsw are an atrocity?
HUH?
Toasted and melted on top....YUM!
My favorite part of Thanksgiving ;)
GROSS. You might as well pour butterscotch syrup all over your turkey while you're at it.
Bless us Oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive, except the Green bean casserole which we only have to see once per annum. I'll eat some out of tradition but it's an abomination that belongs at the bottom of the list somewhere. It's Thanksgiving's fruit cake.
The Thanksgiving dish that I dread the most is homemade cranberry sauce. I can have canned cranberry sauce and be just fine but after something I had happen to me as a child has given me a strong aversion to the homemade variety. Around 10 years ago (give or take a couple), I had gone to family party and my great aunt had made cranberry sauce. It was one of my favorite foods at the time so I ate a helping with my meal. Later that evening, I got so ill that I had to crash on my aunt's bedroom floor until my side of the family decided to leave. I knew it was the cranberry sauce and to this day, I am honest to God afraid of eating homemade cranberry sauce because of that.
I used to make it from scratch but found hardly anyone ever ate it...plop a gelatin tube out of a can and it goes. I no longer bother with home made cranberry sauce.
My grandmother used to make AWESOME homemade cranberry sauce... soooo much better than that stuff out of a can.
Who in their right mind does not like mushroom soup. I eat it by itself or with a sandwich a lot.Not much I don't like so I don't pass up much. This year I am on a diet so I will have to watch what I eat.
I don't like mushroom soup, and I am quit sane. I love mushrooms, but putting chunks of mushroom in pureed mushrooms to create a dish that looks like someone vomited up mushrooms is simply not appetizing.
I had the pleasure of experiencing 3 Thanksgivings in a row with a very Italian family. Everything was delicious full of traditional T.D. foods, home cooked from scratch and homemade Italian cookies for desert (which I had no problem chowing down on) . However, the one dish I could not eat or really want to see was the Lasagna. Now, I LOVE Lasagna, but for Thanksgiving, it was sensory overload and unfamiliar tastes and smells that really turned me off. I hardly ever ate any of the lasagna and felt bad about it, but Italian and Thanksgiving food, for me, just doesn't mix.
Okay, I feel I should say something positive now about our national holiday of gratitude - family traumas aside. I have never met a pecan pie I didn't like. Or a sweet potato pie.
Eat dessert first!
I'm with ya on the sweet potato pie! I made it last year for the family and they said no more pumpkin pie from now on
Love pecan pie except when my mom makes it because she uses margarine.
diarrhoea.
Mashed Potatoes. But since our family does thanksgiving family style, (doesn't everybodies?) when the potatoes come by I simply don't take any. No muss, no fuss.
I second that emotion...mashed potatoes are hands-down the grossest dish, year round – not just on Thanksgiving. The clearest example of a bland food item that, no matter how evil servers try to disguise it or accessorize it, it still looks like someone else chewed it and glopped it back on your plate. I cannot understand how anyone can choke it down. Also, for all of those people who insist..."Well, you haven't experienced MY mashed potatoes...they are simply spectacular!"...Nice *$^#'ing try....
Spot on about mushroom soup and green bean casserole. Disgusting stuff! I have a family member who always makes scalloped potatoes from a box, and even the smell of that makes me heave. But really all of the Thanksgiving "feast" turns me off. As a vegetarian, the tradition of centering the meal around a deformed, oversized, cruelly raised and messily slaughtered bird is positively primitive. Even to enter a home where a turkey was roasted for hours, and being hit with that smell of fat, is revolting.
Blasphemy! It's the one dish I look forward to most on Thanksgiving, if it's done right of course. Everything is about preparation and presentation. If you use fresh ingredients and make it from scratch, it's the most delicious thing you've ever had!
where do you buy fresh canned mushroom soup and fresh canned fried onions?
Mushroom soup? Mushroom and cream and some chicken stock. Fresh fried onions, yeah try onions dregged in seasoned flour and fried for 30 seconds!
vegetarians are exhausting. mostly weak, feebleminded, sickly looking people, not to mention pretentious and elitist and annoying and boorish. turkey smell makes you heave? the potatoes and green beans arent good enough either....geez i bet you have a gluten "allergy" too.
Well said.
So making incorrect assumptions about strangers and slamming the character of an anonymous poster in the Internet qualifies as "well said" in your wee mind.
Astounding.
Man it's getting fresh up in hur.
May you live an interesting life.
Watch the size of the brush you paint vegetarians with, ctr.
On the other hand, I am certain you are the picture of health and virility
chad is a punk
So you are a fat and unhealthy person who is jealous of people whom you have never met. And you try to make yourself feel superior because you know deep down inside you are inferior and lame and weak-minded. We who eat vegetarian often are posessed of Ph.D.'s in the sciences, we have good jobs, we are strong athletes and are well liked. Unlike those who feel they have to run down anyone who doesn't fall into one little self-restricting category (such as yourself)
Did you know that an alfalfa sprout screams when it's picked. You heartless monster...
You're obviously a real joy at Thanksgiving.
Odds are that she's pretty joyless on most other days too.
Nothing wrong w/Fiona. I can totallly understand how a vegetarian would heave at the smell of a cooked turkey - just as I want to heave when I see lime Jello w/cottage cheese and pineapple. This world is big enough for all kinds of tastes, and although I am a carnivore, I love a good vegetarian meal too. Vegetarian rock!!!
Cheers! I hope your Thanksgiving is brimming with delicious pies and joy.
Agreed! Wonderful post sneakipete. I actually cooked a tofu turkey one year and it was wonderful.
So why would go into anyone home around Thanksgiving day knowing that the smell of cooked turkey make you so violently ill ? not a very smart move unless you do it just to complain or to puff yourself out as a vegetarian trying to push your views on the world stay at home and graze
Uh...there are these people called "family" that you are supposed to visit on Big Dead Bird Day?
Generally, though, I make excuses and avoid the whole thing.
And why is GEEWORKER so insecure that he (clearly a 'he') can't let people eat or not eat what they want – just like he himself does – without making puerile and scathing and patently unfounded assumptions about the person's behavoir, motivations or agenda? Sounds like he knows he is wrong.
I'm not a vegetarian and I can't stand turkey either. My Dad always insisted that we were supposed to have one. Since him and my Mom both died back in 2000, I haven't had one since.
It's not the food but the company I dread the most...........
That's what Chad's and ctr's families say.
Well played Fiona.
I just don't eat stuff I don't like and hopefully it gets tossed out in the trash.
I hate the gooey, marshmallow covered, sickly sweet, sweet potato glop that one co-worker insists on bringing every year to our work Thanksgiving party. It is sugar coated, sugar filled sweet potato crap.
Just bake a sweet potato and put some butter on it. Delicious.
Cant stand sweet potato with marshmallows. Its a bit of Americana that is propagated by the American Dental Association so that dentist can stuff their stockings.
My ex-wife insisted on making her version of stuffing that was a rubbery mess. Year after year it would sit on the table, untouched and ignored. And yes, I tried to persuade her to make another side-dish to no avail. To make matters worse, she would drag it home with us to "eat later". By the middle of the week, it would mysteriously disappear. Heh! Heh!
Gotta love the 'leftovers gnomes' who eat that stuff...
o.k., how about my Kentucky grammy's cornbread NO SUGAR in the cornbread, sage, mushrooms, (sausage, my addition),celery, onions, etc. turkeystock, butter and so on. With gravy and mashed potatoes and turkey of course. No wonder my cholesterol is high. It is so worth it...and I'm almost 80! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you...
I with you Ellen. I lived in SC for 20 years and cornbread stuffing was a must. They can take all that sweet cornbread and throw it out the window. Ill take good old buttermilk cornbread anytime :)
Amen. Cornbread dressing rules. Even a cold slice of it out of the frig is pretty darn good eatin.
There isn't a food to dread because I can choose not to eat it. I dread making the gravy because it never comes out right.
my gravy always came out like jello... it was so bad my nephew made a song about it and called it... grav-ello... "it's not gravy... it's not jello... it's grav-ello!!!"
LOL! I just snorted when I read that.... the kids just looked at me funny – nothing unusual there. Now I am going to be singing that when MIL brings hers over on Thursday. I have a jar of heinz gravy in the pantry for me.... :P
Follow the instructions for making a thin bechemel sauce and you should do fine.
if it comes out too thick you are using too much flour. Also try using two starch types, flour and some potato starch, will keep it from going gooey!
Anything with Cranberries....! Horrid, simply horrid.
My favorite is giblet gravy, with plenty of gibletey-chunks, but I'm the only one in the family that likes it now that Daddy is dead & gone, so now Mama won't make it for me. Thanksgiving just isn't the same (for two reasons).
Are you kidding me? Green bean casserole is one of my favorite parts!!! I love it! I however am not a huge fan of (I know this is bad) stuffing... it is disgusting to me... Turkey and gravy is fine without throwing in a mishmash of breadcrumbs, celery and spices that have been cooking inside it's disembowled body cavity for the past few hours LOL
i like corn
With as many dishes as there are on the table at Thanksgiving, I can't imagine why I'd dread any of them. I just don't serve myself a scoop of anything that doesn't appeal.
I guess, if I were cooking the meal and was somehow pressured into there being, say, a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, I might "dread" having to be the one who makes it. I'd have to be living an entirely different life to imagine that happening, but there you go.
Green bean casserole is the bomb!! Gotta make it with fresh snapped green beans, though
I loved green bean casserole at home, then had some at school. It was worse than eating your own vomit. Its hard to shake that one bad memory and still enjoy, even though I know it can be good.
I hated my grandmother's turkey. She got up early to put it in and it would end up so dry that it would soak up gravy like a sponge. You could put copious amounts of gravy on it, reach over to get another dish, look back at your plate & find your gravy had disappeared.
Great image! That made me laugh. The worst Thanksgiving meal I ever had was one with my husband's family many years ago, when I still ate meat. My evil and crazy MIL overcooked the turkey by an hour or more because I told her it was done and she had to "prove" me wrong. She threw odd things into the stuffing because she claimed only people who can't cook follow recipes (I follow recipes). Everything was overcooked, under spiced, too sweet or painfully salty. On top of it all, fat MIL eats with her mouth open. The entire experience was horrifying.
I'm not fond of turkey, to be honest. But getting nit-picky about the types of foods served at an enormous meal while billions of people are starving? That seems kinda...wrong.
Good point. We should sit around an empty fasting table and resent ourselves for having something to be thankful for. Then maybe take turns crying at the thought of it and promise never to be happy til world hunger is no more.
Or just quit bitching.
Cranston for the win to actually ever write "LOL" and mean it ( although it was more of a chuckle )
sorry, that should be "for making me write LOL and meaning it"
Waldorf salad or variation. The gelatinous appearance of mayonnaise-smeared apples or grapes is unappetizing after an hour of dining.
I hate Waldorf Salad, too – but it's because of the walnuts. That and the fact that I was forced to eat it as a child, and made to sit at the table for HOURS until I did, and my mom made it many times a year, not just for Thanksgiving. I'd rather just eat an apple, eat some celery, eat a handful or raisins and skip the rest of it.
the dish pictured is hard to pull off successfully for many people. I myself tried making it and it was yucky. But my mom somehow was able to pull it off with flying colors, we all had seconds. The pot luck we had last Sat. did include a green beann/deep firied onion dish and it was ...yucky! hint: maybe use fresh green beans. I think that's the ticket. frozen g. beans are the death knell of it for sure. there's always stuffing.
I bought 4 bags of treats for my cats today and Publix dressing, gravy, and rolls. Then got a boars head turkey breast to heat up. Never tried one but hopefully it'll be ok. : ). We hope all of you have the happiest and Funnest holiday weekend ever. : )
Gosh. I like everything at Thanksgiving. But not so much pickled peaches. Or relatives saying mean things. : ). My favorite is the dressing and gravy and rolls. And mashes taters. I sure miss my grandma. Now she could cook : )
It's just SO horrible that all of you have so many dishes that you detest. I spent last Thanksgiving cooking for people who hadn't had anything to eat in at least a day. They would have given their.........anything to have what we complain about. COOK FOR YOURSELVES!!!!! STOP YOUR COMPLAINING. If you don't like what your mother-in-law or grandmother or mother or father etc etc makes, then make Thanksgiving dinner yourself and make what you like.................DUH!!! OH, wait, you don't know how to cook.....awwww, poor individual. LEARN..........get your lives together folks. It's called THANKSGIVING day, not COMPLAINING day.
Amen.
The question was – Is there a Thanksgiving dish you just dread? Quit preaching. I donated my Christmas bonus to the Red Cross to help people affected by Sandy.
If invited to Jerry's house, I think I'll pass. ha ha.
Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I should really just be thankful when some idiot puts OYSTERS in stuffing. I mean, they are cooking, right, and nothing says THANKSGIVING more than snot-like shellfish stuffed inside poultry.
Well, be ready for me to throw up all over your nice spread. It will be my gift. Be thankful for it.
LOL..
For decades creamed onions were assigned to someone in our family. Every year a few brave souls played with them on their plates. No one ate any. They are finally off the list. Now we just have to drop the marshmallow/yam/brown sugar goo that no one eats. Both are a waste – literally. Every bit ends in the trash after a short stay on a plate or two. Why make dishes no one eats. I love onions and sweet potatoes or yams – cooking them to mush or adding gobs of sugar to a vegetable dish is the "sin".
Oh, please...put a cork in it. This is just a bit of fun. We all beat ourselves with knotted ropes, wear hair shirts, chant prayers of remorse, and crawl on our bloody hands and knees to the homeless shelters every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah, and donate all of our income to charity. Of course, you must live on bread and water, Jerry. How could you enjoy anything more knowing others don't have as much?
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing.
Being told he would have to work the double shift at Target this Black Friday, Jerry felt he had one opportunity to feel superior to everyone else on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, his attempt failed miserably
You guys are crazy. Green bean casserole is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Pour some turkey gravy over it and it's even better. Not sure how they managed to make the picture above look so disgusting though. I'd say the actual turkey is my least favorite. The tradition should be changed to chicken or duck.
Duck probably would have been the main meat at the harvest festivals, anyway...that or venison. I roast a chicken during the years when I can't be with family. Turkey is just...blech.
Duck is gross. If you are having bad turkey, then you aren't cooking it properly. Sorry, to be so blunt, but you guys are being a tad bit ridiculous.
Yes, because EVERYONE is required to have the same taste buds and must like everything that you do. You're being just slightly (read: very) hypocritical, saying how duck is gross but call someone else out when they say turkey is not to their liking.
Wrong! Duck is from heaven.
We're crazy for not liking your namesake? Sux to be you.
Turkey. Never liked it. I used to coat it in ketchup as a child to choke it down. Nowadays, I just make a meal without it. Extra points for not having an animal carcass at the center of the table!
The Question: "Is there a dish you just dread?" Yes, all the dirty ones in the sink afterwards.
DING, DING, DING...we have our winner!
I am thankful to have food to eat this year – nothing to dread for me.
Amen. We are very blessed. I'm thankful to still have a job and a good earm home and a car that runs. I'm also thankful and grateful for the CNN Blogs and my cats and GOD to keep me from being alone. We are blessed and life is good.
Nice post. I feel thie same as you. I feel more "in the zone" this year than I ever have.
Agreed.
If someone is gracious enough to do all that grocery shopping, cleaning & cooking, who am I to complain?:
Thank you anonymous, I'm with you on that.
I'm right there, with you. Happy Thanksgiving!
I make the meal, so I don't prepare anything I don't like! Booya!
Exactly!
Use mixed veggies instead of green beans. Makes it a lot more tolerable.
...and does anyone else think that photo (at the start of the article) is just disgusting? looks like something I was trying to avoid 50 years ago in college on the morning after.
I thought it was chitterlings at first. Oh Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Right there with you Mr.Steve. Snotty green beans, whipped cream in or on anything, cranberry relish (love the jelly tho) and peecan pie are my prime avoidances. Everything else is fair game.
Just skip it and order a pizza! It goes better with Football anyway!
Shredded Turkey pizza is something I plan to trademark.
Anything sweet and sticky on my sweet potatoes, savory please.
My ex-mother in law's turkey. Only she could dry-out a butterball turkey in a basting bag. her mashed potatoes were close kin to library paste.
i don't even know what to say other than "run away" or "I'm so sorry"
sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Yuk
Green Bean Casserole, Onion Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Any Jello Salad, Cranberry relish out of a can – UCK
Green bean casserole gets a bad rap! It can be delightful as long as it doesn't come from a can/freezer. Try out this recipe and you will never go back. http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/11/worlds-best-green-bean-casserole.html
link isn't working for me. but the casserole thing (in my opinion) sucks anyway. try real green beens, fresh, panfried a few minutes in butter with a sprinkle of s&p, add some caramilized onions and shrooms.
It's thanksgiving, spend a few minutes with fresh stuff. you will be amazed!!!
Hey Carrie, Thanks for posting that recipe. It looks delicious!
Did anyone find out who voted for Obama?
yeah; over half the voters. now go home, you're on the wrong forum.
Over 50%+ of Americans? Go outside sometimes and you won't have any trouble finding one. Also, Obama is not a Thanksgiving dish (at least not in MY family).
Americans did. I heard that the Nazi's didn't.
*chuckle*
Any "salad" that involves Jell-o. That sort of thing should be illegal.
Surprisingly, I don't hate on the green bean casserole, though now I will think of it differently. Gaak.
And I'm trying to grow out of it, but I really hate running into giblets when I'm eating stuffing.
absolutely agree with the jello thing. I like jello IF it is jello. the only thing that is allowed to be added is cool-whip/whipped cream.
Green bean casserole
Anything with sweet potatoes
with you there...