more controversy coming

[patfanken]

I didn't know dressing was a side dish

I'm pretty sure he's talking about stuffing.

Like some others, I'm ALL in on Team Judon. Macaroni and cheese is a wonderful dish, BUT not at Thanksgiving.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I don't understand why they call it Hamburger "Helper" when it's fine, just by itself.

 

[jimnance]

Just playing the "Ignorant Dad" role.

Dads who play that role are Intelligent Dads.
The ones who never play "Ignorant Dad"are the truly ignorant ones.

 

[1960Pats]

I'm half Italian so I NEVER EVER have eaten "mac & cheese". I eat what Uncle Carmine used to call "Heart Attack On A Plate", Fettuccine Alfredo...with 4 or 5 spoonfuls of grated Parmesan/Romano

My granddaughter goes for the Fettucine Alfredo whenever we go out. I'm more of a sea food and red sauce guy if I'm doing Italian food.

My mother was the best cook and baker of anyone by far. And we had a lot of great cooks in my family back then. How she managed to set up a giant spread for 20 on Christmas Eve with one tiny oven was amazing.

As for Mac and Cheese, we don't have it at Thanksgiving but I do make it with Kelbasa once in a blue moon. The key is to use good ingredients and not eat too much of it after it's done.

 

[Captain Cliche]

I've been catching and eating lobstah since I was a wee lad. If you're going to bake stuff a live lobster, take your chef's knife, turn the lobster on it's back and stab down then back toward the tail from right between the eyes. Instant mortality. Everything that lives makes a particular noise when you put it in boiling or steaming water. Suck it up, buttercups and use your instinct to survive. Nature is not show ponies, unicorns and pretty butterflies...it's not fair and almost always brutal in some fashion.

Or get a frigging cardboard sign, put on your faux mink coats and go walk a PETA protest line outside Abe&Louie's...jeezus krist

OT mini-rant Alert:

I keep chickens. Fresh eggs are absolutely awesome...the yokes are more orange if you feed them old, leftover salmon, or let them free range some (here we have to worry about eagles).

They are born with a finite amount of oocytes, just like human women. Hatchery birds will lay like crazy for 2 years then they are mostly spent.
Birds from private breeders usually have a better temperament, lay eggs with a thicker shell, and lay at a lower rate over a longer period.
Either way you are faced with the decision of keeping them as pets, or doing the honest thing and killing them. Some people give them away or turn them into an animal shelter. This just pushes the issue onto someone else's plate.

When I kill a batch of old hens, I thank them for their service, I ask them to forgive me for taking their life, and thank Mother Nature for her bounty (each one). I catch the blood (my wife is Chinese and makes soup). I eat the giblets (fresh liver is an excellent source of vitamins A. B. and calcium).
The guts and feathers go into the garden.

If you eat meat you are killing something. You're just paying someone else to do it.
If you're vegetarian or vegan, you're killing plants (and maybe making the the distinction that plants have less intrinsic value than animals).

You never see PETA protest the killing of fish. Obviously having fur puts an animal at a higher value in their eyes.

 

[farn]

The Narragansetts were using them for fertilizer when the Pilgrims first came ashore

My 75 year old father speaks of helping his father throw dead lobsters in the fields to grow a garden for the family.

(grand-père sold his license in the 70s for 25$…. They going for 1.3M lately…)

 

[ctpatsfan77]

 

[n6249c]

The thing that can be banned is the green bean casserole.

Admit it, you just want to skim off and eat the fried onions on top. Nobody wants the nasty green beans and the cream of mushroom, or whatever else the goop is. Just put out a can of the Durkee fried onions.

keepers
sweet potato caserole- none of those marshmallows, though, just walnut / brown sugar buttery yumminess
Stuffing- Pepperidge farm, not too much fancied up, either. Though my Mom made a killer oyster dressing, my wife won't hear it.
cranberry sauce- never, EVER, EVER, from a can, fresh real cranberries, cooked up, sweetened, and chilled, slathered on top of the turkey
turkey- smoked or slow cooked, with gravy, not from a can or even a packet
apple pie - home made, served warm, with vanilla ice cream
bread- homemade yeast rolls or a warm-from-the oven braided bread

OK but non-essential
mashed potatoes - love them, but prefer sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving
ham- if you have turkey haters it is good. My family, other than me, hates pork, so we don't ever have ham. But growing up it topped turkey.
macaroni & cheese - love it, but don't need it
deviled eggs- I am down for a few. But just a few.
pumpkin pie- good to have when the apple pie is all gone, I guess, with whipped cream
pecan pie- far superior, but usually save that for the Christmas spread.

banish
green bean casserole
all salads- just give up the illusion. Not the day to eat lettuce
anthing with jello in it- just no, crowds out stomach space useful for apple pie ala mode
anything totally non-traditional, like sushi, pizza, roasts, lobster, etc. Not bad food, but nothing screams Thanksgiving about it.

Agree about green bean casserole. But you’re wrong about sweet potato casserole. They should be at the top of the list, but only when served baked in their skin,nswimming in butter. No need to pollute your GI tract with walnuts (canker sore trigger) and refined sugar (did you know brown sugar is refined white sugar moistened with molasses? so, totally fake!). And everything below your ok but nonessential line can go except the pies. They’re keepers.

 

[Dragda]

I have a vegetarian in the family. We always have Mac and Cheese. It beats those sweet potatoes with marshmallows on them.

 

[PScottman]

It beats those sweet potatoes with marshmallows on them.

Our family discovered that we actually enjoy sweet potatoes - when they're made savory instead of MORE sweet. We started using a tandoori spice mix with them, roasting under high heat, and now we have them quite a bit.

One of the keys of expanding the palette is balancing flavors - instead of doubling down on the flavor profile (adding another sweet element to an already sweet food) always try another component - salt, bitter, sour, or savory.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Once I moved south, I began to realize that mac and cheese is considered a vegetable down here! You should have seen the looking of my southern wife and her family when I put out the lasagna next to the turkey one year! LOL, now, they ask for it!

And yes, Mac and Cheese has made an appearance a few times.

If you go to Hawaii, they consider macaroni salad, the same way the south treats mac and cheese, its served with everything!

 

[Dragda]

Our family discovered that we actually enjoy sweet potatoes - when they're made savory instead of MORE sweet. We started using a tandoori spice mix with them, roasting under high heat, and now we have them quite a bit.

One of the keys of expanding the palette is balancing flavors - instead of doubling down on the flavor profile (adding another sweet element to an already sweet food) always try another component - salt, bitter, sour, or savory.

We eat them all the time. Roasted with sea salt and olive oil or some such. I actually like them when they aren’t ruined with marshmallows.

 

[Dragda]

I don't understand why they call it Hamburger "Helper" when it's fine, just by itself.

What do you do when the hamburger just isn’t ready to accept help?

 

[PScottman]

What do you do when the hamburger just isn’t ready to accept help?

Intervention.

 

[PP2]

Wasted five seconds calling a timeout.... SMH

 

[PP2]

Ughhhh. WTF? If you're just going to run the clock out, just kneel. Why call two runs in a row?

 

[jimnance]

No need to pollute your GI tract with walnuts (canker sore trigger)

Not so fast my friend! Walnuts are ppund for pound the most powerful anti-inflammatory food in thek world! I found this out to my shock when I went to the official arthritis website. My left hip is bone on bone and Im awaiting total hip replacement surgery after which I'll be bionic! But in the meantime I work and workout every day so whatever helps reduce the pain and inflammation Im for it.
First thing I had to give up was ALL dairy products as thats the single worst thing you can eat. You dont even need to have serious arthritis yet. Especially if you lift heavy weightsike I did, or played football ir basketball like I did., you shouldn't be eating any dairy- or at least cut it way down.
Agree with everything else you said bro- but walnuts are great food- just dont eat a whole bag at one time to avoid cankers which Ive never had