I'm not a turkey person. At all. But it's 6am & I'm abt to go crash & dream of sitting around the dining room table at my parents' house in a few hours & digging into a gorgeous standing rib roast -- if only Mom can manage to slice of a portion for me while it's still rare... That & a big serving spoonful of old-fashioned macaroni-&-cheese (i.e. the kind made w/sharp cheddar/then you pull the dish out of the oven/toss some breadcrumbs on top & run it under the broiler for a minute til the crumbs get all brown & toasty). And some gravy on top. And fresh carrots tossed w/butter & a sprinkling of cinnamon & nutmeg. Then a slice of sweet potato pie for dessert. My Mom puts out a major spread/but I usually pass on everything else. Except the collard greens & a token slice of turkey/to placate her. So what's yr fave Thanksgiving dish? Does anyone's family make anything really special or exotic?

Cranberry sauce. Hells yeah. I could eat that stuff forever. I wish I could get cranberries year round. I hate Thanksgiving.

Stuffing. Or, in the South, and especially for vegetarians, "dressing" (outside the bird). It took awhile before I could accept a square of this stuff coming out of a pan, as being as good as the glob that came out of the inner cavity of some formerly living thing, but now I have a high appreciation. It goes real good with cranberry sauce. And I usually don't ask questions as to what it might have been basted with either. But spare me the stove top stuff.

Every year, at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I play "guess the secret ingredients" with the mashed potatos. This year it was garlic tobascoe and chicken soup spices. Believe it or not, the one they've liked best so far was brown suger and a touch of mayo. I didn't tell them about the mayo. :-)

Another Thanksgiving,My mom came and got too wasted to eat,we had ham and a turkey,she puked all over the place,I have to clean up her mess tommorrow,and she called me a sot.I wish I could bust her one.

I broke down and ate with the Jewish Stoner clan. She's a really good cook. Hrm. We had (among other things) a pecan pie made with maple syrup instead of Karo. weird. And after dinner, and again after pie: the entire house filled with marijuana smoke, and I remembered why I don't smoke: gives me a headache. So most of the thanksgiving "special family time" was spent on the porch of a house full of strangers. Oh. and olives (black) in the stuffing. That was new to me, as was the pear sauce, eaten just like cranberry sauce. However you eat cranberr sauce. If it's a sauce, shouldn't it go on top of something? Do people drizzle it over the turkey? It mixes well with mashed potatoes though.

sweet potatoes with a crusty topping of baked pecans. yum.