We at FamilyFun are pleased to invite you to a real family Thanksgiving. Pull up a chair and click below, and you'll find yourself sampling regional culinary specialties in the dining rooms of 13 households across America. To assemble this scrumptious feast, we asked FamilyFun readers to submit their favorite Thanksgiving recipes from appetizers to side dishes to desserts--everything but the bird (we figured we'd leave that to you)--and the results are positively mouthwatering.
GRITS CAKES WITH SHRIMP JALAPENO JELLY (TEXAS)
Paige Travis C. credits her two grandmothers for inspiring these zesty fried cakes, which serve as a warm-up to the family Thanksgiving. "The grits are from my father's mother, Bootsy, who was a wonderful East Texas cook, and the shrimp are straight from my mom's mom, Anna, who is Louisiana French," says Paige. When the family moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, last year, they added locally made jalapeño jelly to the mix.
COLD SALMON SPREAD (WASHINGTON STATE)
This savory appetizer comes to us from Deborah C. of Federal Way, Washington. Made with both fresh and smoked salmon, it's a natural match for the Pacific Northwest. This Thanksgiving, the family will host 13 guests, and while the turkey grills over real wood chips, they'll all be sampling this creamy spread, served with crackers, fresh cut vegetables, and toasted French bread.
ORZO AND WILD RICE (WISCONSIN)
This colorful rice casserole blends ingredients from across the Midwest--wild rice from Minnesota, dried cherries from Michigan, and cooking savvy from a native Wisconsinite, Amy H. Amy now lives with her husband and two kids in Massachusetts--and since she had the job of testing all the recipes for this article, she's got lots of new ideas for this year's feast.
SPINACH AND PINE NUT SALAD (CALIFORNIA)
Light, crispy, and healthful, this spinach salad is California dreamy. "It's the only salad I can eat without dressing," says Candace P., whose mom invented it when Candace was growing up in Santa Ana, California. The roasted pine nuts complement the turkey bacon (regular bacon works fine too), and the mandarin oranges add a little extra zing.
SAUSAGE CORN BREAD DRESSING (ILLINOIS)
When Joniece Puckett's Lithuanian grandmother made this savory Old World dressing in her Chicago home, she never used a recipe. "It was just a little of this and a little of that," says Joniece, who lives in Deer Park, Texas. "I had to run around behind her with a notebook to get it right." Luckily, she did. It's delicious, especially when drenched in piping-hot turkey gravy.
SOUTHERN GREEN BEANS (MARYLAND)
A few Thanksgivings ago, Renee Z. replaced a richer dish traditionally served at her family's get-togethers with this lighter and healthier bean dish, and it was gobbled up. Her recipe was inspired by a Southern cookbook (sent to her by a dear friend) called "Food for Thought," published by the Junior League of Birmingham, Alabama.
CRANBERRY-ORANGE RELISH (MASSACHUSETTS)
This tangy relish is the pride and joy of the kids at the Christian Cooperative Preschool in Reading, Massachusetts. "They've made it every year since the school opened 30 years ago," says Lynda Z., whose daughters attended CCP. "That baby jar the kids bring home isn't nearly enough to go around, so we make a batch at home with our locally grown berries."
INDIANA CORN CASSEROLE (INDIANA)
Sherry F. hails from corn country--Carmel, Indiana--and she knows how to turn the local cash crop into a melt-in-your-mouth dish. She started with a recipe from the "Crème de Colorado Cookbook," published by the Junior League of Denver, and dressed it up by adding festive red and green peppers.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUFFLE (MARYLAND)
As newlyweds, Robyn H. and her husband, Todd, were looking for a new dish to contribute to their family's rural Virginia Thanksgiving feast. "We brought this soufflé because it was one of the only things my grandmother Ritenour did not serve in her yearly 25-side-dish spread!" says Robyn, who notes that her husband deserves credit for discovering it. "It's squash, so it's good for you--and it tastes like dessert, so my kids love it."
SWEET-POTATO SURPRISE (NORTH CAROLINA)
When Lisa S. was growing up in North Carolina, she and her cousins pitched in every Thanksgiving to make this generations-old recipe. "We would throw sticks up in the pecan trees in the backyard to knock down the pecans," says Lisa. "My grandmother had fresh sweet potatoes, and my dad would crack the coconut." Lisa now lives in Winter Haven, Florida, but every year her grandmother sends her a package of pecans to top off this sweet-potato surprise.
PERSIMMON PUDDING (ILLINOIS)
This unusual pudding comes from Cindy M., whose grandmother used to make a huge batch every Thanksgiving using ripe persimmons from her backyard in Clark County, Illinois. That was the only persimmon pudding Cindy had ever seen--until she spotted a bowlful on the table during her first Thanksgiving with her husband John's family in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then, last year, while visiting Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, she came across a recipe for a Native American version. She deduced that her early ancestors, who first settled in the South, must have adapted the Native American dish and brought it with them when they migrated west. To bring the story full circle, when FamilyFun looked for persimmons out of season (in midsummer, so we could sample Cindy's recipe), the only ones we could find were in Indiana at the home of a Native American man named Honey Bear. We interrupted his afternoon of gourd gardening when we phoned to ask if we could purchase some of his persimmon pulp. He graciously sent us three pints.
HAZELNUT, WHITE CHOCOLATE, AND PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE (OREGON)
Kris F. of Albany, Oregon, invented this flavorful cheesecake one day after bringing home a bag of hazelnuts from Oregon's Willamette Valley. "Basically, it was just a happy accident," says Kris. "But to back up the story a little, my mom makes great pies. I've always been a little intimidated by piecrust, so my specialty became cheesecakes." If this creamy, sweet, spicy dessert is Kris's excuse for a pumpkin pie, we certainly won't complain.
CRUNCHY CARAMEL APPLE PIE (NEW YORK)
Apples are big business in Monroe County, New York. Even so, Amy Watkins, who moved to the area last year, hasn't found a pie to beat her crunchy caramel apple delight. Last year, Amy made five different pies--for four people. "They were all good," she says, "but this one was still the best."
We at FamilyFun are pleased to invite you to a real family Thanksgiving. Pull up a chair and click below, and you'll find yourself sampling regional culinary specialties in the dining rooms of 13 households across America. To assemble this scrumptious feast, we asked FamilyFun readers to submit their favorite Thanksgiving recipes from appetizers to side dishes to desserts--everything but the bird (we figured we'd leave that to you)--and the results are positively mouthwatering.
