Holiday meals

Well here in Scotland we don't celebrate Thanksgiving...But since tomorrow is my birthday..Whoopee... .I'am cooking steaks...For Xmas it's a Turkey crown with all the trimmings,and for Hogmanay,I'am getting a large carry out from my local Indian restaurant...I make my own basmati rice and various breads and chutneys,and I'll order 5 or 6 meals..Bit like a banquet and we all just help our selfs....

The holidays are tricky for my family. We celebrate it but food wise, we don't do it like most Americans. I mean, my father doesn't eat any kind of meat with wings. So no chicken, duck, turkey or pheasant. He will eat any kind of seafood, beef and pork though. Other than that, I'm not particularly fond of pasta overall so that complicates matters because everyone eats it and I don't. The reality is, my close family has so many distinctive likes and dislikes to food that it's hard to find a common ground among ourselves!

We did the traditional Thanksgiving meal once but it didn't go very well. Way too many leftovers and not enough people to enjoy it. Nowadays, my family heads to my aunt's house where we have a mix of the traditional holiday staples and Chinese food for Thanksgiving. (And it's probably better off anyways.) We do, however, have lobster and hot pot during the holidays. Those are probably the biggest ones there for my family.

We do pretty much what you described except we have to have "black eyed peas" on New Years, for good luck!

My Family is Acadian (eastern French Canadian)which means traditional foods like turkey frico (turkey potato soup),meat pie and fish cakes are a major part of our holidays

Christmas eve is always meat pie with homemade mustard pickles after getting home from midnight mass...my favorite tradition!

Christmas and Thanksgiving (Canadian) is traditional and is usualy turkey with all the trimminigs (with turkey frico for weeks after...but thats my favorite part)

New Years day is Lobsters and fish cakes

Our Thanksgiving is mostly traditional foods, except we add a Lasagna and Antipasto to the menu, because we're Italian and we like to EAT!

My Dad is first Generation American Italian, so our Christmas is always lots of traditional Italian dishes, all homemade.
Appetizers include Crostini, Isalata di Rinforzo, & Antipasti Platters. The Main courses include Lasagna with Italian hot and sweet sausage, Braciole, and Manicotti. Sometimes we have Osso Buco instead of Braciole.

For dessert we have Cannoli and my Grandma's traditional Pizzelle cookies, as well as my mom's apple pie. We don't eat any of the traditional Italian seafood dishes because no one but my mother likes them. Poor Mom's, they never seem to get what they want for Christmas

For Thanksgiving it's pretty traditional. Turkey, potatoes, stuffing, turnip, corn, pumpkin pie and apple pie. Mmmmm now I'm wishing our Thanksgiving was this week (I'm Canadian so ours is over )

Christmas Eve is finger foods like chicken fingers, cheese sticks, onion rings etc then Christmas day is turkey or ham with the fixins.

New Years is nothing special. In fact, I can't even remember what we had last year! We don't really celebrate it anyway though

We do Chicken on Thanksgiving because several of us in my family don't really like turkey. Plus, turkeys are so big! There are just 5 of us, so a chicken suffices just fine! We also have stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, broccoli or asparagus, corn, homemade gravy, and cranberry sauce. I always watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with my grandma and after dinner, we watch Miracle on 34th Street.

For Christmas Eve, we do a buffet with shrimp, oysters, crab dip, and assorted other "lesser" foods . On Christmas Day, we go to my brother-in-law's in Virginia for brunch - ham, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. We used to get together with my mom'a extended family, but we have been doing that less and less and sometimes several weeks before or after. One year we had Christmas in March because my cousin lives in Las Vegas and that was the first she was off school and work and could get a cheap flight home! We've started a new tradition with my parents that we call "Present Day". We exchange gifts the Saturday before Christmas and we spend the whole day together doing something fun or crazy instead of rushing around on real Christmas to get to all of our required stops. My dad loves ice cream and there is a particular kind called "Carmen's" that is made about 30 minutes from our home. So, last year on Present Day, we took a field trip to the Carmen's "factory" (it's an oversized shed out in some guy's back yard) for ice cream!

Our New Year's Eve is varied. Lately we've been hanging out at home and falling asleep before the ball drops! For New Year's Day, we usually stop over at my parents' house for some pork and sauerkraut.

Hogmanay is the party of parties...It's New Years celebrations in Scotland where we drink way too much scotch, and sing and dance way too much...And eat way too much...And in the morning when we awake, we wonder what we did last night..If I've still got my kilt on, then I feel I've had a good Hogmanay..LOL..

For Thanksgiving, I grew up with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed turnip (the orange kind, which some people call rutabaga), sweet potato casserole made with brown sugar and pineapple, the famous green bean casserole, corn, and pumpkin, apple, and mincemeat pie on the holiday table. I still make most of these dishes myself.

My mother's Christmas dinner was exactly the same. But I don't do that myself. I like a nice rib roast, or equally good steaks, with Yorkshire pudding or popovers. Other sides and desserts vary from year to year.

When I was young, Christmas Eve meant a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken so Mom wouldn't have to cook, since she was already busy getting ready for Christmas dinner and wrapping the last of the gifts. Sometimes I still do that just for nostalgia's sake. Or, if we're getting together with family on Christmas Day, hubby and I will have that rib roast or steak dinner Christmas Eve.

We do party foods for New Year's Eve. My family has no New Year's Day traditions. Hubby grew up with the Pennsylvania tradition of pork and sauerkraut, which is supposed to bring good luck.

Now, we are neither Jewish nor African-American, but I'm always looking for an excuse to eat good food. So every year, at some point during Hanukkah, I make latkes, which in my opinion are the world's best potato pancakes. And at some time during Kwanzaa I'll make some good old fashioned soul food.

We don't have Thanksgiving here.

Christmas dinner for us is Turkey (or sometimes goose!) stuffing, pigs in blankets, gravy, roast potatos, roast carrots and parsnips, brussel sprouts with chestnuts and bacon, peas, red cabbage, cranberry sauce and bread sauce.

What is in green bean casserole?
How do you make your sweet potato dishes?

Green bean casserole, recipe from a can of French's French fried onions

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can Campbell's cream of mushroom souop
3/4 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/3 cup French's French fried onions
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans green beans, drained, OR 2 (9 ounce) packages frozen cut green beans, thawed

Mix soup and milk, then add pepper, green beans, and 2/3 cup onions in a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until hot. Stir. Top with remaining onions. Bake 5 minutes.

My mother's sweet potato casserole

6 or 7 large sweet potatoes
1 can pineapple tidbits (I assume this means a large can)
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons wine
4 tablespoons pineapple juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil sweet potatoes, drain, and mash. Add all other ingredients, adjusting amounts to taste. Sprinkle top with additional brown sugar, dot with additional butter, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit about 45 minutes.

Canadians and UK folks, I apologize for the old-style measurements, but that's what we still use in the good old USA.

Are you talking about tourtiere? Love that! Also love mustard pickles. I've tried to talk my mom into making them again but so far, no luck.
Like most of you, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are very similar with turkey, stuffing and all the fixings and also a ham. Pumpkin pie is a must for both holidays. Christmas Eve varies depending on where we are and we tend to have a bunch of appetizers on New Year's Eve, but nothing special on January 1st.

Well I would share our Thanksgiving menu but this year its a bit different
Because we are just staying home, hanging out and.......
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wait for it........
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PACKING!
because we fly to WDW the next morning

Yay!!! We'll be there just 2 days ahead of you!

We have always done a traditional Italian/American Thanksgiving. For starters we do home made bread and home made butter and EVOO, a cheese spread with crackers, and a large antipasti. Then we move on to the soup which is traditionally Italian Wedding Soup but we stray from that sometimes, doing pumpkin or butternut squash soup. Then out comes the pasta, the type changes every year. We are doing ravioli this year with home made gravy. After all of that we bring out the main course, turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, home made cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, candied yams, and lots of red wine. After dinner out come the desserts, pies, cakes, pastries, puddings, lots and lots of coffee, etc. It usually takes us about 8 hours to complete the entire meal. It's an event lol.

Christmas eve is also another Italian/American tradition. It consists of lots of fish. 7 different kinds, with staples usually being baccala, flounder, shrimp, and clams. We also have a big dish of pasta. Pasta with every meal. lol

Christmas day is just like thanksgiving but we usually make a ham instead of turkey.

Then you send your family home with all of the left overs. Turkey and ham sandwiches for a week!

Yes tourtiere! Mmmmmm.....tourtiere is usually ground meat but we also sometimes make a version with stewed meat (usually a mix of beef and pork).....mustard pickles are a must!

Oh Mandy, deviled eggs are my favorite!

Thank you, I might give this a try

A lot of us Canadians still use old-style measurements too. I was already an adult when they changed our system, so I think of myself as somewhat "bilingual in measurements". I am OK with celsius temps, kilometers instead of miles, etc., but still use cups, teaspoons, etc. for cooking. If anyone asks me how tall I am in centimeters, I am totally stumped, and I have to convert pounds into kilograms in my head. I use ounces and pounds at home, but used litres and millilitres when I was working. It can get very confusing.

I'm not completely metric illiterate. We learned it in school (which was around the same time you were in school) and I really wish the US would switch to metric and catch up with the rest of the world. In cooking, I can take a metric recipe and do a little arithmetic to convert to old-style measurements, and I also have liquid measuring cups with both cups/ounces and the metric equivalent.

Now, as for the other interesting posts above, as I mentioned in my first response, I like to try new things, especially specialties from other countries and cultures. So now y'all have got me wanting to make tourtiere and the Italian seven fishes this Christmas. (But not salt cod. No freaking way. )

I almost my favorite dessert!...Pouding chomeur (literally traslates to "poorman's pudding" or "unemployment pudding") Its called that because it is inexpensive to make and only has simple ingredients

we usually have this at any family gathering (holiday or otherwise.) Its a traditional (and super delicious) depression era Quebec dessert.

Its a very basic cake batter that is baked in a pool of simple caramel sauce...The cake rises and the caramel settles at the bottom making a it gooey and sweet at the bottom....mmmmmmmmm

Its a big part of my childhood and holidays..they would always serve it at the cabane a sucre (sugar shack) in the fall when its time to collect the sap from the maple trees..(hence why we always had it at Thanksgiving specifically)

Vous parlez Francais tres bien. Those terms bring back memories

I would love a recipe.

That almost sounds like like a pineapple upside down cake. We would just lay pineapple slices in the bottom of the pan, pour the Carmel sauce in and then the cake batter. When it's done, you just turn it upside down on a plate and the sauce runs down the sides and is coating the now top, umm , umm, good!

ingredients for syrup (also awesome if you sub some brown sugar with maple syrup...note MUST be real maple syrup, I know table syrup or corn syrup is common in the US but is not the same)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water (we sometimes use condensed milk or cream and makes it extra creamy)
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

ingredients for batter

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

In a saucepan melt butter or margarine; stir in brown sugar.

Add water and vanilla.

Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, make the dough.

Cream butter or margarine; add sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Add to butter mixture alternately with milk.

Pour syrup into a 9 X 13 baking dish.

Drop dough by teaspoons over syrup.

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.

and a little vanilla icecream on the side never hurts

I was actually pretty surprised there was no French Canadian food at Le Cellier (since it is a Canadian restaurant with a french name)...I was expecting this dessert at the very least.

Vettelover....I guess I fooled you (my French is not great)...I consider my self quite proficient at Frenglish or Franglais though

I'm spending today with my friends. We'll have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc).

I'll be heading home for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we usually go to my cousin's house for "Feast of the Seven Fishes" or "Fish Fest" as we call it. We usually have sauce with baccala (and a non-fish sauce for me and another cousin who doesn't eat fish), smelts, shrimp and a variety of other fish and seafood.

Christmas Day, we'll have ham, mashed potatoes and a variety of sides. If we have dinner at my parents, we usually have some sort of pasta. If we have dinner at my brother's, we usually don't have pasta.

Something I forget to mention was that my family also makes spring rolls and all of us think our version tastes much better than any spring roll we've tried at most Chinese restaurants! We use a cabbage, beef and shrimp filling for ours and size wise, much larger than most spring rolls.