Okay, aside from the turkey, I mean,

[yewberry]

does your family (or whomever you celebrate with) have any holiday meal things that just gross you the heck out?

My mom has this thing she makes every Thanksgiving and Christmas...it's creamed onions. Jesus. I don't recall ever actually eating the creamed onions (or seeing anyone but mom eating them, for that matter), but they can't be any kind of good at all. I asked her about it last year--she apparently never noticed that she was the only one who ate them. (I hope I didn't ruin it for her!)

My dad's wife--now there is an interesting cook. Last year, she made some kind of breakfast arrangement with sausage shaped in a kind of a ring, then put eggs in the middle and baked it. God help them--they ate it. ('Course, this is the woman who frosts meatloaf with mashed potatoes.)

One unalterable rule in my families during holiday time: we never, ever serve turnips. Ever. In WWII, during his POW days, my grampa was fed turnips for months on end. So, although he passed away years ago, the evil 'neeps will never have a place at my holiday table.

Got any holiday meal oddities to share?

[LeftyMom]

1. My mother puts butter on everything. The turkey, the veggies, the pie crust. Ever.Y.Thing.

I figure if somebody makes no effort to feed me on a food centered holiday (even if I weren't vegan I'm allergic to dairy, so slathering everything in butter means I absolutely can't eat it) they're sending a message, and not a terribly subtle one, that I'm not welcome. So this year rather than preparing a whole meal and trekking across town with it, I'll be doing my own thing. It's just less stress for all involved.

[yewberry]

2. Heh--I hear that.

My mom still has trouble with the dairy thing. She seems to think that, as long as a dish doesn't have milk in it, it's fine. Butter, for whatever reason, never seems to enter her consciousness.

In my dad's family, fully half of the group is lactose-intolerant, so at least there's some attention paid to that end of things.

Oy, isn't Thanksgiving fun?

[LeftyMom]

3. The funny thing was, Mom wanted me to come to thanksgiving this year.

Well, more accurately, she wanted me, flvegan and leftykid to come to thanksgiving. With no intention of feeding any of us. Now, I'm not sure when it became okay to not feed half the guests at one's dinner, but we're making other plans.

[yewberry]

4. Did she think

that y'all might hit the Taco del Mar for veg burritos before dinner? (Heck, I guess that would've cut down on the cooking for her.)

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving--give each other a hug from me.

[LeftyMom]

5. Let's just say my mother is not famous for thinking and leave it at that.

;)

Edit: Hugs. Got it. :D

[Ilsa]

6. Actually, my in-laws tried to take care of me as a vegetarian.

I'll give them hugs for the effort, but they did put chicken stock in the dressing tey set aside for me. Also, tey didn't make alot of the typical side dishes that I rely upon. Other family members were supposed to bring them, but they didn't show up until late in the day. Yeah, I picked up some animal protein yesterday, and my innards are growling, and it will be more tan a day or two before all this nasty stuff passes. But I won't complain about that.

I WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS THOUGH: niece's husband brought in two small raw turkeys to fry outside. He seasoned them with that injector thing, stored them in the fridge until he got the oil hot enough. The turkeys stank up the fridge and the freezer and the ice. I couldn't bear the smell of the raw birds. I had to go outside. At one point, I was looking for a box of Arm & Hammer to stow with the damn turkeys to soak up some of that smell. God, it was awful!

[CrispyQ]

8. They don't smell it like we do.

The stench, the death.
My mother remarks at my unusual path through the grocery store -- anything to avoid going near the death department.

[Ilsa]

11. The wrapped meat doesn't it me as hard. But once he took the

bag off of those two birds, they starting warming up to room temp and really reeked the stench of death.

[yewberry]

12. Well, it was thoughtful of them to try.

Sorry to hear that you have a case of the growlies.

And yuck on that bird smell--don't try to mix a drink with that ice! You reminded me that my mom & her partner tried to fry a turkey outside a couple of years ago. They made some kind of catastrophic miscalculation which ruined their turkey (at least there were no injuries) and the UnTurkey I brought ended up being the main course.
*snicker*

[Raine]

16. One time a friend went to so much

trouble to fix me a 'vegetarian' meal, she had macaroni and cheese, tuna salad and jello. I knew I had to eat something but no way could I eat the tuna (never been able to stand fish) macaroni and cheese I like but I knew I had to eat something else too so I chocked down the jello. When someone tries so hard to please you don't want to hurt their feelings by scraping practically the whole meal.

YUCK the fried turkeys, I think I would've puked. I love going to Renaissance Faires but those disgusting turkey legs people carry around just stink to high heaven.:puke:

EDIT: Spelling

[CrispyQ]

7. Oh dear.

I am laughing so hard at a woman who frosts her meatloaf with mashed potatoes.

:rofl:

Really?


:rofl:

:rofl:

[Ilsa]

10. That sounds a little like a shepard's pie. A disgusting shepard's pie. nt

[yewberry]

13. Really.

They're a good match, at least culinarily. She married a man who thinks that fried Spam is high art.

[Robeson]

9. Thankfully, when we do the Holidays with the parents, we go out to eat...

...at a restaurant now-a-days. We usually do Japanese or Thai, so I can always load up on veggies and tofu.

[yewberry]

14. Now there's an idea.

Of course, there are a lot of us, and some babies in the group...okay, there's always take-out!


...Who am I kidding? Decent take-out in rural NH on a holiday?
I guess I can dream.

[NMMNG]

15. My mom used to make Watergate Salad every year

Watergate Salad

1 package (4-serving size) Jell-O Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Topping

Stir the pudding mix, pineapple with juice, marshmallows and nuts in large bowl until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Refrigerate 1 hour or until ready to serve. Garnish as desired.

:puke:



And I used to love her potato salad since she never put onions in it, but last time I went to visit I discovered she has begun puting relish in it. Dill relish. x(