Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always brought together two of my favorite things, being around people I care about and eating.  Whether it’s Thanksgiving with family at grandma’s house, or Friendsgiving in the Creek¹, some families/friends have traditions so stringent that if you f@%k with a classic recipe, you risk being ostracized.  Some families/friends couldn’t care less and have no problem forgoing tradition altogether.  Growing up, my family and extended family veered more toward the traditionalist side.  Staples included turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, scalloped corn, apple grape salad, and a unique “salad” called lime green jello (essentially it’s lime jello made with pineapples, cream cheese, and carrots. (Despite tradition, the younger generation has had no problem dropping carrots from the recipe.  Jello “salads” from back in the day were pure insanity!)).  Pumpkin pie and apple pie were the staples of the dessert menu.

My family was strangely critical about menu alternatives.  If someone showed up with something that didn’t fit the tradition, you can bet that person was going to be the subject of shit-talk for years to come.  As I grew up and became exposed to alternative thanksgiving menus I embraced it.  Ambrosia salad is delicious!  Pretzel raspberry jello cream something or other is fantastic.  You wanna serve falafel and guacamole on Thanksgiving, sign me up.  As far as I’m concerned the only food tradition I’m after is delight.  If the food is delicious, then I count that as a success!

As High-Clip and I (Carrot) were chatting about Thanksgiving we decided that this year, we would each share a menu item that would be welcome to any Thanks/friendsgiving table.

Carrot:

I mentioned that something called Scalloped Corn was a Thanksgiving staple while growing up.  It’s a pretty basic dish, but serves as the epitome of comfort food.  Warm, filling, and delicious.  It’s not a secret family recipe, but it does go back generations.  If you’re looking for a delicious recipe, here is our family staple.

Scalloped Corn: Cook time 30 min

Ingredients: 1 can of cream corn, 1 cup of milk, 1 and ½ cup of saltine crackers, 1 egg, salt and pepper to taste.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Smash crackers into crumbs.
3. Mix corn, milk, 1 cup of crackers into a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat (stir regularly).
4. Once boiling, rapidly mix in 1 beaten egg.
5. Melt 2-4 tablespoons butter and mix with remaining ½ cup of cracker crumbs.
6. Add buttered crumbs to the top of the corn mixture (just used for topping, don’t mix).
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

I’ve seen variations online that add different types of cream, some variations add cured ham, or red peppers.  My only recommended variation is adding more pepper than you think.  Aside from that, I think it’s perfect!  

This year I’m going to be camping over Thanksgiving break, and have every intention of heating up scalloped corn leftovers in a pie iron over the fire.

High-Clip:

I can’t say I’ve ever been much of a Thanksgiving food fan, but, like a normal person, I am a HUGE potato fan. I’m sure one of you out there is thinking, oh, potatoes are fine, but they’re nothing special. If that’s you, you’re either lying to yourself, or you’re delusional.

Mashed Potatoes:

Ingredients: potatoes, cream, butter, salt, and pepper

1. Wash and peel potatoes (feel free to do a poor job peeling; it adds some texture)
2. Cut potatoes
3. Boil potatoes
4. Once boiled, mash potatoes
5. Mix in some butter
6. Slowly add some heavy cream
7. Once you have the consistency you want, add salt and pepper to taste!

Because potatoes are so amazing and incredible, it is really quite hard to go wrong with this recipe. You can make it exactly as you wish, and this way you know it’ll be great!

So, there you go!  Corn and Potatoes, classic dishes for classy people!  We hope you have a great Thanksgiving day, no matter who you are with or what you eat!  And…if you have a classic family recipe you’d like to share, all of us at theDIHEDRAL would love to add it to our holiday menu!  Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, Creeksgiving, Dihedralgiving, Alonegiving, Workinglatebutgettingthatholidaypaygiving, or any other type of giving, we hope it’s a good one!

1. Friendsgiving in Indian Creek (also known as Creeksgiving) has become so popular that Outside Magazine has listed it among the 10 Commandments of Indian Creek.  “Thou shalt go to Creeksgiving once”.