What Do You Have For Thanksgiving Meal?

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Tabitha said:
Jae cut the BS. You say your wife and her son insist on Turkey but in another thread you said you served chicken as your early Thanksgiving meal and another meat altogether for thanksgiving.
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As I previously explained Tabitha, we did brake with tradition this yard because of extraordinary circumstances. I suppose it would only be fair to give the same consideration to anyone else here who had a visitor from the other side of the world. How many others here qualify for such an exemption. Of course at Christmas we will be returning to the traditional way alone should cherish and love.
 
Pr. Jae said:
That's why a Christmas dinner tutorial is so desperately needed.
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There is no one right way to celebrate anything, I would suggest. Families can have their own traditions that may or may not incorporate those of their culture.

I will be spending Christmas Day this year exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico or something like that (I forget which port my cruise is in that day). I am not sure what I will be eating, but I doubt it will involve turkeys. When we were in Cuba, I believe the resort roasted a pig for the Christmas Eve dinner and then we ate in the Japanese a la carte for Christmas Day. I was not bothered in the least by "lack of tradition" because the only tradition that mattered was that I was sharing it with the two most important people in my life.

Taking a family vacation at Christmas is becoming a Mendalla family tradition because it is one of the rare times both Mrs. M and Little M are off school at the same time allowing us the luxury of travelling as a family (the other is the last 3 weeks or so before Labour Day).
 
Mendalla said:
There is no one right way to celebrate anything, I would suggest. Families can have their own traditions that may or may not incorporate those of their culture. I will be spending Christmas Day exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico or something like that (I forget which port my cruise is in that day). Taking a family vacation at Christmas is becoming a Mendalla family tradition because it is one of the rare times both Mrs. M and Little M are off school at the same time allowing us the luxury of travelling as a family (the other is the last 3 weeks or so before Labour Day).
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Turkey is unattainable in Mexico?
 
Pr. Jae said:
Turkey is unattainable in Mexico?
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I am at the mercy of what the cruise lines' chef prepares and I highly doubt he will prepare only turkey. My policy on a trip like this is to eat what looks good and is nominally healthy, tradition be damned.

If it makes you feel better, my extended family will be having a get together after I return and that will likely involve turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and some other goodies.
 
Mendalla said:
I am at the mercy of what the cruise lines' chef prepares and I highly doubt he will prepare only turkey. My policy on a trip like this is to eat what looks good and is nominally healthy, tradition be damned.

If it makes you feel better, my extended family will be having a get together after I return and that will likely involve turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and some other goodies.
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You are free, of course, to buck tradition and go on a turkeyless cruise if you so choose. I just think it's pretty sad is all. You're putting your desire for personal pleasure above doing what's right for our society.
 
I DID find it interesting to hear what others ate - just don't care to try to convince myself, or anyone else, that there is truly a tradition about Thanksgiving/Easter/Christmas foods outside the immediate family. Once I had tried turkey I was quite unimpressed- I much prefer almost any other meat. For me it fits in a category of "I can eat it but don't find it tempting".
 
Pr. Jae said:
You're putting your desire for personal pleasure above doing what's right for our society.
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I'll trust that there was supposed to be a smiley on this, because the notion that not eating turkey is somehow going to run our society into the ground has to be a joke.
 
Before I moved here I always hosted a Christmas Eve dinner. It was a wide open menu as the traditional meal was later. Once we had a feast of 3 different kinds of ribs, once pork loin and apples, and many other fine meals.
Jae is just being a rabble rouser. My guess is that he has NEVER cooked a turkey in his life.
 
KayTheCurler said:
I DID find it interesting to hear what others ate - just don't care to try to convince myself, or anyone else, that there is truly a tradition about Thanksgiving/Easter/Christmas foods outside the immediate family.
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You don't think any traditional foods go outside the immediate family?! There are quite a few foods that hold significance to cultural groups.
 
Chemgal - I was only talking about families. Wider groups are rather like families too. Though I doubt there are any families or wider groups who have preserved a tradition exactly for more than three generations. I hope the turkey eaters enjoyit - and others get equal enjoyment from whatever foods they choose to eat on special occasions.
 
Not to be difficult Kay but the Ukraine tradition does have a set of specified dishes for their Christmas feast. It's larger than families.
 
Tabitha said:
Not to be difficult Kay but the Ukraine tradition does have a set of specified dishes for their Christmas feast. It's larger than families.
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12 meatless dishes on Christmas Eve. Oh they are so good except I don't like wheat and honey.
 
Tabitha and Crazyheart - true enough that the Ukrainian Christmas tradition appears to be a 'set feast'. One problem is that most people I know who claim to follow that tradition use substitute ingredients and sometimes omit certain dishes and substitute with others. Actually I don't know two Ukrainian heritage families who follow the 'tradition' in exactly the same way. There are variations from different parts of the original country and variations that crept in over the years because some items were maybe not available where the immigrant group settled.

I have personal experience with how this type of situation happens. As a child I was served a particular traditional to my family Christmas meal. I left home, started a family and served 'the same' meal. After a year or two I dropped something as my partner didn't like it. There were other things my children refused to eat, so I stopped cooking them. Now that my children are grown and take their turns to prepare the Christmas meal other alterations have come into play. I NEVER served fruit in Jello with the meal I prepared but the younger generation always does. A daughter serves buns with the meal because her one time partner preferred that - and now her children insist it wouldn't be Christmas without them!
 
KayTheCurler said:
Tabitha and Crazyheart - true enough that the Ukrainian Christmas tradition appears to be a 'set feast'. One problem is that most people I know who claim to follow that tradition use substitute ingredients and sometimes omit certain dishes and substitute with others. Actually I don't know two Ukrainian heritage families who follow the 'tradition' in exactly the same way. There are variations from different parts of the original country and variations that crept in over the years because some items were maybe not available where the immigrant group settled.

I have personal experience with how this type of situation happens. As a child I was served a particular traditional to my family Christmas meal. I left home, started a family and served 'the same' meal. After a year or two I dropped something as my partner didn't like it. There were other things my children refused to eat, so I stopped cooking them. Now that my children are grown and take their turns to prepare the Christmas meal other alterations have come into play. I NEVER served fruit in Jello with the meal I prepared but the younger generation always does. A daughter serves buns with the meal because her one time partner preferred that - and now her children insist it wouldn't be Christmas without them!
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It's never going to be exactly the same. It doesn't mean that there isn't a traditional food outside of the immediate family though. For example, kutia is a common traditional food for many. The recipes might differ, but that doesn't mean it isn't traditional to a very large number of people, who are not an immediate family.
While the same level of significance might not be there, I think turkey for thanksgiving is also traditional to a large group of people. It doesn't mean it's the only right way, but it doesn't mean that it isn't traditional outside of an immediate family.
I'm sure there are other foods that do have significance to a wide number of people. Mooncakes come to mind, although I don't know enough to compare to something like kutia.
 
I agree and here is a list but like Kay says these can be changed or added to. The story behind each dish is very interesting.

The list of 12 dishes which are preparing on the Christmas Eve believing that every month will be generous:
1. Kutya.
2. Compote with dried fruits.
3. Fried fish.
4. Meatless borscht.
5. Cabbage with mushrooms.
6. Stuffed cabbage with rice and stewed carrots and parsnip.
7. Millet porridge with mushroom sauce.
8. Salad of beets and herring.
9. Salad with pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut and onians.
10. Bean cakes.
11. Nippy beaten with garlic, black pepper, green dill, tomato paste and oil.
12. Boiled potatoes.
Blog christmas dish, christmas dishes, dish, orthodox prayer, pearl barley, rice, salad, shouldn, Symbolism and Traditions in Ukraine, ukrainian christmas, Ukrainian Holidays, water
 
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