Thanksgiving Menu

So this year, we're going to Austin for Thanksgiving. My sister just moved to Austin in May, so this is our first opportunity to visit her for the holidays. My parents are coming down and she's invited some of her friends over as well.

She's single and hasn't really had the opportunity to cook as much as I have, so I'm the designated chief chef for the occasion. I'm using her kitchen, which is much fancier than mine, and I'm looking forward to an oven that can hold more than one thing at a time, unlike in my state-of-the-art-circa-1955 kitchen.

I don't usually cook Thanksgiving dinner. I have in the past, but for the last few years, we've traveled (for fun, not to visit anyone) over Thanksgiving and we've eaten out. When we have Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law, I am in charge of the dressing, because as my mother in law points out, they don't make dressing in South America and she doesn't cook it right.

In fact, Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law is often amusing, as she realizes that she needs to produce a turkey, but for my American-born-and-bred tastes, she often misses on some of the sides. We'll have something weird, like rice, which is a perfectly good dish, but has no place on the Thanksgiving table, in my opinion. There have been years when we've had Thanksgiving with them, and I've cooked a whole additional Thanksgiving meal at home the next Sunday, just so it'll feel right to me (although I usually just do a breast then, not a full turkey).

Really, the sides on the table are our cultural legacies from our families, aren't they? There's a lot of regionality and family history represented on the Thanksgiving table, from which pies are made to what goes in your dressing, and from whether you stuff the bird or cook the dressing separately. When you form your own family, you blend your respective food traditions, which is kind of beautiful if you think about it.

Both my parents are from the South, so we have to have cornbread dressing (with sausage). We love it, and I usually make it for Christmas day too (that's the meal that I usually cook every year, with both my family and my husband's family and anyone else hanging around in attendance). My mom and my sister love the cranberry jelly from the can (the pure jelly), so we serve that sliced right along with the homemade cranberry sauce I make. My kids like the canned stuff better too, but I love the homemade sauce. Especially the next day on a turkey-and-dressing sandwich. It's one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal.

So, to that end, here is my menu for Thanksgiving.

Turkey
Cornbread Dressing
Corn Pudding (this is so rich and sinfully delicious. A spoonful is enough)
Mashed Potatoes
Asparagus
Salad
Parker House Rolls
Cranberries

Butterscotch-pecan pie
Lemon meringue pie
Pumpkin cake

I'm curious what HAS to be on your Thanksgiving table. What sides do you look forward to each year?