Another Take on Thanksgiving Contributions

Are you, like me, celebrating your upcoming Thanksgiving feast as a guest? Are your hosts asking you for a dish to share? That’s a great deal! True, you won’t have those heavenly aromas in your kitchen, or leftover turkey and accompaniments. On the other hand, you won’t be reheating, repeating, and re-eating the same thing for who knows how long after Thursday. Plus, you probably won’t be cooking and baking for hours (or days) next week. Since you’ll have that extra time, why not up the ante on the usual Thanksgiving potluck side dishes? That will likely require some additional ingredients, but the result will surely be worth the effort in smiles and compliments.

Carrying on traditions …

Suppose the host asks you to bring potatoes? While your first thought might be traditional mashed potatoes, they are not the best candidate for transporting and reheating. If you’re any distance away, even if you manage to keep them warm, your mashed potatoes are going to be mashed bricks of starch by the time dinner is served. If your hosts are game, consider an alternative – maybe funeral potatoes, hasselback potato gratin, or French onion scalloped potatoes. Too cheesy? How about melting potatoes, garlic and feta mashed-potato casserole, or potatoes au gratin with chives and Gruyère?

… but going a different route

And instead of that beloved Thanksgiving green bean casserole – canned green beans, condensed cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, and canned French fried onion rings – maybe try fresh green beans almondine or garlicky green beans with ham. Or how about cranberry-bacon green beans or green beans with shallots, hazelnuts, and tarragon?

Of course, Thanksgiving is often associated with sweet potatoes, the tubers that originated in the Americas. Here are a few unusual ways to prepare them for a tasty side dish. You could go full New England with roasted sweet potatoes with spiced maple glaze. Or you could try Ruth’s Chris sweet potato casserole. Or maybe even a sweet potato casserole with graham cracker streusel. Hmmm…

What if you’ve been assigned carrots? Carrots tossed in olive oil and roasted is an easy preparation, and they transport and reheat pretty well. But you could suggest garlic parmesan roasted carrots or roasted carrots and parsnips with honey. You could try steamed carrots with honey butter. Or you could bring some roasted carrots and chickpeas with marinated feta.

You get the idea. Why should your contribution be the same old same old? It’s not that much harder to bring something different that will tickle the taste buds of your Thanksgiving tribe – not to mention giving your hosts a new flavor sensation while allowing them to concentrate on the main meal.

NOTE:   This was originally supposed to arrive in your e-mail on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I apologize for the delay.  I had some serious website tech issues which took a long time to fix, and I am hoping that this has been successful.  

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