For this week’s Story Cauldron, I’d like to turn it over to you, my readers.
Here’s a two-question lightning round:
1. What is your least favorite food item you’ve eaten at a Thanksgiving/holiday meal? Do you turn your head at the gloppy green beans or run in fear of fruitcake? Or maybe you have a weird aunt who always brings something encased in aspic? I want to hear about it!
2. What is your fondest memory from a past holiday meal?
My least favorite is also my favorite: Green been casserole.
Did anyone else grow up eating these 1970s era Betty Crocker specials, involving a vegetable (usually canned, which is fine!), some kind of canned soup like cream of mushroom, and something crunchy like Ritz crackers or fried onions?
The green-bean casserole was canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, and fried onions, also from a can.
I didn't love it, but now think of it - and all these Betty Crocker-style recipes - with nostalgia!
As I've grown older I've realized my Midwestern farmhouse grandmother, having spent years tending to garden vegetables and struggling for a farm living, was excited about the convenience of all of these ingredients - it must have seemed like luxury.
My favorite memory also involves one of these casseroles - one night as teens, after a Thanksgiving farmhouse feast, my sister and I crept down to the kitchen, while the house slept, to reheat the potato casserole from that day's feast (canned cubed potatoes, cheddar cheese, cornflakes - love it). We forked it right out of the dish, while sharing jokes from the day. We both still remember the crunchy cheesy potato casserole and our carefree teen midnight indulgence of private jokes, dreamy chat, and the munchies.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Jackie, and Story Cauldron friends - hope your day is filled with some crazy casseroles and sisterhood, or at least some loving friends.
I actually asked this question because of green bean casserole! I used to hate it, but I was in a relationship with someone who, when asked what his favorite food was, said green bean casserole. So one year I decided to make it from scratch, with fresh beans and onions and cream and the whole bit. (I may have used store-bought crunchy onions on top, though). Let me tell you, homemade GBC is AMAZING. Like over-the-top delicious. So since then, I can muddle my way through it even if it's made from canned soup. But the fresh kind is still far more satisfying.
And thanks for the well wishes. Happy holidays to you and your family as well. 🙂
I don't have a least favorite: I just don't eat what does not look edible. But I have a favorite. My girlfriend in college had a free-thinking mother, not only untraditional but subversive. For Thanksgiving one year, she made lobster paella. It was sensational. Ever since then, I have tried and failed to convince those with me at the holiday to have lobster paella instead of turkey. (I would gladly cook.) The good news is we have a specialty butcher for the last 20 years that has hand-sourced small-farm turkeys that really taste like elegant fowl should taste.
Lobster paella sounds freaking amazing. I would much rather have that than turkey as well! And after being reminded today of the agony that tom turkeys experience as they are grown to get as large as possible (to the detriment of their poor little legs) I don't really feel inspired to eat turkey either. I'd much prefer a farm turkey that doesn't have those genetic modifications and is allowed to free-range.
My favorite Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes with gravy. One year, my sister-in-law decided she was going to make the potatoes and she put cheese in them. Totally ruined them for me.😩 🤣 But that is hardly a great tragedy. I still had plenty to be thankful for.
Hah, that's awesome. I actually like mashed potatoes with cheese but if I got them at Thanksgiving I might be a bit put off, like what the heck is this?
My favorite Thanksgivings were the orphan Thanksgivings my friends and I had when we lived in Austin. A bunch of 20-30 somethings getting together and throwing down as hard as we can. One in particular my friend Tommy and I decided we were going to fry as much food as possible. That year we had arancini, fried chicken wings, fried turkey, fried goose, and I think we did fried donuts for dessert. It was quite the feast!
One Thanksgiving my grandmother, who preferred Bon Appetit and Gourmet to Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker, surprised us with cranberry chutney instead of canned cranberry sauce. Picture whole cranberries, raw white onions, ginger and some kind of vinegar concoction. There was a mutiny at Thanksgiving that year. My dad and I made sure to bring a can of the “good stuff” to subsequent Thanksgivings.
Oh that's fantastic! I agree with the orphan Thanksgivings, too. I hosted one once for the RAs in the dorm where I worked. A bunch had to stay in town to work, and my boyfriend was out of town, so I had them over to my house, and I made an entire dinner for them by myself. It was really fun.
I can’t honestly think of something I’ve been served at Thanksgiving that I didn’t enjoy. Well, okay, dinner at my brother-in-laws was usually vaguely disappointing, and being a gravy snob the idea of serving gravy from a jar appalled me, which is probably why we started doing Thanksgiving at our house every year. Serve whatever the hell you want to on Christmas, but don’t mess with my turkey and carb feast, you know?
Growing up, my family always took a walk after Thanksgiving dinner. It started because the dog needed a walk, and evolved into all of us going on a two-hour plus hike in the woods after the dishes were done. So fast forward to November of 1989. My grandmother had died the year before, and our dog had passed away the previous spring. This was our first Thanksgiving without either of them, and we were all feeling a bit…off. It had snowed, like a foot, and I went to the barn early that morning to ride in the snow. Another boarder was there, and she was concerned because it turned out that she couldn’t bring the dog she was watching to her in-laws and was worried about leaving him alone. I volunteered to to watch the dog, and said they could pick him up that night. Which was how I ended up bringing an Old English Sheepdog to my parents’ house unannounced. We had a glorious walk in the snow after dinner, the dog was in heaven, and we forgot, for a few hours, to be sad about our losses. Looking back, that was probably the last best holiday we had all together as a family, before life pulled us all in different directions. I still miss those walks, all these years later.
What a sweet memory! Thank you so much for sharing. And I'm with you on the jar gravy. I mean, if you have a turkey and drippings, gravy isn't that hard and it's so much better than anything processed could ever be.
1. My least favorite holiday food would be macaroons for Chanukah. The home made “cookies” were so dry and dull, they put me off coconut for life.
2. Not sure I can come up with a single favorite holiday meal memory. Too many to sort through! My partner and I just moved this year and we finally have enough room to host the family Christmas, which is very exciting. So I’m hoping for some good new memories in a month or so.
For Chaukah, I loved the "gelt." The chocolate wrapped into shiny gold foil to resemble coins.
For Rosh Hashanah, I loved the cone shaped treats where a million different objects were stuck together by means of honey, the honey symbolizing our hope for a good year.
For Purim, I loved the Humantashen, the cookie shaped to look like Haman's hats.
And I also hated Macaroons,. We got them on Passover, but I thought them unpalatable any time of the year.
Hi Jackie. Great questions. My least favorite dish is oyster stuffing. I just don't like it.. One of the stories that I remember is when I visited my sister in Massachusetts before I was married. I helped my brother-in-law mash the potatoes. I had the half-and-half and he had the mixer. I started pouring the half-and-half and ended up pouring way too much according to them. But my brother-in-law kept mixing and kept mixing mixing until they came out perfectly! I remember that gave me a lift. As the younger sister sometimes you don't get the respect that you deserve so even small things like getting the mashed potatoes to succeed makes you feel great.
I don't think I've ever had oyster stuffing, but it sounds... odd. I don't know why you would want oysters mixed in with spices and turkey juices and bread crumbs anyway.
Your mashed potatoes story is so sweet. I love how tiny a story that is but how you remember it anyway — what a beautiful thing. Thank you so much for sharing!
I can’t think of a least favorite since I come from a family of very good cooks. I’m fortunate.
My fondest memories have been being at my aunt’s with all cousins coming over. I especially remember graduating from the kids’ table and getting a full glass of juice with my meal. Now my own children occupy the kids’ table and I have the gray hair to stake my claim of adulthood.
i’ve never had terrible thanksgivings, but I’ve never really had a “gourmet“ one either. Mostly if people can just not screw up the turkey, I’m good. But I love how you have the gray hair to stake your claim at the big kid’s table! 🤩
Without doubt, my fondest memory of a holiday meal dates back to April of 1965,, more specifically Passover 1965.
My Mother was seeing a Mr. Jack W. He was a cab driver, and although he was not at all affluent, he was seeing a Freudian analyst 5 days a week (He saw the shrink so frequently not because he was nuts but because classical Freudian analysis advocates 4 to 5 sessions a week. Most patients who think they have been in psychoanalysis have in fact been in what is properly denominated as psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.) In any event, Jack's predilection for dated and grim Viennese therapies is not what made the holiday memorable.
Rather, it was his bold extrapolation from the Hebrew slaves in Egypt to the villagers in South Vietnam who were being napalmed by American soldiers who purported to be defending them from communism. He took all the bullshit I heard in school -- I had a very conservative second grade teacher who taught us how to play the Marine Corp hymn on the xylophone and, after leading us in the pledge of allegiance, screamed about Pearl Harbor -- and made mincemeat of their straight-jacketed dogma. He livened up the Passover Sedar like the Beatles livening up the Ed Sullivan show.
Holiday foods? I loved the Thanksgiving foods: Turkeys were so immense next to chickens that when I ate a turkey drum stick I fancied myself Fred Flinstone who,, in the animated sit com, used to eat gigantic drum sticks of some sort of game.
I am glad you found it interesting. BTW, Jack W's exposition on Vietnam came very, very early in the escalation. This was in the Spring of 1965. Although we had already been involved in Vietnam for many years, the steadily mounting escalation and the bombing did not start until March of 1965. At that time, the only people who challenged our policy in Vietnam were people associated with the far left.
I am not a "red diaper baby" (kids raised in the 50's and 60's, often Jewish and from the NY metro area, whose parents were derided as "premature anti fascists" (for opposing Hitler when opp to Hitler came mainly from the Left, were associated with labor union militancy, fought for Loyalist Spain, etc..) but my Mother stood precariously on the edges of the far left. When she was in Brooklyn college, and a professor asked her to define "businessman," she said, "A LEGAL THIEF."
Great questions!
My least favorite is also my favorite: Green been casserole.
Did anyone else grow up eating these 1970s era Betty Crocker specials, involving a vegetable (usually canned, which is fine!), some kind of canned soup like cream of mushroom, and something crunchy like Ritz crackers or fried onions?
The green-bean casserole was canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, and fried onions, also from a can.
I didn't love it, but now think of it - and all these Betty Crocker-style recipes - with nostalgia!
As I've grown older I've realized my Midwestern farmhouse grandmother, having spent years tending to garden vegetables and struggling for a farm living, was excited about the convenience of all of these ingredients - it must have seemed like luxury.
My favorite memory also involves one of these casseroles - one night as teens, after a Thanksgiving farmhouse feast, my sister and I crept down to the kitchen, while the house slept, to reheat the potato casserole from that day's feast (canned cubed potatoes, cheddar cheese, cornflakes - love it). We forked it right out of the dish, while sharing jokes from the day. We both still remember the crunchy cheesy potato casserole and our carefree teen midnight indulgence of private jokes, dreamy chat, and the munchies.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Jackie, and Story Cauldron friends - hope your day is filled with some crazy casseroles and sisterhood, or at least some loving friends.
I actually asked this question because of green bean casserole! I used to hate it, but I was in a relationship with someone who, when asked what his favorite food was, said green bean casserole. So one year I decided to make it from scratch, with fresh beans and onions and cream and the whole bit. (I may have used store-bought crunchy onions on top, though). Let me tell you, homemade GBC is AMAZING. Like over-the-top delicious. So since then, I can muddle my way through it even if it's made from canned soup. But the fresh kind is still far more satisfying.
And thanks for the well wishes. Happy holidays to you and your family as well. 🙂
That sounds DELICIOUS! Thank you, and happy holiday!
I don't have a least favorite: I just don't eat what does not look edible. But I have a favorite. My girlfriend in college had a free-thinking mother, not only untraditional but subversive. For Thanksgiving one year, she made lobster paella. It was sensational. Ever since then, I have tried and failed to convince those with me at the holiday to have lobster paella instead of turkey. (I would gladly cook.) The good news is we have a specialty butcher for the last 20 years that has hand-sourced small-farm turkeys that really taste like elegant fowl should taste.
Lobster paella sounds freaking amazing. I would much rather have that than turkey as well! And after being reminded today of the agony that tom turkeys experience as they are grown to get as large as possible (to the detriment of their poor little legs) I don't really feel inspired to eat turkey either. I'd much prefer a farm turkey that doesn't have those genetic modifications and is allowed to free-range.
That is what we get, privately sourced from farms where the butcher knows the owner. No processing, free range, the whole deal
Sounds like a Gastronomic Jane Fonda.
My favorite Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes with gravy. One year, my sister-in-law decided she was going to make the potatoes and she put cheese in them. Totally ruined them for me.😩 🤣 But that is hardly a great tragedy. I still had plenty to be thankful for.
Hah, that's awesome. I actually like mashed potatoes with cheese but if I got them at Thanksgiving I might be a bit put off, like what the heck is this?
My favorite Thanksgivings were the orphan Thanksgivings my friends and I had when we lived in Austin. A bunch of 20-30 somethings getting together and throwing down as hard as we can. One in particular my friend Tommy and I decided we were going to fry as much food as possible. That year we had arancini, fried chicken wings, fried turkey, fried goose, and I think we did fried donuts for dessert. It was quite the feast!
One Thanksgiving my grandmother, who preferred Bon Appetit and Gourmet to Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker, surprised us with cranberry chutney instead of canned cranberry sauce. Picture whole cranberries, raw white onions, ginger and some kind of vinegar concoction. There was a mutiny at Thanksgiving that year. My dad and I made sure to bring a can of the “good stuff” to subsequent Thanksgivings.
Now that's the kind of story I was looking for! 🤣
Oh that's fantastic! I agree with the orphan Thanksgivings, too. I hosted one once for the RAs in the dorm where I worked. A bunch had to stay in town to work, and my boyfriend was out of town, so I had them over to my house, and I made an entire dinner for them by myself. It was really fun.
I can’t honestly think of something I’ve been served at Thanksgiving that I didn’t enjoy. Well, okay, dinner at my brother-in-laws was usually vaguely disappointing, and being a gravy snob the idea of serving gravy from a jar appalled me, which is probably why we started doing Thanksgiving at our house every year. Serve whatever the hell you want to on Christmas, but don’t mess with my turkey and carb feast, you know?
Growing up, my family always took a walk after Thanksgiving dinner. It started because the dog needed a walk, and evolved into all of us going on a two-hour plus hike in the woods after the dishes were done. So fast forward to November of 1989. My grandmother had died the year before, and our dog had passed away the previous spring. This was our first Thanksgiving without either of them, and we were all feeling a bit…off. It had snowed, like a foot, and I went to the barn early that morning to ride in the snow. Another boarder was there, and she was concerned because it turned out that she couldn’t bring the dog she was watching to her in-laws and was worried about leaving him alone. I volunteered to to watch the dog, and said they could pick him up that night. Which was how I ended up bringing an Old English Sheepdog to my parents’ house unannounced. We had a glorious walk in the snow after dinner, the dog was in heaven, and we forgot, for a few hours, to be sad about our losses. Looking back, that was probably the last best holiday we had all together as a family, before life pulled us all in different directions. I still miss those walks, all these years later.
What a sweet memory! Thank you so much for sharing. And I'm with you on the jar gravy. I mean, if you have a turkey and drippings, gravy isn't that hard and it's so much better than anything processed could ever be.
1. My least favorite holiday food would be macaroons for Chanukah. The home made “cookies” were so dry and dull, they put me off coconut for life.
2. Not sure I can come up with a single favorite holiday meal memory. Too many to sort through! My partner and I just moved this year and we finally have enough room to host the family Christmas, which is very exciting. So I’m hoping for some good new memories in a month or so.
Congrats on the new home! And I hate macaroons, homemade or not, so this sounds like a sound choice. (Okay fine I don't like coconut.)
For Chaukah, I loved the "gelt." The chocolate wrapped into shiny gold foil to resemble coins.
For Rosh Hashanah, I loved the cone shaped treats where a million different objects were stuck together by means of honey, the honey symbolizing our hope for a good year.
For Purim, I loved the Humantashen, the cookie shaped to look like Haman's hats.
And I also hated Macaroons,. We got them on Passover, but I thought them unpalatable any time of the year.
Lots of great Jewish treats all year round. Glad I’m not the only one who hated macaroons!
Hi Jackie. Great questions. My least favorite dish is oyster stuffing. I just don't like it.. One of the stories that I remember is when I visited my sister in Massachusetts before I was married. I helped my brother-in-law mash the potatoes. I had the half-and-half and he had the mixer. I started pouring the half-and-half and ended up pouring way too much according to them. But my brother-in-law kept mixing and kept mixing mixing until they came out perfectly! I remember that gave me a lift. As the younger sister sometimes you don't get the respect that you deserve so even small things like getting the mashed potatoes to succeed makes you feel great.
I don't think I've ever had oyster stuffing, but it sounds... odd. I don't know why you would want oysters mixed in with spices and turkey juices and bread crumbs anyway.
Your mashed potatoes story is so sweet. I love how tiny a story that is but how you remember it anyway — what a beautiful thing. Thank you so much for sharing!
I can’t think of a least favorite since I come from a family of very good cooks. I’m fortunate.
My fondest memories have been being at my aunt’s with all cousins coming over. I especially remember graduating from the kids’ table and getting a full glass of juice with my meal. Now my own children occupy the kids’ table and I have the gray hair to stake my claim of adulthood.
i’ve never had terrible thanksgivings, but I’ve never really had a “gourmet“ one either. Mostly if people can just not screw up the turkey, I’m good. But I love how you have the gray hair to stake your claim at the big kid’s table! 🤩
Badges of honor, though few, are welcome.
Without doubt, my fondest memory of a holiday meal dates back to April of 1965,, more specifically Passover 1965.
My Mother was seeing a Mr. Jack W. He was a cab driver, and although he was not at all affluent, he was seeing a Freudian analyst 5 days a week (He saw the shrink so frequently not because he was nuts but because classical Freudian analysis advocates 4 to 5 sessions a week. Most patients who think they have been in psychoanalysis have in fact been in what is properly denominated as psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.) In any event, Jack's predilection for dated and grim Viennese therapies is not what made the holiday memorable.
Rather, it was his bold extrapolation from the Hebrew slaves in Egypt to the villagers in South Vietnam who were being napalmed by American soldiers who purported to be defending them from communism. He took all the bullshit I heard in school -- I had a very conservative second grade teacher who taught us how to play the Marine Corp hymn on the xylophone and, after leading us in the pledge of allegiance, screamed about Pearl Harbor -- and made mincemeat of their straight-jacketed dogma. He livened up the Passover Sedar like the Beatles livening up the Ed Sullivan show.
Holiday foods? I loved the Thanksgiving foods: Turkeys were so immense next to chickens that when I ate a turkey drum stick I fancied myself Fred Flinstone who,, in the animated sit com, used to eat gigantic drum sticks of some sort of game.
Wow, that's an amazing story. Thanks for sharing!
I am glad you found it interesting. BTW, Jack W's exposition on Vietnam came very, very early in the escalation. This was in the Spring of 1965. Although we had already been involved in Vietnam for many years, the steadily mounting escalation and the bombing did not start until March of 1965. At that time, the only people who challenged our policy in Vietnam were people associated with the far left.
I am not a "red diaper baby" (kids raised in the 50's and 60's, often Jewish and from the NY metro area, whose parents were derided as "premature anti fascists" (for opposing Hitler when opp to Hitler came mainly from the Left, were associated with labor union militancy, fought for Loyalist Spain, etc..) but my Mother stood precariously on the edges of the far left. When she was in Brooklyn college, and a professor asked her to define "businessman," she said, "A LEGAL THIEF."