Thanksgiving Menu

Barb recently posted her Thanksgiving menu, and it got me thinking about the Thanksgiving menu I grew up enjoying.

Since we usually eat around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, we'd always need something to munch on to tide us over from breakfast:

• veggie tray and dip, which includes:
  
  • broccoli
    
  • cauliflower
    
  • cherry or grape tomatoes
    
  • carrots
    
  • celery
    
  • mushrooms
    
  • green olives
    
  • black olives
• cheese ball & crackers

For the main course, it'd be:

• a huge turkey roasted in the oven (must specify since some of my in-laws get a smoked turkey and some deep-fry their turkey).
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• gravy
  
• Stove top stuffing (fixed outside the bird, so I guess technically it'd be dressing)
  
• green bean casserole, made with frozen beans not canned because my mom is picky. And some of the casserole would be made without the onion topping because her daughter is picky (that would be me).
  
• cranberry sauce. Straight from the can, but we're fancy and get the whole berry kind (and we don't actually serve it from the can, again, we're fancy and put it in a pretty dish.)
  
• rolls & butter
  
• sparkling cider
  
• wine

And then, the REAL attraction. Dessert. My mom loves her desserts and goes all out for Thanksgiving. There is usually more than one pie for each person. No, they don't all get eaten that day; that's what the rest of the weekend is for. Pie types might include:

• pumpkin (usually two)
  
• apple (usually Dutch apple)
  
• French silk (for my brothers)
  
• mince (for my father)
  
• blueberry or triple berry (for me)
  
• lemon meringue (for my grandmother when she was still alive, and now just for my brother)
  
• cherry (for my mom's favorite son-in-law, also known as the only son-in-law)
  
• Key lime

The Key lime pie, berry & cherry pie filling, and all of the pie crusts would come from the store; everything else was homemade.