It’s November. You know what that means. It’s Thanksgiving time. In all honesty, I’m already ready for Christmas, but it’s disrespectful to skip past Thanksgiving like it isn’t a national holiday. By far, the best part of Thanksgiving is the food. It doesn’t matter whether you’re with friends or family, food is always the main character. With that, I’ll be going over some of the necessary foods you must have for Thanksgiving this year (no exact ranking).
Sweet Potato Casserole
This has by far been my favorite dish while growing up, and normally, I don’t have a sweet tooth but this dish always hits the spot each time. This dish contains marshmallows on top that are slightly torched to create the burnt sugar flavor. It gets paired perfectly with the mashed sweet potatoes that have hints of cinnamon and butter and create the perfect pairing for the fall aesthetic.
The only downside to this dish is that this dish didn’t originate from a family recipe or your “grandmother’s” recipe. It was concocted by a marshmallow company as a way to push candy onto Americans. Knowing that this dish was created as a way to raise the blood sugar in people makes me want to forget that fact in the first place. But does it really matter who or what made the dish if it tastes delicious?
Dinner Rolls
One of the best inventions is bread. The soft, buttery, layered dinner rolls that melt when you eat them. They have a slight shine on the top and steam pours out when you tear them apart. Making them butter garlic dinner rolls makes them 10x better because of the extra flavor they present to your meal. The best part of dinner rolls is that they don’t take a lot of ingredients, and don’t take a lot of effort. You mostly just need some flour, water, yeast, and a few other ingredients to make this bread from scratch. They can be paired perfectly with any entree or dish and you can never go wrong making these for a dinner party.
Mac and cheese
Mac and cheese is one of the classic American home cooked dishes that you can never go wrong with. This simple dish can cause so much happiness within both children and adults and is the perfect side dish. It is NECESSARY to make mac and cheese with a crust because this is what creates the extra textures that complete the dish altogether. Macaroni and cheese is easily one of the simplest dishes to create and it is very difficult to mess it up unless you completely burn the cheese. Also make sure to put enough flavor into the dish so it isn’t boring and bland.
However, what you should NEVER do with mac and cheese is use the boxed, processed one. Do not take the shortcut and make the boxed macaroni and cheese because it has way too many preservatives and processing which is extremely harmful to the body.
Corn
Corn. Grilled corn, boiled corn, steamed corn, oven roasted corn. It doesn’t matter. Just have corn. Corn is such an overlooked dish on Thanksgiving because people normally reach for the green beans or collard greens. But corn is one of the best dishes to have at Thanksgiving because it offers both the sweet and the salty side of food. It is a healthy dish that won’t overfill you. When you need a break from the turkey, roast beef, or ham, just reach for the corn. It balances the diet perfectly offering the vitamins and minerals you need in your Thanksgiving meal. Corn allows you much leeway in terms of ways to cook it, it just depends on your preference. However, I think everyone should grill it and sprinkle some salt on it.
Pumpkin Pie
You have to have pumpkin pie at an American Thanksgiving. It is one of the original dishes in every fall feast and is the perfect dessert to end your night off with. It fits the fall aesthetic perfectly and allows you to get hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin all in one bite. Yes, the filling of the pie is important, but what can make or break the pie is the crust. If the crust is unpleasant, it ruins the dish completely and can in some ways ruin your whole Thanksgiving. But if you can perfect it or get it close to perfection, you have yourself the perfect Thanksgiving.
Now the reason I didn’t include turkey on this list is because I wanted to offer vegetarian friendly dishes that still complete the Thanksgiving meal. So as you prepare for your Thanksgiving feast this year, be sure to keep these (side) dishes in mind.
Annie, this was such a good read. I really enjoyed hearing about your personal necessities for thanksgiving (and I expect to see at least one of these dishes at our friendsgiving this year, so I’m super excited for that). I appreciate that you decided to only include vegetarian friendly dishes, as though I’m not vegetarian, I don’t eat Turkey or any red meat, so it was awesome to read about some classic dishes that my family and I could also enjoy. As most of my family is vegetarian, we don’t usually have traditional thanksgiving dishes and my dad always gets creative with it because he loves to cook random things he’s never tried before. It was nice to hear about some classic dishes, most of which I have tried, others I would love to try soon. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Annie! I personally have never been a fan of Thanksgiving food or as a holiday in general, but it was interesting to hear your perspective on which Thanksgiving items you consider staples. I especially appreciate your insight and consideration of the background of the different dishes in addition to their taste, like when you noted how sweet potato casserole was created by a marshmallow company to increase sales. Although I don’t share your same enthusiasm for Thanksgiving food in general, I agree with your views on mac & cheese as a staple dish and how to execute it properly. Overall, I enjoyed your take on different Thanksgiving foods and their roles in the holiday.
Hey Annie, great list! I usually handle the Thanksgiving food for my family, but I’ve never had Sweet Potato Casserole. It looks and sounds interestingly good, so I definitely have to add it to the list. As for the dinner rolls, I’ve never had them homemade before. They’ve always been something that we just buy from Costco as a freebie. But after your advocacy, I’ll definitely have to give those butter garlic dinner rolls a try. Otherwise, I can second every other thing on your list. Pumpkin pie is a staple for us and it’s pretty simple to make too. Like you said, the crust is never something to just ignore and making it from scratch is for sure the right move. Mac and cheese is something that’s always been on our table, even though it’s just me and my brother eating it. I agree with you, texture is a huge part of the dish and the crunch from a crust or bread crumbs truly makes or breaks the meal. Overall, it sounds like you have great autumn taste, and I hope you have a delicious Thanksgiving!