Best Thanksgiving Foods

Food and Family//Finding foods for Thanksgiving is always a hard scavenger hunt for the right recipes, but it is never bad to have too much food for your family to eat. Getting these foods is always challenging, but it is the best when you're around the table stuffing your face with the people you're thankful for. (Photo by Megan Meusy)

Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays when we get to sit with our family and enjoy a multiple- course meal together. We try to make it special and follow our traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it can also be fun to try to spice it up. There are many different foods to choose from, and there are so many courses on Thanksgiving that we have trouble figuring out what will be eaten and what will be given to the dog under the table. So as we get closer to Thanksgiving, I have a few recommendations that have been gone in the first five minutes they have been set on the table.

Sides:

Starting off with the sides, you need to have ones that are not too filling but have a variety of different foods that everyone will find delicious. This is because it is a once-a-year holiday when people don’t worry about calories and eat as much as they want. One of the most traditional but delicious sides is corn. This has been one of the favorites for my family. It is a corn that has been mixed with some milk and cornstarch and then some flavorful spices. To add to this, you need a creamy mac and cheese. This is also one of my absolute favorites because it is a simple but amazing dish that my aunt makes that we rarely get to eat. One more requirement for the sides is bread buns. These are delicious and simple to make, and it is always a fight to get to them before the dads get them.

Main Course

Then comes the main course, which is the ham and the turkey. Usually, people prefer one over the other, but I like to have a little of both. To make the turkey a fan favorite, you have to smoke it in order to get the best flavor. This helps keep the taste savory, sweet, and moist inside. It also needs to marinate before you smoke it. Usually, to marinate it, we add things like an apple, an onion, butter, orange juice, and many more things to enhance the flavor. For the ham, what I like is making it a sandwich on a croissant. For this, you have to add mayo, mustard, and lettuce. Many people like to add tomatoes, but I think that should be skipped. This is delicious and isn’t as plain as just having ham.

Deserts:

For deserts, there could be many ways to go about this. One very traditional dish you need is pumpkin pie. This is a classic, and everyone loves it. I, on the other hand, don't think it is the best thing to have. I think the texture is disgusting, and the taste is just horrid. I like to be the first in line for the cheesecake that my grandma makes. This is always the best dessert anyone could ever make, but no one can make it as good as Grandma. They always have the magic touch that makes everything a little better.

Although there are many great dishes for Thanksgiving, those are just a few that I think are the best and could make your Thanksgiving a little bit better. Even if you do not have a big family, you could have each one of these, and that would be the perfect dinner for you and your family to gather around and eat. These are simple and don’t take too long to make, but they are delicious and will definitely not be given to the dog.