Just about every common food option for thanksgiving is mediocre. Turkey is dry and flavorless unless you drench it in salt. Cranberry sauce is awful. Not only does dressing (stuffing) look unappealing it also tastes just as bad. And pumpkin pie could be better. Casserole and mash potatoes are alright but nothing to just fond over. The only good meal is mac and cheese and that ONLY depends on who’s cooking it. The 4th of July is the superior holiday in terms of food.
One Thanksgiving my housemates and I all realized none of us were going home for Thanksgiving, and the richest of us offered to buy whatever I needed to make a proper Thanksgiving meal. I agreed on the condition that the kitchen was off limits to everyone except me the day before, and day of until 2:00 pm. They agreed.
I spent the better part of two days making the turkey, stuffing, four different potato dishes, (mashed potatoes, potato salad, au gratin potatoes and baked yams) turkey and beef gravy, green bean and ham hock casserole, mac and cheese, a pumpkin pie, a strawberry pie, a mince meat pie, and cranberry sauce. All from scratch, exept the pie crusts. That’s just unnecessary outside of competitive cooking.
They actually left me alone to cook, for the first time ever, and everything came out perfectly. I loaded up my plate, and decided to take a walk when I heard the benefactor of the meal pick up his phone, call someone, and say “Hey Grandma, happy Thanksgiving. Did you know that you can cook a turkey and have the breast be moist?”
Got pissed at one of them because he didn’t eat anything but the pies, and I was the only person that got any of the pies. Didn’t even get a piece of the strawberry pie. I made homemade whipped cream for that thing too!
This was over a decade ago, and yes, I’m still salty about that.