Thanksgiving is such a sweet time of the year-- where friends and family can get together and eat lots of yummy food and be grateful for what they have. The highlights in my house on Thanksgiving are the food and all the delicious recipes my mom, sister and I make throughout the day. Our family also watches football and plays board games together.
There is a classic spread of Thanksgiving foods on the table in most households, and I am here to tell you which ones are my favorite!
*These are in order of least favorite to most favorite, in my opinion; however, it does get fuzzy with my favorites towards the end because I truly love all of them equally.
Turkey (my least favorite) gasp!
It is the classic Thanksgiving staple, but it is not my favorite. My mom would always buy a huge turkey and everyone in my family would only have a small sliver of turkey because there was so much other food at Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, we would have so much leftover turkey...I could not have one more turkey sandwich!
This year, my mom is only making a turkey breast for Thanksgiving and not a whole bird!
Sweet Potato Casserole
The classic sweet side at Thanksgiving. I actually never grew up eating sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving, but I recently \ had it and it is delicious! Especially with toasted marshmallows on top!
However, it is not my favorite...I am going to stick with eating the classic baked sweet potatoes.Cranberry Sauce
I have never had cranberry sauce from a can because my mom always makes homemade sauce. I absolutely love the tartness of cranberry sauce and I love to pair it with mashed potatoes and stuffing.
My absolute favorite thing about cranberry sauce is the leftover sauce. I will heat up my Thanksgiving leftovers and then put a dollop of cold cranberry sauce on top-- it is DELISH!
StuffingMy mom makes an awesome stuffing with turkey or chicken sausage in it and cranberries and celery. It is absolutely amazing. She does not stuff the bird with the stuffing because it has been shown that this process can lead to cross-contamination and salmonella/food poisoning. Plus, making the stuffing in a casserole baking dish allows for crispy sides on the stuffing!
I love to have a bite on my fork of stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce...it is the perfect Thanksgiving bite.
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Classic Thanksgiving side = mashed potatoes with a puddle of gravy in the middle. This takes the runner up for my top ranking of Thanksgiving foods because it is classic and always delicious!
This year I am putting a spin on the classic mashed potatoes recipe and making a mash of cauliflower and parsnips. This will add some veggies into the mix and create a lighter and fluffier texture.
All Kinds of Pies (Takes the prize for my favorite Thanksgiving food)
I would say my favorite Thanksgiving food, (since I had to only choose one,) would be pie-- everyone can have their it to their liking. I personally love warm apple pie, but also it is delicious to have a slice of pumpkin and pecan pie together.
Don't forget to top it with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!
Bottom Line:It was really hard making this list of my favorites because I really love to have small portions of all of them and eat them together. But for the sake of this article, I would choose pie over turkey!