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One year, the ex love of my life brought his lovely sister to Thanksgiving dinner. She brought the side dish below. I fell in love with it and it has been on my Thanksgiving table ever since. That was 1986 I think. She has since passed, and each year, as I prepare her dish (that looks horrid in print) I think of the lovely Loretta.

Spinach and Artichoke auGratin

2 six ounce jars artichoke hearts
3-10 oz pkg chopped spinach (thawed)
3-3 oz pkg cream cheese
4 TBS soft butter
6 TBSP milk
½ cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375
Drain juice from artichokes. Place in bottom of 9” square pan.
Squeeze out spinach and arrange over artichokes.
Beat the cream cheese and butter till smooth and fluffy.
Blend in the milk.
Spread over spinach and sprinkle with pepper. Dust with parmesan.
Bake uncovered till lightly browned.

Back in 1963 my mother and I both worked for FW Woolworths. My mom worked behind the lunch counter and we both fell in love with the cole slaw that they made from scratch. We started having it at Thanksgiving and I still serve it every year. I had lost the recipe and found it in the recipe book from my Oster Kitchen Center.

Refrigerated Slaw

1 large head cabbage, shredded 3/4 cup of salad oil
1 large green pepper, chopped 1 tbsp. dry mustard
1 large onion, chopped fine 1 tsp. celery seed
2 stalks of celery, chopped 1 tsp. salt
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup of cider vinegar

Put the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Put the remain ingredients in a blend and cover and beat until well mixed. Pour into a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Pour over cabbage and let stand for three hours. Stir cole slaw and refrigerate. Will keep 5-6 weeks in the refrigerator. Serves 8-12.

Oh my, that sounds great, and I've never even been a fan of cole slaw. Thanks, Sue. You made this sound tasty. I really enjoyed the history.

OK, every year my mom made a tomato aspic similiar to the one posted below. I absolutely hated it, as did most of us, except for one brother and mom. However, it might be something someone out there likes. My favorite part of TG, was the whip cream and cookie cake. Though not a side dish, it was an excellent desert and I still make it every year.

2 box's of thin Famous Wafers
whipping cream
you just put whipping cream between the cookies, one by one, until done, then cover the whole thing with the rest of the whipping cream. Refrigerate over night, and it's ready to go!

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Okay, gmom, call me stupid, but I don't know what you mean by a Famous Wafer. Help, please.

Oh sorry, it's a brand name of chocolate, thin wafers. Your not stupid!
Probably no one knows about these wafers unless their mom blasted them with sugar on TG also!!

Here is a picture of what I am talking about! Hope it helps, sometimes you have to ask in the store for help finding them, they seem to be phasing out....OMG, does that mean I am phasing out also???

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BTW, the cookies do not cost as much as the ad I posted!! I did not realize Amazon sold food!!

I remember those now. Thanks!

It definitely would NOT be yams with mini-marshmallows NOR green bean with canned french fried onion casserole. But I could eat pumpkin pie all day long (any recipe is fine... even Sara Lee, in a pinch). And after Thanksgiving day, my favorite is to mix leftover mashed potatoes, turkey, dressing and gravy all together! (It's sort of like the warmed up Thanksgiving version of Cold Stone ice cream).

These days, I'm sad to say, my one daughter, who loves ham and NOT turkey and I end up going out for the meal, since there only the two of us and we like such different meals... Haven't had my Cold Stone Turkey leftovers in a few years... But it still makes my mouth water to think about it....
Ya'll have fun this Thanksgiving, and may we all remember to give thanks for whatever gifts have come to us this year, and all years before (even if it's only the breath that keeps us alive)...

I am from New England originally, and we always had cranberry orange relish. My Gmother always made it and my mom, and I do now. Some of my kids don't care for it, but I don't care!

1 bag fresh cranberries, washed and sorted
1 medium navel orange, with peel, quartered
1 cup sugar

Put the cranberries through an old fashioned hand grinder if you have one, using the medium blade. Otherwise, use your food processor, pulse until the cranberries are minced. Put the orange quarters through the grinder or the food processor, until well chopped, with the peels looking minced. Add sugar to taste - I like it a little more tart so I only use about 3/4 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly, refridgerate overnight or even a couple of days if necessary, keeps well and the time lets the sugar do its work.

I think this recipe is also on the bag of cranberries, I love it, Paul does too, and most of my kids do as well. It is so pretty on the table in a nice relish dish.