The Holiday Menu you can NOT miss.

I am a firm believer that EVERYONE on this planet has their own little way of celebrating holiday dinners that is unique to them and their families. For example, Thanksgiving is a BIG thing for most Americans and I'm sure everyone has had at least ONE thing they believe that they ABSOLUTELY must have every year, or it just wouldn't be right. It could be your grandma's special cornbread stuffing, or your mother's famous pumpkin cheesecake. Or for some people, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving dinner without sweet potatoes / yams on the table.

For me, it's my mother's after-Thanksgiving day Turkey Soup. To this day, out of the 15 or so years our family celebrated or at least cooked a Turkey dinner, my mother always made soup from the bird remains the following morning. It has been my ritual since childhood, and I must say that I am sad to say that the last 3 years have been void of this tradition.

So what is YOUR family tradition for the holidays? What is the one thing on the Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Years / anyotherHolidayorFamilyEvent Dinner that you (and your family) MUST have?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Lechón. Well, for my dad's side at least.

We don't really do turkey. Not even on Thanksgiving. Instead of roasting the turkey, we roast a pig. You get more out of it anyway.

But I have to have cheesecake on the major holidays. Even if it's the boxed Cheesecake Factory ones from Costco, I must have cheesecake on these days.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Lumpia (a type of eggroll) is the only dish in my family that's always served for all holiday meals. People who visit my parents outside our family enjoy taking some lumpia with them after the parties are finished. Most of my friends like going to my family parties as well. Another one is probably a pie or cake of some type. It doesn't matter if there's a birthday or not.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Usually, in the colder weather holidays (since we celebrate Bastille Day, Fourth of July, Easter and all that shit with different sorts of meals), we have a few traditions.

My sister is ALWAYS responsible for the mashed potatoes. She makes the BEST potatoes I have ever tasted - tons of garlic, butter, and cream. <3

I always get to do the desserts. For Thanksgiving, I usually get stuck with making the ever-typical apple crisp. Sometimes, I do cookies or whatever to go along with it.

And Dad is always responsible for the bird.

At Christmas, our menu varies for the meats served. Ham is completely out of our year-round festivities. (Gross) Sometimes, we have roast beef (compliments of my mother's recipe), sometimes a turkey, sometimes something else.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Well, there's nothing that stands out in particular, but I will say...

A buddy of mine's Father cooked turkey this last Thanksgiving. He cooked it over night all night and woke up once every hour to inject the turkey with butter and garlic. Needless to say, holy fucking shit.

That was the best turkey I've ever had. I'm going to learn his technique and next Thanksgiving, I'll make the dinner. I want to add garlic to the mashed potatoes as well.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Pork stuffing became something of a tradition in our family, but since I've been a semivegetarian for 5 years now, I no longer get eat it. It was amazing

My family never cooks a turkey on Christmas; a mixture of not enough room in the oven and too much work for already strained people. So we began making a hybrid consisting of a stuffing centre, surrounded by chicken and turkey breasts and a couple of legs all wrapped in bacon. Churkey, or something.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Christmas BBQ. It´s a tradition. The family laughed when my father started it a few years ago (more as a joke, my father is notorious for grilling extreme amounts if meat), but now everyone gathers ´round the grill in the garden on the 24th.

I love grilled stuff.

FELIPE NO

We order pizza every thanksgiving actually, i think a few years ago we had KFC... o_o we don't really have a huge tradition, just to eat out a lot.
But for christmas there is always that damn juice. Ya know, the juice that comes in milk jugs that may be labeled with "strawberry", "fruitpunch"...but we always called it "red" or "blue" stuff. I think Roberts diary or something is the company that makes it. That stuff is fucking delicious, and I only seem to be able to digest the syrupy shit on thanksgiving or christmas day.

oh, that and christmas lasagna. hopefully this year she'll wise up and make me veggy lasagna, cuz that shit is delicious.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

We make this hot punch every Christmas around here. I started calling it "Huracan Jamaica" (Hurricane Jamaica) because it literally makes motherfuckers spin, knocks them down and causes damage. In Mexico there's a popular drink called "jamaica" which is really this tea brewed and boiled with Hibiscus flowers. It's a bit sour, so we sweeten it up with sugar most of the time and on holidays I add entire pomegranates, apples and, the key ingredient, pure sugar cane alcohol which is, I believe, 150 proof. I usually use half a bottle for every large pot of this punch that I make and it takes 2 cups to get you pretty fucking tanked.

Needless to say, holidays are an interesting time in my house.

How ya doing, buddy?

Not really an odd thing because it's cultural to most Italians, but for Christmas Eve, us guineas do the "Feast of the 7 Fishes". It's basically just 7 different types of fish, and maybe every so often we switch one seafood product out for another.

The goal for the last 3 years has been to eliminate smelts from the menu because they're akin to sardines and really suck to eat. The only people that ever eat them anyways are the over-70 crowd.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh Christmas ham, oh Christmas ham, how delicious is your mustard sauce.

It's probably the single greatest thing about Christmas, the ham. Spiral cut and sugar glazed. So delicious. And the sweet mustard sauce makes it even better. I've never been much of a turkey fan myself, and...we do turkey on Thanksgiving. But the ham is so much better.

And I'm also quite fond of green bean casserole and corn casserole (the kind you make with the Jiffy cornbread mix and creamed corn. so. YUM.)

My grandma makes excellent from-scratch crescent rolls. They are a highlight for many, including myself.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Rydia

Lumpia (a type of eggroll) is the only dish in my family that's always served for all holiday meals.

Oh yes, how could I forget that? On my mom's side of my family, everyone loves the lumpia my grandma makes. It's a vegetable lumpia with this certain taste that a bunch of people can't get enough of.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Something fabulous called mashed potatoes, with extra potatoes, and a side of baked kinds.

Mmmmmmm taters.
and some meat, but more of potatoes.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Chocolate Cream Pie, 'nuff said

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by rj42492

Chocolate Cream Pie, 'nuff said

Fucking CHRIST, kid. Stop bumping old threads for these single line replies. Jesus.

FELIPE NO

Yorkshire Pudding. They're shockingly fattening so the family only makes them once or twice a year, Christmas and Thanksgiving. We always have the meals kinda buffet style where people just serve themselves whatever they want of whatever they want and we eat until we can no longer stand. These holidays usually, but not always, include Ham/Turkey, beans, squash with cranberries and a whole lot of fluffy mashed potatoes. I look forwards to those meals about as much as my birthday.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?