Thanksgiving Dinner

Here's a funny essay by a regular Baltimore SUN columnist about traditional versus trendy holiday dinners:

Susan Reimer

We stick with the "traditional" (in her definition thereof). Though my husband, who prepares all our weekend and holiday meals, is a very adventurous, multi-ethnic cook, on Thanksgiving he doesn't want anything iconoclastic. We always have simply turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, biscuits, cranberry sauce (from a can, except for the fresh batch I make mainly for myself, nobody else being much interested in it), and pumpkin pie (from the freezer aisle of Giant). Baltimore has a tradition of sauerkraut on Thanksgiving (from the German immigrant background), which sounded odd to me the first time I heard about it. Our second son, his wife, and her extended family serve a lavish dinner with many interesting side dishes. My mother used to make oyster dressing, which I liked quite a lot except for the oysters themselves.

Do you have any unusual special dishes you always serve with the turkey?

Best wishes,
Margaret