Two different recipes of the Thanksgiving Dinner!

Dear Friends, 

I apologize if I haven´t posted an article for a long time...but there are moments when life becomes hectic and has the power to let you forget of the important things...Anyway I am back! Hopefully with something that you like, definatly something you are preparing for. 

We all know that we are getting closer to Thanksgiving (the last Thursday of November) which is a holiday that I really like, because is still not commercialized as Christmas and it keeps its origin.

However, I have decided to share with you 2 different recipes of the Thanksgiving dinner: 

1. Thanksgiving Dinner with Italian touch: this is the typical Thanksgiving dinner that my Grandmother used to make. As most of you already know my Grandparents are Italians but they have immigrated to the United States, when they were young. They have incorporated in their family traditions the local American holidays but in their culinary dishes they have always kept the Italian traditional touch. 

So in my mother´s house the typical thanksgiving meal was:

• Antipasto di montagna: prosciutto ham, salamini, cheeses, mozzarella, sott'aceti (vegetables in vinegar and oil), especially the stuffed peppers that my grandmother used to make (delicious!). The filling usually was breadcrumbs, anchovies, capers, garlic, and oregano;
• Scarola con polpettini: Turkey soup with escarole and meatballs;
• Pasta: pasta with homemade tomato sauce, lasagna or cannelloni with; 
• Il Tacchino: Turkey and the filling usually was (eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, salami, and parsely) served with crandberry sauce;
• Salsiccia: Homemade sausage in the oven;
• Baked Ham: with brown sugar and pineapple;
• Side dishes:

1) Baked smash potatoes pie with mozzarella and ham;  

2) Sweet potatoes (an American touch)  

3) Green beans with onions and almonds 

4) Broccoli di rape in the pan (this is a typical Italian vegetable)  

5) Mix Salad

• Fruit:  mandarins, oranges and other seasonal fruits, walnuts & chestnuts.
• Dessert: Cheesecake, or homemade almond cookies, or lemon meringue pie, or homemade apple pie with ice cream;
• CAFFE' :  American coffee or espresso
• DIGESTIVO:  alka seltzer, limoncello, amaretto, Champagne...

After this meal for more or less 20 people the least you could is take a "siesta"…Italians like their long and Big meals…J

2. Typical Thanksgiving Dinner: this is a typical Thanksgiving dinner of a traditional American Family.  

•  Scalloped oysters: 1/2 pound saltine crackers, 1 quart fresh oysters with liquid, 1 cup butter cut into pats, 1 cup half and half, Salt and Pepper. Preheat the oven to 350.  Generously grease a 2 qt. baking dish. Coarsely break 1/4 of the crackers and place in the dish. Lay 1/2 of the oysters on the crackers. Lightly salt and heavily pepper. Place butter pats on top (about 1/3 tp 1/2) Then do a layer with half the crackers and the remaining oysters with liquid, top with the remaining crackers, butter and more pepper, slowly pour the half and half around the edge of the dish until level with the second oyster layer.  Bake 1 hour or until puffed and brown on top. Serve immediately.
• Turkey: with the following stuffing Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, but then I add Celery, onion, mushroom and almonds which have all been sauté in butter and then I sometime add dried cranberries and wild rice
•  Mashed potatoes with gravy
• Sweet potatoes with marshmallows in the oven
• Green beans or peas and some type of cranberries,
• Cooking fresh cranberries with a bit of sugar and water until they pop.
•  Pumpkin pie

This is a typical meal that my Host family in Missouri usually has. However, I imagine that each family adds its “traditional touch” and typical dishes.

By sharing with you these two different Thanksgiving meal, I wanted not only give you ideas on what to cook for the Thanksgiving dinner, but also concentrate on how important it is to keep our culture tradition alive.

I believe it is important to adjust to a country tradition and habits, but is extremely precious to always remember where we come from and to keep our own tradition alive and pass them on to the next generation.

Thank you for reading me.


Special Thanks to: Madaline Malgieri (my Aunt); Julie Thomas (My AFS host mother)