Thanksgiving Where I Come From (+ our favorite holiday green bean recipe)

     Large families gathered around an equally large dining table, the turkey and carving set strategically placed in front of the grandfather - that's the visual we all have of a Traditional Thanksgiving; and yes, that's exactly the Thanksgiving I grew up with. Life was good. Later, as the family outgrew even the largest of tables, and particularly after the family cook aged past the point of serving dinner to our huge crowd, we often had a more casual buffet style dinner. But the menu remained pretty close to the original, with the exception of our beloved cook's yeast rolls; nobody has ever been able to duplicate them.

Mama Hazel's Thanksgiving Spread
Turkey
Dressing (a casserole, as opposed to Stuffing, often contributed by a daughter or family friend, could be
     cornbread or even sweet potato based)
Gravy often w/ giblets and a hard-boiled egg
A sweet congealed salad or pear halves w/ a dab of mayo and grated cheddar
Mashed potatoes (later, on buffets, a rich make-ahead version called Party Potatoes)
Sweet Potato casserole topped w/ marshmallows (yams, actually - later version had brown sugar pecan top)
Green Beans w/ Sour Cream - her original recipe, to the best of my knowledge, which I'm grudgingly
     sharing with you ;-)
Lima Beans &/or White Acre Peas
Pickled Peaches
Maggie's yeast rolls
Cranberry sauce - the congealed style
Sauerkraut

     Judging by the number of serving dishes on the table, there was more. But I must not have, as a child, liked the other dishes, as that's all I can remember. Other than the desserts, of course:

Pecan Pie by my eldest aunt's mother-in-law
Martha Nell's Chocolate Cake, which was actually a particular recipe of white cake w/ chocolate icing
     by my youngest aunt's mother-in-law, added to family tradition in the 70's
Cookies - Chocolate Chip, Icebox, Grandmother Wilson's Hermits - basically a headstart on Christmas
     baking
Pound Cake or Caramel Cake and more
(At Christmas, Fudge and Divinity would be added to this list, and maybe a Lane Cake.)

     Fast forward to the late 90's. I'm once again living in my home town, surrounded by family, but now with a family of my own added to the ever-growing clan. And now I, too, have a big, beautiful old house. So I decide it's our turn to host Thanksgiving Dinner for the family. Thanks to folding chairs and tables borrowed from a church, I seated 42 friends & family in luxury, most in my enormous foyer.

     The house was beautifully decorated, the table settings ornate, a huge centerpiece of fruit, greenery, flowers & pheasant feathers crowned the main table, chandeliers glowed. Where did I ever get the energy to pull all that off? (I'm thankful for such a helpful husband!) And not only did I have our traditional menu, but a friend roasted a whole pig on a spit out back and I added, in honor of our Mayflower ancestry, devilled crab, oyster pie, cranberry pie, corn - all the Plymouth Plantation-themed dishes I could come up with. It was an amazing day. Too bad our cameras back then weren't digital or I'd post pics.

     Well, I no longer feel energetic enough to put on such elaborate spreads, my house now doesn't accomodate so many or have the ceiling height for pineapple-topped centerpieces, and you're more likely to get disposable plates than not. But there's one thing no holiday dinner at our house ever lacks:


Mama Hazel's Green Beans in Sour Cream

2 T butter
1/2 t salt
1 t sugar
2 T flour
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t minced onion

8oz carton sour cream

2 cans green beans, drained (regular, not french cut)

1/2 lb Swiss cheese, grated
French's fried onion rings

Melt butter, stir in next five ingredients. Add sour cream, heat on low. Fold in beans. Pour into buttered casserole. Top with grated cheese. Sprinkle canned onion rings on top. Bake at 400F 20 minutes. Note: when doubling or tripling recipe, layer some of the grated swiss into the casserole, but it's not necessary to fully double the amount of cheese or onion rings. Single recipe fills a standard square baking dish.


     This recipe will give you one more thing to be thankful for! I hope you love it as much as my family always has, and that it becomes part of your holiday tradition, too. Consider it a link between our families and an expression of my grandmother's God-given gift of hospitality - and she wasn't even born in the South!