Gearing up for Thanksgiving

Every year is the same, the conversations start early in our family about Thanksgiving, who is coming, where everyone is staying, what we are making, how we are making a particular dish.  You see our family is one of continuity when it comes to the Thanksgiving menu.  We are particular in making sure that the time honored dishes made by our maternal grandmother are continued every year, not just in her rememberance but also to drive home that feeling of comfort food that we deny ourselves throughout the rest of the calendar year.  So our menu consists of:


Turkey
Mashed Potatoes with pan gravy
Green Bean Casserole
Cornbread Dressing
Corn Casserole
Sweet Potato Pudding
Crudite (pickles, pickled beets, black olives, green olives, carrots, celery, green onion and banana peppers).
Hot Homemade yeast rolls
Homemade Cranberry Chutney


Ice Tea
Lemonade


NOW THE DESERTS:


Pumpkin Pie
Cherry Pie
Grandma's Mincemeat pie
Fudge bites
Chocolate Pudding Pie, for the boys
Pumpkin Bread


So, usually I am in charge of the Cornbread dressing, Sweet Potato pudding, Pumpkin bread and the Homemade Cranberry Chutney.  These are the usual suspects on my list and I love making all of them.  My youngest sister, there are 4 girls in all, wants to take on the task of making the Sweet Potato pudding.  I told her I would be more than happy to share the recipe with her and the use of my kitchen.  I think she is really happy to have an upgrade from the crudite plate and chocolate pudding pie.  So the strategies begin, will anyone try to add in a surprise recipe?  Will anyone tamper with the tried and true recipes?  These are the things family disputes are made of and even in light of the turkey tryptophan overdose that happens every year somehow there is enough energy to scold someone for even thinking they were going to switch something up.  I will share one or more of our recipes in future posts.  Please let me know what you think. 
Have a great day,
Jan