Does/did your Thanksgiving day food include a relish tray?

[Bertha Venation]

My mother always (well, when she was coherent enough to assemble a Thanksgiving meal) prepared a relish tray, little things to snack on while the meal was being prepared. Hers included olives, sweet gherkins, and radishes. There was more but I can't remember what.

Yours?

[geardaddy]

1. Ours did.

We sometime still do it.

Carrot and celery sticks and radishes. Also, we had those apple rings and pickled peaches.

[fizzgig]

2. not a relish tray, be we do snacks

usually nuts and onion dip with chips and veggies.

[In_The_Wind]

3. We just pick.

No tray. My family never did that.

[rug]

4. Yes, my aunt always had one.

Now we put out deviled eggs, cheese and some vegs with dips.

[orleans]

5. my mom would have

black olives stuffed with cream cheese! (they are so good!)

and small celery sticks with cream cheese & onion homemade dip (that was real good too)

sometimes corn relish (i can't find it at the store any more--it was aunt nellies i think)

sometimes cold shrimp

and sweet gherkins!

--damn, i miss those years!

[Le Taz Hot]

22. I've got a couple of really great recipes

for corn relish. I was thinking about entering one into the fair next year. It's actually pretty easy to make. I can give you the recipe if you want it.

[orleans]

26. if you want to take the time to share it with me that would be great. thanks! n/t

[blackcrowflies]

41. me, too, please post the recipe

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Always!

Pickles, olives, other vegs and dip, cheese, crackers, smoked oysters, deviled eggs, all kinds of stuff.

[femmocrat]

7. Yes, I still make one.

My mom always did. Hers was usually a work of art! LOL

My kids love to snack on celery sticks with cheese spread, cubed cheese and crackers. I also put on a relish dish: black olives, cherry tomatoes with sliced green onions and olive oil and those tiny sweet pickles. (I don't make a salad, though.)

[sakabatou]

8. I don't remember any, ever

[riderinthestorm]

9. Not a relish tray but appetizers for sure!

Everyone arrives a couple hours before the turkey is finished. Laughs, games, jokes, too many cooks in the kitchen - a lot of madness so appetizers are a planned part of the affair as we snack our way til the feast.

Every year we plan different appetizers although fresh homemade shrimp cocktail is always a part of it. Bacon wrapped dates usually make an appearance. Puff pastry crab snacks, scampi, prosciutto wrapped fontina smeared on fresh homemade bread...think tapas sized servings so nobody gets too stuffed.

The appetizers are a huge part of the feast and come out in waves.

Thanksgiving feast at our house usually lasts 7+ hours start to finish including an hour break to do pm barn chores which most of the family helps with, good exercise and some fresh air after a ton of rich food.

Did I mention my sister's a caterer and my husband spent several years cooking at a 5 star restaurant?

[Kali]

10. yes to relish tray but it was not an appetizer

it was on the table with the other food. sweet and dill baby pickles, black and pimento-stuffed green olives. my grandmother on my father's side added stuffed celery sticks (cream cheese).

[trof]

16. Our celery sticks had pimento cheese.

[blackcrowflies]

42. our celery sticks had cream cheese and paprika

[LiberalElite]

11. Always during my childhood

green olives stuffed with pimiento, celery, pickled veggies and pickled watermelon.

[trof]

17. 'pickled watermelon'? You mean watermelon rind pickles?

Great aunt Helen made those.
Good.

[LiberalElite]

19. yes that's it the watermelon rind -

I didn't eat that though

[blogslut]

12. Yes

Bread and Butter pickle chips, gherkins, black olives and the greatest thing to come out of the Texas - PICKLED OKRA:

[hibbing]

13. Always

Black and green olives, some mini sweet pickles, baby carrots and celery. Gosh I think I always ate half the olives.

Peace

[vanlassie]

14. Black olives were for kids to put on their fingers!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

15. Something we relish

is a good, stiff Bloody Mary with celery sticks. I forget what else.

[bigwillq]

18. We have an antipasto (nt)

[Bertha Venation]

20. Hi, Will - pardon my ignorance . . .

What is an antipasto?

[mrmpa]

28. It is the greatest sald..........

Antipasto (plural antipasti) means "before the meal" and is the traditional first course of a formal Italian meal. Traditional antipasto includes cured meats, olives, peperoncini, mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts, various cheeses (such as provolone or mozzarella), pickled meats, and vegetables in oil or vinegar.

When we make it (not often, in this Polish & Irish household) we make "grandma's" dressing for it. The dressing consists of oil, vinegar and garlic salt. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood and my friends often had this at diner.

[bigwillq]

30. It's so good!!!

Thanks for explaining it!

[Bertha Venation]

33. Will

[Bertha Venation]

32. Wow

Sounds amazing. Also sounds filing. Is it ever served as its own meal?

[mrmpa]

36. Yes it can be..........

last night I made one for my 84 year old mother and me. I added some nice great garlic bread with it, it was filling & delicious.

[Drahthaardogs]

38. I am 2nd Generation Italian, from the Alps north of Torino

Both Mom's family and my dad's mother were from there. We have antipasti, but we have traditional dish called bagna cauda - it is a traditional holiday/fall treat.

It is essentially a fondue made with butter (this is the north), anchovies, and garlic all simmered slowly. You finish it with a splash of heavy cream. It is eaten with bread, a cavolo sotto la neve (Savoy Cabbage), and cardoons if you can find them. This is a very piemontese dish.

Then onto homemade salumi and cheeses. My favorite is a hot cured sausage made with wine and cayenne.

Meal comes out in courses. The prima is usually the pasta dish. Homemade pork and cabbage agnolotti in a meat ragu or sometimes potato gnocchi.

The secondo is what most people would think of as their Thanksgiving meal. Now comes out the turkey, stuffing, etc.

Salad is eaten last, before dessert.

I keep the traditions alive for my kids. It is lots of fun.

[Le Taz Hot]

21. Always

It takes the place of a salad and not just for Thanksgiving. You can put pretty much anything into them: carrot sticks, celery sticks, pickled beats or pickled okra, bread and butter pickles, black olives, green stuffed olives, fresh broccoli or fresh cauliflower, pretty much anything you can think of.

[Iggo]

24. LOL.

Wrong thread.

[mackerel]

25. My dad always had olives - green & black

and celery with cream cheese and paprika sprinkled over it.

[yewberry]

27. My husband's gramma always put up pickles.

She pickled cukes, garlic, green beans and asparagus and they were always part of Thanksgiving. She died this summer and boy, we're all missing her. She was 96 and she was amazing.

My family always had nuts for pre-dinner snacks on holidays.

[Odin2005]

29. Growing up we had lefse and "roll-ups"

The latter were tortillas wrapped up with lunch meat, cream cheese, and salsa. We also sometimes had "pickle wraps", pickles wrapped in cream cheese and lunch meat.

[love_katz]

31. Yes, and as part of the meal...

though everyone picks at the relish tray before dinner. ;0

Ours usually has carrot sticks, celery (stuffed with cream cheese or just plain), black olives, green olives stuffed with pimento, radishes, and any number of fresh veggies: cherry tomatoes, raw broccoli and cauliflower, sweet green or red pepper, etc. And dill pickles, preferably my mom's homemade. Yum!

[herding cats]

34. Yes, it's tradition in my family.

I know it goes back to my great grandmother at least. I'm the one who does it now, but I was raised with it. Various stuffed olives, pickled mushrooms, homemade baby pickles, green onions, radishes and picked baby beets this year. It's expected of whoever is hosting the family holiday. Full disclosure. I didn't pickle the beets myself this year. I purchased them at the local farmers market because my beets were attacked by some kind of bug and had holes all in them. It was bad, really bad!

I think it's pretty cool it's not just in my family. I never knew that before!

[yellowdogintexas]

35. yes indeed, when I was growing up

celery sticks, carrot sticks, olives, deviled eggs, sweet gherkins, pickled peaches, and radishes. We had this for every big family meal in my dad's family.

So the first Thanksgiving we were here in Texas, I whipped up a relish tray to take to my mother in law's for the Big Family Dinner. 21 people in that house and I was the only one who partook of the relish tray. I don't take that any more.

I also don't bother with cranberry orange relish. Only my husband will eat it.

[blackcrowflies]

43. Texans don't like deviled eggs?

They must be the only people in the whole country. Whenever I take deviled eggs to a potluck, everyone inhales them.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. editing goof: I did not make the deviled eggs on that occasion

they would have been eaten, and quickly. Texans are huge deviled egg eaters. Sorry for the misunderstanding

[lonestarnot]

37. Yes olives, green, black and those little Italian ones with the pits, dilly pickles and celery and

raw carrots, radishes and nuts.

[justamama83]

39. Oh yeah....

Mom always had one. Never ate from it we had black olives, radishes, some sort of pickle. These days she still puts out the black olives. My husband, daughter and brother fight over them. The main competition is to see who can get olives on all 10 fingers first.

[NJCher]

40. my mother and I were always appalled

The relish tray was out as an appetizer in my family. When the contents of the tray was thinning, my dad and brothers would try to "help," except instead of putting the olives in the tray, they would just stick a fork in a fresh can of olives and pass it around.



No class. None whatsoever.

When my mother and I would express disgust, they responded with expressions that clearly showed they had no appreciation for fine crystal relish trays.



Cher