Thanksgiving Recipes: The Unwavering and the Unforgivable

Every Thanksgiving my mom makes a lime green Jell-O mold. She insists that the only reason she keeps making it is because she failed to bring it one year and then my brother was disappointed and wondered where it was. My brother swears he's never asked about it, but knowing him he probably said something like, "The only reason I came to Thanksgiving dinner was for lime-green Jell-O and now that it's not here I may as well go to Denny's." That probably sent my mom into a guilt-wracked tailspin after which she vowed to make that lime-green Jell-O mold until the end of her days.

I don't mind it, though, because it really has become something of a tradition and to be perfectly honest, if I didn't see that fluorescent green ring sitting next to the turkey I might actually miss it. It's almost kind of majestic in its lime-green absurdness. And besides, it makes my mom happy to bring it and what kind of tyrant would deny an 89-year-old woman the joy of setting her jiggly gelatin creation down amidst the Thanksgiving splendor?

However, if she ever showed up with one of these I'd grab her walker, turn it around and send her out into traffic:

What is this? It's a Thanksgiving Turkey Cake. What you see are layers of ground turkey, stuffing, cranberries and sweet potatoes all held together by mashed potato 'icing' and finished off with a marshmallow topping. Think of it as the chalupa of Thanksgiving meals. Not to be mean to the hardworking chef who created this, but I think everytime one of these is made a turkey loses its wings.

But oh, how it makes me appreciate the lime-green Jell-O mold.

If for some reason you feel compelled to try it on your own, the recipe is here.

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