I made cranberry sorbet which turned out great. Very tart.

I've been thinking about it (while eating leftovers), and I've decided that next time, I won't be sauteeing the veggies before putting them in the dressing. I want to taste my onion and celery.

If anyone has a from-scratch green bean casserole recipe, please share!

I must confess, that this is the first year I ever had a green bean casserole for Thanksgviing and suddenly have found out from everywhere that this is an age old tradition.

Yes- even us trogs who eat beans out of a can ;) someday I will do it with fresh beans and likely never go back-

My mom NEVER made it, because she doesn't like green beans (esp. canned ones). I had polite tastes at friends' houses when I was with them for Thanksgiving, but it was crap (canned green beans). I was at my aunt's last year, and she made them with whole frozen beans, and it was GREAT.

(Nephy, you will never go back. Green beans aren't hard to prepare--it's totally worth it!)

I went to someone's house once where eggplant parmesan was the first course. Others had macaroni and cheese on the table. One year I went to Boma--they had all sorts of great stuff for T-day dinner (not one person I was with ate the turkey)!

My Thanksgiving theory is that you should cook large quantities of whatever your favorite dishes are, especially if you don't make them often. But I don't eat turkey, so I had to come up with a Thanksgiving theory that didn't include turkey. ;)

My daughter had fish sticks, she's not a turkey fan.

I hope she garnished her fish sticks with canned cranberry sauce.

Fish Sticks and Tater Tot Casserole might go well together

Martha Stewart had one in last month's Living magazine. (Yeah, I know. I own a copy of Living.)

Also, neph, no need to use fresh green beans for the casserole. Try it with frozen-- even easier; you don't even need to drain them. And they taste a lot better.

No cranberry for her, although she did help make the sorbet. Fish sticks and chips dipped in cottage cheese, that's her idea of heaven.