Standard Thanksgiving Dishes

Choosing Your Thanksgiving Menu

If you have never cooked a Thanksgiving meal before, you may need an idea of the menu you should offer to your friends and family when they come over to eat. If you are an experienced Thanksgiving host, this list might give you some ideas of other foods that you can provide to your guests to spice Thanksgiving up a little bit.

Turkey or Ham

Obviously, any meat eating North American will almost always use Turkey as their main dish. Some people serve both Turkey and Ham and some people serve just ham. This is totally up to your personal preference; if you are going to only be serving Ham you should make sure no Muslims are coming as they don't eat any pig products.

Sweet Potatoes or Mashed Potatoes

Most Thanksgiving dinners that I have attended tend to have both Mashed Potatoes as well as Sweet Potatoes, although either one alone is not out of the ordinary.

Cranberry Sauce

Make sure you pickup plenty of Cranberry sauce as many people feel that a Thanksgiving dinner is incomplete without the lovely squashed berry.

Gravy

Gravy is another Thanksgiving favorite that would cause your dinner to be incomplete if it wasn't present.

Stuffing / Dressing

If for some reason you have never heard of stuffing, it is generally bread chunks White/Wheat/Corn mixed with sage and celery or other ingredients.

Other common side dishes:

Rice (in southern states)
Dumplings
Corn on the cob
Hominy
Deviled Eggs
Green Beans
Green Bean Casserole
Peas and carrots
Bread Rolls
Cornbread (in Southern States)
Biscuits
Rutabagas
Turnips
Waldorf salad

Deserts:

Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Mincemeat Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Pecan Pie