Create a Southern Thanksgiving Dinner

There's nothing like an honest-to-goodness southern Thanksgiving dinner. I come from a southern family and every year we gathered at grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Let me share with you the mouth watering foods I grew up eating for Thanksgiving so you can create a southern Thanksgiving dinner for your family too.

Southern Thanksgiving Dinner: The Main Course

The star of any Thanksgiving dinner is the turkey. People in the south fry just about everything, but grandma cooked and basted the turkey in the oven all day like most people do. Deep frying turkey has become another way to give Thanksgiving a true southern flair. This website, How To Deep Fry Turkey, tells you everything you need to know to deep fry a turkey and stay safe. Thanksgiving dinner wasn't complete without a honey-glazed ham sitting beside the turkey on the table.

Southern Thanksgiving Dinner: Side Dishes

The two most important side dishes found on grandma's southern Thanksgiving dinner menu are giblet gravy and cornbread dressing, or cornbread stuffing as it's called by others. The most popular side dish on Thanksgiving at grandma's were the deviled eggs. Other side dishes we had every year included homemade mashed potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, corn on the cob, green been flavored with bacon, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. Thanksgiving dinner always included Waldorf salad. It's made with apples, raisins, celery, pecans or walnuts and Miracle Whip. I'll tell you upfront it's definitely an acquired taste. Grandma always made biscuits from scratch and cornbread to go with Thanksgiving dinner. Make sure you have a bottle of honey, jelly and a tub of butter on hand.

Southern Thanksgiving Dinner: Dessert

A southern Thanksgiving isn't complete without a warm pecan pie or two. My personal favorites that made Thanksgiving day dinner complete were grandma's homemade peach cobbler and banana pudding. Other pies grandma made for dessert were butterscotch, lemon meringue, pumpkin, and sweet potato pie. Thanksgiving dinner was washed down with a glass of sun brewed sweet tea or Coca Cola.

Here are a few southern Thanksgiving recipes for you to try. I guarantee everyone will love it and come back for more.

Real Southern Cornbread

Perfect Giblet Gravy

Southern Cornbread Dressing

Do something different this year and put a real southern Thanksgiving dinner on the table. Your family will love it so much, they'll want a southern Thanksgiving dinner every year.