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didn't want to overload on burgers and I was staying in S. Philly so I went with the Royal Tavern's fine fine fine burger. delicious, cooked rare, plenty of condiments. that is a classy joint.

Not sure if I would call it weird.. but we would always have tomato aspic with a little onion, green olive and shrimp peering out from the shimmering, and shivering, mold. Sliced and served with a dollop of homemade lemon mayonnaise.

Sounds gross.. but it's pretty awesome.

@foodie,foodie! - I don't know that I would call deviled eggs a weird food. And seeing as how they get made for every family get together in my family, hardly Thanksgiving food :P. Also they're usually the first things to disappear from the table ...

Have got to mention the "deviled eggs!"

My mother always made pimento cheese to eat on soft, white bread while Thanksgiving dinner cooked. She made it with an old fashioned meat grinder attached to the kitchen table. I wouldn't touch the stuff back then, but last thanksgiving, i made a batch according to her recipe and it was a big hit!! No meat grinder though.

I discovered potato salad with turkey dinners when I was working in a large metropolitan hospital and found that my African-American co-workers would bring it as part of a potluck turkey meal. And despite what Mom always said about Thanksgiving meals too much about "starch", i.e., carbohydrates, I thought it was a great addition to the meal. It's cool, the texture a good contrast to the other items, and if I'm doing a really big turkey dinner, as opposed a pared-down one, I've kept it on the family menu.

Every year, either my mom or my grandma makes the "carrot ring." It's basically shredded carrots, lots of cheddar cheese, butter, and some bread crumbs molded into some sort of ring-shaped baking dish and baked. It's actually amazing, but it's funny when we have new people to dinner. They say, "I'll take some more of that orange stuff." :)

We never actually have anything too weird, but when my mother worked on holidays, while she was building seniority in the hospital (thhis took fifteen years, by the way), my father and I would be in charge of the Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I normally, as a child, had the easy stuff - potatoes, bread, cranberry can/sauce. My father always took the turkey...which meant *his* stuffing....which was essentially a little sage with some stuffing thrown in for good measure.

I would always buy a box of Stouffer's Stuffing to have a little, since, although not the best, still better than a mouthful of sage. Now, I love sage, but a little goes a loooooonnnnnggg way, especially when you are stuffing it into the butt of a turkey for hours.

We always serve potato salad at Thanksgiving... when I celebrated my first Thanksgiving with my Pennsylvania-raised roommate she was shocked when I was making it because she told me potato salad was a Summer only thing. Well, to me Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without it...

for me, it's strawberry fluff. Which is made out of a container of cottage cheese, cool whip, some drained crushed pineapple and a packet of strawberry jell-o. It only makes the appearance at Thanksgiving. Totally wrong and yet so good. And I am completely making it this year. lol. I need that comfort of my childhood this year. :)

I think the wierdest thanksgiving food i have ever seen was when I was in Korea. One of our KATUSA(korean augmentee to the US Army) put tukey gravy on kimchee and devoured it. To each his own I guess..

Oh my that lime Jello still haunts me. Suspended in the Jello was shredded cabbage and carrots served with a big dollop of mayo. My Mom was always so proud of it.........

We have loved everything we've made from the River Cottage Family Cookbook, which is not goofy and kid-ish but is appropriately simple for younger chefs: http://www.amazon.com/River-Cottage-Family-Cookbook/dp/1580089259