Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

Have you realized that Thanksgiving is in two weeks? Not to stress you out, but if you haven't started planning the menu and thinking about your grocery list, you might want to spend some time doing so this weekend. 

In no particular order, I'm listing some of my top 5 favorite Thanksgiving foods.  Y'all may or may not be surprised that it does NOT include turkey or ham. I tolerate Turkey because of tradition, but honestly, really don't like it!

1) Dinner Rolls. While I prefer handmade (from scratch) dinner rolls, they can be obnoxious to make if one isn't used to yeast, rolling, rising, and all the work that comes with. I haven't had scratch dinner rolls in a while but Parkerhouse and Sister Schubert's will do for me too!

2) Green Bean Casserole. Okay, so what's funny is that mushrooms have a tendency to mess with my digestion, but yet green bean casserole often uses cream of mushroom soup. One of my adopted "moms" (you know - those folks that adopt you when you are away from home) used to make hers with cream of chicken just so I didn't have the mushrooms. Bless her. Miss that family!

3) Sweet potato casserole. Okay, so either you are a marshmallow or no mashrmallow kind of family. Or maybe you hate sweet potato casserole altogether. To me, there is nothing better than a casserole dish full of this gooey hot mixture, with a nice solid brown sugar topping. Is it healthy? Heck No. But, oh, so good!

4) Cranberry Sauce. Growing up, I hated cranberry sauce. The stuff that comes straight from the can should be outlawed. Cranberry sauce should NOT jiggle, but to each their own. I love it when I encounter a freshly made cranberry sauce. Sure, might be a pain in the rear to make, but it makes my stomach & heart, happy!

5) Stuffing. Growing up, Mrs. Stouffer's was the household staple. I didn't like it- and still don't to this day. Have you had authentic stuffing before? My last few years have been spent with oyster stuffing. It grew on me after a couple of years. Now, I love it. I hope the family I join has it again this year!

I didn't even get to desserts, but that is a whole subject on its own. There are so many of them!