Food Thoughts and Pictures for November

Post-Thanksgiving 

Friday: Chinese Dinner

Miriam in China: Real Chinese Food

Miriam visited China in November, and brought back many food pictures, which she agreed to share here.
These are only a few of her fascinating photos.

Saturday: Post-Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes

Leftover mashed potatoes were made into potato patties.

Thanksgiving: Once-A-Year Feast

In our family, there is no other meal than Thanksgiving with such a set selection of foods. In my childhood, my mother, father, sister, and brother and I would often have Thanksgiving Dinner with my mother’s sisters and their families, or my mother would invite a friend of the family to our house. Yes, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and more. My aunts sometimes made the famous (notorious?) casseroles of sweet potatoes garnished with marshmallows or of greenbeans in mushroom soup. Our menu this year was close, but no casseroles. 

A few photos:

Mashed potatoes cooking in my kitchen. (Made by Miriam)

We roasted two chickens with stuffing. 

Gravy and squash on the stove near the pot of potatoes.

You can see the stuffing at the right in this photo of the table as we were setting up for the meal.

We used my great-grandmother’s turkey platter: the oldest item in my kitchen.

My dinner plate: turkey, snow peas, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and squash.

Pear-topped cake for dessert (no pie this year).

Coming Next: Christmas Flavors

Tom and Evelyn brought us some wonderful German Christmas treats.

Other Things We Ate in November

Olive oil and Hellmann’s mayo: two items you’ll always find in my kitchen.

Roast beef and French-style potato salad. This is Trader Joe’s ready-to-eat roast beef, a new item for us.

Here I am, cooking in my kitchen.

Making soup in my kitchen — a squash that’s equivalent to pumpkin.

Falafel.

At the Farmers’ Market

Carrots!

Local produce in my kitchen.

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s November Kitchen Blog Post.