Sauerkraut Everything: Mary’s Non-Traditional Holiday Meal

Hello, all! Happy almost Thanksgiving to you and your fam. Let's discuss the feast! As you know, I have a pet bunny rabbit, so we definitely do not eat wascally wabbits for Thanksgiving (or like, ever), but since my dad's side is Ukrainian and my mom's side is Irish, we eat a lot of sauerkraut. Now, I always assumed everyone gorged on sauerkraut for Thanksgiving, but apparently we're just weird... I already know I'm weird, so whatever.

I like sauerkraut so much that when I lived in NYC, I used to make a special trip down to the Lower East Side to a Ukrainian diner called Veselka just for their stuffed cabbage. Of course, it would always follow a long night out on the town, with visits to places like The Bowery Hotel and Coyote Ugly (RIP). Sometimes I'd even wake up with sauerkraut in bed with me — which was safer than one of those Wall Street guys, but still kind of gross because I'd attract cockroaches.

 

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Anyway, my point is, we all really, really love sauerkraut and German beer (and this year I'm bringing German beer from Halftime's German Beer of the Month Club - have you seen this?). Since my parents are divorced, we go to three different houses on Thanksgiving to eat various sauerkraut dishes (and the traditional Thanksgiving meal too), and each household has their own take. Since I'm not much of a meat eater, I stick with the vegetarian option, or I'll add some chicken or turkey sausage. My aunt likes to add oysters to her dish (eww), and my stepmom has her family's German version that includes mustard seeds, caraway seeds, and juniper berries.

So, you might be wondering what our houses and cars smell like after three meals and lots of cabbage... let's just say my sister and I terrorize each other on the way home.

Are you planning to celebrate Thanksgiving in a nontraditional way? Let us know what you've got cooking in the comments below.