November is easily the biggest food holiday of the year, a joyous time when families come together in love and gratitude over a celebratory feast of small food stuffed into large food. Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a feast of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce, and for dessert, pumpkin pie. But we’re a big country, made up of many regions and ethnicities and a “traditional” Thanksgiving can mean many things.

For many families it means a smoked or fried turkey served with a dizzying array of sides, like noodles, sweet potatoes, squash casserole, green bean casserole, broccoli-cheese casserole, ambrosia salad, corn pudding, collard greens and Brussels sprouts. In the South, pecan pie is almost as important as the turkey. And in Maine, don’t be surprised if you see stuffed clams and parsnips. Being Italian might mean a second dinner of spaghetti and meatballs or lasagna. If you have Greek heritage, you may have turkey and lamb. Or just lamb. Peking duck, fried rice, dumplings might make an appearance on Chinese-American tables and no Mexican celebration is complete without tamales and perhaps a nice, warm cup of champurrado. If you’re German… ah, well you get it. Basically, everything is on the table this month.

November Monthly Holidays

November Weekly Holidays

November Daily Holidays

Need some more food ideas for November? Explore some more popular fall dishes and seasonal food.

Image: Licensed stock image