Riss Family Thanksgiving Traditions & Recipes

Talking to friends and customers around this time of year, the conversation always turns to family traditions. I love hearing about other family traditions, especially those that have them handed down through the generations. But I don’t mind sharing; that is not our family. We have very few Thanksgiving traditions except for spending time with our family. That time is precious and we look forward to it every year.  

If your family is like ours and does not have a specific agenda for the day, dedicated seats at the table, or an annual flag football game during the Cowboys halftime, you’re not alone. So, when I sat down to write this blog, I wanted to share something that occurs every year and gets me VERY excited – my two absolute favorite Thanksgiving dishes. They’re both from Jeff’s family. His mother cooks up the most amazing cornbread dressing and banana pudding. With her permission, I’m sharing them with you.

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 large vanilla instant pudding
• Small container of sour cream
• 1 small Cool Whip tub
• Bananas
• Box of vanilla wafers

Instructions

1. Make vanilla instant pudding according to the directions on the box
2. Fold in container of sour cream
3. Fold in Cool Whip until desired consistency (you may or may not use entire tub)
4. In dessert dish of your choice, line bottom with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas, then a layer of the pudding mixture and continue layering until complete.
5. Put in refrigerator and serve once chilled.

Cornbread Dressing:

This is Jeff’s Great-Grandmother’s (Lillie Mae Davis, aka “Grandmommie”) recipe and is done by sight and taste so the best batches of it have never been made with exact measurements…

Ingredients

• 6 pkg of unsweet cornbread (my mother-in-law prefers the Morrison brand)
• 5 slices of white bread
• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 1 yellow onion chopped
• 4 cups of chopped celery
• Salt
• Pepper
• Ground sage
• 2 cartons of chicken broth

Instructions

1. 1. Bake cornbread 1 day prior to making the dressing (according to box directions).
   2. Lay out the bread and cornbread for several hours until it’s no longer moist.
   3. In a VERY large bowl, crumble the cornbread and white bread slices.
   4. Add in 1 whole chopped yellow onion, 4 cups of chopped celery and 6 chopped hard boiled eggs.
   5. Next add in salt, pepper, and sage to taste.  (Note: The sage will get more enhanced as it is baked, but I always want more of the sage…and so did Grandmommie!)
   6. Add one full carton of the chicken broth and mix it all together, we add the second carton until the mixture is a thick moveable mixture, but not soupy. You can taste and see if it needs more salt, pepper or sage.
   7. Bake in a rectangle pan on 375˚ for 45-60 minutes until golden brown on top.

My in-laws like it with giblet gravy but I take mine straight. Either way, you can’t go wrong.

I hope you enjoy our Thanksgiving tradition recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Riss family and the Peak Roofing & Construction family!

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