Savory Sides Make Our Holiday Family Traditions

When most peope think of Thanksgiving dinner, they imagine a beautifully carved idyllic turkey surrounded by vegetable side dishes of lesser importance. For my family, it's actually those side dishes that shine in the spotlight and make up the flavors of our holiday memories.

Close your eyes and picture your Thanksgiving dinner. What do you smell, see, hear and taste? Are you craving a juicy cooked turkey? Not us. It's the sweet potatoes, the mashed potatoes, the green bean casserole, the brocooli rice casserole, the peas and the corn that waft into my mind. It's the scents, taste, and sight of the side dishes (and desserts ;-) ) that my son and husband request each year, and that I remember from past family festivities.

Living across the country from our families, we strike a balance of re-creating our favorite family recipes from our holiday memories and crafting our own new traditions. Three stellar holiday recipes that bring home our memories growing up, each incorporate a Campbell's Condensed Soup:

1) Green Bean Casserole. A classic recipe that has earned a permanent place on our Thanksgiving table.

2) Hashbrown Potato Casserole (or Cheesy Diced Potatoes) We use cream of mushroom soup for our recipe, so I'll post it as soon as I pull it out to make for our Thanksgiving dinner.

3) Broccoli Rice Casserole. I was excited to have caught part of Live with Kelly & Michael last week when Michael Strahan's mom, Louise, was on making her broccoli and rice casserole dish as it was similiar to ours! Our recipe includes hard boiled eggs in the casserole, so I'll post the recipe as soon as I find it as I start setting everything out for Thanksgiving.