Thanksgiving! Eastern European Touches to the Feast!

[duonyte]

Thanksgiving is such a big holiday in both the US and Canada. My parents were great enthusiasts, as they were so grateful to have ended up in the US after the end of WWII, when they had been in displaced persons camps in Germany.

And while turkey, a bird little known in Lithuania, was the centerpiece of the table, we always had our little Lithuanian touches. Mother never did get the concept of stuffing/dressing, made with bread and other things. Instead, she stuffed the cavity with cut-up tart apples, prunes, dried apricots. The juices would soak into the fruit and they would be a wonderful accompaniment to the meat.

We always had Lithuanian Mixed Vegetable Salad (Darzoviu Misraine) as one of the sides, and often braised sauerkraut, as well as good rye bread. No wimpy white bread rolls for us! Salads were always dressed with a sour cream/buttermilk/dill/green onion dressing.

Pies were also an unknown, and we would have poppy seed cake or Mother's nut torte with coffee icing for dessert. Coffee and krupnikas (a spiced honey liquer, 1000 proof) accompanied dessert.

Another Lithuanian family stuffed its bird with kugelis (potato kugel). I've never tried that myself. My aunt's table always featured napoleonas for dessert - a cake made from many layers of thin pastry, layered with buttercream and apricot jam.

So in your families, what are the Eastern European touches to the main event or the side dishes that you always have during this very American and very Canadian holiday?
.

[duonyte]

Here is what one Polish lady is preparing for her Thanksgiving feast
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/b/2012/11/07/heres-what-im-planning-for-thanksgiving-dinner.htm

Check out the turkey stuffed with a Polish almond-raising bread stuffing.