¶ Thanksgiving Traditions and Favorite Foods
Welcome everybody to a very special episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast . This is our Thanksgiving themed round table today . You know us in the later parts of the year . We love our round tables and I love Thanksgiving . It is one of my favorite holidays . I have a panel of guests here today that we are going to talk all things Thanksgiving .
I'm going to go ahead and let them introduce themselves . So , rusty , why don't we start with you ?
Hi , my name is Rusty Bliss . I'm an airline pilot here in Cleveland Ohio . I also coach high school and travel softball when I'm not hanging out with my three kids and helping them get through their life daily . But stay pretty busy and here we are Go Browns big win today Sorry , sorry .
It's alright man , sorry , it's alright , you're all with a lot of Pittsburgh fans . I'm just going to let you know that right now , and we'll set away to your next guy . There he is , we'll go to you next then . Jj , oh man , james , jj , phillips , austin Town , ohio .
I have a Pittsburgh Steelers fan disappointed about today . But yeah , three kids work at Quality Inspector at Expo . I'm just depressed today . I'm sorry .
It's alright , it's a ho-aged-to-morrow .
We'll try to lift you up with the Thanksgiving's . Brandon , let's go to you .
Oh , brandon , brandon .
I think I should be good at Brandon .
Alright , good to see you all . I too am a Steelers fan , so I'm hurting a little bit . Today , too , my pride is hurt . I'm a CEO founder of an organization called OpenDyves . It's a consulting-based program that implements trainings and workshops and leadership development and diversity education . We do that work with businesses , organizations , school districts .
Originally from Sharon , pennsylvania , Alright , and last , as you'll find out why there was a little confusion , brandon , let's go to you .
My name is Brandon Seekers . I'm a water receiver , currently at West Liberty University studying business management , and this is my second time on the show , and I'm just glad that today , whenever my old Gary picked up that helmet , he didn't do anything with it .
Alright , he returned it gently .
Yeah .
Oh man Glad to see that . Glad not to see a repeat of that . That was , oh , classic , alright . So this is going to be a fun show with three Pittsburgh fans and a Browns fan on here .
Oh , you're taking yourself out of the loop . What for you ?
I'm a bucking-near spin by choice . I just grew up by Pittsburgh . That's why I root for the Steelers . Oh man . They lost the day too . My bucks lost the day too .
It's the only one in the winter circle today .
Nice out , mike , nice out , alright so alright Well here we can go this .
How many buck ice fans we got .
Not here . No , not here .
Are you kidding me ? No way , no blue , no blue , no blue , no blue .
Yes sir , yes , sir , that's it . Hey , cheaters , be cheaters , We'll see what comes out Saturday .
Hey , if you're not cheating , you're not trying . Yeah .
I agree with that one .
I agree with that one .
I'm giving you that one man , oh my .
Alright . So , brennan , let's start with you here on this first question . What is your typical Thanksgiving day like for you ?
I would say usually , depending on the weather I would say it's right around the opening week of gun season and being from Falls , new West Virginia , it's kind of it's always nice to get out and hunt a little bit , do a little bit of deer hunting .
So I would say usually going out for the first week of gun season with my family and then it kind of transitions to just getting everybody together between my cousins and stuff and having a nice little dinner . But other than that I'm not really crazy with that kind of stuff .
It's just kind of go and spend time with family , just get to be home from school and everything . Get everybody together . So it's pretty nice .
Yeah , us Falls big guys , love that , love that hunting season for sure .
I keep forgetting we're from the same hometown .
I keep forgetting that , brennan . I don't know why , but I forget that . Yeah , we're from the same area . But , brennan , what about you ? What's the typical Thanksgiving Day like for you ?
I'm kind of jumps around a little bit . You know , sometimes I go to my parents' house and or sometimes , you know , my lady and I will go to her family's house . Kind of depends on this year . Sometimes my dad's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year , so we're going to be hosting it at our house . For first time .
My parents are going to come up to Erie and , yeah , we know just good food , watch some games we always watch the football games and Stick around and , you know , drink a few beverages and , of course , I don't go to work on that Friday . So that's how that usually works out , right resty , what about you ?
Hi . Well , thanksgiving for me is it's happened in flow for the last six years . So I went through kind of a real D divorce ago that I really didn't call for . But so until then it was a lot of family , the usual traditional stuff . But nowadays it's . You know , sometimes the kids will be with me , sometimes they won't , usually it's just me .
And if you follow my social media you know meatball my dog is my rider dots I will hang out . We get our Press casserole they're not casserole tenderloin . We do all the fixes and we just lay low , hang out , watch football , relax . You know some family and friends may stop by , but I got to go right back to work the next day flying country .
So you know it's . You know it's a , it's a day for me to kind of decompress anymore and and you know it's stuff around me and it's my alone time . And then we get right back on Friday and Saturday and we're right back up in the air doing our things .
So , yep , I definitely understand that . I've worked in retail for the past 11 years . I don't know when the last time I've had a Black Friday off , and I can't tell you how long . So yeah , jj , what about you ?
Usually it typically involves starving yourself for the first half of the day because you're technically not allowed to eat until Thanksgiving dinner is done . So you're basically starving yourself from the morning till it's time to eat , when supposed to be at one o'clock .
But it really doesn't end up being to like five and just being with family watching some bad football games , couple drinks and just relaxing .
Yeah , for sure . I mean I always say , you know , thanksgiving for me it's about the three F's food , family , football , that's . That's pretty much the the extent of it for me . But you know , yeah , it's .
It's definitely a time to to decompress and everything like that for me too as well , like Rusty was saying , because I know , like I said , I've worked in retail for 11 years as well as being a comedian and it's it never fails , like I'm like all right , I just ate . Now .
I got to go sleep for a couple hours because I got to be at work at midnight for the Black Friday .
I was just like it's crazy . I know you got stories about that , oh .
I do , yeah , black Friday , especially when I was in wireless sales selling cell phones , that was the worst Black Friday .
Like I dreaded that day .
Like it's like oh man , giving's coming that means you know that was now is not bad . Now it's been in it long enough I can get a decent schedule . People get crazy , man , man , you too . Yeah , you have no idea . But , jj , let's stay with you here , though , since you're starving yourself all day . What is the best Thanksgiving food ?
But you can only pick one thing Main dish or side , whatever you want , but best Thanksgiving food , that's . That's what ? Just macaroni and cheese , that's not even close .
Mac and cheese , the Ackerman , I can eat that by itself . Homemade mac and cheese , yeah , you can't go wrong with that Absolutely . And then you get to get the yams , and when they mix together , oh man , it's just great .
Hey Brandon , what about you ?
Yeah , my dad always makes homemade collard greens , so I love collard greens , it's like one of my favorite sides . And of course I'm a yam guy and I , like you know , I make stuff and everything . So I'm here for all that , of course , you know . You know we all love to . I mean , we don't all love Turkey , but Turkey is . I enjoy it .
I enjoy the nice Turkey too .
All right , Rusty , what about you ?
Hey , I'll tell you what my grandmother used to make . The greatest homemade stuffing and the running joke with the cousins was . You know it was the nastiest looking thing that you could see on Thanksgiving . But I'll tell you what it was .
The greatest thing , the best part of the meal on Thanksgiving , of course the Turkey , without being said , but the stuffing , grandma's stuffing , you know it was homemade , that was family , it was , it was , it was part of it and it was . It was really special .
But that , and you like you know the , the AMS , the sweet potatoes , mix all that stuff in there and it just makes it . You know there's a common bond here with the sweet potatoes . Obviously that's the thing . But you got it . That's the , that's the whole Thanksgiving dinner together . But grandma's stuffing whether Just look at fig man , it tastes you so good .
All right , and you know , miss that stuff , yeah .
Brennan , what about you ?
I'd probably have to piggyback off of rusty here . I would say that stuffing the stuffing I mean I'm sure everybody makes it a different way , but the stuffing is really good .
And if I had to pick something that's probably a little bit like not non-traditional not saying green beans are non-traditional , but the spin that that comes across my plate , come or goes on my plate whenever it comes Thanksgiving time the Parmesan green beans .
I might have to go with parmesan , even their stuffings up there , parmesan green beans , or that's a go to .
Yeah , that's not a bad one . I'll tell you mine , though , and this actually just came about Eight years ago , when you , when I met my wife . She makes these things called death potatoes is what she calls them . Oh my lord , I can make a meal out of just those .
It is based hash browns , can of cream of chicken , shredded cheese oh yeah , cream cheese , and then you crush up laced potatoes in butter and put that on top of it like Art of tech on a plate , but you have you had me at least potato chips and butter .
Yeah , we had that . We had something that the cousins would call it holiday potatoes , and they put big you know , they crumble up baking on it , and it it was . It was the best one thing .
Let me , let me steal this real quick and reverse back to grandma stuff , one of the things that I'm gonna get yelled at from my cousin over here if I don't mention grandma's cheese pops .
She used to make these things where she cut up the French bread and small little cubes and dip it in this Cream cheese type of batter that she had , and we would freeze them like weeks in advance , and then you throw them in the oven and cook them up , bake them up , and they were these cheese pops . Dude , that was the .
That was the precursor to what was gonna be the awesome dinner , and it was . It's like this simple , what bread and this cheese , mixed up stuff . But man , you , you throw that in the oven , it comes out and it was these square cheese puffs . Oh my god , it was the best . It was the best and we still make it today .
We can't be on grandma's recipe and we still do them up today . It's awesome .
It is awesome . I'm gonna lie , you had me a cheese . I'm a big cheese guy , so I'm not . So , jj , let's , let's go back to you on this one . What's the ideal Thanksgiving day weather ?
Cool , no snow and just I'll try to say About 45 , 50 degrees . What I'm I was out of like sunny .
That's not my ideal day . That's , that's not bad , that's , that's a good day right there , brandon , what about you ?
Yeah , I would say about 50 degrees for me as well . I like it when you know it's night , that nice fall weather , you know . You look outside it's sunny but it has a little chill in the air . You still see all the auto fall colors and everything like that . I love all that . I'm a big fall guy .
We said I'm on the Halloween episode , I'm a big fall guy . We're just in general so , and of course you know good beverages just to set the tone .
Absolutely resty . What about you with our resident pilot ? I imagine this is gonna be good
¶ Thanksgiving Traditions and Hosting Challenges
weather , right ?
Well , the weather , thanksgiving . You know we get into the crappy part of the year as far as weather goes . But you and I have spoken before I like that stuff . That's the part where people think I don't like people anymore . It's just all boxes . But I don't mind the bad weather .
But for Thanksgiving , you know , we still get together and now we're gonna turf instead of in the mud at the high school . But we throw our turkey bowl together and get a game on the morning though . So 50s is good at that point of the day .
In the morning A little bit of snow maybe , you know , because we're playing our good game going on , but now it's on turf so it's not as fun in the mud , which is actually makes it easier for us . Later on in the day we don't have to get as cleaned up .
But the 50s is great if it's snowing a little bit but which looks like we're gonna be pretty good well off this week in Cleveland . But you know , if you just a sport , okay , turkey ball weather is good . Get a chance to get a power nap in and then go devour some food in the afternoon .
Absolutely brain . What about you I ?
Don't mean to take away from . I don't know , maybe this is just me and some . I mean I pray that everybody's doing faith and all . But whenever you get that that nice like weather that keeps you in , you know what I mean . Like that snow in and everything like that's always nice but that's like more of a Christmas thing .
I'm gonna start to stay cliche but I'm gonna join everybody and saying that nice little son , sunny , 50 , 45 degree day , nice and calm , that's , that's always the best .
Yeah , okay , can't get wrong , I'm a big fall guy myself . I'm actually mad at myself that my schedule wouldn't allow me , brandon , to do the the Halloween show when the fall show with y'all , because it was , it was a lot of fun . But yeah , I'm a big fall guy . You know .
You get me anywhere from 50 to 60 degrees and you know in that you know low , high , 40s to 60 , beautiful . That that's my stuff , right there , alrighty . So what has been ? And Brandon , we're gonna stay with you what has been your one Thanksgiving that has been different that any other year ? What do you in ? What made it so different ?
Well , I started off the show by saying that usually hunting is is definitely one of the things that that we kind of cherish , and it's always nice whenever you get to have a Thanksgiving dinner and you've already kind of filled your dear tag and it's kind of a Savory feeling . But I would probably say there there's been one and it doesn't stick out .
I don't know , to me that's that's kind of a tough question . It doesn't stick up that much , but I did . There was one year that my family and I , we kind of we had all got all filled our dear tags , so that was nice to dinner . It's like it feels a little bit complete . So that's probably one , but nothing , nothing crazy .
Stand though , maybe that's just me , I don't know . I want to hear you guys .
All right , Rusty is good to you .
All right . Well , I have a family that grew up in Jersey . I just found one of my summers growing up . I've spent in the summers in the Dead the Jersey Shore , before that became cliche . But the craziest Thanksgiving I ever had was kind of being there at the shore for Thanksgiving , driving over with my cousin . Just on a win .
We met our other cousins up and we went there . No turkey for this Thanksgiving . Anybody want to guess what we had for dinner ?
Lobster .
Lobster for Thanksgiving dinner . It was a blast . It was so non-traditional but it was fun . It was great to get away and you know you have that culture shut the beach and it's cold and you're like , oh my god , but you know we're eating lobster for Thanksgiving . It was awesome .
We had all the other sides , no turkey , just lobster .
It was great Cool . It was a nice change up man , what can ?
I say that's definitely a nice change up pace there . Brandon , what about you ?
You know I'm just a creature of nostalgia . I always just thinking about , like everybody that . You know I love to sound mundane , but like I just think about all my family that we used to get together all the time , even like my grandparents . You know God rest their souls or we aren't here no more .
I just think about , like those Thanksgiving's that you know you , just everybody . You were a kid , you know you were having , you just was carefree . Not one specific Thanksgiving sticks out , but just the memories of the old , of the old .
Thanksgiving's were always the best , absolutely JJ round of sight with this question .
I'll have to say , years ago I participated in a turkey bowl with coworkers and I didn't realize how serious they were taking this game . We were out there getting clothes , getting just slam . I mean I was like I had to say myself out the game . I was like I can't afford to get hurt .
It was crazy , like it was the craziest thing I've ever seen is my first and last turkey bowl .
Yeah , man , that's I would say for me on this question . You know mine was a turkey ball one . You know I know a bunch of buddy of mine , buddies of mine . We know we all played high school ball together , you know , growing up and everything like that together and they're like let's get a turkey bowl going .
And at first they were like all right , nobody wants to get hurt for Thanksgiving , you know . But it starts out like I were just going to play like some two-hand Taj Mahal going to get anybody hurt . Then it was like I was running two-hand hard push and then it was just full on , full contact , like it was just just .
I remember going home and like , limping into my dining room , my mom and dad being like what happened to you was like turkey bowl got a little crazy .
It was like man , it got crazy quick .
Yeah , I got touched a lot .
I got touched .
Yeah , right , jj . What about you on this one ? What do you think is ? Is it easier or harder to host Thanksgiving at your home ?
Oh , it's way harder because you gotta clean up everything . I would much rather go somewhere else because you gotta clean up every . Everybody even leaves and you get stuck with the mess . Man , that sucks .
Yeah , yeah , brandon . What about you ? Easier or harder ?
You know , yeah , there are elements of you know you have to prepare for everything . Like you know , thursday , like I said , we're hosting this one at my place . So you know we're trying to get everything situated , making sure everybody knows what they're bringing . You know what I mean .
So , just kind of going through that whole planning process you could probably miss me with all that that shit . I don't really like that . You gotta do what you gotta do , I guess . So I'm still gonna have a good time , we're still gonna have fun , but yeah , all this planning , I'm not really off for that . Yeah , good luck with that man For us .
what about you ? Easier or harder ?
Yeah , I echo is harder to host . We only hosted really once at our place but then doing the stuff at my grandmother's , it was cool because everybody helped her with it . So it was a team effort and that was one of the things that kind of made it cool with our family .
But hosting it on your own is a lot of work and hosting anything on your own at your house is a lot of work . Like they said , clean everything up , you know I've got kids running around again . You know the dogs , everything else . Okay , time out . We got people put your shit away , and you know help out , and we get it all set up .
You know at the same time , though , that one time we did host at the house , it was it was fun . I mean , it's a lot of work , but when you're done it's like man whoo . You know that wasn't too bad , but then it takes you a week to get everything back to normal so , but not too bad .
Alright , brandon , what about you ? I mean , I imagine you haven't hosted too many things , but you know it's oh no .
But at the same time I mean it's comfy , yeah , between one of my families and everything like that . I can tell you one thing it's definitely a lot . I mean , like you guys said , it's kind of crazy whenever you gotta do all the cleaning up and stuff .
But one thing you gotta agree on is like having it your way , not to sound like you control freak , but having everything . There's a lot of aspects you probably don't like whenever you go to the families or you're going to the in-laws or something like that , that you're like , yeah , you know what I deal with all this stuff .
If I get to do everything my way , I think that's definitely the benefit of having it , hosting it and having it at your place . It's your way , however you want it .
I'll tell you this , though I , my wife and I , do get the short end of the stick on this one , and that we her sister , my sister-in-law hosts every year because she has a house big enough to fit all of us and everything like that .
However , my sister-in-law doesn't cook , so my wife and I end up going over to there super early and doing all the damn cooking and at that point and like after dinner , like I'm sitting in the couch and then she's looking around like , all right , it's time to clean up . I was like no , no , it's time for you to clean up .
I did okay , get your butt in the kitchen , clean up , that's the best of both worlds . Yeah , it's kind of the best you get the best of both worlds . But yeah , it's just like I want to get up , I want to watch a little of the morning football games and that and it's
¶ Thanksgiving Night Black Friday Shopping
like I gotta go over here and frickin start cooking . That's all right , let's do that . But yeah , it's , it's gotta get the best of both worlds on that one for sure . We talked about this a little bit , brandon , but let's get with you do . What are your thoughts on going out Thanksgiving night early for Black Friday sales ?
I would say honestly it's not what it used to be . By any means it's not . I think a lot of stores are trying to stay away from that , a because of COVID , b because or the past few years . B because I think it's a lot of safety , a lot of liability with people , how crazy things get nowadays .
But I mean , I think back in the day it was definitely worth it . But a lot of every company they got a scheme . Everybody's trying to make money , so it's kind of tough . You don't get the same deals , it feels like .
And now with Amazon and everything online I mean they have the following Cyber Monday I feel like you're almost idiotic if you don't just do it from the comfort of your home and find deals that are very , very similar to those Black Friday deals where you would have to go out and I mean , as crazy as it is , fight all these lines and be with all these crazy
people . And I think , honestly , it would be worth it back in the day . But now , like today's day and age , I say you're crazy to do so .
You might as well , just stay home . Yeah , I'll echo that a little bit , because I mean at least down here in the Zanesville Filo area , where I'm at , is all the stores have been doing their Black Friday sales all month long Like they have it . It's not like a day anymore , it's just like the entire month of November is Black Friday shopping .
But Rusty what ?
about you I mean you think it's crazy people going out shopping ?
No I rather than they stay home and order it online , because then it's going to end up on my airplane . We're going to be flying it all over buy online buy online . But we used to do that a lot . You know , like the other fella said it was . You know that used to be the thing back in the day and it was fun .
But like and like you just said , like everybody's doing it so early and traditionally the three weeks leading up to Christmas are what we call in our industry the peak week , our peak part of the year . So it's our heaviest time of the year . It's not as crazy as it used to be because people are smart . They're getting stuff ordered so much earlier .
I don't think you see the Black Friday other than people that want to just go out and do it to say they went out and did it . Some people have made it a tradition to go . I know my former in-laws made it a tradition on Thanksgiving . We're going to write down what we're going to go here . Here I'm like what are you guys going into war ?
You're drawn up by these attack plans with these stores the next day and they're dead on it , man , and they're getting up . I mean , wait , where are you going at five in the morning , why ? And then you pull up and there's Walmart .
It's legit , but it looked like bootleg freaking TV sales out of the back of a semi truck the way that they would do it half the time , but it had its day , I think . I don't think it's that crazy anymore . People want their stuff and they don't . Some will go out and get it .
I'm a big buy local guy , so if there's stuff I want to get for somebody that's going to be at a local place , yeah , I'll hit them up , either on Friday , but sugar as hell , no , come Monday they're going to have the same thing on sale again for the same price .
So if you , you know you wait through the weekend and you know , unless you really want to get that one thing that they think might sell out . But yeah , people are doing things so much earlier now and far ahead that there's not that much of a rush anymore , but it's more .
There are traditionalists , though , that will go out on Black Friday and we're going on a black Friday . Okay , great , what are you going to get done at five , six in the morning ? Come on , take a nap and then do what you know . So I got to fly in the morning that day anyway . So I'm just like waving at y'all as you're pulling in the other wall .
My respect .
Brandon , what about you ?
Honestly , I never . I never did , though I've never personally done the Black Friday experience . I've never . I've never been out there and never had the desire to . I think it's . I think it's wild , sometimes just a little wild . Thought Like this is a wild thought , so I don't know . I like everybody else saying it's different .
Now you know , you got your Cyber Monday that follows , and you just go online and that's my Black Friday shopping and I ain't got to deal with no people . I did with people enough in my job .
So I don't want to do all that stuff during the holidays because people are not they're not too friendly and I get a little like , well , I'm about to throw some dough .
I don't want to do all that . No , absolutely , JJ . What about you ?
Yeah , like everybody else was saying , I had the experience like years ago . It's not as much anymore . I do basically almost all my shopping online . Now I don't want to deal with crazy people pack parking lots , just all the hassle of all . That Wasn't a fun experience and I'm never going back .
Yeah , I've been on the other end of that , where I've had to work Black Friday and deal with the crazies that come out . You know and one of them I was working out of Horizon in the mall in Steubenville Ohio and it was like , oh it's Steubenville Ohio , it's not going to be that crazy .
Oh , contrary , it was the worst 10 hours of my life and it was because I had to work from midnight to 10 am and in the worst .
Other worst part about that is I was also part time at a radio station , so I had to go there at like seven o'clock at night produce the Steelers game , go straight from there to Like it was just a night , yeah , but like , like y'all were saying , I mean , I think this is a good time to have a quick pause and a sponsor break that my own personal coffee
brand is up , bono's brew , and we are running our Black Friday sales early . That's right . We are those people that are doing it early to as well . I'm not waiting , I already have it up . If you go to Bono's brew dot my Shopify comm right now and use the promo code black Friday , I'm giving you 15% off all of your coffee purchases from the store .
That is going on until Cyber Monday , so that is going on now Until then . I know the show is coming out on Thanksgiving . We're recording this on a Sunday , so but still it is . We started it early . Everybody go out and get you a fresh roasted cup of Bono's brew , alright .
So now that we're got that out of the way , now , jj , let me ask you about this one , because I already . I already know Rusty's answer to this question Could kind of hit on it a little bit earlier . Would you consider spending Thanksgiving on a beach resort in another country ?
Oh , man , I love that man Do that in a heartbeat . We'll have to ask me twice . You can't scare me with a good time , man , like yeah , I'll do that in the heart .
Brandon , what about you ?
Yeah , I think I would you know . You know , now , like Christmas and things like that , I like to . I like to experience the season I want . I want it wanted to be cold . I prefer snow . You know what I mean . But on Thanksgiving I can , I can deal with that . I could be on a beach somewhere and eat a couple of turkey legs , you know .
Absolutely now , and I rusty . I know it's not the Jersey Shore , but would you consider doing it in another country ?
What I mean . It , it , it would . It's a nice , you know , it's nice to mix it up and then now that like said we're doing pretty much as me and the Kids doing our thing . But you know , I like I said Thanksgiving's kind of like my spooled out time , but I would , I could do it anywhere .
I mean , I've been , the job has been Blessed enough to take me all over the world , but there's a few spots that I've been to before that I'm like , yeah , you know what , right before the holidays , this would be a pretty cool place to just kick back and relax and Throw my phone away , throw everything else away , tell people , leave me alone .
Unless I had my certain somebody with me and you know it'd be pretty awesome , heck yeah absolutely Brennan .
What about you ?
Yeah , pretty simple . I mean , I think Thanksgiving's one of those ones where you could definitely get away with that Christmas , christmas and things that I don't know . It's tough . This is gonna be the first year my family and I were gonna go . We're just going to Florida to sell or I don't know .
I don't think our goal is to celebrate the new year , but I think I mean you got to get away at some point , just just during the winter months , but now I don't know , I think I think it is as long as you can get the right people you want there , as long as you're able to take everybody you love like that your loved ones , your family and stuff , and
you're able to get away and do something like that , then I would say a hundred percent . And now my family we do kind of a smaller Thanksgiving , but it's definitely I'm , my close cousins and stuff like that , my aunts and uncles . So yeah , I would . I would definitely do it .
But , like I said it , if it meant that I didn't get to spend a time with my family , then probably .
Yeah , I'll echo that , and I know this would never happen for me , coming from a very large Italian family , like I'd have to take out like a small loan just to be able to afford the trip . Oh , because , you know , just on my side of the family , the immediate side of the family , there's 16 of us .
Yeah , they're coming .
So , yeah , we , we got a big family . That's just my side , that's not counting my wife's side or anything like that . You had another tent or so on that side too . It's like , yeah , we're gonna stay here in and lovely , cold Ohio for now . I don't know . I don't have to take , you know , everywhere . But I think you know , yeah , definitely I could .
I could go with the beach , like y'all said . Yeah , don't tell me what a good time getting out of here for a little bit on Thanksgiving If I have to go to Florida . But , brandon , let's go with you . We've pretty much answered this a little bit now Throughout the show . But do you watch football and or the Macy's Day parade on Thanksgiving ? I ?
Think I think back to the side of that . You know , I mean the Brandon was saying back to this nostalgia thing . I think it's always one of those things you wake up and you just expect it to be on . It's like it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving without that type of thing . Same thing with football .
But I mean , obviously I'm way more in tune with football than I am Macy's Day parade , so it's cool to see it on the background . You kind of makes everything takes , takes the Center , makes the setting and kind of sets sets the tone for the day . But now the football , definitely a football . You can't go wrong with that scene .
See , you know those NFC North teams play and I don't know , it's just that's , that's just the way , the way it was growing up and definitely in in in tune with that , Absolutely Rusty .
What about you ?
Football all day long . I mean you , we're out in the morning , we'll do the turkey ball . By the time we get back that Macy's parade's over with . We're rolling through the pregame of the first K&A with the NFL and you know Vittles are getting cooked and we're ready to go . You recover the turkey ball because we ain't spring chickens anymore .
You know On for some of us , but we still . You know we're having fun . But yeah , you just roll right into the football and then you know whether you're alert and awake for all three games Is one thing . It's been lately .
It's been stay alert and awake and eat during the first game , sleep through the second game , get up and go oh wait , there's a third game . We can get dessert and everything left overs now and go into third game . But that's football all day long . It's , I mean , it's . I mean . That's the side effect to it .
The real day , obviously and I'm sure we'll get into it later is the whole , the whole reason behind the Thanksgiving holiday . But football is the background . That's our background for the day here in the house . It's football absolutely , brandon .
What about you ?
Yeah , I feel like it's a , I feel like it's like a right of passage , even if I'm not watching it , you just need to like have it on , like it's is Necessary to have amazing day parade on , and I only , like I said , just to hear it . You know , it's just part of the process , like part of the part of the ritual .
And then , for you know football , obviously , like you know my team , or you know we never play on Thanksgiving , but you , you gotta have the games on us . This that's just what it is . It creates . It's like a community , it's something to talk about , it's like a social gathering . You know you're , you're just , you're just in that moment .
So , yeah , yeah , though , those , those things are definitely necessary
¶ Thanksgiving Traditions and Desserts
Absolutely .
JJ round of saddle , that's one .
No Macy's Day parade , just all football day . That's it . Football , football , football . From the time it starts to the time it's , and football beyond .
Yeah , that that's Kind of where I've gotten . I used to be , you know , at least check out like the first half of the Macy's Day parade , kind of like that traditional thing . My parents always had it on until it was football time and then it was football growing up and but you know , a Lately it's I don't know what it is .
I just I can't force myself to turn on that Macy's Day parade anymore and I don't know what happened with it , like there was nothing like that . It was yeah , it wasn't . Like somebody said something , like I'm not that person . I get offended over a drop of a hat or anything like that , but still , it's just like just can't bring myself to turn .
Like I see , scroll it through the TV and it's like I can't even force myself to push that okay , but To put it on . So , yeah , it is , it's , it's , it's football all day , for me too as well . All right , now this last question .
There were one of these last two questions I'm kind of a little bit of excited about here , but uh , jj , the best dessert pie on Thanksgiving is .
Oh , cheesecake , cheesecake , cheesecake , cheesecake .
Whoo , I never thought about having cheesecake on Thanksgiving . Now I love me some cheese .
Oh yeah , room , it's my . It's my favorite dessert , so it's a must .
All right , brandon , what about you ?
I'm a apple pie guy . I love a lot yeah , I'm , I know a lot people do the pumpkin stuff . I'm not like a pumpkin pie type of guy either , but I mean I can eat it . But if you give me a , give me a nice crisp apple pie and I'm good to go .
Who's eating apple pie without ice cream ?
I would say it's gonna be . It's a coin toss between pumpkin pie and Pumpkin roll . The way my mom used to make it . Pumpkin roll was the bomb and of course you got about eight gallons of whipped cream . Whatever you want to use cool whip or ready whip or whatever I'm a cool whip guy .
But um , I'm down with pumpkin pie or pumpkin roll and I'm good , and then I'm sleeping .
The rest of the night . I'm out , Brandon . What about you ?
Yeah , I don't know there's . There's always a pumpkin pie , it's more or less , I don't even know . I think we go with the Oreo pie . No , that's not really . Yeah , I think it's just a basic . Yeah . Yeah , you just toss it in the fridge and you just kind of get that a couple swipes , but I mean , the pumpkin pie is always there .
But I think you just need that for a table decoration even at the least .
Oh , no , I would say , yeah , I probably like the Oreo pie or any of the extra curriculars that are laying around , like you got your buck eyes and your different peanut butter ball , whatever you want to call them , and you get your different like types of cookies or whatever everybody brings . But yeah , that's , that's probably my take on it .
So I gotta tell you , is that Oreo pie from Eaton Park , from in Falls , and weird , weird .
No , you just get . You get that little . They got it on the shelves . They got the Oreo pie crust in on the shelves and then you just make it yourself . It's only like what is a four ingredients , it's . It's pretty simple . It's just you get that little pudding to you , just toss some oreo . Super simple , but definitely worth it .
I would definitely advise you guys . They got , they got a sitting on the shelves , so definitely check that out of you if you can .
I just know , like that was always a thing , like I can't find Oreo pie Since I moved from West Virginia and Falls Bay , like anywhere . My favorite dessert is definitely Peanut Butter Pie and my wife makes a homemade peanut butter pie that is to die for . Like yeah , the pumpkin pie is there .
I eat some of that too , but you know , my wife's peanut butter pie is like it's to the point . Now my brother-in-law we have to make one specifically for him because he's gonna sit there and house the whole pie To that point that yet it's that . It's that good for sure . Yeah . Last question here Brennan , let's stay with you . Do you eat Thanksgiving leftovers ?
Absolutely .
I mean I think I think that rusty already said it earlier in the earlier in the show that's something that happened the same day . Like I there's , like yeah , there's exactly there's like . Seconds . Then you get after that like that middle window game , that's on whatever that middle window before the night game hurts . That's , that's left . There was right there .
It's already almost put away . That's yeah , but even in the next few days you got your turkey or whatever .
So oh , yeah , absolutely rusty .
We already know you're left over left leftovers , game three and a couple days after . However long the turkey makes , you can't go wrong with a turkey sandwich . The side probably gone right away with the first round of leftovers , but if there's enough turkey lying around , hey , go after it . That's the key to turkey .
It's just like the ham sandwiches , like Christmas , so it's the same thing .
I absolutely , brandon . What about you ? Oh ?
Yeah , 1 million percent turkey sandwiches . Whatever I mean , I mean that . So let's go for the next half of many days .
JJ oh .
Yeah , it's always leftovers for almost a dang their week . Yeah , thanks , give it to her . So , yep , definitely yes to the leftovers .
Yeah , I will say oh , my wife's side of the family they're not big on leftovers , so they always look at me . Knowing they , I'm like the rapnik , I'm not that big of a guy , but they call me the resident fat ass of the family because they don't know how I can consume so much food , not be 700 pounds like that's .
They just asked me all the time like where does it go ? I'm just like it goes right to my ego . That's exactly .
Right in here .
That's where it goes , and but yeah , it's . They're always like , hey , there's only like Three more pieces of pie left or something like that Mike , why don't you just kill those off ? It's all right , give me it . That's this , dude . I've already eaten two pot whole pies myself and like the entire turkey . But yeah , that's this , give me those last three pieces .
I'm so glad none of y'all can help , but yeah , but .
I do like leftovers .
If there's turkey making that turkey sandwich the next couple days and stuff like that , for sure . But what do you put on it ? I'm simple , you know I'll . If there's I've put stuff , you know I put stuffing on it before I'll throw a little male . Never thought about that .
I want it too as well , you know , if there's any stuffing leftover , but yeah , that's , it's typically turkey cheese , maybe some lettuce and a little bit of mayo . There you go , simple
¶ Round Table Reunion and Thanksgiving Wishes
to the point winning , winning , easy peasy . Lemon , squeeze you out the door , done with it . So that's Would be for that . But that is actually all the questions I have for this Thanksgiving Day round table . I want to thank all of my guests Brennan , brandon , rusty and JJ for joining me .
There's a lot of fun having you guys back on for the round table , especially Brennan . We haven't had you in rusty , we haven't had you guys on and we're able to connect with the round table . And glad you guys can come back on . Jj and Brandon , you guys are kind of almost round table staples at this point in time . You guys are on .
Yes , it's always a great time . Yeah , I'll be here . It's .
All right , but that is going to do it for this week's episode of the ride home at Red's podcast . Everybody out there have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving if you are traveling everything like that as Always , if you enjoyed the show , be a friend , tell a friend . If you didn't tell them , anyways they might like it .
Just because you didn't , that's gonna do it for me and I will see y'all next week . You .