BDBF Dishes – Thanksgiving Desserts

It’s Thanksgiving time! Based upon reaction to past newsletter articles, our newsletter readers seem conspicuously interested in our opinions on holiday food.

To settle the debate – or perhaps to start an even more lively one – BDBF attorneys dish on our favorite Thanksgiving desserts. Agree? Disagree? Let us know!

Liz Farley

My favorite Thanksgiving dessert is not typically associated with Thanksgiving- it is blueberry pie. Traditional fall flavors like pumpkin, pecan, and apple are just not my favorite flavors when it comes to dessert and they tend to be what dominates the dessert table at any Thanksgiving. From a young age I opted for alternatives, which tended to be the blueberry pie that my grandparents always had at Thanksgiving and has now become a Thanksgiving staple on our dessert table.

Phil Kuljurgis

The best Thanksgiving dessert is not really dessert at all, but rather seconds, maybe thirds, of the turkey dinner. A mashed potato volcano-type configuration as a reservoir for gravy is crucial to maximize enjoyment. If there is enough room left for dessert, then I, too, eschew the seasonal pumpkin pie and go with apple pie with plain vanilla ice cream on top. Some in Wisconsin take their apple pie with a side of cheddar cheese, but not me. That is just too outlandish.

Jeremy Rachlin

My favorite store-bought Thanksgiving dessert is a good, gooey pecan pie. But the Rachlin homemade family tradition is a concoction called a “chocolate chip pie.” It could never be sold in stores because the nutritional information would scare every last consumer, and the FDA would wildly object. It is basically a caloric bomb by the slice. The ingredients include copious amounts of butter, brown sugar, and, of course, chocolate chips. By the way, if your favorite Thanksgiving dessert is pumpkin pie, I’m sorry, while you may be a traditionalist, you’re just wrong.

Meg Rosan

I’m not a big fan of desserts.

After Thanksgiving dinner, I like a fruit salad.

Well, it’s mostly grapes.

Okay, it’s wine.

Dan Shaivitz

For starters, no tasty dessert stands a chance of being thrown out in the Shaivitz household. It is a well-known fact that Giant store-brand cookie cakes, chocolate chip and sugar cookies, and the rare sheet cake come home from even the most mundane grocery store visits. I am not sure how any of us have our original teeth from all that sugar. For a special holiday like Thanksgiving, my favorite dessert has to be apple pie a la mode (maybe even with an apple crumble variation). Sweet, rich, and delicious, especially when the pie is heated and even a little crispy. For once, I can actually agree with Rachlin since he has it right about the whole pumpkin pie thing! Happy Thanksgiving!