Tags: Holiday No Cook Meals Party Planning Quick Recipes Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! I’m so excited! To me, Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday. Halloween is fun, but you’re just coming out of Summer, it’s not quite cool enough for a cozy fire, plus you’ve only just started to decorate…it’s not FULL-BLOWN “holiday” yet. On the other end, I love Christmas, but it’s the last hurrah before the new year and that means you have to wait another 12 months for the holiday season to swing back around. Thanksgiving is perfect because you’ve gotten through Halloween, your house has been decorated for at least a month, it’s cold every day, and when it’s all over you still have Christmas to look forward to. See, the perfect holiday.
There’s no aspect of Thanksgiving I don’t love. I love the preparation, the planning, and even the hectic grocery shopping trip. I love the set-up, the entertaining and, of course, THE FOOD! Some people switch their Thanksgiving menu up each year, but not me. My menu is the same every year because I’ve perfected it down to a science (and because it consists of everyone’s favorites, so I really can’t switch things out).
Like many others, I have a book filled with Thanksgiving recipes that I’d be more than willing to share with anyone who asked. But there are other recipes tucked away in the dark folds of my book just for the immediate family. Maybe they’re guarded family secrets or maybe they’re just a little less glamorous than one would expect for a holiday dinner table. One such recipe is the Salami Roll Up.
This recipe is a lot like that one crazy relative you have…you know the one I’m talking about…you love them to death, but you don’t go parading them around in public. Yeah, it’s like that. But no matter how weird or gross this recipe seems, it’s the MOST requested item on my family’s Thanksgiving table, and it has been a family favorite since I was old enough to eat solids. It’s so simple and yet SO YUMMY!
The Salami Roll Up—Salami, Cream Cheese & Sweet Pickles.
I can practically see the look of disgust on your face right now, and I totally get it. If I hadn’t been born into the family I was born into and you came to me and said, “Here, try this, it’s a slice of sweet pickle slathered with cream cheese and wrapped in a piece of salami” I probably would’ve had that same look on my face but TRUST ME…it’s worth a try. I’m not even sure where this recipe came from. I’m inclined to credit my Aunt Nicole because for as long as I can remember, she’s the one that’s made them, but I honestly don’t know.
My brother-in-law has a “not-so-politically-correct” name for these scrumptious little things and teases my sister and me to no end when we make them, but he’s the first one sneaking them off the cutting board while we’re putting them together. Even Adrian loves these little guys. Although I’ll confess, we had been dating for well over five years before he knew about this particular family secret…I had to make sure he was thoroughly head over heels in love with me before I exposed him to the salami roll up… figured it would make running for the hills a little harder to do at that point.
So sure, these tasty treats are NOT classy and probably won’t win you any points with Ina Garten or get you an invite to her Hamptons Friendsgiving party, but it’s her loss…they’re delicious. Try them out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
NOTES: My Grandma used to be in charge of picking up the salami roll up ingredients and preparing them until one year she grabbed strawberry flavored cream cheese instead of plain. She was just chugging along in her preparations…probably ten rolls in before someone noticed…YUCK! Needless to say, she had her salami roll up making privileges revoked! In all honesty, we probably would have given her another chance if she hadn’t mistakenly grabbed “sugar-free” sweet pickles the year before! I’m thinking she might have been trying to get out of salami roll up duty…sneaky Grandma! Anyway, if you’re looking for a sugar-free option, go with the standard cornichons instead of sugar-free sweet pickles. There’s just something about that sugar-free flavor that doesn’t work in this recipe. Oh, and NEVER use strawberry flavored cream cheese!
Happy Thanksgiving.
