I realize it’s un-American to say this, but I think the “traditional” Thanksgiving meal that consists of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and cranberry sauce, amongst other items, is boring. Have you noticed you hardly ever eat plain turkey, stuffing or cranberry sauce any other day of the year? You can’t even find these items in most restaurants.

I’m looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving some day. When I do, here’s my take on Thanksgiving 2.0:

Appetizers

• Hot spinach and artichoke dip served with sliced French bread lightly grilled with olive oil
• Mini pizza bites topped with Gruyere, Canadian Bacon and portabella mushrooms
• Mimosas or adult punch

The meal

• Turkey pot pie
• Pulled turkey sandwiches with either BBQ sauce or dipped in gravy
• Strawberry spinach salad (my attempt at getting some fruit in the mix)
• Corn soup
• Mashed potato pierogi
• Sourdough stuffing with Italian sausage
• Jalapeno corn bread
• Sweet potato gratin
• Roasted eggplant topped with garlic chili oil, sesame oil and sesame seeds
• Vodka-cranberry cocktails and Cosmopolitans (gotta use cranberries somewhere)

Dessert

• Bacon bourbon pecan pie (here’s the recipe)
• Pumpkin pie tarts or pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
• Spiced cappuccino (this will be tough since I don’t have an espresso maker)
• Cigars and scotch

So I’m curious: what non-traditional Thanksgiving items do you enjoy each year? (Happy Thanksgiving, by the way!)