
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994                   TAG: 9411090039
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOUTHERN ACCENTS - HERE'S A THANKSGIVING MENU THAT'S A LITTLE OFF THE BEATEN

Reader Heidi Snarr grew up in Utah, where her Thanksgiving dinners started with Jell-O and included a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, white rolls, broccoli or corn, sweet potatoes and pumpkin or apple pie. The stuffing was probably from a Stove Top box or Pepperidge Farm bag, the vegetables a frozen variety, Snarr said recently from the Blacksburg home where she, her husband and two children have lived for a little over a year.

On Thanksgiving eve, 12 to 15 members of Snarr's family from Utah, Washington, D.C., Connecticut and California, are coming for their first visit with her since she moved South. Showing them that good old Southern hospitality they've heard so much about won't be a problem. Feeding them that good old Southern cooking, however, might be. What constitutes a good old traditional Southern Thanksgiving dinner is what Snarr needed to know when she called us.

We, in turn, called one of the undisputed experts on Southern homes and decorating, gardens and landscaping, travel, recreation, entertaining, foods and traditions, Southern Progress Corp., publisher of the monthly Southern Living magazine and the annual Home for the Holidays magazine, on sale at newsstands for $3.95 until Jan. 4 .

Some dishes are standard, such as candied yams, maybe a fruit cobbler, sweet potato or pecan pie and rich homemade cake, the magazines' food staff experts said. So they put together a Southern menu that's just a little off the beaten path.

The turkey, of course, stars at most Thanksgiving meals, and for instructions on preparing it, we went to another expert: Butterball. Butterball's toll-free Turkey Talk-Line, staffed by 48 home economists and nutritionists answering some sometimes amazing questions, will operate through Dec. 23. Call (800) 323-4848; hearing- and speech-impaired, (800) TDD-3848.

The free fold-out Perdue Turkey Holiday Menu Planner, with its step-by-step game plan and easy-to-follow recipes, might also be a big help in pulling off the big dinner without a hitch. To obtain a copy, write to Perdue Menu Planner, P.O. Box 2117, Ridgely, Md. 21681.

Snarr listened thoughtfully and with little comment to the suggested traditional Southern Thanksgiving menu. "I've never had any of those things, but I guess I could try," she said.

She said she'd recently spoken with her mother, who reminded her that her grandfather won't be able to have any sugar during his visit. Snarr's mom promised to pack a few boxes of sugar-free Jell-O in her luggage for the trip - just in case.

Recipes for:

Picture-perfect roast turkey

Smoked oyster dip

Moist cornbread dressing

Old-fashioned turnip greens

Sweet potato biscuits

Cream of squash soup

by CNB