What ‘Unique’ Food Is Always At Your Thanksgiving Table?

As time marches on, inevitably, your Thanksgiving changes.  Kids grow up and have families of their own and start spending certain holidays at their significant others....or jobs change and certain restrictions make it nearly impossible to travel....or a member of the family is no longer with us.

Regardless of situations, some things remain constant:  the food.

Growing up proud of my Albanian heritage, and loved "bragging" to my friends about one of my favorite dishes -- "drope" -- being served.

For years, it was my Albanian grandpa's duty to make the drope....a sweet, buttery concoction sure to send you in to high-cholesterol, diabetic shock within minutes.

Once my grandpa passed away, the drope duties were passed to my father, who, in my humble opinion, just doesn't have the patience "Pops" did to make it properly.

There's no exact science to it....and it's a constant labor of love, as it should take about 45 minutes to complete.  But the recipe kinda sounds something like this:

• Tear 2 loaves of day-old bread into cubes (we NEVER cut it, always tore it by hand...and though this is our Albanian dish, use Italian bread)
• Melt 4 sticks (yes, FOUR) of butter
• Put the bread in a cast iron dutch oven on medium-low heat, and gently coat with about 1/3 of the butter.
• Sprinkle over one cup of sugar.  Keep tossing the mixture around. You're trying to "toast" it all together.
• Add one cup of chopped walnuts.  Keep tossing.
• Add another 1/2 cup of sugar.  Add another half-cup of butter.  Keep tossing.
• Add 2 cups of raisins.  Toss.
• Keep adding butter and/or sugar as you slowly toast the whole kit'n'kaboodle.

The consistency should be like crumbly, dry-ish stuffing, and the color should be golden brown.  It should taste buttery...sugary....slightly chewy with just a hint of crispy...and 100% delicious.  Serve it alongside your turkey and potatoes.

And no, you can't Google drope.  I mean, you CAN, but you probably won't find anything.  We have a feeling it was an adaptation through generations from the "old country".  My great-grandparents immigrated in the late 1800s, so not a whole lot is known.

But I DO know, this drope is ALWAYS at my Thanksgiving table, no matter where in the world I might be!

So....is there something "unique" that always makes it's way to your Thanksgiving table?  Something anyone outside your family is like, "Um...what is THAT??"  What is it?

PS...Since I may have done a lousy job describing it, I will post a pic of the drope on Thanksgiving! :) )