A Tiki Alternative to Thanksgiving

Enlarge this image toggle caption Steve Proffitt, NPR Steve Proffitt, NPR

toggle caption Steve Proffitt, NPR

You love Thanksgiving dinner. But admit it — you're getting tired of the same, old, traditional dishes year after year, decade after decade. So this year, let's try something different — a Tiki Turkey Dinner.

It's the traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu with an exotic Polynesian twist! And what a taste treat sensation it turned out to be! We've replaced the roast Tom Turkey with a turkey meatloaf carved into the shape of a Tiki god. This gives "carving the turkey" a whole new meaning.

Mangos make cranberry sauce sensational. And there is no more cornbread stuffing. It's now Hawaiian bread stuffing with ham and pineapple.

Doctor up the yams by adding bananas, Kahlua, and macadamia nuts to the toasted marshmallows. Yum!

I had a feeling coconut curry would completely reinvent the green bean casserole, and it did. The mashed potatoes are served in the shape of a giant volcano. And the lava? Gravy!

Dessert had to be special (and flaming) so I invented the Flaming Coconut Pineapple Apple Pumpkin Upside-Down Pie Cake — a two-layer yellow cake with a pumpkin pie baked into one layer and an apple pie in the other. The top of the cake looks just like a pineapple upside-down cake and the sides like a coconut cake. As if the flame effect before serving wasn't enough, the guests gasped when I cut into it, revealing the pies hiding inside.

I greeted each guest with a lei, served up tropical cocktails and spun the exotic sounds of Martin Denny on the stereo console. After dinner, it's time to do the limbo. How low can you go?

Charles Phoenix is a regular contributor to Day to Day, and the author of God Bless Americana: A Retro Vacation Slide Show Tour of the USA.