TO have the perfect Thanksgiving, there are several factors that need to happen – the parade on TV, family bonding, and a delicious feast to top it off.

But where most families have a massive turkey front and center on the dining table with plenty of side dishes displayed around it, my family has always gone a different route.

Each year, the women in my family will spend days preparing to make pernil, a slow-roasted marinated pork shoulder – or sometimes pork leg – to be used as the main dish.

Before cooking the dish, we make sure the meat is marinated the day before with sofrito – a puree of peppers, onion, garlic, tomato, and herbs typically used in Latin American meals.

Sofrito is often used for rice, stress, beans, and other dishes and is the base for building flavor.

My mom's secret is to make the sofrito days in advance, placing them in jars in our fridge.

A day or two before Thanksgiving, we'll marinate the pernil by placing the sofrito deep within the meat using several, small cuts for maximum flavor.

Then, the pernil goes back in the fridge to marinate overnight.

Early on Thanksgiving morning, as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is on TV, the pernil is placed in the oven to be slow-roasted for hours.

When it comes time to eat, the pernil is placed in the center of the table.

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What you get is tender meat that falls off the bone and flavorful, crispy skin.

It's served like a pulled pork dish and we use the leftovers to make sandwiches for days after the holiday.

Pernil was always the highlight of the meal, which made the days going into preparing it worth it each year.

Our side dishes are what you'd expect for an average Thanksgiving meal: macaroni and cheese, baked ziti, green beans, pumpkin pie, roasted potatoes, and cornbread.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I started having Friendsgiving parties and actually had a proper Thanksgiving turkey.

Many other Latino families have turkey on Thanksgiving, sometimes pairing it with the pernil to have more options but there was always something special about eating pernil whether my mom or my aunts made it.

I visited my mom last week and she was already making the sofrito for this year and even gave me a jar to cook with at home.

Once again, I can expect it to be the main dish at my family meal and will likely take home some leftovers.

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