What's your Thanksgiving menu?
 

Sorry for such an unabashedly Yank-centric thread! :o
So, if you and yourn are planning a get-together on the 26th of November, what's on the menu? What are the family staples, what are the new adventures, and what causes the near-riots?

Here's our plan. My husband's extended family is coming (father, two sisters, their husbands, and one kid per couple, plus one SIL's MIL, FIL, BIL and grandmother-in-law.) Whew. The kids are 2 yrs and 8mos. One SIL is vegetarian.

Oh, and a largish dog and two cats.

Free-Range Turkey from Maple Lawn Farms, 14 lbs.
Gravy (turkey and vegetarian)
Roast pork loin stuffed with mushrooms(SIL's FIL hates turkey)
Cornbread, apple and sage stuffing (veg)
Green beans & almonds in butter
Sauteed sliced brussel sprouts with chestnuts
Roast Rosemary Veggies served w/ Truffle Aioli
Spicy butternut squash with raisins, nuts and fennel
Mashed Potatoes
Puerto Rican Potato Salad (SIL's MIL is bringing)
Cheddar biscuits
Cranberry sauce (homemade) + jelly (bought)
Wine (white & red)
Sodas, milk, juice.

Pies (BIL is bringing from Ohio)
Flan (SIL's MIL again)
Coffee
Scotch
Port

I wanted to nix the mashed potatoes and nearly had my head removed by my husband. I drew the line at any variant of candied yams. :shudder: I would just as soon get rid of the turkey as well, but I know how far that'll get.

Tuesday through Sunday. How hard can it be? :3eye: :thepain:

:crickets:

No stuffing?


Turkey
stuffing
mashed spuds
peas
creamed onions
cranberry sauce & jelly
nut bread
candied sweet potatoes
dinner rolls


pecan pie
pumpkin pie

How do you make creamed onions? That's a new one to me.

Don't know. Don't like them, but they're always there, disturbing my Thanksgiving.

They're pearl onions in some kind of cream sauce.

Last year we had a shrimp feast on Thanksgiving. We've had salmon baked in Filo dough a couple of times. Leg of lamb once. We'll probably go with the traditional turkey this year, since we haven't done one in a while. But I generally think turkey is overrated. It's good, but not good enough to warrant all the effort every year. There are so many better feasts out there that are easier to cook. And I have turkey all the time on my sandwiches for lunch.

I always prefer chicken to turkey. But that al sounds damn fine.


Goose makes a nice feast. We had that at my Bro's Christmas.

We're gonna eat Thanksgiving Dinner on Monday this year. Because we can.

The secret to enjoying turkey is the dark meat.

abso-friggin-lutely!

The dark meat is the best. Especial the next day on an open faced sandwich with lots of gravy.

What do they do with all the dark meat when they make deli turkey breast? Does it go in hot dogs?

The next days sandwiches are the whole point imo... I like mine with white meat, lots of black pepper, stuffing, cranberry sauce, a little slaw, and maybe even some mashed.

My mom was never into Tgiving at all, and hated cooking a turkey so we always had something else extravagant. We've been going to Jim's moms since we started dating, up until she asked me (thru Jim) to stop bringing food (usually a soup) to her Tgiving "because everyone just fills up on it". :right:

So we're doing our own this year and I'm pretty excited about it - going totally traditional with the kids full involvement as part of their cooking class. They've been picking recipes out of the food network magazine for stuffing and cranberries. I might brine the turkey and then cook it in a bag. We're going to have ours early in the week so we can live off of leftovers (and bbq from High Cotton of course).

So are you cooking the big meal before the trip, and taking leftovers with you on the road?

We're shopping and cooking there - don't want to transport food in either direction. We pack everything on the roof and put the 3rd row up, so each kid gets their own section to spread out and not be annoying and bitchy in. Throw a movie in the dvd and we all live thru the trip...

And are you bringing all your specialty cooking stuff for a big Thanksgiving meal? Like you'll need a big roasting pan. They won't have that in a beach house kitchen, will they? Have you stayed in this particular house before?

I think it will be fun doing the big meal there. You're on vacation anyway and it's an activity you can do together. Not to mention the education credit for the kids.

Ooh... could you perhaps share a recipe if you get a chance? I have these brussels sprouts in the freezer that I don't know what to do with (my mother foolishly joined a farm co-op that provides her with enough veggies every Sunday to feed a family of four for the whole week. So she keeps dumping piles of it off on me.)

We usually have Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. Standard fare: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie.

We do have a few traditions that are slightly less common, I guess. I bring deviled eggs, my mom brings celery stuffed with a variety of cream cheeses, and my uncle makes little pecan tarts from the pecan tree in the backyard.

How to prepare brussels sprouts:

1) Remove brussels sprouts from container

2) Wash thoroughly

3) Throw in nearest trash can

:lol:

Lets see... so far... I have been assigned:

The turkey. I always make a smoked one on my Big Green Egg.
The mashed potatoes & gravy mmmmmmm
Ciabatta bread & pancetta stuffing
and at least one pie.

I think I might try brussels sprouts too

Unfortunately, I believe it's imperative to use fresh sprouts. I'm not sure how you could slice the frozen ones...

I don't have a recipe, but here's what I plan to do.
Score, roast and peel chestnuts. Dice coarsely. Set aside.
Wash 1 qt. sprouts.
Use food processor to slice thinly and evenly.
Saute sprouts and chestnuts in a heavy skillet with plenty of butter.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Fancy, ain't it? I would add bacon, but we do have a vegetarian attending. :right:

That's recipe I can live with. :thumb:

(We need a bacon smiley!)

It is :bacon: added.

My Menu is: Just the turkey. This year it's just me and the doggy! And I won't let her go without turkey. She looks like she'd really miss turkey if she didn't get one this year. :) She loves turkey. I'm actually looking for a tiny turkey right now.

I was thinking about that today... I might bring a couple pots/pans, although generally these places are pretty well stocked with dishes and stuff. I think we'll go with the disposable roasting pan though.

Never stayed in this house before, never stayed this far south on the island. I'm getting excited though...

Cook Brussels sprouts only briefly -- think spinach or blanching cabbage. If they've gone olive drab and sulphurous, they're icky. Cut 'em in half lengthwise. Unless you want to fit slivers of black olives into wedge cuts in the sprouts to make a dish of alien heads.

throw them in the trash

Yes! Throw them in the trash and replace with :bacon:

Hey, bacon makes everything better. I have a button that says that.

Yes, Brussel Sprouts. I'm making them. You don't have to eat them. There will be plenty of other food.
NOW STOP COMPLAINING AND GO SET THE TABLE.

(Sorry, just practicing for my husband's inevitable whining, since you were providing such an excellent facsimile.)

I think you have it. But a little more practice won't hurt.

We are definitely going to do turkey this year. Last night I went shopping. I did it all right, but apparently bought the wrong stuffing mix. Mrs. glatt thought I knew that Pepperidge Farms makes the best stuffing mix so she didn't put it on the list, and I bought the Arnold on sale for less than half the cost. It's apparently important enough that we will donate the stuffing mix I bought to a food bank and buy the correct stuff.

We are having turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, salad (with dried cranberries), stuffed celery, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I feel like we're missing something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe I'll make a bread of some sort. Pumpkin bread would be nice.

Deep fried turkey! Woohoo! Quick, easy, and the best damned bird I've ever made/et.

For those of you who don't like brussel sprouts, try cutting a deep X in the stem, then soaking them in salt water first for a few hours. Takes away the bitterness. Then saute them with crap loads of butter, cloves, onions, and of course BACON (sorry about the veg thing, Pie.)

Ok .....the owners left us a big roasting pan and a box of roasting bags.....

we shopped yesterday:

Turkey, plus apple cider vinegar, salt and sugar for the brine
cranberries....fresh and canned jelly style
potatoes for mashing
asparagus
stuffing mix,celery, onion
pumpkin and sweet potato pies
butternut squash
carrots


shit, we forgot:
gravy! and wine!

Wait, isn't your big dinner today? better hop to it.....

Turkey/dressing/gravy
mashed
sweet potatoes
cranberry relish/celery/nuts/artichoke dip with toasted bread to dip
green bean casserole (we're briars)
corn casserole (ditto)
rolls/butter
pumpkiin pie and minced meat pie /banana creme and THREE chocolate cremes (loads of kiddies)

coffee

oooof! stuffed already.

yes yes!

getting to it....!! ripley already set the table!

goooood ripley! now brine that turkey, ripley! Brine IT!!

The turkey has been in the brine since we got it home yesterday. Spencer watched Booby Flay cook a turkey last night and has some ideas about steaming it in stock, so we'll see...

Jim forgot about the mashed (not candied) sweet potatoes and the snap peas.

We really don't have much to do, and with everyone helping it shouldn't take long, so we're gonna hold off a bit. I think Jim is videoing a house tour now...

I'm a little jealous, sitting here at work, reading about you on vacation getting the turkey dinner together. Sounds like fun!

I'm a lot jealous.

For at least the last 10 years or so, I've worked on Thanksgiving ... partly by intent, because I wanted Christmas and New Year's off, but also to maneuver momwolf into not having to cook a turkey. Despite this, she usually did do a turkey and all the trimmings, sending me to work with a microwave-able plate.

This year, because of some quirk in the schedule, I will be off Thanksgiving, but will work Christmas.

I have been invited to a friend's house for dinner, and have been told that I will provide a baked good. She doesn't know it, but she'll be getting gingerbread.

I also felt inspired to make a batch of momwolf's fudge. It looks like it's supposed to, but I haven't tasted it yet.

Will the gingerbread be in house or man form?

Loaf form. Roll out and cut into attractive shapes gingerbread happens closer to Christmas.

We spent a hideous amount of money over at the Harris Teeter (local grocery store). And that doesn't even include the turkey (from a local free-range farm) or the alk-ee-haul. The sister-in-law needs a specific brand of peanut butter, bread, yogurt and cereal for the tyke. It's amazing he's such a good-natured sweet kid. (Or at least he was the last time I saw him, and I'm hoping for the best!)

The other sister-in-law says "eh, as long as it's not contaminated by lysteria or e-coli we'll make it work for our kid."

And to top it off, I think the dog may be sick. She's really low-energy and seems to be a bit warm to the touch... though not too bad. I did see a deer tick crawling off her yesterday (which I promptly drowned in alcohol hand sanitizer -- those f*ckers can live through most things, including flushing!) So I'm waiting to see if she gets worse, or starts limping.

How old is he, and is that all he eats? Just askin'.

No, he'll eat most things. Better than the sil herself (she only eats beige food -- potatoes, chicken, cheese, bread. No veggies that I've been able to discern.)

He has no food allergies or issues, afaik.

Cool.

Huh. Seems once again I'm in charge of bringing pop (or sodas, or cokes, depending on your geographical region.)

Really, I'm capable of a bit more than buying pop. :lol:

My sis-in-law loves to cook the whole dinner. But just once I'd like to hear "you know, people just can't get enough of your Mashed Potato Surprise."

:lol2:

I'm so arrested development. I'm hardly even a woman. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for taking us along via video.

Would it be rude to show up with a little dish of something that you made and see what the reaction is? Or are you content with being the Pop Girl?

Oh, it would be fine. Really, T does such a great job I wouldn't make anything to rival her anyway. I was kind of making fun of my consistent role in my family of "pop girl." I can be pop girl! However, someday when I catch me a husband he's gonna be soooooo mad that I can't cook. :lol:

You know this is all self-deprecating tongue-in-cheek humor!

I'm really good at bringing pop. :)

I'll bet you could bring a mean Soda or Coke too........

She'd be better at bringing beer. Shawnees does good beer and I speak from personal experience, so there! :lol:

We're excited about Thanksgiving. The Army will have a big spread for us at the DFAC. We're looking forward to our Thanksgiving cook out tomorrow night. We are going to BBQ a goat, cook a big pot of beans, and gorge on flat bread. Hmmmm!!!! We plan on projecting the ball games on the wall. This is going to be fun.

We'll start the goat early in the morning. We have Creole Seasoning to rub on it. We have dried kidney beans and black beans soaking. We'll cook them in a pot on the grill. I'm throwing some onion and tomatoes (canned) in with them. Everything will cook low & slow in our grill (a converted 55 gallon drum).

Steak
Baked potatoes
Zucchini bread
Dinner rolls
Some sort of dessert bought from the little bakery down the street

I sense an imbalance in the carbohydrate direction...

maybe a turkey sandwich from Wawa. I'll be wingin' it alone this year, methinks.

I like your menu periwinkle.

big sarge...Yours seems like a lot of fun.

I am having my family over so it's all traditional over here.
The turkey is thawing. The potatoes for mashing are waiting, the ham will be glazed,the stuffing will be stuffed. All I need is fancy thanksgiving themed paper plates,napkins (I'm cooking so I've decided not to wash many dishes in the process) The only food item that is not accounted for is the yams.

Are you in the Philly area?

Check out the Pilgrim Pub Club
http://www.pjspub.com/menu/images/NJ...iches_0609.jpg

At pJ Whelihans