Thanksgiving menu

[Jennifer_J]

My husband does most of the Thanksgiving cooking I do the shopping and some prep work, rolls and dessert…our menu is basically the same every year, printed up in a binder.

Roast Turkey with Apple Cider Glaze
Curried Sweet Potato-apple Pilaf
Green Beans with bacon-balsamic vinaigrette (plain one for the kids)
Maple Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potato Casserole with Praline Topping
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
(–sometimes we add a glazed carrot side as well)

I’ve tried to make our own stuffing, but dh loves the boxed kind and won’t let me try anything else.

I’ll also make cloverleaf rolls with the kids and dessert is usually maple-pecan cheese cake, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate pudding pie or a chocolate pecan pie–we vote and decide on 2. I may do a fresh pumpkin pie, I still have 4 pumpkins and frozen pumpkin…but I’ve made 4 in the last 2 weeks and I think everyone may be pumpkin pie-d out.

I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving!!!

 

[Brenda_V]

I may try the Cornbread stuffing, too. We are trying more rice/corn methods, as some relatives are celics and allergic to wheat. Great Idea!

Being as I can’t eat gluten either I make my dressing with cheap, yes, it is the Rainbow/Wonder type bread in a casserole dish so I don’t have to worry about it.

I make cornbread with no flour - strictly corn meal. Follow the directions on the cornmeal package only use two cups cornmeal and no flour, add 1 tsp. xanthan gum and add one more egg for a total of two eggs.

I also have this corn bread recipe that is supposed to be made into dressing or stuffing, it is called Albuquerque Cornbread Stuffing found here; goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/albuquerque-corn-bread-stuffing-421

I make it just to eat and not for stuffing, I also use frozen green chiles but I live in NM where it is rare to not be able to find them in the frozen foods department of the grocery store, even Wal-Mart!

Years ago my mom made this wild rice stuffing that was really good for cornish game hens.

Let me suggest some good sources for GF bread mixes: Pamela’s, Chebe and The Gluten Free Pantry. You should be able to find at least one of these brands at your local health food store or Whole Foods. I have a Gluten Free Pantry pie crust mix but haven’t used it yet, I found frozen pie crusts at Whole Foods and they are pretty good.

Brenda V.

 

[OLHope]

*OLHope, the pumpkin pie recipe is actually pretty easy…and so good…healthy. You take maybe 3 to 4 smaller pumpkins…only smaller ones for baking, and then cut them up into pieces, and bake them…they soften, and then you carve the ‘meat’ out, and put it into a food processor with a little water. Then, it looks like the canned pumpkin. The difference in taste is very noticeable, I personally think. Some say they can’t tell the difference. I use Splenda, so it’s a lower calorie version of traditional pumpkin pie. I’m a rather lazy cook…I don’t like labor intensive things, but will go all out for holidays. So, this really isn’t as hard as I thought it sounded, when a friend of mine first gave me the recipe.

Everyone’s stuffing ideas are to die for! I appreciate these…dulcissima, oh wow, your stuffing must go over very well! *

You know what, I am going to try it! My sister is charge of it this year, but I will give her a hand in it. Thanks!

 

[OLHope]

Thanks Brenda!

 

[Cat]

I will admit it. I will be brave enough to confess the sacrilege.

NO ONE in our entire family likes homemade stuffing. Absolutely NO ONE, not even the older ones. And especially the kids. Yecch–homemade stuffing. Blech. I still have memories of little bones from the “giblets.” Giblets–isn’t that what they hang people from?

Stuffing simply has to be Stove Top in our family. Mmmmm!

And incidentally, it has to be instant mashed potatoes, too, like Hungry Jack. We all hate lumpy real potatoes. Gross.

And to continue the litany of modern Thanksgiving–we usually order a turkey to be cooked up at the local grocery store–much easier, moister, and more delicious than anything we ever make at home. (Although a few years back, I did a crock pot turkey breast that was pretty good.) Ah, the festive joy of driving over the potholes and through the suburbs to the grocery store and picking up the turkey in its bright and cheerful disposable foil pan and paying for it at the cash register and then driving it back home again to the waiting family and the cats meowing underfoot!

Actually, hardly anyone in our family really likes turkey. The tryptophan in the turkey makes everyone sleepy. And my husband doesn’t eat anything with bones.

And as a microbiologist, I’m terrified of Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning, so I usually don’t eat anyone’s homemade turkey (shudder) unless I was there during the entire preparation and actually witnessed the safe cooking of the bird. I don’t trust anyone with turkey except the grocery store. They have too much to lose (their entire business) from a community food poisoning outbreak.

BTW, when everyone takes their initial helping from the grocery store turkey, I quickly jump up, seal it over with foil, and put in the frig so that no one will get Staph aureus food poisoning. Anyone looking for a second helping will have to warm it up in the microwave. No *Staph aureus * is going to touch my family! As far as I’m concerned, it’s a miracle that so many of us survived the holidays of our childhood when the turkey sat out all day long breeding deadly bacteria.

As for pumpkin pie–we’re all happy with the local grocery store’s bakery. And Cool Whip, whatever that stuff is. It’s not whipped cream, I know that much. It’s some kind of chemical goo, but it tastes good, especially if you buy the Extra Creamy with 100 calories per teaspoonful.

Now sweet potatoes–those will be real. My MIL cuts them up and roasts them with no marshmallows or anything. She does it for me–I’m the only one in the family who eats sweet potatoes. I think if she made them from a can with plenty of sugar and syrup and pecans, others would eat them. But I’m the only one. So usually, there’s only one sweet potato in one of those cute tiny casserole dishes that normally never get used.

Now the cranberry sauce–only one person in the family eats that, my BIL. And the only way he will eat it is in the form of that canned-shaped cylinder of quivering dark red jelly that looks like ectoplasm from The X-Files. My MIL opens the can, pushes out the cylinder, and sets it in front of him. He eats it while the rest of us wonder how anyone can stand cranberries. (Sorry, Maine.) At least he has a healthy urinary tract.

The rolls are always those brown and serve, usually white not brown (so why don’t they call them “white and serve?”). Absolutely no fiber, and not a whole grain in sight. And “spread,” not butter, although I usually bring a stick of the real thing–one of our few “old-fashioned” Thanksgiving foods-butter.

Interestingly, there is absolutely no sign at our table of a green vegetable, a cruciferous cancer-fighting vegetable, or anything that is actually good for us. The whole meal is all starch and sugar and fat. We really need that 2000-calorie meal to sustain us as we sit around in a gas-heated home (if it’s at our parents’ house, the thermostat is usually set at around ninety degrees) and vigorously watch football games from colleges that we didn’t attend.

It doesn’t matter. The little kids don’t eat much anyway except the chicken fries that grandma ends up warming up for them after they refuse to eat anything except the Stove Top stuffing. And the rest of us–well, we’re just glad to be together on this earth for a little while longer. Somewhere out there, there’s a Staphylococcus aureus that’s meant for us, but until then, we’ll enjoy ourselves and our traditional family Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!.

 

[whatevergirl]

You know what, I am going to try it! My sister is charge of it this year, but I will give her a hand in it. Thanks!

Oh great! You’ll be hooked. The thing I enjoy about it, is it has a vegetable kind of taste…I mean, it still tastes like dessert, but not super sweet like a store bought. Those are the worst, I just hate those. The Mrs Smith ones are good, but those bakery ones are so orange…you’ll see that with the actual pumpkin, it is less orange. The only real hard part to the whole thing, is cutting the raw pumpkin…it hurts my wrist, so I get my husband to do that part. Good luck!

 

[Beachcomber]

Love this thread. It’s wonderful to see what everyone is having. Usually, it’s dh and me only but this year, we have some of his side of the family, which is OK because the ones I can’t stand aren’t coming (sorry, but that’s the reality of it).

Our menu:

Turkey
Stuffing (baked separately)
2 vegetables - probably green beans and a squash of some sort
Cranberry sauce
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Cinnamon apples
Biscuits - I make these called Angel Biscuits and they are very light and fluffy but do not have yeast.
Dessert (one of the brothers is bringing that, so I’m not sure what it will be. He and his wife are very inventive when it comes to food, so it might not be traditional pumpkin pie.)

 

[Jay82]

I don’t have a stuffing recipe for you, but this is what we typically have on the menu at Thanksgiving…

Dinner (all homemade):
Turkey
Ham
Some sort of Italian dish like stuffed shells or egg plant parm, etc
Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffing
Yams
Potatoes
Carrots/broccoli/mushrooms/asparagus/Olives
Italian Bread
Cranberry Sauce
Gravy
(and a few other things I’m probably forgetting).
Wine

Dessert (all homemade):
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Cheesecake
homemade ice cream cake
cookies
chocolates (store bought)

 

[whatevergirl]

I don’t have a stuffing recipe for you, but this is what we typically have on the menu at Thanksgiving…

Dinner (all homemade):
Turkey
Ham
Some sort of Italian dish like stuffed shells or egg plant parm, etc
Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffing
Yams
Potatoes
Carrots/broccoli/mushrooms/asparagus/Olives
Italian Bread
Cranberry Sauce
Gravy
(and a few other things I’m probably forgetting).
Wine

Dessert (all homemade):
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Cheesecake
homemade ice cream cake
cookies
chocolates (store bought)

Your dessert menu alone…I’m gaining weight just looking at it! Excellent menu…wow, homemade cheesecake. I have never made that, you know? I do make a homemade pumpkin, apple and pecan pie…but never cheesecake. My sister makes a great one…do you cook too, Jay? Does your wife do ALL of this cooking??

 

[puzzleannie]

I may try the Cornbread stuffing, too. We are trying more rice/corn methods, as some relatives are celics and allergic to wheat. Great Idea!

cornbread from a store mix, or cornbread crumbs sold for stuffing will have gluten so check package labels, but you might be able to find a gluten free cornbread mix at your health food store, bake it, crumble it, dry the crumbs in a slow oven, and use that with any of the excellent recipes above–the one with pecans sounds awesome

Cat I am sure you are my SIL that is exactly the way her family insists she cook TG dinner. In our family the fakier the better.

DD makes great rolls everybody raves about–2 cans refrigerator crescent rolls, and muffin pan sprayed with Pam, separate the triangles, roll them loosely in a ball, one ball to each cup. clean and grease your scissors, snip each ball twice all the way through to make a cross. dab butter on top and bake according to time and temp on the package, light flaky, nobody knows these are not home baked as she hides the packages under the turkey wrappings in the garbage

 

[Beachcomber]

Here’s my stuffing recipe. It is very free-form.

Cornbread and slightly dry white bread, cut into cubes. (I make the cornbread a day or two ahead.)

Cream of mushroom soup
Mushrooms, sliced
onions, diced
celery, sliced
Sage
Poultry Seasoning

First, I saute the mushrooms, onions, and celery. When that’s done and cooling a bit, I cube the breads and put them into a large mixing bowl, alternating between the cornbread and the white, sprinkling the seasonings. I turn the cubes and seasonings over with my hands–mixes better.

Then, in go the sauteed items; mix again. Then, the cream of mushroom soup. However many cans depends on how much bread one has and therefore, how much stuffing will result. I use gloves and mix it all together by hand.

Put the stuffing in casserole dish(es). This can be done the night before even–I think the flavors mingle better with time.

When you get ready to bake off the dressing, gently pour milk over the top of the dressing, poking holes in it to make sure it absorbs really well. This is the secret because as it bakes, it gets super-inflated with the moisture and comes out hot and fluffy and really flavorful.

Bake it with the lid on for most of the time (about 40") and then, remove the lid and for maybe 10" more, let it dry out on top and crisp a little around the edges. The temperature I use is 350.

This can be adapted to any amount of dressing desired. Just keep adding stuff. One year, I used a 13 quart mixing bowl to mix everything and we ended up with about 7 quarts of dressing. This was not too much!

 

[whatevergirl]

*I’m going to print this thread and read it later…you all have given such awesome ideas! WOW, I’m impressed. I want to ask more questions, but I do have to work. lol

Be back later.

shanny…regarding Giada…yes, I have made her butternut squash lasagna…that’s funny you mention it. I love it! My kids, not so much, but dh and I really like it. *

 

[dulcissima]

Green Beans with bacon-balsamic vinaigrette (plain one for the kids)

Can you post the recipe? This sounds great!

 

[dixieagle]

I will admit it. I will be brave enough to confess the sacrilege.

NO ONE in our entire family likes homemade stuffing. Absolutely NO ONE, not even the older ones. And especially the kids. Yecch–homemade stuffing. Blech. I still have memories of little bones from the “giblets.” Giblets–isn’t that what they hang people from?

Stuffing simply has to be Stove Top in our family. Mmmmm!

And incidentally, it has to be instant mashed potatoes, too, like Hungry Jack. We all hate lumpy real potatoes. Gross.

And to continue the litany of modern Thanksgiving–we usually order a turkey to be cooked up at the local grocery store–much easier, moister, and more delicious than anything we ever make at home. (Although a few years back, I did a crock pot turkey breast that was pretty good.) Ah, the festive joy of driving over the potholes and through the suburbs to the grocery store and picking up the turkey in its bright and cheerful disposable foil pan and paying for it at the cash register and then driving it back home again to the waiting family and the cats meowing underfoot!

Actually, hardly anyone in our family really likes turkey. The tryptophan in the turkey makes everyone sleepy. And my husband doesn’t eat anything with bones.

And as a microbiologist, I’m terrified of Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning, so I usually don’t eat anyone’s homemade turkey (shudder) unless I was there during the entire preparation and actually witnessed the safe cooking of the bird. I don’t trust anyone with turkey except the grocery store. They have too much to lose (their entire business) from a community food poisoning outbreak.

BTW, when everyone takes their initial helping from the grocery store turkey, I quickly jump up, seal it over with foil, and put in the frig so that no one will get Staph aureus food poisoning. Anyone looking for a second helping will have to warm it up in the microwave. No *Staph aureus * is going to touch my family! As far as I’m concerned, it’s a miracle that so many of us survived the holidays of our childhood when the turkey sat out all day long breeding deadly bacteria.

As for pumpkin pie–we’re all happy with the local grocery store’s bakery. And Cool Whip, whatever that stuff is. It’s not whipped cream, I know that much. It’s some kind of chemical goo, but it tastes good, especially if you buy the Extra Creamy with 100 calories per teaspoonful.

Now sweet potatoes–those will be real. My MIL cuts them up and roasts them with no marshmallows or anything. She does it for me–I’m the only one in the family who eats sweet potatoes. I think if she made them from a can with plenty of sugar and syrup and pecans, others would eat them. But I’m the only one. So usually, there’s only one sweet potato in one of those cute tiny casserole dishes that normally never get used.

Now the cranberry sauce–only one person in the family eats that, my BIL. And the only way he will eat it is in the form of that canned-shaped cylinder of quivering dark red jelly that looks like ectoplasm from The X-Files. My MIL opens the can, pushes out the cylinder, and sets it in front of him. He eats it while the rest of us wonder how anyone can stand cranberries. (Sorry, Maine.) At least he has a healthy urinary tract.

The rolls are always those brown and serve, usually white not brown (so why don’t they call them “white and serve?”). Absolutely no fiber, and not a whole grain in sight. And “spread,” not butter, although I usually bring a stick of the real thing–one of our few “old-fashioned” Thanksgiving foods-butter.

Interestingly, there is absolutely no sign at our table of a green vegetable, a cruciferous cancer-fighting vegetable, or anything that is actually good for us. The whole meal is all starch and sugar and fat. We really need that 2000-calorie meal to sustain us as we sit around in a gas-heated home (if it’s at our parents’ house, the thermostat is usually set at around ninety degrees) and vigorously watch football games from colleges that we didn’t attend.

It doesn’t matter. The little kids don’t eat much anyway except the chicken fries that grandma ends up warming up for them after they refuse to eat anything except the Stove Top stuffing. And the rest of us–well, we’re just glad to be together on this earth for a little while longer. Somewhere out there, there’s a Staphylococcus aureus that’s meant for us, but until then, we’ll enjoy ourselves and our traditional family Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!.

Well, Gee, Cat…thanks for that!

Real mashed potatoes don’t have to be lumpy, you know. There are such things as potato ricers and electric mixers!

With regard to trusting your turkey and your health to the highly paid professionals (no offense intended to any hard-working store employee) in the meat section of the local grocery store…I’ll take my chances with my own oven and meat thermometer!!!

Can’t wait to hear what you do for Christmas!

 

[Jennifer_J]

Can you post the recipe? This sounds great!

Sure!
2 lbs green beans
2 bacon slices
1/4 c minced shallots
3 TBS coarsly chopped almonds
2 TBS brown sugar
1/4 c white balsamic vinegar

Cook green beans in boiling water for 2 min (we actually steam them!) Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain well again, set aside.

Cook bacon in a small skillet over med-high heat until crisp. Remove and crumble bacon, set aside. Add shallots to bacon fat and saute 1 min. Add almonds, saute 1 min. Remove and let cool. Combine sugar and vinegar and add to shallots and almonds, stir to dissolve sugar. Add crumbled bacon. Pour vinaigrette over beans, toss to coat.
This makes about 8 servings.

 

[ahollars]

I can’t believe none of you all are deep frying your turkey!!! It’s easier than it sounds, but it does require some research:

Good Eats Season 10 Ep12 (1/2)
Good Eats Season 10 Ep12 (2/2)

As for the rest, I second what most people have said here, except for the fact that real macaroni and cheese is baked in the oven.

I purchased my deep fryer three years ago, and since then I have become obligated to fry during get-togethers. After over 10 fry sessions, I still have half of my propane tank full, and you can get three to four fry sessions out of a single batch of oil before I replace it, as long as it is strained each time, and don’t use it for anything else. I think it’s well worth the initial investment.

Someone, let me know if you decide to try it. I can answer questions.

 

[trish_scotland]

Hi i hope you dont mind but i would like to say what we make for christmas dinner as here in Great Britain we do not have a thanksgiving, please excuse my ignorance but i do not even know what it is about? I intent do have a search on the net after here to see what its all about as it seems really important you all of you?
For christmas dinner i make;
Starter
Tattie Soup
Ham stock or fresh ham shank(smoked)
1 onion diced,
5 carrots Sliced and diced.1/2 turnip diced
1 leek sliced
15 med potatos diced
Main
Roast turkey
Stuffing cooked inside the turkey, sage onion breadcrum and sasage meat mixed.
Carrots
Parsnips
Turnip
Brussle sprouts
Sweetcorn
Yorkshire pudding
Roasted potato
Mashed potato
Gravy.

For desert i make a choice:
Strawberry triffle or bannoffie pie or bailies cheese cake all of which i make myself.
We have white and red wine and Juice for my son.

 

[dixieagle]

Hi i hope you dont mind but i would like to say what we make for christmas dinner as here in Great Britain we do not have a thanksgiving, please excuse my ignorance but i do not even know what it is about? I intent do have a search on the net after here to see what its all about as it seems really important you all of you?
For christmas dinner i make;
Starter
Tattie Soup
Ham stock or fresh ham shank(smoked)
1 onion diced,
5 carrots Sliced and diced.1/2 turnip diced
1 leek sliced
15 med potatos diced
Main
Roast turkey
Stuffing cooked inside the turkey, sage onion breadcrum and sasage meat mixed.
Carrots
Parsnips
Turnip
Brussle sprouts
Sweetcorn
Yorkshire pudding
Roasted potato
Mashed potato
Gravy.

For desert i make a choice:
Strawberry triffle or bannoffie pie or bailies cheese cake all of which i make myself.
We have white and red wine and Juice for my son.

Hi, Trish!

Thanksgiving commemorates the meal shared by the Pilgrims (Puritans) who came to the New World and landed in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the native Americans (Indians) who lived there. It was to give thanks for the harvest, coming through a very harsh previous winter, etc. It is a very big American family holiday, with family members gathering from far and wide. Watching American football games after dinner has become an accepted part of the tradition, as well.

Here is link you might find interesting:

history.com/content/thanksgiving

Your Christmas menu sounds delicious! I adore Great Britain and want to get there for Christmas one year, Lord willing.

Welcome, and God bless!

 

[Jay82]

* Your dessert menu alone…I’m gaining weight just looking at it! *

hahaha… yes we have a lot of desserts… it is a big thing in my family and we end up having plenty of left overs for people to take home.

Excellent menu…wow, homemade cheesecake. I have never made that, you know? I do make a homemade pumpkin, apple and pecan pie…but never cheesecake. My sister makes a great one…do you cook too, Jay? Does your wife do ALL of this cooking??

I’ve never made cheesecake either. I’ve made a number of other pies though.

I’m single, but I do cook regularly and bake every so often. So for Thanksgiving I’ll be making the pecan pie and 1-2 food items. Sometimes I’ll make hazelnut biscotti, but probably not this year since I won’t have the time. Everything is split fairly evenly among my parents/aunts/uncles/grandma/etc so no one person does too much.

 

[AmberDale]

I don’t think I’m actually cooking at my house this year. That is good and bad. Good because I’m so tired. Bad because I LOVE hosting gatherings.

What we will probably have at my mom’s at least (we still have to go to husbands Dad’s on a Sunday, and then his Aunts T-day evening. Some of the food will be similar, not sure about the rest)…

Turkey
Stuffing (probably Stove Top, but baked in the oven. that’s how my mom does it. I make mine).
Green Beans
Mashed potatoes
Rolls - Brown and Serve - called Brown and Serve because you are supposed to “brown/heat” them in the oven
Corn
Sweet potatoes - diced, baked with all kinds of gooey junk. I don’t like these, blech. My mom loves them
Deviled Eggs
“Relish” Tray

Desserts -
Apples Pie, Pumpkin Pie (maybe), Fluffy dessert.
I will probably make the Apple Pie, or my mom will buy it. Fluffy dessert is a yummy layering of peacans, Whipped cream, and Pudding.

My mom, when she does it, doesn’t do much from “scratch”. If she can buy a frozen pie, she doesn’t see why she shouldn’t . Though I will give her props, she does make the veggies and Turkey.